March 1, 2014: Luke Chapter 18

The Gospel According to Luke Chapter 18

Originally posted Tuesday, March 25, 2008 

Luke Chapter 18:1-8 The Widow and the Unjust Judge

The introduction to this passage provides its point: the need to pray without being discouraged. There are two characters: A judge who has no respect for God's call for justice, the peoples' right to justice and a widow seeking justice. Although we are not told on what basis he makes his decisions, the disinterest in God's will and human rights may indicate he was one who is a "lover of money" who gave decisions to the highest bidder. Also at stake may be his honor which would be suffering as others watched this poor widow bringing her cause before him and his dismissing her as a pest. In any case all that is beside the point of the parable. Luke wishes to emphasize perseverance in prayer. The judge finally gives in to her persistence and rules in her favor. Jesus uses this parable to assure that God acts justly and will certainly grant justice to the chosen ones. God will not delay in helping them.

The passage does not speak to the issue of prayer as a spiritual practice, as in our daily prayers for others as well as for ourselves. We are to understand the content of these persistent prayers in view of the last verse about the coming of the Son of Man. These are prayers for that eventuality to occur quickly. It is the prayer of a suffering church community hoping for the justice of God and the justification of their faith. This does not mean that we ought not be persistent as well in our prayers, especially for others whose cause we support, be that in health, success in life or any other need we would want to lift up to God.

Luke Chapter 18:9-14 The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Luke certainly had the unjust Judge of the previous parable in mind when he placed this parable here. It is addressed to those who trust in themselves and their own idea of righteousness while rejecting those who do not believe and practice as they do. It is obvious why a Pharisee is one of the main characters in the story.

This parable, as all good parables do, gives us a setting in which we can see ourselves identifying with one or another of the prayers. The Pharisee thanks God he is not like all those bad people who sin and do not keep the traditions as he does so meticulously. It is through this satisfaction with his piety that he believes he can justify himself (deem himself as righteous). The tax collector understands his utter sinfulness before God to be so deep that he will not cast his eyes toward the heavens. He repents of his sin and begs for mercy from the One who alone can justify. Jesus applies the often stated principle of the reversal of status as he declares that it was the repentant tax collector who was justified by God and not the Pharisee who could not admit to a need for repentance or forgiveness.

We all know someone who has a difficult time admitting wrongdoing. Actually we all may have found it difficult to do so. It is difficult. It makes us look bad. They will think badly of us. We are embarrassed. It is difficult to get over that need of self flagellation as a means of atonement. It doesn't work. We are faced with a need to be forgiven but we just don't want to have to admit to what we have done. Part of our difficulty may be our unwillingness to forgive ourselves. Perhaps we might recall the saying about loving our neighbor as ourselves. Maybe we can reword that to say - for this situation, we forgive our neighbor as we forgive ourselves. We are called to forgive others who sin against us so why wouldn't we think we are also called to forgive ourselves? If we could do that, maybe we would be able to accept the possibility that we are forgiven by God.

Luke Chapter 18:15-17 Jesus Blesses the Little Children [see MT 19:13-15, 18:3; MK 10:13-16]

Luke has closely followed Mark and mostly agrees with Matthew. He lacks the personal image of Jesus blessing the children. Both Luke and Mark miss the key idea of Matthew's version where Jesus says, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven." The key point is the need to change. To change is to repent, to turn and to take another view of ourselves, not one of self importance, but as a child who is not at all important as the world views importance. 

Luke Chapter 18:18-30 The Rich Ruler [see MT 19:16-30; MK 10:17-31]

Luke does not differ from Matthew and Mark in any substantive way. The "rich ruler" is a member of the aristocratic class as his title, "Elder" indicates. He would have been a member of the Sanhedrin and most likely a Sadducee and a Temple Priest. His wealth and position would mean he was not a young man. A Sadducee accepts only Torah as the authoritatively binding command of God and rejected the Pharisees' concept of an oral Torah tradition. Torah, was also called the Pentateuch (pentateuchos = five books or scroll cases). It contains the first five books of the Old Testament. The Sadducees did not reject the rest of the Jewish Scriptures but they did not have the weight of Torah. One interesting result of that division of authority was a dismissal of the idea of resurrection as a novel invention not supported in Torah.

