Proper 8
Preaching
Preaching Luke's Gospel
A Narrative Approach
Scholars have recognized for a long time that the material in Luke 9:51„19:27 is unique in the Synoptic Gospels. It is a peculiarly Lukan section containing such well-known stories as the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, and the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, to cite just a few.
The material takes the form of a journey! Jesus sets his face to make an exodus (Luke 9:31) to Jerusalem. In the last story in this segment of Luke's Gospel Jesus is "near" Jerusalem (19:11). The journey ends in 19:28 where we hear that Jesus was "going up to Jerusalem." Because of the journey character of this material this section of Luke has been given a variety of "journey" titles. We will simply refer to this corpus as the Travel Narrative.
Joseph Fitzmyer describes this material thus: "The travel account [is] ... a collection of teachings for the young missionary church, in which instruction of disciples alternates with debates with opponents."1 Scholars note that oral story tellers often organized disparate material by incorporating it into a journey. The story of the journey, that is, gives cohesion to a variety of material.
We noted in Chapter 18 that the disciples appear to have a lot to learn, from the shape of the narrative in Luke 9. On his exodus to Jerusalem Jesus will teach them many things about the nature of true discipleship.
The opening verse of the Travel Narrative indicates that the time had come for Jesus "to be taken up." We have been prepared for this event by Jesus' key prophetic word in 9:22: "The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." Jerusalem is to be the place of Jesus' suffering. The city of Jerusalem plays a key role in Luke's story of the Christ. (Chapter 3 discusses the central role played by the temple in Jerusalem.) Luke's story opens in the temple in Jerusalem (Luke 1). In Luke 2:22ff. the parents of Jesus bring him to the temple in Jerusalem in order to present him to the Lord. The entire central section of Luke, the Travel Narrative, is the story of the exodus to Jerusalem. The journey is ominous because of Jesus' word in 9:22 and because Jerusalem is the city that kills the prophets (13:33-34). And so it came to pass that the "prophet" Jesus would die in Jerusalem. Jerusalem then becomes the city in which the disciples must wait to begin the mission that Jesus commanded them to undertake (24:44-49). In the book of Acts the disciples are waiting in Jerusalem for the promise of the Spirit (Acts 1:1-5). Jesus tells the disciples that the Spirit of God will be poured out upon them and they will be his disciples in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). Jerusalem becomes the base camp for mission to the ends of the earth. The Pentecost story takes place in Jerusalem as the empowering of the disciples and the founding of the Christian community (Acts 2).
The reality of Jerusalem for Luke continues in the book of Acts. We can see a kind of parallelism that is developed between Jesus and Saint Paul. Jesus' journey of ministry began in Galilee, moved through Samaria, and ended in Jerusalem. The last half of the book of Acts tells of Paul's journeys to fulfill the mission of the church as it moves out from Jerusalem to Samaria and on to Rome, on to the ends of the earth.
Jesus sent his disciples ahead of him to prepare his way to enter Samaria (9:51). In the early days of his mission it was John the Baptist who prepared the way. The preparation did not work. The Samaritans would not receive him. This is reminiscent of Jesus' first appearance in his hometown of Nazareth. The hometown folk did not receive him either (Luke 4:22-29). Now he is off to Jerusalem. Neither will Jerusalem receive him. Jesus is a despised and rejected man.
In the face of Samaritan rejection the disciples ask if they should call fire down from heaven to consume those of obstinate hearts. That's what Elijah had done (2 Kings 1:9-16). Jesus says, No! There are many ways in which Luke's telling of the story portrays Jesus as a prophet. But Jesus is not a duplicate of the prophets of old. With Jesus something new has entered human life. As for Samaria, its inhabitants will be visited again by Philip and the apostles from Jerusalem (Acts 8:9-25). A very important aspect of Luke's telling of the Messiah is the reality that Samaritans in par-ticular and Gentiles in general shall be included in the renewed kingdom of God. This story is told with particular power in Acts 8 and Acts 10-11, the story of Cornelius.
