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The return of the Prodigal Son - a story unique to Luke’s Gospel

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These are full studies, written in the Spring of 2010 ad 2011

Bible study for Luke 4:31-37

Luke 4:31-37 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

After the disturbing sequence of events at Nazareth, it is understandable that Jesus should want to get away from his home town.  It did not, however, divert Him from His message and His ministry, because Jesus immediately went to the synagogue in Capernaum to teach on the Sabbath.  Now at Nazareth, the people were amazed at Jesus’ teaching, but in Capernaum there is no record of dissent and instead of questioning Him (as at Nazareth – 4:22,23), they accepted that ‘His message had authority’ (4:32).  Indeed, we will find out tomorrow that in response to what they had heard and seen of Jesus the sick came to Him for healing (4:40-41).  This is how Capernaum became the first base of Jesus’ ministry.

Although the reaction at Capernaum was laudably different from that at Nazareth, one individual did not appreciate Jesus’ presence!  The man had the ‘spirit of an unclean demon’ (4:33), and it is difficult for us to understand exactly what this means.  It has been suggested that he was ritually impure (‘unclean’) and should not have been at the synagogue, or His impurity could have been due to illness or untended wounds or blood (for attitudes towards blood, see Leviticus 12:7, 17:11,14).  However, the behaviour of the man was aggressive (4:34), so it could be that he was regarded as evil and was either barely tolerated within the community or usually kept outside.  He was certainly disruptive in the synagogue!

Today, we know a variety of reasons why someone could have acted like this (we will look at this later in the study), but to interpret the story, we must seek to understand what happened as Luke did.  However distressing the nature of demon possession and various attitudes toward this over the centuries, it remains true that Jesus’ role was to deal with the problem and evict demons from people and from the presence of their communities.  Consequently, God’s people have the Gospel task of confronting and evicting all forms of evil within the world today, and it is not a small or insignificant task.

Our whole story today is like a battle between Jesus and the powers of evil.  Jesus had only recently fought the devil in the desert (4:1-13), but this was not to be the limit of Satan’s powers.  Immediately Jesus began His ministry He was nearly killed in Nazareth (4:29), and then, this man spoke up in the midst of a receptive congregation and confronted Jesus head on!  He shouted loudly with an indescribably cry (4:34), then identified Jesus not just as ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, but as ‘the Holy One of God’!  This was no ordinary speech, and no normal person would have spoken to Jesus in this way at that time.  For one small moment, the demon possessed man presented a challenge to Jesus’ authority and power, but it lasted no longer that the time it took Jesus to rebuke the demon and cast him out of the suffering individual in whom he dwelt.

Jesus won the battle against the powers of evil by His words and with His authority. He addressed the evil directly, confirming the power and authority that the people of Capernaum had observed earlier (4:32).  Then, we should notice that Luke’s report shows us the difference between the cynical use of humanity by evil, and the love and compassion of Jesus.  For the demon threw the man on the ground ‘in front of them all’ (4:35) and they no doubt expected the man to be severely affected by this violent assault.  However, by the mercy of God at work in Jesus’ ministry, the eviction of the demon from the man left him unhurt (4:35)!

The people of Capernaum were used to the presence in their communities of various miracle workers and healers who dealt with people using superstitious beliefs and ‘therapies’ including incantations and potions; but the results often left people no better and often worse.  In Jesus, they were presented with the sure evidence of God’s power at work; not only was His authority effective, but it brought healing (4:36)!  No wonder that ‘news about Him spread to every place in the region’ (4:37).

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• What is the evidence that Capernaum was the place where Jesus’ ministry began?
• Does ‘having a demon’ have any real meaning today?
• What was the nature of the confrontation between Jesus and the demon?

Luke 4:31-37 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Translation Notes

Important words

V31 ‘So He down over to Capernaum ...’

The Greek word means ‘to go down, arrive or land’.  On the one hand, this does indeed infer going ‘downhill’, but it also contains a sense of purpose.  The reason for Jesus’ journey to Capernaum was His need to get out of Nazareth where the townspeople had attempted to throw Him off a cliff!  Jesus went there to get away from those who wanted to kill Him.

V32 ‘message’

In verses 32 and verse 36 you will find the word ‘message’.  In each case, this translates the Greek word ‘logos’, which is often translated ‘Word’.  It can indeed mean a simple ‘word’, but just as we might say to a preacher ‘preach the word’, ‘logos’ could be sued to mean a message characteristic of the one who delivers it.  There is little doubt that early Christians would have recognised the word ‘logos’ here and connected this strongly with the person and work of Jesus, who is Himself described as the ‘Word’ in John’s Gospel (see John 1:1f.).

Significant phrases

V33 ‘the spirit of an unclean demon’

Other translations:

‘a demon, an evil spirit’   (NIV)

‘the spirit of an unclean devil’   (New Jerusalem)

This phrase translates three words in Greek, the first being ‘spirit’ (‘pneuma’), the second being ‘demon’ (‘diamoniov’), and the third being ‘unclean’ (‘akathartos’).  The translation I have given is the usual one, though the matter is complicated by the fact that there are a number of places in Scripture where the first and third words (‘pneuma akathartos’) are put together to mean, quite simply, ‘evil spirit’.  This is why the NIV translates ‘a demon, an evil spirit’.  The fact that demons are described in a significant number of different ways within Scripture suggests that there were different attitudes towards them then, as today.

V34 ‘what do you what with us ...’

Other translations:

‘what have you to do with us’   (NRSV)

‘what business do we have with each other’   (New American)

The phrase used here occurs one or two other times in the New Testament as challenges to Jesus from demons.  Literally, it reads, ‘what is it to us and to you?’  It is relatively easy to imagine what this means, but hard to put into words that read well in a formal translation!  It seems at least to be an aggressive form of rejection.

Luke 4:31-37 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

What is the evidence that Capernaum was the place where Jesus’ ministry began?

Luke chapter four tells us that Jesus came back from the desert after baptism, sought to teach in Nazareth, but due to rejection, went to Capernaum to begin His ministry.  The sequence is relatively understandable, except that in the middle of the story at Nazareth, Luke says ‘Do here in Your home town as much as we have heard You did in Capernaum’ (4:23), which implies that Jesus had done previous work in Capernaum!  This comment came in yesterday’s reading, but we will deal with the general theme of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry because this is also affected by the incident in the synagogue at Capernaum.

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ ministry commences in Capernaum (Mark 1:16-28) with the calling of Peter, James and John and the exact same story of the man at the synagogue as we have just read today in Luke!  Matthew remarks that Jesus left Nazareth for Capernaum (4:12) before beginning his ministry of preaching (4:17), and teaching (the Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5-7).  The Gospel of John begins entirely differently, with Jesus going from the Jordan to Cana in Galilee (2:1f.) a town near Nazareth, and then moving promptly to Capernaum (2:12).  If it were not for the remark by Luke about ‘works’ in Capernaum, we could conclude that we have virtual agreement about the opening sequence of Jesus’ ministry, but with each Gospel giving different emphases.  Our hope for agreement on this is broken somewhat by the fact that part of the incident at the Synagogue in Nazareth is recorded by Matthew later in his Gospel (13:54) and also later in Mark (6:1-6), including in each case the famous comment of Jesus about prophets being unacceptable in their home towns.

