Luke 9:11-17
“Who is this man?” Luke tried to answer this question in the next major section of his narrative. (9:11-50). With the crowds reluctant to leave, Jesus put his disciples to an unusual test. Since it was toward evening and time for the main meal of the day, the disciples thought it was time to send the crowd into neighbouring communities to seek food and shelter for the night. Jesus challenged them to feed the multitude themselves. Startled, they replied in a somewhat sarcastic tone. Their supplies were meagre, at best only enough for a very few in a peasant family.
At this point the story moved from homely logic to the symbolic and directed at Luke’s audience rather than the twelve disciples. This was no picnic supper on a hillside in Galilee. Luke intended his Gentile audience in a foreign city to understand it differently than we usually read it.
The number five is the symbol of completeness. In Hebrew scripture there were five books of Moses, five books of Wisdom, five divisions in the book of Psalms. The five loaves represented a similar holy fullness. The two fish also represented the completeness of species such as those identified in story of Noah’s ark (Gen. 6-8). And in the human species too. There would be enough to begin the process of reproduction.
The number ten also symbolizes a perfect number. Five thousand is five times ten, times ten, times ten. But it should not be construed as a actual estimate of the number present, however that may dismay those who cling to a literal interpretation of Jesus’ miracles.
Jesus’ actions are also symbolic. By blessing, breaking and giving, he foreshadowed the liturgical actions of the Last Supper. By giving them to the twelve he also foreshadowed the reality of Luke’s time when the early church had grown to include many thousands, possibly tens of thousands more. This pointed out to Luke’s audience that many more disciples would be needed. Everyone, all the followers of Jesus, not just the elite, would be enlisted to bring God’s reign of love on earth.
The twelve baskets gathered after the feast was over were probably the small containers fastened to their belts which Jewish people carried so that they had liturgically prepared food available in case of need. One interpretation of the story holds that there was a general sharing of such lunches by everyone in the crowd. However understood, the story is not about a miracle but the prospect of plenty for all. It represented what Sharon Ringe called, “The bounty of God’s reign (that) will suffice for all people, for Jews and Gentiles alike.”
The abundant feast for the five thousand had other meanings as well. That it was important to the early church can be concluded from the existence of six different versions of the event in the four Gospel. Jesus frequently used the symbol of a great banquet to represent either the presence of the reign of God or its ultimate fulfilment, as the Last Supper indeed anticipated.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
25 - Herod's Confusion
Luke 9:7-12.
In what reads as an aside in his narrative, Luke adds a small detail about how Herod Antipas, the Roman puppet king of Galilee, regarded Jesus and his motley group of followers. Herod held modest political authority under sufferance from the Roman governor of the whole region. There was always a strong contingent of troops ready to put down any threat of rebellion. A well-guarded household and a centurion with 100 well trained Roman soldiers was sufficient to exercise this authority. This gave Herod at least some sense of authority to keep his tetrarchy, as Galilee was then called, in relative stability.
Jesus’ ministry and his wandering troop of disciples attracted great crowds everywhere they went. It was the most peaceful demonstration of power imaginable. Unlike the thunderous preaching of John, who assailed Antipas for his immoral lifestyle, there was no threat to him or to the Roman government. But this son of Herod the Great had put John the Baptizer to death. Had he risen from the dead, a ghost come back to haunt this petty king for his many gross injustices and murders?
Some rumoured that this was John. Others reported that people were saying Elijah had reappeared. Still others said that one of the prophets of Israel’s long past had returned. Being naturally superstitious, Herod was confused. He tried to see Jesus to discover to what he was about.
This Jesus was no John the Baptizer. He was friendly, compassionate and had a gracefulness about his teaching that John had always lacked. Herod’s curiosity went unanswered, but did not dissipate his fear that a rival had appeared in Galilee.
Jesus wasn’t wasting his time with the likes of Herod. When the disciples returned with their astonishing reports of a successful mission, Jesus took them into seclusion in Bethsaida. That was a small village nestled in the hills at the north end of Lake Galilee. The first four disciples, Peter, Andrew, James and John, had come from there.
Modern archeology has rediscovered the remains of the village now two kilometres from the lakeshore. It is believed to go back at least 1000 years before Jesus’ time. Mentioned in the Gospels more than any other town in Galilee other than Capernaum, Bethsaida had been lost to pilgrims until 1987. Research has discovered that the modern course of the Jordan River and the adjacent lakeshore are not where they were in Jesus’ time.
