The Gospel of Luke Chapters 7-9
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METHOD: Read the assigned passage from your Bible first. Meditate on it. Ask what it meant. Ask what it means. Refer to the “commentary” we are sharing here. I hope you will still investigate more deeply. Our FBCD Church Library and Media Center contains an abundance of excellent resources to assist you. Here are two: Fred Craddock’s (Interpretation: Luke) and William Barclay’s The Gospel of Luke.
MONDAY: Luke 7:1-35: The Centurion’s slave; the widow’s son; John’s disciples.
TUESDAY: Luke 7:36-50: The woman and the ointment.
WEDNESDAY: Luke 8:1-25: Women and Jesus; The Sower and the Seed; Calming the Storm.
THURSDAY: Luke 8:26-56: The Garazene Demoniac; Jairus’ daughter; The woman in the crowd.
FRIDAY: Luke 9:1-27: authority to disciples; Herod’s concern; feeding the 5000; Peter’s confession.
SATURDAY: Luke 9:28-62: The Transfiguration; Who is the greatest? A rebuke of James and John.
SUNDAY: Pray, worship, relax, enjoy your family; be aware of God’s presence.
Luke is taking us somewhere. Beginning in chapter seven and moving through “The Acts of the Apostles,” there is movement along a very important journey. The movement is physical (Jesus enters Capernaum, moves around throughout the province of Galilee, “through cities and villages” [8:1]); and the movement is spiritual as well. Luke is moving us along the path of faith in order to see Jesus as more than a prophet or a great man. He is that, but he is also much more. He is Messiah, the Hebrew word for “God’s anointed,” also the meaning of the Greek word, Christ.
Further, the definition of Messiah itself must also undergo a journey of new understanding. What does it mean? John’s disciples want to know just like the rest of us? “Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another” (Luke 7:22)? Is the Messiah one who will lead a great military expedition on behalf of the powerful? Or will he give the blind their sight, cleanse the lepers, heal the lame and deaf, raise the dead and preach good news to the poor (7:22)?
Along our journey Luke also gives us a literary, cultural, spatial, and chronological bridge built as we travel. It becomes apparent in our first story” of 7:2-10. The parallel to the experience of Cornelius, the centurion in Acts 10 is striking and important. Here, we have a foreshadowing of what is about to unfold, the movement of the Gospel to the Gentiles, from “Judea and Samaria” and “unto the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The centurion of chapter seven serves as a bridge between two worlds: Jew and Gentile. Notice that it is “Jewish elders” who serve as the messengers to Jesus of this man’s crisis (7:3). Then it is “friends” of the centurion (presumably Gentiles) sent to humbly ask only for Jesus’ words and not even his presence (7:6). Now Luke uses the centurion to provide another kind of bridge.
Bridging one generation to the next: Keep in mind, Luke is writing his gospel probably around 85 A.D. This was well after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus; after the persecution of Nero (64 A.D.); after the destruction of the Temple and all of Jerusalem (66-70 A.D.) and after the death/martyrdom of Peter and Paul and most of the rest of the apostles. The new Christians of Christ’s church had never seen Jesus or even heard of him through personal testimonies of those who knew him. This was a new generation of primarily Gentile believers. Now look again at the experience of the centurion: he never comes in contact with Jesus, never sees him or personally hears him, but his life and his household are transformed because of Jesus and because the centurion demonstrated “such faith” (7:9).
What we experience is Luke’s unfolding, dramatic journey with a two-fold purpose: a.) to tell the story of Jesus through carefully selected stories about Jesus and b.) to tell the story of Jesus in such a way so as to send a strong, clear message to new Christians and to new, struggling churches. The vast majority never knew Jesus in the flesh and never met anyone who heard him speak or saw him work. Like us today, the message of relevance was very real. How does something far away and long ago impact my life? Does the story of Jesus have anything to say to me? As you travel through Luke’s words about Jesus, hear those words very intentionally directed beyond time and culture. They join us with that great cloud of witnesses whose faith, like that of the unusual centurion, transcended time and place. His brief story, like theirs, serves as testimony still today of one who could believe in spite of massive obstacles. And, as a result of faith in Jesus’ power, the course of history was, is, and shall continue to be transformed.
As you move through the rest of these witnesses to the mission, character and nature of Jesus’ messiahship, keep Luke’s dual purpose in mind.
Even though Jesus is a guest in Simon’s house, it is this allegedly sinful woman who extends Jesus the hospitality he was denied by the host of the dinner, Simon. For the church, the question is: who is welcome at the feet of Jesus? And the answer: Anyone and everyone willing to ask for forgiveness and accept it.
Luke, more than any other biblical writer, includes women in his account as crucial to the spread of the gospel. Fred Craddock’s Luke (pgs. 106-107) gives a fine assessment of the gospel writer’s unusual handling of women in their sharing of Jesus’ ministry. Also, Crossing Galilee by Marianne Sawicki has some fascinating theories about these women specifically mentioned in Luke 8:1-3. They supported Jesus and the other disciples financially. This raises all sorts of questions as to where they got their resources and how. Mary Magdalene, she says, may have preceded Lydia (Acts 16) as a savvy business woman with business contacts all over that part of the world. Interesting thoughts and worth reading if you’re so inclined.
Think of the storms battering the lives of those early churches, the persecutions and pressures of conformity and alienation; also recognize the storms of our own lives, the fear and uncertainty. Then notice that all the while Jesus was in the boat with those who were in danger. And so it is with us.
This has always been a troublesome story to most everyone for a number of reasons. One of the most helpful explanations I have found is in John Dominic Crossan’s Jesus, a Revolutionary Biography.
Moses and Elijah represented the tradition of “Law” and “prophets,” Moses being the lawgiver and Elijah considered the greatest of the prophets. The encounter here, then, is indicative of a kind of “transfer of power” or blessing. Jesus is now symbolically transfigured into the new role of a new law and fulfillment of prophecy.
Please see William Barclay’s The Gospel of Luke commentary for a fine breakdown of his character (unusual attitude, faith, his relationship to Jews and his humility [pgs. 83-84]) and Fred Craddock’s Interpretations: Luke (pgs 94-95).
David Jordan
Senior Pastor