Why does this matter?  It matters because of the great desire of countless Christians over many years to try and understand the sequence of Jesus’ ministry, not just to be pedantic, but to try and understand why His ministry evolved in the way that it did.  My own way of resolving the various conflicts presented by the facts is this.  I reckon that the broad scheme of Jesus’ route is clear; from the Jordan back to the region of Nazareth and then to Capernaum; this is helped by the inclusion of the incident at the synagogue in Capernaum (today’s passage) towards the beginning of the ministry of Jesus in three of the Gospels (Luke 4:31-37, Matthew 7:28-9, Mark 1:21-28).

I then suggest that Jesus then visited Nazareth at other times in His ministry, each time experiencing altercations with family and past neighbours, and reinforcing the essential point that He was not welcome (Luke 4:24, Mark 6:4, and Matt. 13:57).  The difficulty posed about his possible previous visits and work at Capernaum (Luke 4:23) may be simply the result of Jesus having had prior contact with this area of Galilee.  We simply do not know to what Luke may have referred.  

Does ‘having a demon’ have any real meaning today?

Our answer to this question will depend upon how we think the world is affected by good and evil.  The Biblical picture says the world is of a fallen place (Genesis 3) in which evil holds sway and Satan holds authority, and this is expressed in different ways.  We have already seen that in the temptations of Jesus the devil (Satan) offers Jesus the whole world if He will but worship him (4:6); so clearly, the devil regards the world as His kingdom (see also Matt 4:1f., John 12:31, 14:30, etc).  This gives rise to the great New Testament theme of the establishment of God’s Kingdom in the world through Christ; as John puts it; Jesus ‘has come to destroy all the works of the evil one’ (1 John 3:8).

Evil plays out at every level of life, including the personal, and where evil tempts or afflicts people personally, they may sin.  In more difficult circumstances, the New Testament talks of people who are taken over by evil ‘spirits’ or ‘demons’, whose presence holds the individual captive, such as the individual described in our story.  This passage and other stories of Jesus tell of demons speaking through the individuals in whom they have taken up residence, as well as affecting them in health and character.  The New Testament picture is one of complete abhorrence at demons and utter sympathy for the individual whose life has been blighted, with no thought of explanation or blame attached to why such things should be.

Today, our attitude towards this way of understanding evil, is affected by two things.  Firstly, due to medical advances, much of what is described in the Bible as the result of demon possession is now regarded as treatable disease (such as epilepsy).  Secondly, the church has a poor history of handling the matter of demons and evil; indeed, you could say that the devil has created such an illusion of himself that even church people will not even talk of him.  This is one of Satan’s strategies to help prevent God’s people from perceiving the true nature of evil today.

Our passage today describes a man who possessed by an evil demon being set free from bondage.  We should not presume to know any more about his condition, because in his day and in his time, this poor soul was used by the devil to try and attack Jesus, whatever the nature of his ‘real’ condition in medical terms today.  We must accept in awe that the result of this meeting was the eviction of the demon and freeing of the man, and also, what happened did not cause him injury (4:35).

What was the nature of the confrontation between Jesus and the demon?

Rabbis and teachers had authority to interpret Scriptures and apply it to life, but most were extremely cautious about saying anything radically ‘new’.  They were also empowered to deal with evil spirits not with a form of exorcism as might think of it, but through prayer and claiming the promises of God; a typically Jewish thing to do.  So when Jesus taught at the synagogue at Capernaum, where He was without the evil suspicions and gossip of His home town, He did little different from what was expected of any rabbi.  The difference was that Jesus taught with authority, with people commenting upon His ‘message’ (see study notes for verse 32 – see also verse 36).

It was also expected that in the Messianic age (when the Messiah came), evil would be crushed and defeated.  Rabbinic sayings suggested that evil spirits would ‘speak out’ the sovereign power of God, and that the mission of the Messiah would be to destroy all evil and tear down the kingdoms of Satan (see 6:33 and 2 Peter 2:4).  Certainly, if these things were common knowledge then, the people who witnessed the confrontation between the demon and Jesus would have immediately assumed that God was about to work in power, through Jesus!

The confrontation itself also reflects these themes.  When Jesus spoke in the Temple, the demon shouted out, as if in pain, and said ‘what do you want with us ...’ (4:34).  We see demons saying similar things in a number of stories of deliverance (Matthew 8:28, Luke 5:28); it is like an empty threat, ‘don’t meddle with us’, when we know that this is exactly what is happening!  The demon goes on to speak out the name of his opponent twice, ‘Jesus of Nazareth ... the Holy One of God!’ (4:34)  In primitive belief, it was thought that to know the name of someone demonstrated power over them, so this is the reason why Jesus commanded ‘Silence’ (4:35) before evicting the demon.

Jesus then cast out the demon with a simple command.  In this way, the confrontation between the demon and Jesus was concluded, without any concession on Jesus’ part to the evil that found its way into the midst of the synagogue.  There was no extended ministry or further discussion, for this would only give the demon more influence in the situation than was his due, and Jesus was able to handle the situation in such a way that the man was uninjured.  Those present were able to appreciate the nature of this Messianic power and authority, ‘He gives orders to evil spirits ... and they come out!’ (4:36), they said.

Luke 4:31-37 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

Confronting evil in every form is part of the work of establishing the Kingdom of God.  The church is called to do this in every way that Jesus did, and although there are many other things He did from which we can learn, this passage of Scripture describes the particular act of the deliverance of a demon.  There are grave concerns today amongst many church people about what they know of such practice, and their concerns are often justified, especially where deliverance has been handled behind closed doors, and people have been unable to gain a good understanding of what has happened and why.  Some find it easier to dismiss the modern practices of deliverance ministry and place their hopes in modern medicine, than engage with what appears to be an activity on the fringes of ‘healing ministry’. 

Nevertheless, whatever our understanding of the human psyche and medical science, the Christian deliverance ministry seeks to follow in Jesus’ footsteps to set people free from Satan’s bondage and release them from any associated medical or physiological condition.  Over recent decades despite some unhelpful problem, some have sought to find godly means of applying this ministry to real situations in which people believe themselves to be afflicted by the bondage of demons.  For example, some people come to the personal conclusion that they are afflicted by demons because of their inability to deal with certain personal difficulties, they feel ‘bound’, and do not understand why.  Of course, demonic bondage takes an enormously large number of forms, and reach this conclusion only after much agonising and help from others.  Such people deserve the help of properly informed deliverance ministry practiced under the authority of the whole church.  It is possible.

This issue must surely be discussed extensively after reading today’s text, but this should not blind us to God’s wider picture as found in Luke 4 as a whole.  Jesus made it clear at the beginning of His ministry that He would truck no nonsense with evil, not just in dealing with personal temptations (4:1-13), but in the public practice of His ministry.  In addition, when Jesus successfully defeated the devil in this small ‘pitched spiritual battle’, it had the effect of making people believe that God was at work in their midst.  The same can be true if we practice an honest and open deliverance ministry in the church today.

We should not forget the reason why Jesus came into the world.  He came to deliver all of us from evil so that through repentance and the forgiveness of our sins, we may be saved by faith and find our peace with God in eternity.  None of this is abstract, least of all the defeat of evil, so we should take the matter of the defeat of evil seriously; Jesus did it for us, and it is our duty to do it for others too, in Jesus’ name.

Luke 4:31-37 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. How might we react to someone who behaves like the possessed man, if he were to speak up in church today?  Would our ministry be effective?
2. What does this passage teach us about the authority of Jesus and His ministry in the world today?
3. Does it mean anything to people in the world to talk about evil spirits and demons, and evicting them?

Topics covered by this text

• The authority of Jesus Christ
• The beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Capernaum
• Deliverance ministry
• The effective compassionate ministry of the Gospel.