The fascinating point of this story is that this Sadducee, who does not believe in resurrection and, therefore, eternal life, comes to Jesus asking what he must do to "inherit" eternal life which he has here-to-fore not accepted. He was in a significant personal conflict. Apparently he had been impressed with Jesus' powerful message of the Kingdom of God which offered eternal life but not on the Pharisaic basis of following a rigorous adherence to the oral tradition of holiness. Nor did it depend on his Jewish heritage as if he could inherit it. One might call him a prime candidate for becoming a follower of Jesus. But there was a problem. He was rich, very rich and Jesus knew the man's wealth would always claim his highest allegiance. He urged the man to put aside the hindrance of mammon and to accept the better treasure. Unfortunately the Ruler could not separate who he was as a person from the wealth the defined him in the social structure in which he lived. He became sad and went away empty.

Because of the powerful hold wealth has on a person's attention, Jesus knew such wealth could be destructive. He also knew it could be beneficial when properly understood as a tool not only to support the needs of one's family but also as an investment in God's Kingdom as already here. In Jesus' day it was clearly understood, as the Psalmist wrote, "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world and those who live in it." Everything was understood as belonging to God and whether one had much or little, everything came from God. Today, at least in Christian thought, we understand the cooperative nature of skill and work. What we earn is derived from how we use our minds, the skills we acquire and the opportunity to apply them. It is in thankfulness for whatever our efforts provide that we share in the work of the Kingdom.

Luke Chapter 18:31-34 A Third Prediction [see MT 20:17-19; MK 10:32-34]

Luke does not use Mark's reference to Jesus being "turned over to the chief priests and scribes (as Matthew does)." Rather, "he will be handed over to the Gentiles." We should not read  this as Luke's attempt to either exonerate the Jewish leadership of to soften their involvement in Jesus' death. As we will read in the scene before Pilate, Luke will follow the direction of Matthew and Mark in the incremental shift of responsibility from Pilate (therefore Rome) to the leadership and "the people" of the Jews. It is in John that this shift will be most dramatically emphasized.

At the end of the passage Luke parenthetically adds to Mark's account that the Twelve did not understand what Jesus was talking about. In fact, Luke writes, the understanding was hidden from them. This is not a polite way of blaming the Twelve for being dense as Mark does. It is Luke's way of deferring understanding to the end of the story, when as Jesus has already promised, "nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed." Disclosure first requires an unfolding of all the coming events in Jerusalem. Only in the last chapter does disclosure occur and even then there will be more to the story.

Luke Chapter 18:35-43 The Blind Beggar of Jericho [see MT 20:29-34; MK 10:46-52]

It is always interesting to see the differences in the same story told by three writers. It gives us insight into the variations in wording that occurred in the transmission of the oral tradition over the span of four to six decades. It also cautions us against literal interpretation, especially in matters of Jesus' teaching.

In Luke Jesus is leaving Jericho when he encounters a nameless blind beggar. In Matthew and Mark Jesus is leaving Jericho. Matthew writes that there were two blind men while Mark has one and names him.

Luke's important addition to the story is the closing expression of appreciation on the part of the blind man who follows Jesus on the road adding his praise of God for his healing to that of the crowd. This is significant because there is an implied understanding that the healing is the act of God's power working through Jesus. This is not some power that belongs to Jesus. It is only occasioned upon God's foreshadowing of the Kingdom as fulfilled. The faith of those who sought out Jesus was not faith in his power but faith in how God was present and engaged in Jesus' ministry. As we will read in John, Jesus does only what he sees God doing, and says only that which he hears God saying. Jesus is not an independent agent. We need only to recall his  baptism and transfiguration to understand.