Located on active fault, the river and the shoreline have shifted several times. Quite possibly, the four fishermen changed their business location because of one such shift. Another occurred in 363 CE when a vast rock and mudslide cut Bethsaida off from the lakeshore forever. Animal bones found under the debris indicated that the town was occupied when Jesus was in Galilee.
Despite being in a somewhat secluded locale, the crowds found Jesus. He welcomed them as was his custom, telling them about God’s kingdom and healing those who needed to be cured.
In what reads as an aside in his narrative, Luke adds a small detail about how Herod Antipas, the Roman puppet king of Galilee, regarded Jesus and his motley group of followers. Herod held modest political authority under sufferance from the Roman governor of the whole region. There was always a strong contingent of troops ready to put down any threat of rebellion. A well-guarded household and a centurion with 100 well trained Roman soldiers was sufficient to exercise this authority. This gave Herod at least some sense of authority to keep his tetrarchy, as Galilee was then called, in relative stability.
Jesus’ ministry and his wandering troop of disciples attracted great crowds everywhere they went. It was the most peaceful demonstration of power imaginable. Unlike the thunderous preaching of John, who assailed Antipas for his immoral lifestyle, there was no threat to him or to the Roman government. But this son of Herod the Great had put John the Baptizer to death. Had he risen from the dead, a ghost come back to haunt this petty king for his many gross injustices and murders?
Some rumoured that this was John. Others reported that people were saying Elijah had reappeared. Still others said that one of the prophets of Israel’s long past had returned. Being naturally superstitious, Herod was confused. He tried to see Jesus to discover to what he was about.
This Jesus was no John the Baptizer. He was friendly, compassionate and had a gracefulness about his teaching that John had always lacked. Herod’s curiosity went unanswered, but did not dissipate his fear that a rival had appeared in Galilee.
Jesus wasn’t wasting his time with the likes of Herod. When the disciples returned with their astonishing reports of a successful mission, Jesus took them into seclusion in Bethsaida. That was a small village nestled in the hills at the north end of Lake Galilee. The first four disciples, Peter, Andrew, James and John, had come from there.
Modern archeology has rediscovered the remains of the village now two kilometres from the lakeshore. It is believed to go back at least 1000 years before Jesus’ time. Mentioned in the Gospels more than any other town in Galilee other than Capernaum, Bethsaida had been lost to pilgrims until 1987. Research has discovered that the modern course of the Jordan River and the adjacent lakeshore are not where they were in Jesus’ time.
Located on active fault, the river and the shoreline have shifted several times. Quite possibly, the four fishermen changed their business location because of one such shift. Another occurred in 363 CE when a vast rock and mudslide cut Bethsaida off from the lakeshore forever. Animal bones found under the debris indicated that the town was occupied when Jesus was in Galilee.
Despite being in a somewhat secluded locale, the crowds found Jesus. He welcomed them as was his custom, telling them about God’s kingdom and healing those who needed to be cured.
24 - Jesus Shares The Power
Luke 9:1-6
The next episode of Jesus’ ministry as Luke described it shows how much he wished to share the power of God’s Spirit that was in and working through him.
To be an apostle meant to be sent on a mission. Their training complete, Jesus empowered them and gave them his authority to go as do as he had been doing all through Galilee. It was a ministry of exorcisms, healing and the proclamation that God’s reign of love had already begun.
There is much scholarly debate whether Jesus actually did send out the apostles during his lifetime. John’s Gospel tells of no such mission. In a later section of his Gospel, Luke tells of a much larger mission of seventy disciples (10:1-16). Comparing the witness of Matthew and Mark, however, leads to the conclusion that the three writers had similar accounts that each edited in his own way.
Indeed the mission did take place, the scant supplies they were to take with them and directions for wasting no energy or futile anxiety over possible rejection suggest a short, quite successful foray into the mission field. Would that every ministry the church has undertaken over the two millennia of its history could have been as successful.
Sharon Hinge believes that the details of Luke’s account have all the signs of later missionary activity of the early church as described in Paul’s letters and in Acts.
There were other factors to be considered as well. Prof. George Caird wrote of three:
1) Unremitting demands of the crowds for more and more miracles raised expectations not even Jesus could fulfil alone.