Personal comments by author

For many years, the Lord has led me to operate what some people call ‘deliverance ministry’.  I do not mind the title, but I find people’s presumptions about it unhelpful.  The aim is to create peace in the individual and the Kingdom of God, not make for trouble and create distress in the church!  I have long wished that matters to do with practical deliverance and healing ministry be discussed openly within the church, because it is damaging to the fellowship of the church if people go away to special centres to receive healing that should be available to them in their own church.  There are indeed specialist needs that require some to go to specialist counsellors, but all God’s people should seek to establish the Kingdom of God in the face of opposition, and this opposition needs to be better understood!

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• You will have your own reactions to the subject of deliverance ministry, and you will probably feel strongly about your convictions.  Look at this passage carefully and study its place in Luke’s Gospel, and ask yourself whether your own understanding of deliverance ministry is helpful, or does it help or hinder your greater understanding of the work of Jesus Christ in the world?
• Talk with a friend about how the church can be more effective in dealing with the evils evident within the world today.  Speak about this from whatever angle you wish, personal, local, national or international.

Final Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, You commanded such authority, the demons trembled!  May they tremble when they hear that God’s people the church are fighting them!  May they run away from in front of us and scurry away when we call, and may God be praised in every act of deliverance we perform, to His glory!  AMEN

Bible study for Luke 4:38-44

Luke 4:38-44 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Luke 4 comes to an end with these three reports, each of them revealing something of the ministry Jesus embarked on in Galilee.  After His baptism (3:21,22) and the temptations (4:1-13), Jesus came to Capernaum having had a rough reception in His home town of Nazareth (4:14-30).  The people of Capernaum received Him differently, and they were amazed when he demonstrated authority over demons (4:35,36).  People soon began to know about Jesus in the region of Galilee round about (4:37).

Our reading contains three short glimpses of Jesus at work in these early days of His ministry.  To begin with, Jesus went to the house of someone called Simon (4:38) at the end of a Sabbath day; and while there, healed his mother-in-law (4:38,39).  It is rather strange to read this, because we assume that Simon is Peter, but we have not yet met him in the Gospel, and his ‘call’ does in fact come next in Luke!  In addition, the same story in Matthew (8:14f.) has the name ‘Peter’, not ‘Simon’, and both Matthew and Mark (Mark 1:29f.) tell the story only after Simon has been called.  Did Jesus then know Simon before he was called?

Uncertainties such as this can make us lose sight of the true purpose of Luke’s Gospel.  People of those times were not as concerned about chronological sequence as we are, and Luke knew that his readers would know that Simon was Peter.  Nevertheless, he used the story as Matthew and Mark had done, to describe the compassion of Jesus, who cut across social barriers in order to help people.  In those days, the idea of a man going into a woman’s room (4:39) was scandalous, and yet it did not stand in the way of Jesus’ healing ministry.  Jesus stood over her and rebuked the fever so that it left her, and her healing enabled her to return to her accustomed place within the family, and ‘serve’.  From that day onwards, this story has challenged God’s people to ensure that healing ministry is not just about curing illnesses, but helping people return to fullness of life.

Jesus then healed more people who came to Him at sundown (see Mark 1:32f. and Matt 8:16f.).  To us, the picture of the crowd gathered with their sick at the end of the day is poetic, but this was the Sabbath, and the Sabbath ended at sundown.  This was the first opportunity people had since Jesus appearance at the synagogue for them to bring (or ‘carry’) their sick to him; carrying people was not permitted on the Sabbath!  Luke emphasises that Jesus gave individual attention, laying His hands ‘on each one of them’ (4:40).  He was also able to discern the presence of demons and deal with them; in those days, people readily understood such things and His ministry was welcomed.

After this, as if the day had not held enough drama, Luke records that Jesus sought solace (see Mark 1:35f., where it says he prayed), but was overtaken by a crowd.  We presume they wanted Him to heal more people, but Luke does not say why the crowds harassed Jesus.  When they reached the point of preventing Him from leaving, Luke reports that Jesus argued with them, He said, ‘I must preach ... the Kingdom of God in other towns as well ...’ (4:43).  Jesus’ ministry and the Kingdom of God was bigger than the demands of one group of local people.

The last sentence of this passage hints that Jesus’ ministry was perhaps more extensive than we thought, reaching as far as Judea, which is the general region around Jerusalem.  This should not surprise us, because in those days, people were used to walking considerable distances and we already know that through His mother, Jesus had relatives who lived in Judea (see 1:39), and his father came originally from Bethlehem (in the south).  So although most of the early stories of Jesus tell us about His activity around Galilee, there is every reason for us to believe that from early on, He exercised a wider ministry than just in the region of Galilee.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• What does the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law tell us about Jesus’ early ministry  (4:38,39)?
• What does the late evening healing and deliverance tell us about Jesus’ ministry  (4:40,41)?
• What does the search for solace and argument with the crowd tell us about Jesus  (42-44)?

Luke 4:38-44 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Translation Notes

Important words

V38 ‘in the grip of a high fever’

 The interesting phrase here is ‘in the grip of’.  You will find that most translations have ‘suffered from’, or ‘was ill with’, and these translations are reasonable.  However, the Greek word has a wide range of meaning around the idea of being encircled or bound in.  In different circumstances, it can mean ‘controlled, help prisoner, occupied or seized’.  In this way, the Greek captures a sense of being held bound by an illness, or as I have translated ‘in the grip of’.

Significant phrases

V42 ‘left and went somewhere by Himself’

Other translations:

‘went out to a solitary place’   (NIV)

‘departed and went into a deserted place’   (NRSV)

The Greek uses a typically Hebrew expression ‘to get up and go ...’, but then has two words, usually translated ‘deserted place’ (‘solitary place’ – NIV).   the first being the word for ‘wilderness or desert’ used when Jesus went into the ‘desert’ to be tempted by the devil.  However, the words also has the meaning of ‘being deserted’, and alone, and because Jesus was in the region of Galilee, this can hardly mean that Jesus travelled the long distance back to the Judean deserts.  The story line makes it clear that Jesus just went somewhere to be alone, and for this reason, I have used a more colloquial but appropriate modern expression, ‘somewhere by Himself’.

V42 ‘they held Him back so that He could not leave them’

Other translations:

‘they tried to keep Him from leaving them’    (NIV)

‘they wanted to prevent Him from leaving them’    (NRSV)

Most translators try to give a version of this sentence that does not give the impression that the crowds physically restrained Jesus, because of the previous incident in Luke 4, where Jesus showed the ability to ‘walk through a crowd’ (4:30).  However, my translation is pretty close to the original Greek here, and it does imply physical restraint.  Perhaps we have the impression that Jesus was always able to stand back from the crowds only because translators have given us Bible versions that suggest this, where the original text does not?  This is an important issue.

V43 ‘so He said to them ...’

Other translations:

‘But He said ...’    (NIV)

‘But He said to them ...’    (NRSV)

Following on from the previous verse, some other translators imply that the next sentence is new information, telling us about Jesus’ ‘policy’.  However, it looks to me as if this is the report of what he was arguing with the crowd about.  They wanted Him to stay, and He said ‘I must go ...’ (see notes).