In verses 57-62 the emphasis turns from journeying to follow-ing. Jesus makes a journey. People are called to follow. Jesus has set the stage for this call to follow in 9:23-27. Jesus has invited people to follow him by self-denial; by taking up the cross; by losing life to find life. Tannehill summarizes that which a disciple must give up to follow Jesus as life (9:23-25), home and family (9:57-62), and possessions.2 Luke 14:25-33 includes precisely these three realities in its call to discipleship. With respect to possessions we remember that the rich are sent away empty (Luke 1:53). A number of the stories in the Travel Narrative touch upon the matter of possessions. The story of the wealthy ruler who wanted to gain eternal life (18:18-30) and its complementary story of Zacchaeus (19:1-10) are of particular importance here. Following Jesus is, indeed, a matter of losing our life in order to find God's life.
Homiletical Directions
The material above suggests a number of directions for a nar-rative sermon on this text. In some way it is important for our hearers to understand that with this material we enter into a lengthy section of Luke's Gospel which is described as a journey to Jerusalem. We will be preaching on these texts for many months now! Today can lay the foundation. It is in this week's text that Jesus' exodus journey to Jerusalem begins!
The first narrative possibility that suggests itself, therefore, is stories that lift up the importance of Jerusalem in Luke's telling of the Messianic story. We have already touched upon these texts. The Gospel of Luke begins in Jerusalem. Jesus is brought to Jerusalem to be presented to God according to the law. Our stories hold forth first of all, that Jerusalem is the beginning of the story. Some comment on the importance of Jerusalem for the people of Israel might also be worth sharing at the outset.
Our storytelling can move next to the key prophecy in Luke's Gospel in 9:22. This crucial link in Luke's story is not included anywhere else in the Lukan lectionary year. The Son of Man must go to Jerusalem (this is implied) in order to undergo much suffering. Luke 9:31 indicates that Jesus will undertake an exodus to Jerusalem. The Travel Narrative in Luke 9:51„19:27 is the story of this exodus.
In the very first leg of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem he is not received by the Samaritans. This reminds us of his rejection in his hometown and his rejection in Jerusalem. Luke 22:47 through Luke 23 tells of Jesus' reception and death in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem next becomes the place where Jesus commands his disciples to remain in order to be empowered in mission (24:44-49). Acts 1 and 2 tell us how this mission got off the ground! It is a mission that is to begin in Jerusalem (Acts 1:8) and move out to the ends of the earth.
From Jerusalem to our town, to our lives. That is the flow of this story. It is a story that intends to reach beyond itself and include the whole world. It is a story that intends to reach us! Wherever we live becomes our Jerusalem. We are in turn called to be empowered in Jerusalem and to take the message of the Messiah to the ends of the earth.
Moving beyond Luke it might be appropriate to note that the flow of God's story finally ends in Jerusalem. "And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God ..." (Revelation 21:2).
Another obvious possibility for this week's narrative sermon would focus on the second half of the text. Jesus is on a journey. We are called to follow. Story One might begin with Jesus' words about discipleship in light of his prophecy (9:22) that we are to live a life of self-denial, cross-bearing and life-losing in order to find the true meaning of our humanity (9:23-27).
Luke 9:57-62 could serve as a second story. The story can be told pretty much as is with your own embellishments. People are called to follow, and they come up with home and family excuses. They have family values, it seems! Jesus has other values. He calls them to leave family behind and follow on the exodus to Jerusalem.
If we wish to add possessions to the triad of things to leave behind we could include the story of the rich ruler from Luke 18:18-30 in today's story telling. This story is not used in the Lukan year.
Losing life, leaving family, and giving up possessions occur together in 14:25-33. This text is appointed in the Lukan lectionary cycle as Proper 18.
Jesus' call to discipleship is a hard and challenging call. We are invited to "listen to him" when he calls (9:35). We are invited to follow, follow the One who took up his cross and gave his life for us. It is the power of his amazing love that attracts us and empowers our following!
____________
1.aJoseph Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, I-IX (New York: Doubleday, 1981), p. 826.