2) Growing antagonism of Jewish religious authorities who thought of Jesus as a blasphemer.
3) Suspicions from the Roman political authorities who wanted no disturbances they could not control by force of arms. (Saint Luke. Pelican, 1969)
The disciples’ brief tour appears to have been carried out in haste and relied exclusively on a receptive, hospitable audience. before they left, Jesus gave them instructions any Jew would have recognized and relished.
Shaking the dust off their feet if they were not well received was a common Jewish practice of the time. For centuries Persians, Greeks, then Romans had been in control of their holy land. This was now Gentile territory. Shaking the dust from their feet represented a symbolic and defiant gesture of rejecting this domination.
Jesus bid the disciples do it for a different reason: They were proclaiming the arrival of God’s reign of love. This was a decisive moment and there was no time to waste. Those who would not listen were in danger of being left out of God’s kingdom.
Did Jesus himself believe that the end of history was at hand? That God would soon bring about the long promised “Day of the Lord” and of judgment of which many Old Testament prophets had spoken? It would appear that the early church so believed and read this back into Jesus’ teaching.
The next episode of Jesus’ ministry as Luke described it shows how much he wished to share the power of God’s Spirit that was in and working through him.
To be an apostle meant to be sent on a mission. Their training complete, Jesus empowered them and gave them his authority to go as do as he had been doing all through Galilee. It was a ministry of exorcisms, healing and the proclamation that God’s reign of love had already begun.
There is much scholarly debate whether Jesus actually did send out the apostles during his lifetime. John’s Gospel tells of no such mission. In a later section of his Gospel, Luke tells of a much larger mission of seventy disciples (10:1-16). Comparing the witness of Matthew and Mark, however, leads to the conclusion that the three writers had similar accounts that each edited in his own way.
Indeed the mission did take place, the scant supplies they were to take with them and directions for wasting no energy or futile anxiety over possible rejection suggest a short, quite successful foray into the mission field. Would that every ministry the church has undertaken over the two millennia of its history could have been as successful.
Sharon Hinge believes that the details of Luke’s account have all the signs of later missionary activity of the early church as described in Paul’s letters and in Acts.
There were other factors to be considered as well. Prof. George Caird wrote of three:
1) Unremitting demands of the crowds for more and more miracles raised expectations not even Jesus could fulfil alone.
2) Growing antagonism of Jewish religious authorities who thought of Jesus as a blasphemer.
3) Suspicions from the Roman political authorities who wanted no disturbances they could not control by force of arms. (Saint Luke. Pelican, 1969)
The disciples’ brief tour appears to have been carried out in haste and relied exclusively on a receptive, hospitable audience. before they left, Jesus gave them instructions any Jew would have recognized and relished.
Shaking the dust off their feet if they were not well received was a common Jewish practice of the time. For centuries Persians, Greeks, then Romans had been in control of their holy land. This was now Gentile territory. Shaking the dust from their feet represented a symbolic and defiant gesture of rejecting this domination.
Jesus bid the disciples do it for a different reason: They were proclaiming the arrival of God’s reign of love. This was a decisive moment and there was no time to waste. Those who would not listen were in danger of being left out of God’s kingdom.
Did Jesus himself believe that the end of history was at hand? That God would soon bring about the long promised “Day of the Lord” and of judgment of which many Old Testament prophets had spoken? It would appear that the early church so believed and read this back into Jesus’ teaching.
Monday, February 8, 2010
23 - JESUS AND POWER - Part 2
Luke 8:40-56
The third and fourth incidents are imbedded together, but revealed to the disciples (and to us) that Jesus had power over disease and death. They also focus on Jesus’ special concern for women and children. Then too, they show a special aspect of Jesus’ healing ministry: just touching his fringe of his garment and hoping for what had not yet happened was enough in both instances.
Back in Galilee, he was met by Jairus, the leader of a local synagogue whose only daughter was dying. Her death at twelve, on the threshold of puberty, would have been a great family tragedy. There would be no grandchildren. On the way to the family home, Jesus was interrupted by a woman suffering from a hemorrhage lasting for twelve years. She had been unable to bear children.
