Sunday, March 2, 2014

Sunday, March 2, 2014

LUKE 9: 18-27

This is a layman’s observation – a simple reaction to the text with a view to the larger story.

This passage comes between the story of the Feeding of the 5000 and the story of the Transfiguration.  In the larger story Luke tells, it comes as part of Jesus preparation of his followers, and particularly the 12 in his inner circle, for ministry after he has physically gone.  Jesus is preparing to head south to Jerusalem, but needs his core group to be ready for what will come.

In the larger picture, Jesus sends out the 12 and they return with stories of being able to heal as Jesus does.  Later, he will send out 72 with the same result.  All this activity in the north attracts the attention of Herod, who fears that a prophet like John the Baptist has risen up to cause him trouble.  With crowds of hundreds and thousands gathering up north, the occupying Romans have cause to pay attention as well.  Jesus is deliberately raising the visibility of his ministry and he knows it.

As this passage opens, Jesus is at Bethsaida.  The 12 have recently returned and the crowds have become much larger.  The 5000 are fed and word of that miracle attracts even more crowds.  Jesus retreats for prayer with his core group.

He begins by asking them who they think he is.  Peter sidesteps the speculation about him and names him as the Christ.  I’m not sure Peter would use the Greek word – likely, as a devout Jew, he would call Jesus the Messiah, but we are told that later scholars took a few liberties in their translations.  That Jesus would tell them not to tell anyone – could be reverse psychology – or it could be a smart way to protect them from arrest later.  At any rate, in Verse 22 we see either an example of Jesus’ divine gift to predict the future in flawlessly accurate detail – OR – it’s another later scholar inserting a passage outlining Jesus’ fate.  Either way, it fits the narrative of Jesus preparing his disciples for later.

Verse 23 could easily have been said by Jesus.  It’s not really prophecy.  In occupied Palestine, there was only one form of execution – the cross.  And Jesus, along with Joseph may have received contracts to build many crosses in their workshop.  The Romans used many hundreds of them all the time.

But “DAILY” in v.23 is interesting… We are called to sacrifice it all, like Jesus, every day, not just when it is convenient for us.  That idea is typical of Jesus’ Teachings.  ‘Act like me every day’.  And, Jesus follows that in v.24/25 with classical paradox teaching on Materialism vs. the Spirit-driven life.  Here again, he is underlining the difference between mere existence in the Kingdom of Death and abundant life the Kingdom of God.  It’s also very Eastern – ‘let it all go… and you will get it all back!’

Verse 26 seems like another ‘guilt phrase’ inserted by a later Church scholar.  Jesus taught mostly in stories, not in guilt statements.  Jesus appears in the Gospels like more of an Eastern Teacher – a Rabbi or a Buddha.  Guilt-trips are not his first choice in dealing with people.  So, I suspect that his ‘guilt phrases’ are again Western inserts and not original quotations.  At best, they may be Luke doing his own ‘editing’ of what really happened.

Verse 27 “some will not taste death until…” all depends on how you define “Kingdom of God”.  Is it the release of the Holy Spirit after Jesus’ death?  Is it the change of heart and spirit in the followers that led to the founding of the Christian Church?  In that case, most of those standing there actually did not taste death until they saw these things happen.  I doubt that the “Kingdom” refers to the Second Coming of Christ.  So, it was a sensible prediction – underlining urgency to his core group and in line with the thrust of the narrative – preparing the disciples for the events to come in Jerusalem.

Finally, as I mentioned, this episode is followed by the Transfiguration, in which the disciples are tempted to stay, build churches on the spot and worship – or go back down the mountain and spread the word.  And when Jesus sends the 72 out in the next week, he clearly answers that question.

So, if I extract the passages I suspect were inserted later, the message Jesus is saying to his core groups is consistent with his message to them all along: ‘If I am the Messiah, the Greek Christ, then you must behave daily like me sooner than later, because the Kingdom Lifestyle is upon us NOW.’ 

Ironically, in spite of Jesus’ excellent preparation of his followers, when fear of arrest came upon them, they lost heart and ran away.  It was only after Pentecost that they found Spirit and courage to step up into that Kingdom Lifestyle and be the followers Jesus intended them to be.

Peter Mansell, St. Bridget’s Day, 2014