2.aRobert C. Tannehill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts, Volume One (Phila-delphia: Fortress Press, 1986), p. 231.
The material takes the form of a journey! Jesus sets his face to make an exodus (Luke 9:31) to Jerusalem. In the last story in this segment of Luke's Gospel Jesus is "near" Jerusalem (19:11). The journey ends in 19:28 where we hear that Jesus was "going up to Jerusalem." Because of the journey character of this material this section of Luke has been given a variety of "journey" titles. We will simply refer to this corpus as the Travel Narrative.
Joseph Fitzmyer describes this material thus: "The travel account [is] ... a collection of teachings for the young missionary church, in which instruction of disciples alternates with debates with opponents."1 Scholars note that oral story tellers often organized disparate material by incorporating it into a journey. The story of the journey, that is, gives cohesion to a variety of material.
We noted in Chapter 18 that the disciples appear to have a lot to learn, from the shape of the narrative in Luke 9. On his exodus to Jerusalem Jesus will teach them many things about the nature of true discipleship.
The opening verse of the Travel Narrative indicates that the time had come for Jesus "to be taken up." We have been prepared for this event by Jesus' key prophetic word in 9:22: "The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." Jerusalem is to be the place of Jesus' suffering. The city of Jerusalem plays a key role in Luke's story of the Christ. (Chapter 3 discusses the central role played by the temple in Jerusalem.) Luke's story opens in the temple in Jerusalem (Luke 1). In Luke 2:22ff. the parents of Jesus bring him to the temple in Jerusalem in order to present him to the Lord. The entire central section of Luke, the Travel Narrative, is the story of the exodus to Jerusalem. The journey is ominous because of Jesus' word in 9:22 and because Jerusalem is the city that kills the prophets (13:33-34). And so it came to pass that the "prophet" Jesus would die in Jerusalem. Jerusalem then becomes the city in which the disciples must wait to begin the mission that Jesus commanded them to undertake (24:44-49). In the book of Acts the disciples are waiting in Jerusalem for the promise of the Spirit (Acts 1:1-5). Jesus tells the disciples that the Spirit of God will be poured out upon them and they will be his disciples in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). Jerusalem becomes the base camp for mission to the ends of the earth. The Pentecost story takes place in Jerusalem as the empowering of the disciples and the founding of the Christian community (Acts 2).
The reality of Jerusalem for Luke continues in the book of Acts. We can see a kind of parallelism that is developed between Jesus and Saint Paul. Jesus' journey of ministry began in Galilee, moved through Samaria, and ended in Jerusalem. The last half of the book of Acts tells of Paul's journeys to fulfill the mission of the church as it moves out from Jerusalem to Samaria and on to Rome, on to the ends of the earth.
Jesus sent his disciples ahead of him to prepare his way to enter Samaria (9:51). In the early days of his mission it was John the Baptist who prepared the way. The preparation did not work. The Samaritans would not receive him. This is reminiscent of Jesus' first appearance in his hometown of Nazareth. The hometown folk did not receive him either (Luke 4:22-29). Now he is off to Jerusalem. Neither will Jerusalem receive him. Jesus is a despised and rejected man.
In the face of Samaritan rejection the disciples ask if they should call fire down from heaven to consume those of obstinate hearts. That's what Elijah had done (2 Kings 1:9-16). Jesus says, No! There are many ways in which Luke's telling of the story portrays Jesus as a prophet. But Jesus is not a duplicate of the prophets of old. With Jesus something new has entered human life. As for Samaria, its inhabitants will be visited again by Philip and the apostles from Jerusalem (Acts 8:9-25). A very important aspect of Luke's telling of the Messiah is the reality that Samaritans in par-ticular and Gentiles in general shall be included in the renewed kingdom of God. This story is told with particular power in Acts 8 and Acts 10-11, the story of Cornelius.
