Luke: Chapters 13 to 18

Click here for the previous part of Luke.

CHAPTER 13

OK, here is a chapter full of some new items.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is it’s mostly new parables, and by this point I’m all parable-d out in the New Testament. 

Well, it’s not all parables.  Christ begins with some teachings.  He starts off with a then-current event – some Galileans who died.  Jesus asks the crowd: do you think they were really worse people and more horrible sinners than the rest of us?  By no means!  Just because they died doesn’t mean they had it coming.  You never know when you’re day is up, so dedicate yourself to God.  OK, that’s a nice one, Jesus.

He gives several parables, most of which we’ve heard in some various form before.  For instance, he talks about the mustard seed yet again, but this time he doesn’t call it the smallest of all seeds. 

There is one key teaching that is important for Christian theology.  He’s asked about salvation.  Everyone wants to be saved, but ultimately few are strong enough themselves to be saved.  So will all the others be damned?  Nah, don’t worry about it.  People not strong enough to be saved still have a chance – “Lord open the door for us.”  They can find salvation through the Lord – re: Jesus Christ.  Then all will have a chance to be saved.  This is why people pray to Jesus Christ nowadays.

Oh, and Herod wants Christ dead and Jesus laments the fate of Jerusalem.  We’ve seen stuff like this before.

CHAPTER 14

This one is a bit different. It’s another Christ versus the Pharisees confrontation, but it’s not like the ones in Matthew.  In that gospel, all the confrontations took place in public.  This time, Christ is at a dinner party with them.  It’s after-dinner conversation.  This is at least the second time Christ has had one of these in Luke, and he had none previously.

Much of the debate topics are stuff we’ve already gone over – healing on the Sabbath, how to act, how to be a disciple.  But the completely different setting gives it a very different feel.  Those public confrontations were just that – confrontations.  This time it all feels like a debate.  The stakes don’t seem so serious.  Jesus is contending in the court of public opinion.  He’s just trying to explain himself.  To be fair, they are still trying to trap him and there is an interrogation aspect to it, but by shifting the event to a dinner party, the whole thing feels a lot more congenial.

There is one stunning moment; one part that really doesn’t make any sense.  Christ tells his hosts, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers an sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

WHHHHAAAAAAA?  This isn’t any version of Christianity I’ve ever heard of before.  Sure, in the past he’s said he brings the sword, not peace, that he wants the world to catch fire – but this is going further.  Saying you want the entire world to catch fire sound impersonal.  Saying you must hate your children?  Man, it doesn’t get any more personal than that.  Why in Hades would he say something like that?  My best interpretation is to say he wants people to break their old attachments, and dedicate themselves to him and his cause. OK, that fits much of the rest of the New Testament, but he sure puts it in the worst possible light here.  The best consolation is that whenever I read something in Luke that wasn’t in Mark and Matthew I question it’s authenticity, but that just opens up a new question: why would Luke find it reasonable for Christ to say this?  It’s one of those stunning moments that don’t fit well into people’s views on Christ.

CHAPTER 15

Jesus gives more parables, all along the same theme – finding what had been lost. First he gives the parable of the lost sheep that was in Matthew.  At the time, I said it sounded like a rough draft for the Prodigal Son story.  So naturally this chapter in Luke gives us the actual Prodigal Son story.

A man has two sons – the good one and the bad one.  The bad one runs off and blows his share of the money.  He’s not heard of from years, and comes to regret his action.  In despair and guilt, he returns home, saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and against you.  I no longer deserve to be your son.”  That’s a heartbreaking sentiment; especially the second half. 

The father is overwhelmed with joy – his lost son has returned!  He orders a feast, and will kill his best goat for all to eat.  He tells the good boy to help make things ready.  The good boy takes some offense.  “Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feats on with my friends.”  You know, he’s got a point.  The father should’ve practiced some parenting version of preventative medicine.  He should’ve celebrated his good son –at least just once.  The old man literally never gave him a goat to feast on?  Man, what a bunch of crummy birthdays. 

The old man shrugs it off.  “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.  But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”  Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

I get the desire to celebrate the return of a lost soul.  In that respect, the dad makes a point.  But he also took his good son for granted.  If it’s true that the son literally never complained and always obeyed, that might explain it.  When there’s no resistance ever, it’s easier to remember he even exists.  He becomes more an extension of his dad’s will than a person in his own right.  Being too much of a goody two shoes can lead to being ignored. 

I don’t fully get the appeal of this story.  Like I said, the father doesn’t come off too well.  But the analogy is clear.  Even if you go away from Christ for years, the door remains open.  He will celebrate your turn to him even if the longtime believer seems to deserve it more.  From the point of view of Christ, seniority in fidelity doesn’t give you anything extra.

