Tag: Gospel of Luke

Red Letter Year: 9/12

Luke 22.31-46

31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. 32 But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.”

33 Peter said, “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even to die with you.”

34 But Jesus said, “Peter, let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.”

35 Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you out to preach the Good News and you did not have money, a traveler’s bag, or an extra pair of sandals, did you need anything?”

“No,” they replied.

36 “But now,” he said, “take your money and a traveler’s bag. And if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one! 37 For the time has come for this prophecy about me to be fulfilled: ‘He was counted among the rebels.’ Yes, everything written about me by the prophets will come true.”

38 “Look, Lord,” they replied, “we have two swords among us.”

“That’s enough,” he said.

39 Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. 40 There he told them, “Pray that you will not give in to temptation.”

41 He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” 43 Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. 44 He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.

45 At last he stood up again and returned to the disciples, only to find them asleep, exhausted from grief. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.”

Comments

As we have seen, Luke paints the apostles in a more favorable light than Mark and Matthew do. Luke is the only one to include this statement about Satan wanting to sift them. The NLT does a good job here of distinguishing the first plural you – Satan wants to sift all of them, from the second plural you – because of this, Jesus has prayed for Peter, who will need to encourage the others after his own recovery. Peter is also less vehement in his protest.

Luke is also the only one to include the part about making sure they had swords. He quotes Isa. 53, where the Messiah will be included with the lawless. Like the accusations that he was a drunk and a sinner, this accusation by association is false, and as such is a precise fulfillment of the prophecy. Of course, Jesus is making a prophetic statement, not a literal one. There is no time to go and sell or buy anything. But the support the 12 and then 70 received before is not something they should expect now. They are moving into dangerous times. The apostles take him literally though, and much like the religious leader who had one of Caesar’s coins in his pocket, the apostles already have two swords at hand. Which should lead us to ask – what were they doing with swords? They were having the Passover Meal with Jesus, why were they toting swords around?

Another change Luke makes is in shortening the Gethsemane account and making it less of a struggle than it seems to be in Mark and Matthew (John won’t have this scene at all). You sometimes hear preachers go on about the medical condition of Jesus sweating blood, but look closely, that is not what the text says. It says his sweat was in big drops “like” drops of blood. Luke is using a simile here, not making a medical claim. Luke also records an angel coming and attending to Jesus in his travail, no other Gospel has this. And Jesus only goes off once and comes back to sleeping followers, not three times as in Mark and Matthew. This continues Luke’s theme of emphasizing the death of Jesus as the will of God that Jesus freely chooses to obey, not something done to him against his will.

Shortening the Garden account also makes the apostles seem less sleepy. The sorrow that Mark and Matthew assign to Jesus, Luke gives to the apostles and describes it as the source of their fatigue. Instead of telling them to “wait” (as in Mark and Matthew), here Jesus tells them to “pray” but they are unable to do so. They have prepared for the wrong thing (battle), have misunderstood Jesus’ message, and have proven unable to pray. Their failure and disillusionment is as much a result of their wrong expectations as anything else. Kind of like us. We gear up to do something big and active and effective for God, but we don’t get so excited when all it involves is “just” praying. Except that is the work of the kingdom. How do we overcome temptation? We pray. How do we advance the kingdom? We pray. How do change both what is inside our hearts and the external reality around us? We pray. There is nothing more foundational to following Jesus than praying. And we just don’t do enough of it.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Red Letter Year: 9/11

Luke 22.14-30

14 When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table. 15 Jesus said, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. 16 For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”

17 Then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. Then he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. 18 For I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom of God has come.”

19 He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.”

20 After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people — an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you. 21 But here at this table, sitting among us as a friend, is the man who will betray me. 22 For it has been determined that the Son of Man must die. But what sorrow awaits the one who betrays him.” 23 The disciples began to ask each other which of them would ever do such a thing.

24 Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them.25 Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ 26 But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. 27 Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.

28 You have stayed with me in my time of trial. 29 And just as my Father has granted me a Kingdom, I now grant you the right 30 to eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. And you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Comments

There are a few key things to note in Luke’s account of the Eucharist. You should have noticed that Luke includes two cups, one in v.17, the other in v.20. The Passover Meal included four cups total, which were used in (essentially) toasts to God. At least, that is the nearest we can tell based on Jewish Passover liturgy from the ninth century (AD). Jewish writings from closer to Jesus’ day aren’t nearly as clear and consistent on this issue. That, plus Mark and Matthew only having one cup, led some copyists to amend Luke to match the others. But our oldest copies of Luke have what you just read. Why bring this up? Because there is a trend (I have no idea how popular it is) among some Christians to try to celebrate a Jewish-style Passover as a lead-in to Easter, using the full set of practices laid out in the ninth century. I think this is misguided and runs the risk of missing the point of Eucharist (plus, it’s just weird for Gentiles to try to appropriate cultural practices that are not their own, but I digress). There is significant language here to tie this event to the concepts of exodus, atoning sacrifice, and covenant, but embedding these within Judaic practice lessens the distinctively Christian understanding of the significance of this meal.

Luke specifically works very hard editing his source material from Mark and Matthew to make a few key points. Notice how Judas disappears in this telling of the Last Supper. In Mark and Matthew, his betrayal is the first thing discussed, it is even prior to the meal. Luke places this after the meal and in as few words as possible – and never once uses Judas’ name. Luke wants Judas out of the picture here, his betrayal is not the focus, his presence is not allowed to dominate this account. As I mentioned before, these events are not happening to Jesus, this is not the work of Judas (and the religious leaders) nearly as much as it is Jesus doing what he came to do, what he has been talking about for the better part of Luke’s Gospel. Jesus is freely choosing this cup.

The meaning of the cup is also very important and another place where adopting Seder practice and understanding don’t help us (okay, I’ll stop going on about it now, but it does bug me). While the Seder assigns meanings to each of the four cups, the meaning of this cup does not fit well with any of them (okay, really stopping now). This is a cup of blood. A cup of sacrifice. A cup of God’s wrath. Later in this chapter, we are going to read Jesus asking the Father to take away this cup and not make him drink it. But he does drink it. And so do his followers. It is also a cup of covenant. A cup of binding relationship. A cup of authority. Look at vv. 29-30. The followers of Jesus are those who share in both his authority and in his suffering. The cup is at the same time us enjoying relationship with the one who takes our place – the blood of his vicarious sacrifice fills this cup – but it is also us entering into agreement to share in that suffering, to shed our own blood in advancing this kingdom. It is no coincidence that all the men at that table (with the possible exception of John) were violently murdered just as Jesus was. They drank his cup. They drank his blood. They ate his bread. They ate his flesh.

Finally, it is also no coincidence that Luke waited until here to share with us the rivalry brewing among the apostles. Given how he suppressed Judas in this story, we might expect him to put this somewhere else so he can keep the message positive and focused. He included it here because those who would be great in the kingdom have to understand that involves drinking more deeply from the cup of suffering than anyone else. The greatest take the lowest rank. They seek out the suffering. Because in doing so they suffer redemptively and complete in their own bodies what is lacking in Christ’s suffering (as Paul explains in Col. 1.24).

If we don’t understand this, we don’t understand leadership and authority in the kingdom of God. If we don’t understand the Eucharist as sharing in the cup of Christ’s suffering, then we do not understand what we have signed up for as his followers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.