In verses 57-62 the emphasis turns from journeying to follow-ing. Jesus makes a journey. People are called to follow. Jesus has set the stage for this call to follow in 9:23-27. Jesus has invited people to follow him by self-denial; by taking up the cross; by losing life to find life. Tannehill summarizes that which a disciple must give up to follow Jesus as life (9:23-25), home and family (9:57-62), and possessions.2 Luke 14:25-33 includes precisely these three realities in its call to discipleship. With respect to possessions we remember that the rich are sent away empty (Luke 1:53). A number of the stories in the Travel Narrative touch upon the matter of possessions. The story of the wealthy ruler who wanted to gain eternal life (18:18-30) and its complementary story of Zacchaeus (19:1-10) are of particular importance here. Following Jesus is, indeed, a matter of losing our life in order to find God's life.
Homiletical Directions
The material above suggests a number of directions for a nar-rative sermon on this text. In some way it is important for our hearers to understand that with this material we enter into a lengthy section of Luke's Gospel which is described as a journey to Jerusalem. We will be preaching on these texts for many months now! Today can lay the foundation. It is in this week's text that Jesus' exodus journey to Jerusalem begins!
The first narrative possibility that suggests itself, therefore, is stories that lift up the importance of Jerusalem in Luke's telling of the Messianic story. We have already touched upon these texts. The Gospel of Luke begins in Jerusalem. Jesus is brought to Jerusalem to be presented to God according to the law. Our stories hold forth first of all, that Jerusalem is the beginning of the story. Some comment on the importance of Jerusalem for the people of Israel might also be worth sharing at the outset.
Our storytelling can move next to the key prophecy in Luke's Gospel in 9:22. This crucial link in Luke's story is not included anywhere else in the Lukan lectionary year. The Son of Man must go to Jerusalem (this is implied) in order to undergo much suffering. Luke 9:31 indicates that Jesus will undertake an exodus to Jerusalem. The Travel Narrative in Luke 9:51„19:27 is the story of this exodus.
In the very first leg of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem he is not received by the Samaritans. This reminds us of his rejection in his hometown and his rejection in Jerusalem. Luke 22:47 through Luke 23 tells of Jesus' reception and death in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem next becomes the place where Jesus commands his disciples to remain in order to be empowered in mission (24:44-49). Acts 1 and 2 tell us how this mission got off the ground! It is a mission that is to begin in Jerusalem (Acts 1:8) and move out to the ends of the earth.
From Jerusalem to our town, to our lives. That is the flow of this story. It is a story that intends to reach beyond itself and include the whole world. It is a story that intends to reach us! Wherever we live becomes our Jerusalem. We are in turn called to be empowered in Jerusalem and to take the message of the Messiah to the ends of the earth.
Moving beyond Luke it might be appropriate to note that the flow of God's story finally ends in Jerusalem. "And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God ..." (Revelation 21:2).
Another obvious possibility for this week's narrative sermon would focus on the second half of the text. Jesus is on a journey. We are called to follow. Story One might begin with Jesus' words about discipleship in light of his prophecy (9:22) that we are to live a life of self-denial, cross-bearing and life-losing in order to find the true meaning of our humanity (9:23-27).
Luke 9:57-62 could serve as a second story. The story can be told pretty much as is with your own embellishments. People are called to follow, and they come up with home and family excuses. They have family values, it seems! Jesus has other values. He calls them to leave family behind and follow on the exodus to Jerusalem.
If we wish to add possessions to the triad of things to leave behind we could include the story of the rich ruler from Luke 18:18-30 in today's story telling. This story is not used in the Lukan year.
Losing life, leaving family, and giving up possessions occur together in 14:25-33. This text is appointed in the Lukan lectionary cycle as Proper 18.
Jesus' call to discipleship is a hard and challenging call. We are invited to "listen to him" when he calls (9:35). We are invited to follow, follow the One who took up his cross and gave his life for us. It is the power of his amazing love that attracts us and empowers our following!
____________
1.aJoseph Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, I-IX (New York: Doubleday, 1981), p. 826.
2.aRobert C. Tannehill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts, Volume One (Phila-delphia: Fortress Press, 1986), p. 231.