Problems with the ancient Greek/Hebrew text

V44 ‘in the synagogues of Judea’

Other translations:

‘in the synagogues of Galilee’   (Authorised version)

About half of the most important ancient manuscripts of the New Testament conclude the sentence ‘of Judea’ and the rest say ‘of Galilee’, and there is a scholarly debate about which is Luke’s original.  Jesus is described as going to Galilee in Luke 4:14, so it would seem appropriate to finish the sentence like this.  On the one hand, why would anyone make a mistake and write ‘Judea’ in place of Galilee?  On the other hand, someone might read ‘Judea’, and think it should read ‘Galilee’ because of the earlier reference in 4:14!  Such is the nature of the debate.  Personally, I take the view that ‘Judea’ is more likely to be the original.

Luke 4:38-44 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

What does the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law tell us about Jesus’ early ministry  (4:38,39)?

So far, we have found that Jesus would not allow cultural barriers to stand in the way of His healing ministry, and secondly, that the result of His healing ministry was to return social stability to those who suffered.  To some extent, these two features of Jesus’ ministry may seem to conflict.  In the first place, it seems that Jesus ignores social convention and in the second, he accepts them as important!  As we read further in Luke, we will find out that Jesus proclaimed and established the Kingdom of God, so earthly social norms could not be as important for Jesus and His disciples as others.  Social custom was to be subject to the moral and spiritual standards of the Kingdom, so barriers such as those between women and men were to be challenged, but not the routines of life.  Today, we might feel that God has now led us to a point where the idea of women ‘serving’ in the home is unacceptable; but such attitudes are relative, and how we react to the notion of the service of Simon’s mother-in-law is a matter of what we read into the text rather than what it says.  In truth, no ‘sexist’ point is being made here in the Gospel, for in the Kingdom, the place of all people in the home is to serve each other (see John 13).

We do not know what fever Peter’s mother-in-law had, but it is interesting that Luke, of all the evangelists mentions it as a ‘high’ fever; something he would have he was a doctor.  In those days, any number of diseases could cause serious fever, yet despite the possible seriousness of her condition, no-one brought her to Jesus.  She could have had ‘Malta fever’, which combined weakness and anaemia with fever and sometimes led to death; another possibility was a type of typhoid prevalent at the time, and lastly, she could have had Malaria, which was present around Galilee due to swampy regions around the Lake of Galilee.  Without the medicines we take for granted today, these conditions were matters of ‘life and death’ for those who suffered them, and doctors had no means of effecting a cure; all they could do was alleviate the symptoms and advise people how to manage their conditions to achieve the best chances of survival.   

For whatever reason, Jesus perceived something in this situation that made Him respond to it as if it was demonic, for the text says that ‘He rebuked the fever’ (4:39), a term we might expect of His confrontation of a demon.  Nowhere else do we hear of Jesus ‘rebuking’ an illness as if it was a personal identity to be confronted, but this is what happens here.  The best understanding of what happened is that Jesus saw some evil power behind the situation and dismissed it.  He does not say what this evil is, so we must not presume to know, and neither is it wise for us to make rules about how to deal with certain illnesses (such as fever), as if Jesus we should always deal with fever in the same way today.  Luke records Jesus coming, weighing up the situation (‘He stood over her ...’ – 4:39), and then acting appropriately (in this case, using a method we associate with deliverance ministry); this is the pattern of ministry we should follow.  There is much more for us to learn about healing ministry within later stories, and this incident is specifically intended to be a general example of healing ministry.

What does the late evening healing and deliverance tell us about Jesus’ ministry  (4:40,41)?

When the people came to Jesus at sundown after the end of the Sabbath (4:40), He gave them individual attention and discerned what was appropriate for them.  As a doctor (Col 4:14), Luke would have known much about the usual treatments for people in various conditions, but he would not have been an expert in deliverance, and this is why he tells us about this part of Jesus’ ministry.  Again, this is the most general of descriptions, so our passage does not tell us about the methods Jesus used, but Luke does tell us something about what happened when He evicted demons; ‘He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Messiah.’ (4:41).

Why did Jesus tell the demons to be quiet?  It is unlikely that this was a technique for deliverance, but it was what Jesus felt He had to do.  He had commanded the demon who confronted Him in the Temple at Capernaum to be quiet, and of course, the demon only said what was on everyone’s lips because he knew the truth about Jesus; but why should Jesus prevent His true calling from being broadcast to the world?  At this point, we hit on an important piece of spiritual wisdom.  People tend to want to hear the truth being spoken out, however, this does not necessarily achieve the desired results; for when heard, people can discuss information, misinterpret it or try to use it in any number of ways, but they will not necessarily accept it.  So how does this help us here?

Now Jesus wanted to help people to believe that he was the Messiah, but simply announcing this was not God’s way of doing it and it would not be effective, precisely because Jesus did not want the world merely discussing faith and knowing about it, but believing in Him and coming to God!  So we find that all the Gospels (perhaps Mark more than the others) tell us that Jesus forbade demons, people, and sometimes the disciples, from telling others about Him.  His ‘technique’ was to help people believe in Him for themselves, and He knew that simply telling them He was the Messiah would create more confusion than faith.  Jesus’ ministry therefore began through the use of signs and miracles; He proved He was the Messiah by what He did, so that when He did eventually say important things about Himself and about God, people might believe Him because they could trust He was not a fraud.  The healing and deliverance ministry of Jesus was a demonstration of the Gospel that led people to God. 

What does the search for solace and argument with the crowd tell us about Jesus  (42-44)?

The last part of the passage is strange.  On the one hand, we read about Jesus going to be by Himself, and countless preachers have referred to this passage (and others) as evidence of Jesus’ habit of personal prayer (as mention in Mark 1:35) and communing with God.  On the other hand, Jesus was constantly pursued by the crowds, and this was a great pressure upon Him.  Indeed, it was a pressure that eventually spilled over into a difficult situation (4:42,43).  Before we leave the issue of Jesus seeking of solace, however, it is worth noting that here, Jesus dug this precious time out of the midst of stressful circumstances.  Each Gospel records instances of Jesus being pursed from one place to another as people pressed in on Him to hear Him preach or receive His healing power, but he continued to seek His Father in private.  As so many Christians discover on their journey of faith, it is precisely when they cannot find the time for our quiet times that they most need them!

Crowds always know what they want, indeed, crowds form around a common purpose or aim.  Sometimes crowds form around conflicting aims, in which one crowd will fight another.  Alternatively, a crowd will pursue one aim, and can place in danger the very object of its hopes, as here.  The crowd so wanted to receive more of Jesus’ ministry they did not realise that they were preventing Him from fulfilling His calling, and He told them so (4:43).  Notice that Jesus did not give the crowd an excuse to try and make them release Him; He told them the truth.  Indeed, the crowd would not have liked the truth, but Jesus said it nevertheless; He was called to go elsewhere!  His aims were not the aims of the crowd.

In the midst of this stressful situation, Jesus first mentions the ‘Kingdom of God’ here in Luke’s Gospel.  This is important, and we will find that this theme becomes our constant companion thorough much of the Gospel.  Luke does not explain this here, except to make it clear that the Kingdom is far bigger than the hopes and dreams of a group of local people.  The Gospel does not revolve around one church, we might say!

Lastly, as we have already noted, Jesus’ ministry may well have been far more extensive by this time than Luke has told us, because he tells us that Jesus was preaching ‘in the synagogues of Judea’ (4:44).  Despite the awkward circumstances that had arisen in each of the synagogues in which Luke records he had taught, this was to be the starting point of His ministry.  Jesus began by revealing Himself as Messiah through word and deed to the Jewish people.