It was the woman’s own faith that brought about her healing in the midst of a great crowd of people. Many of the crowd would have crushed against Jesus too, but they were curious onlookers, not people in desperate need. It was her faithful hope for healing that brought her to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, possibly just the fringe of his prayer shawl.
At the family home, Jesus put the faithless mourners out of the house, but took the parents and three disciples in with him into the room where the child lay. Taking her by the hand, he spoke to her. Her spirit returned and she immediately rose from her bed, alive and well. He then told her parents to give her some food, but not to tell anyone what had happened.
Was the girl comatose and just presumed dead? We always look for rational answers to the riddles of Jesus’ miracles. But that is not the point of these four healing miracles. They all tell us that while Jesus had tremendous power over nature, demons, disease and death, he used it only for one purpose: to help people find faith in God’s love and will to save. He responded to more than just real human need for life and health.
In telling of Jesus blessing the woman with the terrible hemorrhage, the Greek text used the same word often translated as “save.” Her faith had saved her. That is the implication of the woman coming forward to identify herself, She came “to proclaim” - that is the word used in the Greek text too - why she had touched him. Luke made the connection between this woman’s healing and the proclamation of the good news of God’s salvation through faith. In the instance of Jairus’ daughter, there is a connection too between what was needed and a future promise: “Only believe, and she will be saved.”
Jesus wanted to convey the hope of faith to the disciples and to us. Note that in the very next section the disciples are sent out to do exactly what Jesus had just done: drive out demons and heal diseases (9:1-6). This was the apostolic mission in its earliest stages. Having learned what faith could do from Jesus himself, they were challenged to go out and proclaim the same message.
The third and fourth incidents are imbedded together, but revealed to the disciples (and to us) that Jesus had power over disease and death. They also focus on Jesus’ special concern for women and children. Then too, they show a special aspect of Jesus’ healing ministry: just touching his fringe of his garment and hoping for what had not yet happened was enough in both instances.
Back in Galilee, he was met by Jairus, the leader of a local synagogue whose only daughter was dying. Her death at twelve, on the threshold of puberty, would have been a great family tragedy. There would be no grandchildren. On the way to the family home, Jesus was interrupted by a woman suffering from a hemorrhage lasting for twelve years. She had been unable to bear children.
It was the woman’s own faith that brought about her healing in the midst of a great crowd of people. Many of the crowd would have crushed against Jesus too, but they were curious onlookers, not people in desperate need. It was her faithful hope for healing that brought her to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, possibly just the fringe of his prayer shawl.
At the family home, Jesus put the faithless mourners out of the house, but took the parents and three disciples in with him into the room where the child lay. Taking her by the hand, he spoke to her. Her spirit returned and she immediately rose from her bed, alive and well. He then told her parents to give her some food, but not to tell anyone what had happened.
Was the girl comatose and just presumed dead? We always look for rational answers to the riddles of Jesus’ miracles. But that is not the point of these four healing miracles. They all tell us that while Jesus had tremendous power over nature, demons, disease and death, he used it only for one purpose: to help people find faith in God’s love and will to save. He responded to more than just real human need for life and health.
In telling of Jesus blessing the woman with the terrible hemorrhage, the Greek text used the same word often translated as “save.” Her faith had saved her. That is the implication of the woman coming forward to identify herself, She came “to proclaim” - that is the word used in the Greek text too - why she had touched him. Luke made the connection between this woman’s healing and the proclamation of the good news of God’s salvation through faith. In the instance of Jairus’ daughter, there is a connection too between what was needed and a future promise: “Only believe, and she will be saved.”
Jesus wanted to convey the hope of faith to the disciples and to us. Note that in the very next section the disciples are sent out to do exactly what Jesus had just done: drive out demons and heal diseases (9:1-6). This was the apostolic mission in its earliest stages. Having learned what faith could do from Jesus himself, they were challenged to go out and proclaim the same message.
22 - JESUS AND POWER - Part 1
Luke 8:22-39
The next section presents four stories of different ways that Jesus demonstrated his powers over nature, demons, disease and death. All of these incidents were primarily to instruct the disciples so that they might also share his sovereignty and power.
The first incident (8:22-25) relates the familiar story of the stilling of the storm. Lake Galilee is quite large but shallow, lies below sea level and is surrounded by low mountains. Storms frequently sweep down from the mountains whipping up waves that would threaten the small fishing boats like those of the fishermen. Knowing the lake, the disciples would also recognize when they were in great danger. Jesus used the moment to teach them hopeful faith that they were safe when he was with them.
