Gospel of Luke Journey to Jerusalem
/In the Gospel of John there are three chapters dedicated to Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. In the Gospel of Mark the author covers the journey in a single chapter. In the Gospel of Luke we have something completely different. The Gospel of Luke is 24 chapters long and nearly 10 chapters are devoted to Jesus’ Jerusalem journey. At the end of chapter 9, Jesus turns toward Jerusalem, and in chapter 19 they arrive in Bethany
The Prodigal Son, a story of joy and forgiveness. Jesus is in the mood for parables. He has told the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and now the lost Son. There is a man whose youngest son asks for his inheritance. The father separates the property and gives the youngest son his share. The son squanders his inheritance and suddenly finds himself destitute and feeding swine to support himself. “What is wrong with me?” he thinks and starts for home. The father sees him coming in the distance and rushes out to meet him, full of joy at the boy’s return. They hold a large community party but the older brother who stayed and worked was upset. “Why do this for my brother when I stayed and worked?” “Son,” the father told him, “All that I have is yours but it is fitting to celebrate because you brother was dead and is now alive, he was lost, but now is found.” The Prodigal Son, 1538, Cornelis Massijs, Rjksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
John and Mark use Jesus’ time as a quick teaching moment. In Luke, a substantial part of the journey to Jerusalem is preparing the disciples for the task they are about receive, as Jesus passes his mission into their hands.
In the Gospel of Luke much of Jesus’ teaching takes place in parables. These are stories designed to illuminate a practice or theological point to listeners. The listeners include the crowds that are still following Jesus everywhere, and specifically the disciples. The most important of the parables is the Good Samaritan, who reaches outside of his faith to help a person in need who has been robbed and beaten by bandits. There is the story of the rich man who intends to hoard his wealth. When he feels enough barns and storage have been built, and he can live comfortably he dies in the night. There are two stories of people who search for a lost coin and a sheep respectively. In finding the lost items they rejoice in the finding. There is the story of the rich man who ignores the beggar Lazarus only to discover he has been selfish and greedy and has jeopardized his own salvation.
There is an abundance of healing. There are the ten lepers, with only one returning, a Samaritan, to thank Jesus. There is the healing of the woman who was not able to stand, and the blind man at Jericho.
Jesus tells the disciples to take with a grain of salt the teachings of the Pharisees and the Jewish authorities. They are twisting the Law given by Moses to their advantage, using it to hold on to power.
Jesus reminds the disciples the pathway to salvation is narrow and the means of following it comes through humility, respect of others, generosity, prayer, forgiveness and a relationship with God.
Jesus’ actions focus on the needs of the disenfranchised, oppressed and forgotten. Reading these 10 chapters we are reminded that the way to lift ourselves involves the lifting of others.
We do not know who wrote the Gospel of Luke. Scholars think the writer is one of the traveling companions of Paul. We know the writer was highly educated, and wrote in Greek. We know that there is a second volume to the Gospel, the Book of Acts, which tells about the early years of the church after Jesus ascended. According to the Gospel it was written by the author to provide an accurate historical representation of the early church to a man named Theophilus. Scholars think he was probably a Roman administrator. Theophilus also has another interpretation. In the Greek “Theo” stands for God and “philius” can be read as lover, “lover of God.” This reading means the books might have had a general distribution among the early Christian congregations.