Luke 4:38-44 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

We can learn many things from this passage of Scripture, and each section has a wealth of advice for us, as is clear from our study.  The first and second tell us about some important perspectives for the Christian healing ministry.  It is at least about bringing people healing from the oppression o disease, whether the result of demonic oppression of physical impairment, or as is so often the case, some combination of the two.  It is also about overcoming social obstacles and the importance of keeping our eyes on the values of the Kingdom of God.

Healing and deliverance ministry is not done for people’s convenience and personal comfort, it is done to help people in real need, and to demonstrate that God cares.  In this life, every human being will experience illness and disease, and when the Lord heals us, we are given a wonderful glimpse into the eternal future that the Lord has planned for us in His Kingdom.  If we expect healing ministry to deliver healthy Christians who are an example to the world because they are all fit and raring to go, then we are perhaps looking in the wrong direction for our spiritual bearings.  Jesus healed out of compassion, and whilst on earth, was unable to heal everyone everywhere, such is the logic of the earthly life we all live.  However, Jesus demonstrated that in God’s Kingdom, His people are to minister the love and care of the Father to each other, and at all times, to dismiss the evil one. 

Lastly, as well as noting the importance of spending time alone with God, as Jesus does, this passage challenges us to be wary of a ‘crowd mentality’.  When a group of people come together, they can follow each other to some purpose that is commonly agreed, but as here, excludes the interests of others.  If we constantly ask the Lord to bless us, then we are perhaps forgetting that His call is for us to be a blessing to others.  This was the fundamental mistake made by the Jewish people in Old Testament times; they regarded their relationship with God as exclusive, and they expected God to work for them; and the reality was that God was calling them to witness ‘to the nations’.  In the light of what Luke records in verses 42 to 44, we should perhaps make sure that our healing ministry does not merely arise from the perceived needs of a church fellowship.  Of course, God’s people should minister to each other in times of need, but the bigger need is outside the Christian community.  There is a world out there that the Lord longs to heal in many ways, quite apart from the many demons that require eviction and evils that need to be addressed.

Luke 4:38-44 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. How does Jesus’ healing and deliverance ministry teach us about how this may be done today?
2. Discuss in your group whether it matters that Matthew, Mark and Luke tell this story in different parts of their Gospels, in relationship to the calling of Peter?
3. For what purpose did Jesus try to find solitude in 4:44, and why did the crowd follow Him?

Topics covered by this text

• Jesus’ healing ministry
• Jesus’ deliverance ministry
• The importance of the establishment of the Kingdom of God

Personal comments by author

I know from experience that thinking about the difficulties with this text compared to Matthew and Mark, have led some people to become doubtful of the Word of God.  Some look at what the different Gospels say and conclude that it is irreconcilable.  Once started down this road, people quickly become sceptical of the Bible, and I have seen some eventually lose faith.  This reaction is not necessary or inevitable.  All it needs is for us to have a broader vision of Jesus’ work, and accept that the Gospels represent samples of what He actually did.  Together, the Gospels give us a rounded picture of who Jesus is, though He did much more than is recorded here.  We should not study the Gospels as if their truth depends on whether they agree in detail.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Look carefully at the issue of where this story occurs in Matthew, Mark and Luke.  Look up the Bible references, and decide for yourself why Luke chose to talk about Simon before he had been officially ‘introduced’ in the Gospel, through his call.  Does answering this question make you look at the Gospels in a different way?
• In what ways do you help God’s people perform their task of ‘healing’.  Think carefully about it and pray about it.  There are many things to be done by which to help people and bring peace and restoration; but where do you fit in?

Final Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, we thank You for the wonderful grace You showed in healing people and showing that You cared for them.  Whatever we feel about the Church’s ‘healing ministry’ today, help us play our part in caring for other people and therefore bringing true healing to those who desperately need it, both those who are near to us and those who are far away.  AMEN

Bible study for Luke 5:1-11

Luke 5:1-11 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

In this wonderful and enigmatic story, the stage is set for all that is to come in Jesus’ ministry in Galilee.  So far in Luke, we have read about Jesus’ teaching (4:14-19), His miracles of healing and deliverance (4:35,39-41), and the crowds who followed Him and sought His ministry (4:40,42f.).  Here, we encounter some of Jesus’ first disciples, and they complete the general picture of Jesus’ early ministry around Galilee.  All the coming stories in Luke feature teaching, miracles, the disciples and the crowds.  Everything becomes more complex when the Pharisees appear, and the picture changes completely when Jesus heads for Jerusalem, but this is for the future.

It is not clear when the incident in this passage took place, but it was certainly early in Jesus’ ministry.  There are similar stories found in Matthew (4:18-22) and Mark (1:16-20), and John tells us a similar story about what happened when Jesus found the disciples after His resurrection (John 21:4-8), but each story is different.  We will look at this later in the study when ‘going deeper’, but because Jesus’ early ministry took place largely around the shores of Lake Galilee, the various Gospel stories clearly reflect different people’s recollections of treasured, wonderful times with Jesus.  Luke’s purpose in telling this story is to describe Jesus’ authority and power, and explain how this contributed towards the call of Peter, James and John.  These three consistently appear in the Gospels as Jesus’ ‘inner circle’ of friends.

The beginning of the story is unspecific (‘It so happened ...’, 5:1).  Luke does not say that it took place immediately after the Sabbath day in Luke 4, so it may have been some time later.  Nevertheless, people certainly knew about Jesus, and they had gathered expectantly to hear Him teach (5:1).  Jesus also knew the fishermen well enough to ask to be taken out from the shore to teach, and He knew Simon from when He had healed his mother-in-law (4:38,39).  This is significant, because after teaching the crowd, the spotlight turned on Simon Peter and his fellow fishermen, James and John (5:10).  Jesus called them with the famous words ‘from now on you will be catching people’ (5:10), and they left everything to follow Him (5:11).  In this powerful story, Jesus reveals something very important about His own ministry and that of those who follow Him.  His stated intent is to change people’s lives, and the rest of Luke’s Gospel fleshes out what this means.

This miracle highlights Jesus authority and power.  In contrast to the pressure previously placed on Him by the crowds (see 4:42-44), Jesus is now in command of the situation, and without fuss, He finds a way to teach the crowd without placing Himself, or anyone else, in danger.  Yet this is only a prelude to what was to come.  Jesus’ real interest lay in individual people, and he challenged Simon, a hardened fisherman, to go and catch fish.  Simon’s reply (5:5) was polite but not enthusiastic, because he was faced with a dilemma.  Should he trust his own judgement, or place his trust in the man who had earlier healed his mother-in-law?  Should he let Jesus have power and authority over his life and his work?  Simon Peter then demonstrated something of the true faith that Jesus was looking for, when he opted, however begrudgingly, for obedience to Jesus’ authority rather than his own judgement.  Peter let down the nets once again (5:6), and miraculously, he succeeded in catching a large haul of fish, and from this point onwards, Jesus was able to build on Simon Peter’s faith.  The miracle was life changing, as are all miracles for those to whom they happen.

When Peter brought his great catch to shore, the miracle had done its job and drawn Peter’s attention to the authority of the one who commanded it, and he fell down before Jesus in worship.  Jesus began as Peter’s ‘master’ (5:5), someone whose authority was respected, but He ended up as Peter’s ‘Lord’ (5:8), whose authority was welcomed and accepted.  This is how Simon Peter and his partners began their journey of faith, it changed their lives, and it eventually changed the world.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• How does this passage connect with similar stories in the other Gospels?
• Why does Jesus perform this miracle and what purpose does it serve?
• What does this story tell us about Peter, his call and his commission?

