Tag: Pharisees

Red Letter Year: 9/2

Luke 19.28-48

28 After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. 29 As he came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead.30  “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

32 So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. 33 And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, “Why are you untying that colt?”

34 And the disciples simply replied, “The Lord needs it.” 35 So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.

36 As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. 37 When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.

38 “Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!”

39 But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!”

40 He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”

41 But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. 42 “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. 43 Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. 44 They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not accept your opportunity for salvation.”

45 Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people selling animals for sacrifices.46 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”

47 After that, he taught daily in the Temple, but the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders of the people began planning how to kill him. 48 But they could think of nothing, because all the people hung on every word he said.

Comments

We are getting into material shared by all four Gospels. The accounts in Mark (ch.11) and Matthew (ch.21) are more elaborate, while this one leaves some things out and John’s (ch.12) is even further truncated. I’m not a big fan of arguments from silence, but this is more argument from editing. By looking at what Luke leaves out, we can get see more clearly how Luke fits this into his Gospel and what point he was hoping we would get.

  1. There are no palm branches being waved in Luke. Since the Maccabean revolt, this had been a symbol of Jewish nationalism. The other three all record this happening and the crowd was clearly thinking along those lines, but Luke just had Jesus teach against this in the preceding chapter, so the palm branches get left out here.
  2. No fig tree cursing. Mark and Matthew connect a scene where Jesus curses a fig tree that is not yielding fruit to his time in the Temple as a commentary on the fruitlessness of Temple worship. Matthew quotes Isa. 56.7: “my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Luke leaves the “for all nations” part out because the Temple was not important for his Gentile audience or his overall project (see below). Thus the fig tree story was not needed either.
  3. The Temple clearing scene gets shortened to a single sentence. You don’t get the sense here (as you do in the others) that Jesus is causing trouble. But we are told directly that all the people were hanging on his every word. Quite a different picture here from the others.
  4. The lament over Jerusalem replaces talk of prophets with talk of Roman siege strategies. Luke has made a big deal out of Jesus as the Prophet, but here he uses language you would expect from a king.

And I think that is the point here. Luke takes away what might be misconstrued as provincial. Jesus is not a Jewish king who others might serve as vassals. Jesus is king over all directly – as many as will accept him and surrender to him as Lord. This means obedience. Allegiance. Service. Work. Jesus is the universal king. And hopefully the king of our hearts. This is what Luke wants us to see. Has Jesus lamented over the kingdom of your heart? Has he made his triumphal entry? Will you have your king?

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: 8/30

Luke 19.11-27

11 The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told them a story to correct the impression that the Kingdom of God would begin right away. 12 He said, “A nobleman was called away to a distant empire to be crowned king and then return. 13 Before he left, he called together ten of his servants and divided among them ten pounds of silver, saying, ‘Invest this for me while I am gone.’ 14 But his people hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want him to be our king.’

15 After he was crowned king, he returned and called in the servants to whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what their profits were. 16 The first servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made ten times the original amount!’

17 ‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.’

18 The next servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made five times the original amount.’

19 ‘Well done!’ the king said. ‘You will be governor over five cities.’

20 But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, ‘Master, I hid your money and kept it safe. 21 I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn’t yours and harvesting crops you didn’t plant.’

22 ‘You wicked servant!’ the king roared. ‘Your own words condemn you. If you knew that I’m a hard man who takes what isn’t mine and harvests crops I didn’t plant, 23 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’

24 Then, turning to the others standing nearby, the king ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one who has ten pounds.’

25 ‘But, master,’ they said, ‘he already has ten pounds!’

26 ‘Yes,’ the king replied, ‘and to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 27 And as for these enemies of mine who didn’t want me to be their king — bring them in and execute them right here in front of me.’”

Comments

We have seen this parable before in Matt. 25. Well, sort of. Luke makes some significant changes to the story. Instead of a master and servants in a household-estate setting, this story is about a man on his way to becoming a king. It is no coincidence that Luke placed this parable just before Jesus’ triumphal entry. Jesus is on his way to becoming king and telling a story about a man on his way to becoming king. Don’t miss that. This version of the parable must be understood in its kingdom-now context. (As opposed to Matthew’s, where the focus is about the long delay between the master leaving and returning; in Luke he becomes king rather quickly.)

There are also significant differences with the servants. Matthew has three who are assigned different amounts of money to work with, though all are large sums. The first is given about $4 million, the second about $1.6 million, and the last $800,000. The first and second doubled their amounts and are rewarded with rest in the master’s ‘happiness,’ the third buried his and is cast out and punished. In Luke, there are 10 servants, who are each assigned about $10,000. We are only given the results for three. The first grew his assigned amount to $110,000 and the second grew his to $60,000. Both are rewarded in the form of political assignments – they are given leadership positions based on the stewardship they showed to what they were given. The third hid his $10,000 in a napkin. He is not punished, but he is also not placed in leadership in the new king’s kingdom. He is a cautionary tale for those “who do nothing.”

So, what’s the point? Luke starts this by telling us that the people were expecting the kingdom to begin right then. This parable is how Jesus responded to that expectation. Unlike Matthew’s where the basic message is “I’m going away right now and will be gone a long time” – in other words a “not yet” message, in Luke Jesus is basically saying, “Yes, the kingdom begins right now and here’s what it is going to look like. I am taking up my kingship now and defeating my enemies. And then I am going to put some of you in charge of helping me run this new kingdom, not based on different talent levels, but based on your diligence in working with what you have to produce kingdom results. I expect you to grow the kingdom. I expect you to advance the kingdom. It begins right now. Now get to work.”

When you think about it, the two versions of this parable we have are a perfect picture of the already – the kingdom is here now, and the not yet – the end is not here but is coming. Keep working with what you have at hand. Keep growing the kingdom. The king is here. The king is near. Let the kingdom advance.

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.