February 16, 2014: Luke Chapter 5

The Gospel According to Luke Chapter 5

Originally posted Thursday, March 6, 2008

Luke Chapter 5:1-11 Jesus Calls the First Disciples  [see MT 4:18-22; MK 1:16-20]

Luke has woven the calling of the first disciples into something of an epiphany-miracle story. It begins with Jesus and a crowd by the lake of Gennesaret (Sea of Galilee). He has been in Judea proclaiming the good news of God's coming Kingdom and now returned to Galilee. The crowd is anxious to hear this same prophetic word from God and Jesus is running out of shore space. Simon and the boat crews are busy mending and washing their nets when Jesus boards Simon's boat and asks him to move out from the shore a ways so the growing crowd can move closer to the shoreline and Jesus can speak to them from a better vantage point. When he was finished speaking he told Simon to move out into deeper water and let down his nets (these are not cast or drag nets; they are "let down" as a set hanging from buoys). The reason Simon and others were sitting on shore working with their nets was their fruitless efforts from the night before (fishing at night was preferred because the fish would be fresh when sold in the morning). Simon does not see much sense in the request and it means he will have to load some of his nets back on his boat but he has learned to expect the unexpected where Jesus is involved. The result is a catch of so many fish that Simon has to call his partners, James and John, to bring their boat out to help gather in the nets that at this point are beginning to tear. Even this seems too much to accept. Simon and others are astounded and Simon is so struck that he finds it difficult to think of himself, a sinful man, in the presence of the miraculous. Jesus assures them there is nothing to fear and in their state of wonder he calls them to become fishers of people (see Jer. 16:14-16; fishing for people was a metaphor used by traveling Greek teachers of philosophy to gather disciples). 

Luke's independent story is centered on Jesus' call to the disciples to become fishers of people. It was a well enough known metaphor in Judaism and Hellenistic literature for gathering and taking along people. In Jeremiah it is used as part of the prophecy of God returning the deported exiles from Assyria and Babylonia to a new Israel. First there is the saying which becomes the center of a larger story; next the story provides the background which leads to a dramatic conclusion; and last, Simon, James and John will leave everything behind and follow Jesus. Luke would understand such a willing response in terms of what may be called an epiphany, a symbolic moment of deeply spiritual insight. It is for Luke an event in which the presence of the Holy was manifested in Jesus. Here it is articulated by Simon, falling down, with eyes diverted, as one not worthy to be in the presence of what he cannot comprehend. In John's version of the Gospel such an event will be called a sign, the manifestation of the glory of God seen in and through the life of Jesus.

Luke Chapter 5:12-16 Jesus Cleanses a Leper [see MT 8:2-4; MK 1:40-45]

Luke carefully follows Mark's version of this passage, except at the end where word of Jesus' teaching and healing was spread more than ever. The result was that many crowds sought him out to listen to his hopeful words about God's Kingdom and to be healed. The press of such attention would often lead Jesus to "...withdraw to deserted places and pray." It is refreshing to read that the one whom so many understand to be God's anointed, spirit-filled Christ, in his own humanness, often sought God's presence and voice within his own supplications, a recognition that not even the Son of God can live a life disconnected from the source of all life.

There is an interesting dynamic at work in Jesus' response and instructions to the leper. Jesus' relationship with the religious leadership was often antagonistic and argumentative. Yet here he instructs the leper to speak to no one until he has closely followed the Levitical Holiness Code with respect to making an offering and having the priest certify that he has been cleansed of his leprosy. In the process of the healing Jesus himself becomes ritually unclean by touching the leper. The use of the word "testimony" can mean bearing witness to an event and can refer to the required offering. It might also mean a testimony to the priest that it was Jesus who healed the man and told him to be obedient to the Law. By doing so Jesus  is seen as acting in righteous obedience to Torah.

Luke Chapter 5:17-26 Jesus Heals a Paralytic  [see MT 9:2-8; MK 2:1-12]

Luke closely follows Mark's version of this story, adding the introductory vss.17 placing the presence of the "Pharisees and teachers of the Law (Scribes) at the beginning listening to Jesus teaching. Their presence would not be unusual if they have been made aware of Jesus' previous teaching and healing. They would be interested in seeing and hearing for themselves to ascertain if Jesus was acting in keeping with the tradition as the Pharisees understood it. Luke also uses a phrase which does not appear elsewhere in the Gospels, "...and the power of the Lord (a reference to the Holy Spirit) was with him to heal." We are not meant to read this to mean that there were only certain times when the power to heal was available to Jesus.

The story is an interesting mix of faith, forgiveness and healing. Seeing the faith of the men who were so persistent in getting this paralyzed man inside the house, Jesus tells the man that his sins are forgiven.  It seems that will be the end of the story but the Pharisees begin talking about the blasphemy of anyone who would forgive sins. Early Judaism understood such forgiveness as the prerogative of God. Given the association between sin and illness common at that time,the healing comes as a confirmation that the man's sins have indeed been forgiven. The Pharisees are silenced. They do not know what to do when they see with their own eyes the effect of Jesus' words have. He has done what God does but the glory is given to God, not Jesus, by those who were there.

Luke Chapter 5:27-32 Jesus Calls Levi  [see MT 9:9-13; MK 2:13-17]

Luke has followed Mark in naming the tax collector Levi. A central feature of this story is the character of Levi and his selection by Jesus to be a follower. He is a toll taker, an employee of the Romans. He is wealthy and part of his wealth may well have come from extorting more money for tolls than would be ethically justified. His friends were other toll takers and the generically labeled "sinners," which would be anyone the Pharisees believed did not keep the traditions of association and ritual cleanness. It is no wonder they are unsettled by Jesus' attending Levi's banquet to which Levi has invited all his fellow (sinner) friends.

In the Pharisees' minds Jesus should not be socializing with such people before they have repented of their sinful ways. By doing so he was making himself one of them. They do not understand the concept of God's mercy which shuts no one out of the circle, but, like the lost sheep, seeks out those on the margins of society who have need of healing by the spirit physician.

Luke Chapter 5:33-39 The Question About Fasting  [see MT 9:14-17; MK 2:18-22]

Most of Mark's text is used by Luke. He does use the setting of Levi's banquet rather than creating a new scene. The metaphor of the new wine and new wineskins is transparently referring to the new wine of the Christian movement, and the old wine and wineskins to Pharisaic Judaism. The latter cannot be changed or improved by adding - patching on, a piece of the new. Luke understands the two as totally different other than their common ancestry in ancient Israel. One cannot put a Christian veneer on Judaism or visa versa. The closing saying in vs. 39, found only in Luke, draws attention to those who would wish to merge Judaism and Christianity - a problem in some communities during the first century. Luke makes the point that there are those who have been drinking the old wine -Jewish converts to Christianity, who want to keep all the old traditions while accepting Jesus as Messiah. Today we call that Messianic Judaism. In the second century this blending of traditions produced the Gospel According to the Hebrews, the Gospel of the Ebionites and the Gospel of the Nazaraeans. In the mid first century such attempts, fostered by the Jerusalem Church under the leadership of Jesus' brother, James, created considerable turmoil among several of the churches founded by Paul in Gentile territory.