Luke 5:1-11 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Translation Notes

Important words

V3 ‘began to teach’

This is only a small point, but in Greek, the form of the word used here means ‘he taught’, but in the sense of beginning an activity that continued.  In the context of the Gospel as a whole, it is reasonable to translate ‘he began to teach’.

V5 ‘Simon Peter’

This is the only place in Luke where this disciple is called ‘Simon Peter’.  Before this, it is Simon, and after this it is Peter (except in Luke 22:31).  It seems that this verse marks a turning point for him, but this is not spelt out.

V5 ‘taken nothing’

Most translations have ‘caught nothing’, which is logical because Luke was talking about fishing!  However, the Greek does say ‘taking’ here, and this contrasts with the use of a word for ‘catching’ found later in verse 10, where Jesus famously tells Peter ‘you will be catching men’.  In this second instance, the Greek word means ‘catch alive’.

Significant phrases

V8 ‘fell down on his knees before Jesus’

Other translations:

‘he fell at Jesus’ knees’  (NIV)

‘he fell down at Jesus’ feet’   (New American Standard)

Most translations say ‘fell down at Jesus’ knees’, which sounds a little odd.  The New American Standard version simply changes ‘knees’ to ‘feet’, in order to make this sound better.  However, there is grammatical precedent for saying that the knees belonged to Simon Peter, and he fell ‘before’ Jesus (grammatical dative).  Frankly, this sounds more sensible to me.

V10 ‘Do not be afraid’

Other translations:

‘Don’t be afraid’  (NIV)

The English ‘do not be afraid’ is a correct translation of the Greek, but the original means ‘stop being afraid’, and not ‘do not become afraid’.  In other words, it is a command to cease, not a suggestion about behaviour!

V10 ‘from now on you will be catching people’

Other translations:

‘from henceforth thou shalt catch men’  (Authorised Version)

‘from now on you will be catching people’   (NRSV)

The famous phrase ‘fishers of men’ occurs in the Authorised Version in Matthew’s version of this story (Matthew 4:19).  The Greek word for ‘men’ means people in general, hence the translation of the NRSV, and it is a matter of preference whether translators use ‘people’ or ‘men’ in such circumstances.  It is worth noting that in Greek, the tense of the verb is ‘continuous’, and this tells us that ‘catching’ is something that has begun and will go on.

Luke 5:1-11 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

How does this passage connect with similar stories in the other Gospels?

When we read this story, we see quite naturally that it is similar to the story of Simon Peter’s call as recorded in both Matthew (4:18-22) and Mark (1:16-20).  In these two Gospels, Jesus calls Peter, together with Andrew, James and John, immediately after the ‘temptations’ and prior to the commencement of His ministry.  They also tell us that the disciples were called from their fishing nets through Jesus’ authoritative words ’follow me’, but by no other means.  They say nothing of fishing or catching a miraculous haul.

There are several key differences between these two and our reading from Luke.  The first is that where Matthew and Mark mention four disciples, Simon Peter, John, James and Andrew, Luke omits Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.  The reason for this may be that Luke wrote several decades later, and he reflects the conventional view that Jesus had an inner circle of only three disciples, Peter, James and John, and he does not therefore consider it worth mentioning Andrew.

The other key difference is this; in Matthew and Mark, Peter and the others are called by the authority of Jesus’ word alone, but in Luke, Peter responds to a miracle of power.  This is a major difference.  Are these stories all of the same incident, or different events that took place at different times?  I suggest that all of them are different recollections of one event, and while some Gospels emphasise the authority of Jesus’ word, Luke emphasises the authority of Jesus’ deeds.  Of course, we need to read in the Bible about both.  Surely, we must think of Jesus as acting authoritatively to call people both by His word, and also through miraculous power.  This is an example of our need to understand the whole of Scripture, and not just isolated stories from within the Gospels.

We should also remember the story told by John (21:4-8) in which the risen Christ appeared to the disciples as they were fishing.  He called to the disciples to change where they were fishing, which resulted in a significantly large catch.  There are many similarities between this and the story in Luke, but also a large number of significant differences.  I suggest that the stories are so different in detail they are unlikely to be different recollections of the same event, and it seems far more likely that the risen Jesus appeared to the disciples in this special way to remind Simon Peter of his original call.  This explanation makes much more sense in the context of John’s Gospel, where Jesus goes on to share a meal of fish with the disciples and challenged Peter about his call, and commissioned him as the future leader of God’s people (John 21:9-19).

Why does Jesus perform this miracle and what purpose does it serve?

Jesus seems to have known all along who he wanted to be the leader of his disciples.  We do not know when he first saw Simon Peter, though Luke’s Gospel implies it was when his mother-in-law was healed (4:38,39).  So when at a later time Jesus sought a place from which to teach, he headed purposefully for Peter’s boat (5:3), and issued instructions about where to place the boat so that he could teach (5:3).  This may have been an early test.  The disciples were in the middle of the work necessary after a hard night’s fishing, and may well have wanted to go home and rest.  Jesus’ request placed extra burdens on them.

Jesus then sat down to teach in Simon Peter’s boat, and although this seems strange to us today, it was normal for a teacher to sit whilst those who were listening stood.  Immediately he finished teaching, however, he turned towards Simon Peter and issued his challenge to go out and fish again.  We would love to know what Jesus was teaching, but Luke continues by focussing on Peter and ignoring the crowd.  We do not hear about them again until the story of the healing of the paralytic, later on in Luke 5 (5:17-26).

Once He had Simon Peter’s attention, Jesus issued His challenge, and Peter’s response was pragmatic.  Peter respected Jesus and he had been willing to accommodate Him, but as we have seen, Jesus faced him with a dilemma between personal experience and obedience.  Should Peter trust his own professional judgement or the word of Jesus?  At the crucial moment, Peter responded obediently by going out and doing what Jesus asked, and as a result, he was given the miracle of an amazing catch of fish.  Those who have difficulties with miracles have always classed this one as less than convincing and have offered a considerable range of explanations about what could have happened, but this is not the point.  Peter perceived the miracle as a demonstration of God’s power, and responded accordingly.

The reason we call this event a miracle is not just because what happened is not explainable by natural reasons (some would even suggest that it is); it is a miracle of God’s power because it caused Peter to be impressed with Jesus.  If Peter had been more impressed by the miracle than by Jesus, he would have been thinking about the benefits of the catch and financial gain, but once drawn to Jesus, the fish were irrelevant.  He came to Jesus and said ‘get away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man’ (5:8).  People were already wondering whether Jesus was the Messiah (4:21f. 40,41), so when Peter called Him ‘Lord’, and confessed his sin, there is no reason for us to mistake what he meant.  Peter was the first person to make an elementary statement of faith that Jesus was the Messiah.

Peter had much more to learn about Jesus, but he passed his first test of faith.  He preferred being obedient to God to his own opinion, and he recognised the power of God at work.  He then confessed both his own sin, and Jesus as his Lord.

What does this story tell us about Peter, his call and his commission?

The consequences of all this are highly significant.  Of course, we know that Peter went on to become the leader of the disciples, but here, we gain some clues about what lay in store for Peter and his work-mates.  To begin with, it seems that Peter was already the leader of a small group of fishermen, as Luke reports; ‘for he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish they had taken’ (5:9).  Then, after this, the passage adds, ‘and so also were James and John ...’ (5:10).  When you read the passage through, it certainly seems that although Simon Peter, James and John are mentioned by name, others were present who also responded to Jesus’ miracle.  It is worth noting that at the end of the story, after Jesus completed His conversation with Peter (5:10), Luke says ‘... they left everything and followed Him’ (5:11), but without making it clear who ‘they’ are.  Grammatically, this could include these other people who were amazed at the catch, but mentioned earlier (5:9).

