March 2, 2014: Luke Chapter 19

The Gospel According to Luke Chapter 19

Originally posted Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Luke Chapter 19:1-10 Jesus and Zacchaeus

This is a marvelous short story that evokes a number of moving images. Jesus enters Jericho. He walks down the road, passing through the gathering crowd. A certain tax collector named Zacchaeus, a man of short stature, tries to see him passing by but the crowd will not let this sinful collaborator with Antipas near the edge of the road, nudging him back with short jabs to the ribs with their elbows. Frustrated, he looks for another way. Seeing the tall sycamore tree a ways down the road, he runs to it and climbs into its branches to get a birds-eye view of this famous teacher. Jesus approaches the spot, looks up, is amused by such a sight and asks someone who that little man is. They tell him his name along with all their nasty across-the-fence gossip they can think of. This is just the kind of man Jesus wants to meet. No one likes him. He is shunned by the community. He is ranked as one among the unclean sinners. Jesus stops, looks up at this odd bird in the tree, laughs and tells him to hurry down and promptly invites himself to dinner.

That Zacchaeus had heard about Jesus and that he was headed for Jericho would have been news sent by way of other tax collectors from along the Jordan River and as far back as Capernaum. Anybody who would associate with tax collectors and the like would have been mentioned as an oddity by others in the network. It seems that Zacchaeus had already decided that Jesus' message was truly good news for him. He was fully prepared for this day and as proud as anyone could be that such a famous man would share his table. Before Jesus had stepped foot in the house and reclined at table with the host and his fellow tax collector/sinner guests, Zacchaeus' life had been changed. He had examined his life. He knew how he had cheated others by over charging tolls as they crossed from Perea into Judea; how he had lived a lavish life style while ignoring the homeless beggar at the side of the road and how much better he thought he was than the tradesmen who brought their wares across the river. He had been wrong and he knew Jesus could save him from that person he had been, liberate him to become the new person he wanted to be.

As usual there were the grumblers on the sidelines, grousing about Jesus having table fellowship with those people. What they could not see in the tax collector Jesus saw - one more lost sheep for him to seek and to save. Just as the woman with the spirit of weakness (13:10-17) was a daughter of Abraham, this tax collector was a son of Abraham. For Jesus there was no distinction between the man and the woman, rich tax collector or cripple. The impartial justice of God reached out through Jesus to all.

Luke Chapter 19:11-27 Parable of the Ten Minas [see MT 25:14-30]

Luke and Matthew use the same source for this parable, changing the details of Matthew's man who went on a journey to a nobleman who has journeyed to a distant country to get royal power. The core elements are the same: the distribution of ten talents (Matthew) and ten Minas (Luke) to the ten slaves for investing; his return and reviewing the results of his slaves' investments; his consigning the slave who did not invest to the outer darkness. Luke's big addition to the parable relates to the nobleman who was successful in his quest for kingship and the citizens who petitioned to have that request refused. When the nobleman returns, now as the king, he settles with the slaves and then has those who hated him killed in his presence.

The central meaning of Matthew's version of the parable is the wise use of the time before the coming of the new age, the fulfilled Kingdom of God. In such structured stories there are two Kingdoms in competition: the Kingdom of this "evil and adulterous generation" and the Kingdom of God. The idea is that when the master returns, the believers should be found actively employed doing the work of God. Luke uses the same structure but adds the dimension of Judgment, expressed in terms of the fate of the nobleman's opponents.

There is also a universal dimension to the story, at least in its beginning. To expect servants to be found faithful in what they have been entrusted to do requires a distribution of responsibility to all. The implication for the church might be to understand that all those who become part of the body of Christ have been given the gift of discipleship. The gift comes with an expectation of its value being increased by the investment of our lives, our talents and our resources in the work God sets before us. The gift is not to be wrapped up in a napkin and buried where it can bear no fruit.