The second incident is more problematic because it happened in foreign territory, probably a seacoast village of Khersa. In some manuscripts it was called Gadara, but not to be confused with Gerasa That a Greek city state lay in the mountains 40 miles to the southeast. It was one of the ten cities known as Decapolis. As a Gentile community, it is especially important for the later apostolic mission to the Gentiles which was Luke’s primary interest.
The man possessed with demons would be regarded today as mentally ill, perhaps with schizophrenia or multiple personalities. He was a danger to himself and his community, so he had been bound with chains and banished to live among the tombs in the cemetery. That a herd of swine was nearby emphasized that this was Gentile territory, although some Jewish people probably lived there. The region had been captured and held by the Jews for about twenty years prior to the Roman conquest of all Jewish territory to the east and west of the Jordan River in 63 BCE. The incident also reveals obvious marks of grave impurity for any Jew: a demon-possessed maniac living in a cemetery near a place “in the wilds” where a herd of pigs wandered freely. As Sharon Hinge stated, these details revealed that the man lived “beyond the bounds of civilization.”
The loss of the herd of swine would have been significant for that community. No wonder they reacted in fear and asked Jesus to leave, despite seeing their fellow citizen in his right mind. The man himself desperately wanted to go with Jesus, but was refused. Jesus sent him back to his community to witness to what had happened to him. That too would have been significant for the future mission of the church.
Cruel as the stampede of the herd of pigs may be, it confirmed for the disciples who witnessed the incident that the sovereignty of the kingdom of God had arrived with Jesus. The stilling of the sea had shown them that through Jesus, God ruled over the chaos of nature. The healing of the demoniac further showed that God also reigned over the chaos that was in humanity, Jew and Gentile alike. That all three Synoptic Gospels report these incidents indicate their importance to the early tradition.
The next section presents four stories of different ways that Jesus demonstrated his powers over nature, demons, disease and death. All of these incidents were primarily to instruct the disciples so that they might also share his sovereignty and power.
The first incident (8:22-25) relates the familiar story of the stilling of the storm. Lake Galilee is quite large but shallow, lies below sea level and is surrounded by low mountains. Storms frequently sweep down from the mountains whipping up waves that would threaten the small fishing boats like those of the fishermen. Knowing the lake, the disciples would also recognize when they were in great danger. Jesus used the moment to teach them hopeful faith that they were safe when he was with them.
The second incident is more problematic because it happened in foreign territory, probably a seacoast village of Khersa. In some manuscripts it was called Gadara, but not to be confused with Gerasa That a Greek city state lay in the mountains 40 miles to the southeast. It was one of the ten cities known as Decapolis. As a Gentile community, it is especially important for the later apostolic mission to the Gentiles which was Luke’s primary interest.
The man possessed with demons would be regarded today as mentally ill, perhaps with schizophrenia or multiple personalities. He was a danger to himself and his community, so he had been bound with chains and banished to live among the tombs in the cemetery. That a herd of swine was nearby emphasized that this was Gentile territory, although some Jewish people probably lived there. The region had been captured and held by the Jews for about twenty years prior to the Roman conquest of all Jewish territory to the east and west of the Jordan River in 63 BCE. The incident also reveals obvious marks of grave impurity for any Jew: a demon-possessed maniac living in a cemetery near a place “in the wilds” where a herd of pigs wandered freely. As Sharon Hinge stated, these details revealed that the man lived “beyond the bounds of civilization.”
The loss of the herd of swine would have been significant for that community. No wonder they reacted in fear and asked Jesus to leave, despite seeing their fellow citizen in his right mind. The man himself desperately wanted to go with Jesus, but was refused. Jesus sent him back to his community to witness to what had happened to him. That too would have been significant for the future mission of the church.
Cruel as the stampede of the herd of pigs may be, it confirmed for the disciples who witnessed the incident that the sovereignty of the kingdom of God had arrived with Jesus. The stilling of the sea had shown them that through Jesus, God ruled over the chaos of nature. The healing of the demoniac further showed that God also reigned over the chaos that was in humanity, Jew and Gentile alike. That all three Synoptic Gospels report these incidents indicate their importance to the early tradition.
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