The Gospel According to Luke Chapter 7
Originally posted
Luke Chapter 7:1-10 The
Centurion's Slave [see MT 8:5-13]
Matthew
and Luke share elements of this story through a common source (Q) and
supplement the text with their own independent material (M & L). For both,
this is a story of the faith of a Roman Centurion who has heard about Jesus and
believes with a significant enough level of faith that Jesus can heal his
slave.
There
are several differences to be noted. In Luke the Centurion and Jesus do not
meet. He sends word to Jesus about his deathly ill slave whom he highly regards
(not "values"). Luke adds the interesting involvement of the
Jewish elders (civic leaders of Capernaum) who approach Jesus on behalf of the
Centurion. That the Centurion is a "God-Fearer" is made evident by
their regard for him as one who loves the Jews and has provided funds to build
their Synagogue (see note 1). Left
out of Luke's source is Matthew's use of the story to make the point that the
faith of the Centurion is more authentic than Jesus has experienced among
the Jews. It will be this authenticity of faith which will characterize
those who will be invited to sit and eat with the Patriarchs of
Israel when the Messianic Banquet is spread in the coming Kingdom of God
and not the assumed heirs of the Kingdom. Luke makes no judgment on
Israel (yet). By noting that the Centurion recognizes the authority of
Jesus, Luke and Matthew both affirm that Jesus' word has power beyond
presence and touch (see note 2).
Luke Chapter 7:11-17 Raising
The Widow's Son - (This passage is unique to
Luke)
This
resuscitation of the widow's only son bears a close resemblance
to 1 Kgs. 17:10, 17-24. The
story relates to Elijah's resuscitation of the only son of the widow
of Zarephath. With at least eight points of similarity it is apparent Luke has
used the Elijah story as the framework for the widow of Nain. This
should not be surprising given Luke's extraordinary emphasis on John the
Baptist in the passages regarding his birth. In particular we note vs. 1:17 where John is understood
to go before the Lord with the spirit and power of Elijah, and in vs.1:76 he is called the prophet
of the Most High, a title given to Elijah.
That
Luke uses the Elijah story to tell a similar one about Jesus
raising a widow's son does not detract from its meaning. At the end
of the passage the crowd glorified God by saying, "A great prophet has
risen among us," and "God has looked favorably on his people."
In fact, Luke will later write of Jesus' fulfillment of the words and
power of the prophets and his superiority over all of them, including
John. For Christianity, Jesus will be more than a prophet and he will look more
than favorably on God's people. He will liberate them.
Luke Chapter 7:18-23 John
the Baptist's Question [MT 11:2-6]
John
questions whether Jesus is "the one who is to come." It is difficult
to know what John expected. In Luke, John is identified with Elijah who,
according to Malachi, will come on the terrible Day of the Lord," the
day of wrath and judgment. Luke also writes of John's preaching in LK 3:17 that John's
understanding of the "one who is to come" is that he, in part, will
"gather the wheat (righteous) into the granary; but the chaff he will burn
with unquenchable fire." Such a vision is certainly in keeping with
the Old Testament prophets who spoke about the "Day of the Lord," as
a "...burning oven, when all the arrogant and evildoers will be
stubble; the day that comes will burn them up" (Mal. 4:1). But is that a reasonable understanding for
what we have seen in Jesus?
Continuing
in the passage we read Jesus' response to John's question. It is in this answer
that we will understand the difference between John's expectations and the
reality of Jesus' ministry. Far from the Malachi/Elijah image of fire
and wrath expected by John, through Jesus, as noted in vs. 22, the blind receive their sight,
the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the
poor have good news brought to them. This is not "Day of the Lord"
activity. It is more the understanding found time and time again in
Isaiah, in the vision of restoration and a world transformed by God.
Jesus' answer is Isaiah's vision, accepted by the Church for which
Luke writes, and has already begun. The Kingdom of God has dawned.
It
is important to note that in Luke's account of Jesus' baptism, there is no
indication that John knows who Jesus is. God's voice is heard only by Jesus
(following Mark) and John's hesitation to baptize Jesus is found only
in Matthew. John's question is better understood knowing these details in
Luke. Whether John rejected Jesus as the one who was to come or rethought
his understanding of his own calling we do not know. However, we do know
from Luke, Jesus' opinion of John.