CHAPTER 16

More parables.  Yawn.  The first one is about a dishonest steward, and I didn’t really get it.  It ends with the master commending the dishonest steward for acting prudently.  Huh?  I must’ve missed something.  I guess the master was suckered.  I guess.

Christ goes on to denounce greed.  First he does it by parable, and then he starts to get personal.  He attacks the Pharisees.  Luke notes, “The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all these things and sneered at him.”  Wait – that’s not right.  Look, the Pharisees come off like dinks time and again, but they don’t come off much like money-grubbers.  They come off like sticklers for rules.  Declaring that no one heal on the Sabbath isn’t a matter of monetary gain, for example, but an example of taking their concern for rules to the point where they become indifferent to the common man.  Also, they aren’t even the real powerbrokers out there.  They are lower-level guys.  The real power brokers are the Sadducees.  Luke is just off the mark here.

There is another parable demonstrating Christ’s concern for the downtrodden instead of the rich.  He tells us of two guys – a rich guy, and a poor person named Lazarus.  Poor old Lazarus is so sick that dogs would come up to him and lick his sores.  Man, that’s disgusting.  Well, they both die (no, this Lazarus isn’t the famous one).  In the afterlife, the rich guy sees Lazarus up in heaven with Abraham and protests.  But the moral of the story is they both got what they deserve. 

We saw an afterlife in the Old Testament.  At least as far back as Jacob people would talk of Sheol, a place down below that was essentially hell.  But then it’s the place everyone went.  Now some have Happy Fun Land to go to as well.  Jesus doesn’t talk too much of the afterlife in general.  He’s more about preparing for the Kingdom of Heaven, which sounds like it’ll be on earth.  But this notion of an afterlife above will allow Christianity to transition from its initial concern of an immediate coming of God to our modern notion where it hasn’t happened in 2,000 years – and that’s OK.

CHAPTER 17

Yeah, I think I’m getting sick of the gospels.  Sorry, folks – but there it is.  This is just more teachings from Christ – and we’ve already gotten plenty of it.  Even when it’s stuff that we haven’t literally heard before, it sounds roughly the same.

Basically: avoid sin, keep faith, be a good servant, the kingdom of God is coming, and the day of the Son of Man (re: Christ) is coming.  Oh, and Jesus heals a flock of lepers passing by.  Man, there are so many lepers and sick people in ancient Judah.  They’re like Canadian geese in Cook County.

CHAPTER 18

Jesus gives us a new parable – and it’s not a very good one.  It’s the story of a widow who nags a mean judge into giving her a just decision.  The judge decides to give her what she wants in order to shut her up.  I guess the parable is about persistence, but we don’t really know if the widow is in the right.  She says she wants the judge to rule justly and side on her behalf – but we never get any reason why her behalf is automatically just.  She’s a widow and therefore we’re predisposed to see her as the suffering force for good, but we never get a back story.  This is an underwritten parable.  I sure hope Christ never used it.

The next parable (also new) is much better.  Christ talks of two people – the Pharisee with public standing and the evil tax collector.  The Pharisee is so damn sure of his own morality and looks down his nose at everyone else.  He tells himself, “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity – greedy, dishonest, adulterous – or even a tax collector.  I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.”  Meanwhile, Christ notes that the taxman is so ashamed of himself that he can’t even look up in church (he doesn’t dare make eye contact with God), and beats his breast, praying for help because he’s such a sinner.

Christ’s point is simple: the second guy is the one really closer to God.  The first guy is in love with himself and hates people.  He follows the rules but misses the point – love one another.  The other guy might be a schmuck, but his heart sure is in the right place.  I really like this story.  It can be taken too far (the guy has reason to think he’s a sinner, apparently – we don’t get the account of him sinning, just him feeling bad about it).  But that Pharisee is just so damn distasteful with the words coming out of his mouth.  (To be fair, they’re the words Christ puts in his mouth; it’s his story).  Still, we’ve all seen the self-described Chosen act and sound like this.  Heck, the main problem I have with modern day Christianity is that so many of its most vocal and public voices sound so damn much like that piece of shit worthless Pharisee.

All the above is just the first third of the chapter, but the rest is pretty pro forma stuff.  Jesus doesn’t think much of those who pursue wealth.  We get the part where children come to him (again).  Christ predicts his end (it’s the third time he’s done that.  He also did it three times in Matthew and Mar).  And he heals a blind guy.  It’s nothing we haven’t seen before.

Click here for the ending to Luke.