Luke Chapter 19:28-40 [see MT 21:1-9; MK 11:1-10]

Luke is nearly the mirror image of Mark. Both do not include the Scripture quotations as does Matthew who cites certain Old Testament texts as prophetic of Jesus' riding on the donkey's colt. Other texts are implied but not cited - such as the shouts of Hosanna, the waving of branches and spreading of cloaks on the road. Luke does make an important change in Mark's vs. 11:9bwhich reads, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." Luke's version reads, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord." By his reference to the King Luke changes the emphasis of the acclamation shouted by the pilgrims as they approach Jerusalem. Mark and Matthew have written the typical pilgrim's shout in which everyone on the road who has come to Passover (in the name of God) is blessed. In Luke it is Jesus who is blessed because he has come as the King in the name of God. In secular use to come to a city in the name of X is to come as and with the power and authority of X. Luke wants to make it absolutely clear that this Jesus, riding on a colt, is the power and presence of the Lord God in whose name he has come.

There are Pharisees walking to the city as part of the pilgrim crowd. They hear what is being shouted and protest, demanding that Jesus silence the disciples. It is not that they are not caught up in the celebration and the shouts blessing the coming Kingdom of David (as Mark has it). They are firm believers in the eventuality of David's kingdom being restored when the Messiah comes. What they would not accept were any claims that Jesus was that Son of David or Messiah and certainly not a King (in Jewish theology Son of David, Messiah and King were synonymous). Jesus' response is an indictment against the Pharisees who refused God's offer of the Kingdom when they rejected John's baptism (see vs. 3:8). They have relied instead on their claim to be sons of Abraham who will receive the Kingdom as their heritage.

As we survey the scene, watch the various characters on the road and hear the shouts, we might ask if Luke made the change referring to Jesus as the King as an obvious comparison to Caesar. Luke has used Roman historical figures and events in telling the story of Jesus and John. Is he comparing Caesar, the King of the Roman Empire with Jesus as the King of the entire world by way of his role in God's Kingdom? If that is the case, is he accurately representing Jesus' sentiment? Did Jesus understand himself to be in competition with Caesar? These are fascinating conjectures beyond the scope of our study but worth keeping in mind. After all, Jesus as an historical figure was a Jew in a province under Roman control and within a vast Empire the head of which was worshipped as divine, the Lord and the savior of the world.

Luke Chapter 19:41-44 Jesus' Weeps over Jerusalem

In a scene reminiscent of God lamenting over an unrepentant Israel (Hos. 11:8) Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. Luke has used this saying of Jesus as a prophetic voice crying out to a city who will one day reject peace and serve war instead. The day will come - and did come (70 CE), when their enemies (the Roman Army commanded by Titus) will set up ramparts and surround the city. They will crush the city to the ground with the children within and there will not be one stone left upon another. The words reflect the actual events forty years after Jesus' death. The city was destroyed, the Temple profaned and burned to the ground and thousands were either crucified or taken away as prisoners and slaves. They rejected the overtures of peace by Josephus and members of the peace party were murdered by the Zealots. Jesus wept but his tears would not stop the madness.

Luke Chapter 19:45-48 Jesus Enters the Temple [see MT 21:10-17; MK 11:15-19]

Luke compresses the entire event of the so-called cleansing of the Temple into two verses. One verse describes Jesus' driving out those who were selling "things." A second verse pieces together verses from Isa. 56:7 and Jer. 7:11 expressing the corruption of the Temple as a house of prayer by those who have stolen the people's hope. The shortness of the passage does not mean Luke has considered the event of little importance. His compression intends to show the stark comparison of the corrupt leadership as shut out of the Kingdom and who have done nothing to facilitate entry by others, to those who have believed the simple message of repentance and are already at the narrow, Kingdom gate.

Jesus' actions in the Temple precincts and his teaching to those from whom hope had been stolen by this "robber" leadership infuriate the chief priests, scribes and elders of the people. Perhaps they sense their influence over the common people is slipping away in the wake of Jesus' irresistible teaching of God's Kingdom. They have nothing to offer and they know it. The people are "spellbound." The leadership is plotting murder.