Jesus
affirms John's role as a prophet, the view of his contemporaries and Josephus
writing of John inAntiquities of the Jews, around 95 CE. John
is not a reed blown about by the wind, or one dressed in the fine clothing of
the rich. No one would go to the shore of the Jordan to see either. He is
everything they expected to see, a prophet who dressed like a prophet and
preached like a prophet. Jesus does not reject him, but he does point out the
difference between John's message and his own. John is more than a prophet. No
one born of women is greater than he, yet the least in God's Kingdom is
greater than he, for John is the forerunner of the Kingdom. he announces the
Kingdom. Jesus begins the Kingdom. Therefore, as Luke indicates in the birth
stories of John and Jesus, Jesus is greater than John.
One's
place relative to the Kingdom is all important. The Scribes and Pharisees have
rejected John's baptism and Jesus' preaching of the Kingdom. They were
presented with two very different messages; John preached judgment
and Jesus preached the liberating Kingdom of God. Although both were
rejected, both were right; for those who accepted John's baptism and
believed in Jesus' Kingdom have solved the
riddle, "...wisdom is vindicated by all her children."
Luke Chapter 7:36-50 The
Greater Forgiveness (This passage is unique to
Luke)
One
of the Pharisees who has heard Jesus speak of John (whose baptism the Pharisee
has rejected) invites Jesus to dine with him. A woman who lived
in the city enters the eating area. The text does not say she is a
prostitute and such a conclusion may be inferred by her actions. She is
carrying expensive perfume; she lets down her hair and touches Jesus' feet
which, in some circumstances, has sexual implications in Jewish thought.
That she has entered a dinner party would not be unusual in view of
the typical open courtyard construction of houses and the desire of
the people to see Jesus in this social setting.
The
woman is deeply pained by her sense of sinfulness and is sobbing as a sign
of her true repentance. She comes knowing she will not be judged by this
man who offers such compassion and kindness even to sinners such as she
knows herself to be. Her tears wet Jesus' feet and she respectfully dries them
with her long hair, kissing them and anointing them with her perfume.
The
scene creates the tension between the one who judges her and the one who
will identify her as forgiven, not because she has asked for it, but
because she has come with faith in Jesus as one who never turns away
the faithful. It is such a faith that constitutes what is meant to say she
loves Jesus. Using the rather easy riddle of the forgiveness of debts, Jesus
establishes that it is the one who has been forgiven much who loves much.
He uses the Pharisees' right answer to the riddle to compare his poor show
of hospitality with her signs of great love. The resolution comes with Jesus'
moving the focus of attention to the woman's actions. While the Pharisee
has loved very little and so has been forgiven little, the woman has
loved much and so, in her actions, has been forgiven much. In the end Jesus
does not announce that he forgives her. She has already been forgiven by
the faith which brought her to him.
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Notes
1) Many years
ago the excavations of Capernaum had uncovered a substantial Synagogue
from the fourth century, which has been partially restored. It
was not until recently that the discovery was made of an older, less
elaborate Synagogue under the same site. This Synagogue has been dated in
the early to mid-first century, the time of Jesus. In the writings of the
Jewish historian Josephus (95 CE) and the Jewish Philosopher Philo (50
CE) we are aware of the financial support provided for the Temple by not
only Jews of the Diaspora but also by Gentile God Fearers who funded regular
offerings.
2) Both evangelists
make a strong point for their communities. At the time that the four
versions of the Gospel were being formed the most widely read and quoted writing
considered as true Scripture was that of the Greek Old Testament, particularly
Torah, Psalms and the Prophets. The writing, copying and distributing of
each Gospel version gave substance to the growing understanding that Jesus' words
were also Scripture, in the sense that they were spoken through Jesus who was
filled with the Holy Spirit just as were the words of Moses, David
(presumed by the Jews and the early Church to be the composers of Torah
and Psalms) and the Prophets. In other words, Jesus' words came to be
accepted as holy Scripture, as God's Word.
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