Before the miracle, Peter’s faith was shown in trust and obedience, and when Peter fell down before Jesus, his faith increased and was shown in worship.  This leaves one last important feature of active faith still to come, and this is service, which is the theme of the last paragraph.  Jesus said to Simon ‘Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching people’ (5:10), which is a commission to service based on Peter’s trust, obedience and worship.  Peter’s faith was not an addendum to his life, and now that he had worshipped Jesus, his faith was completed by this all consuming call to service.  Catching men was not something that could be done if Simon Peter continued doing what he had done previously, and Jesus made it clear that everything had to change.  When Peter and those with him ‘left everything and followed Him’, they accepted the call to service.  Of course, this was their response to the power and authority of God, but we should not forget that it was also the faithful response of people who were willing to serve.

Peter and the other disciples had much to learn in the years to come, but their future life was to be built on faith, as shown in trust, obedience, worship and service.  This is a useful summary of what we might call the ‘teaching’ of this passage.

Luke 5:1-11 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

The end result of this story in Luke is that Jesus gathered the first of His disciples and told them to ‘catch people’.  This is a Kingdom task, because it is God’s will to save people and bring them out of the kingdoms of this world and into His Kingdom of light.  We can say this with confidence because here, right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, this is Jesus’ clear priority as he calls Peter, the first of His disciples.  Jesus’ power and authority is always directed towards this task, and we are unwise to ignore it.

There are many features of this story worth our consideration, and some of them will have become obvious in the course of the study.  As far as miracles are concerned, the details of the large catch of fish are hardly worth debating, because the miracle itself does not contain significant spiritual information, it only draws people’s attention to Jesus.  This should warn us that we should not always want to see signs and miracles for the sake of seeing works of power; our desire is to see God at work in Jesus within the world.  Miracles are a normal part of this, and people will perceive miracles in different things and in different ways.  Their sole purpose is to point to Jesus and to the Father.  They are a ‘means’ not an ‘end’, and we should always expect them yet never glory in them.

Here at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry we receive a firm indication that Jesus’ priority is to change people so that they are drawn into the kingdom of God and into a relationship with Jesus.  Jesus wanted Peter to catch other people in the same way that He had caught Peter.  How many times can we read this Scripture and understand this point without difficulty, yet fail to notice that our Lord wants us to be ‘catchers of people’?  Some in the church see the task of evangelism for example as one option or spiritual gift within the life of the church amongst others, including pouring tea and welcoming people at the door.  When will we see that the spiritual gifts mentioned by Paul are not tasks, and that Jesus has given all disciples the same task of passing on to others the same benefit of salvation they have received from God?  None of us can escape this call, but we can expect that God will enable us to fulfil it in our own unique way according to our own gifts and graces.

Luke 5:1-11 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. What does this passage tell us about the call of a Christian today?
2. In your group, share any experiences you may have of miraculous events that have drawn you towards God and aided your faith.
3. Why does Jesus say ‘do not be afraid’ to Simon, and what might Simon fear?  Are we afraid to meet with God, and if so, why?

Topics covered by this text

• The call of a disciple to follow Jesus
• Faith and obedience, worship and service
• The importance of miracles to inspire faith
• Changing people

Personal comments by author

As you will have seen in reading this study, I have been taken by the idea that our response to God contains belief in God, obedience, worship and service.  It seems to me that many Christians are quite content to operate their lives on the basis of the first three, but many have difficulty with the third.  This, of course, requires action and in most cases dedication.  People have difficulty in giving this because they feel that their lives are full enough.  However, we must all place our lives in His hands, and the options are clear:

1. Firstly, we can let Him change what we do completely.
2. Secondly, we need Him to show us what else we must do to fulfil our call.
3. Thirdly, we must see if he will transform the normal things of our lives into His service.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Consider the three options I have listed above and ask which of them applies to you, or are there any other options of Christian service?  Pray about this and talk with people about it.  The Lord will show you the way.
• In the course of your everyday life, pray regularly for one person who is not already a Christian.  Pray that God will lead him or her into the Kingdom.

Final Prayer

Gracious Lord, lead each of us who own Your name on to greater things.  May we perceive Your vision of what can be done in this world and submit ourselves to the leading and the power of Your Spirit to fulfil this call.  May we become those who ‘catch’ people for Your Kingdom, and are content to do Your will alone.  AMEN

Bible study for Luke 5:12-16

Luke 5:12-16 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

This simple story of the healing of a leper beautifully captures the early ministry of Jesus.  It is a story of human need met by the compassion of the Saviour, who was able and willing to use His authority and power to surmount all obstacles and bring a deeper measure of healing than was believed possible.  The story has some intricacies, but in comparison to other healing miracles of Jesus, it is very easily understood, and is often read today in services of healing.

The story occurs at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Luke, and is also found early in Jesus’ ministry in other Gospels.  It is in the first chapter of Mark (1:40-45), and in Matthew, it is immediately after the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (Matt 8:1-4).  The story is similar in each Gospel, and later on in the study we will look closer at the differences and similarities (see ‘going deeper’).  Here in Luke, there is little structure to the Gospel, and from this point until Jesus enters Jerusalem (19:29f.), Luke tells us about Jesus’ life by relating a mixture of healing and miracle stories, together with reporting His teaching, including the famous parables such as the ‘Good Samaritan’ (10:30f.), and describing other famous incidents such as the transfiguration (9:28).

We tend to think of leprosy as one disease, but in ancient times, the term could refer to a number of infectious skin diseases.  However, because of the fear of leprosy itself and its power to main and destroy life, anything like an infectious skin disease might be interpreted as a form of leprosy and people were unwilling to take chances with it.  Those who contracted any skin disease were called ‘lepers’ and defined by this dreaded name.  They had to leave a community, and could only return to normal life if the infection had completely disappeared.  The book of Leviticus contains instruction for priests about how to determine whether someone had ‘leprosy’ and whether the disease had been healed (Leviticus 13,14).

Against this background, one leper ventured close to Jesus as he was visiting a town (5:12).  How he managed to get close to Jesus is a mystery, because lepers were usually kept at a distance.  The story implies considerable courage either on the part of the leper to get to Jesus, or on the part of Jesus to come close to this leper on the outskirts of a town.  This man had heard about Jesus’ power to heal and seems to have had no doubt that Jesus could help him.  He called out ‘Lord, if you want to, You can make me clean!’ (5:13), challenging Jesus to take notice of him amongst the crowds (4:42, 5:1).

Jesus responded immediately to man’s faith by confirming that His will was to heal; He said, ‘I want to.  Be clean!’ (5:13); the leprosy left the man and he was healed (5:13).  Looking carefully, we can see that the man asked to be made clean, meaning that he asked to be made ritually clean and acceptable in the community; in other words, he wanted his life back.  Jesus granted him his request, and in their minds there was no difference between ‘cleanliness’ and what we mean by ‘healing’.  In this instance, the two were one and the same thing.  To prove that he had been healed, Jesus told the man to go and fulfil the legal requirement of cleanliness before a priest.  This would be the ‘proof’ necessary for the man to regain His place in the community (5:14).  Jesus was not suggesting that the laws of Moses were a necessary part of the healing itself, but they were a part of the process whereby a Jew might be received back into a Jewish community.

The scene concludes with Jesus gaining more notoriety and gathering even greater crowds seeking similar healing.  It is therefore not surprising that here, as at other significant moments in Jesus’ life, he withdrew from the crowd to be with the Father in prayer.  In this way, He gained the spiritual sustenance to continue such demanding ministry and meet the needs of all who came to Him.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• Why was leprosy feared so much and what does the Old Testament say about it?
• How does this passage compare in detail with Matthew 8:1-4 and Mark 1:40-45
• Where and when does Jesus go to one side to pray?

Luke 5:12-16 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Translation Notes

Important words

V12 ‘clean’

The Greek word ‘akathartos’ used here refers to ritual cleansing.  The man asks for religious and social acceptance rather than healing as we would think of it.

V13 ‘took hold of him ...’

In most translations you will read the word ‘touched him ...’.  However, the word means ‘take hold of’, or ‘grasped’.  I think it helpful to realise that Jesus did not just offer a brief ‘touch’, but something firmer and more defined.  He ‘took hold of him ...’ though we should not presume to know exactly how.

Significant phrases

V12 ‘bowed with his face to the ground’

Other translations:

‘fell with his face to the ground’   (NIV)

‘fell on his face’   (New Authorised Version)

This Greek phrase is difficult to translate, because it reads ‘falling upon face’, which describes what people did when assuming a position of worship.  I prefer ‘bowed with his face to the ground’, because this is an understandable description of what people did.  Translations that describe falling ‘with the face to the ground’ make this sound dramatic but in the wrong way, for the drama was not in falling but in what it meant.  The leper was worshipping Jesus (see study).

V14 ‘as proof for them’

Other translations:

‘as a testimony to them’   (NIV)

‘for a testimony to them’   (NRSV)

The Greek word ‘marturion’ mostly translated ‘testimony’, can also mean ‘evidence’ or proof’.  It seems to me that ‘proof is a more understandable word to use here.  Grammatically, the proof is not just the offering, but everything commanded by Jesus in this sentence, which makes much more sense (see study).

Luke 5:12-16 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Why was leprosy feared so much, and what does the Old Testament say about it?

It is difficult to tie down exactly what was meant by the word ‘leprosy’ in the Old and New Testaments, except to a general range of skin diseases.  There is a description of a range of skin diseases in Leviticus 13 and 14 called leprosy, however, the description here does not tally with the disease we call leprosy today, which is formally called ‘Hansen’s disease’.  People do not recover naturally from this disease, and medical means of halting the disease and eventually offering treatment were discovered in the first half of the twentieth century.  However, the Old Testament clearly anticipated recovery from the skin diseases referred to there as leprosy.  Leviticus proscribes a series of tests and rites to determine a cure and rid a person of the ‘impurity’ of the infection (Leviticus 14:1f.).  This enabled the person to come back into the community and take up his or her place in society again.

In the light of what is said in Leviticus, it is therefore interesting to see that the most famous incident of leprosy in the Old Testament is a story about a famous Syrian army commander who had leprosy (see the story of Naaman – 2 Kings 5).  Naaman was certainly not excluded from Syrian society on account of his disease, and Elisha did not apply the rules and recommendations of Leviticus to this Syrian man!

So clearly, there is a great deal of mystery surrounding the whole subject, and this should make us be cautious about assuming that we are talking about a disease similar to the leprosy today.  However, this takes nothing away from the miracle of Jesus’ work here in this story.  The text says that the man was ‘covered with leprosy’ so he was clearly in need, nevertheless, Jesus ‘took hold of’ the man, and undoubtedly touched the leprous skin Himself (see notes above for 5:13).  These details are not in the story as found in the other Gospels (see below), and it is thought that Luke included them because he was a doctor, and was sensitive to these matters.  Some think that Jesus’ touch means that power went from Him to heal the man (see Luke 8:45), but whatever happened, Jesus personally bridged the gap between those who suffered and normal society.

Throughout His healing ministry, Jesus accepted total command of such situations and cut across all normal human presumptions about illness.  This is as remarkable as the miracle itself.  Also, Jesus reached out to the man in compassion because of his impassioned plea for help.  Jesus’ response says more powerfully than any words could say that He did indeed want to heal and bless those who were in need.

How does this passage compare in detail with Matthew 8:1-4 and Mark 1:40-45

Below, I have copied the versions from Mark and Matthew so that they can be compared.

When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him; and a leper came to him and knelt in front of Him, saying, ‘Lord, if you choose, you are able to make me clean.’  He stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said, ‘I do so choose; I declare you clean!’  His leprosy was cleansed immediately!  Then Jesus said to him, ‘Make sure that you speak to no one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift prescribed by Moses, as evidence to them.’ (Matthew 8:1-4)

A leper came to Jesus, and he knelt down and implored Him, ‘If you so wish, you have the power to make me clean.’  Full of emotion, He stretched out His hand took hold of him, and said to him; ‘I do so wish. Be clean!’  The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.  Then He spoke to him strictly and dismissed him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone about this,’ He said, ‘but go and show yourself to the priest and offer what Moses requires for your cleansing, as evidence for them.  However, when he left, he began to make it generally known, and he spread the news around so that Jesus could no longer enter a city openly.  Instead, He stayed outside in more deserted regions.  Nevertheless, people continued to come to Him from everywhere.  (Mark 1:40-45)

By reading the story in these different versions, you will quickly gain the impression firstly that this was undoubtedly the same incident.  The similarities are too strong to suggest otherwise, and the differences indicate characteristics typical of each Gospel.  For example, Matthew has set the story immediately after Jesus came down from teaching his followers on the mountain top (see Matt 8:1), and Jesus appears keen to deal with the leper quickly and move on to the many pressing needs all around Him.  The story is brief and to the point.  Mark, however, more than either Matthew or Luke, emphasises that compassion of Jesus (see ‘full of emotion’ – Mark 1:41).  Mark also reports that Jesus was keen for the man not to tell anyone else about what had happened (see Mark 1:43).  This a typical feature of Marks Gospel, where the Gospel remains a formal secret until Jesus chooses to reveal it, either to the disciples through teaching, or to the world through His death and resurrection.

In contrast to these other Gospels, we can see that Luke, like Matthew, reports the leper’s attitude of worship before Jesus (Luke 5:12, Matthew 8:2).  Notably, Luke is not as concerned about Jesus’ reputation as one who heals people.  Mark (especially) shows concern that too many people are crowding around Jesus, but Luke shows more compassion to the many people who wanted to receive healing from Him.  The last verse of our passage today speaks of Jesus handling the demand on His ministry by getting away to spend time with the Father in prayer.

Where and when does Jesus go to one side to pray?

A great deal of attention has been given to Jesus’ prayer life and what it meant.  Luke’s Gospel tells us about more incidents of prayer in Jesus life than any other Gospel, and this is the first time Luke mentions Jesus’ prayer.  Earlier in the Gospel we read about Jesus getting away from the people when hard pressed (see 4:42), and although Luke does not mention prayer in this earlier incident, the equivalent passage in Mark does (1:35).  It hardly comes as a surprise therefore when Luke reports that Jesus ‘would get away to isolated places and pray.’ (5:16).   Luke does not tell us what Jesus said in His prayers, and he never does throughout the Gospel (except at Gethsemane – 22:41f.), so we are only left to guess at what was said.  However, it is clear that the Gospels in general and Luke in particular, we are told that Jesus prayed at special and particular moments in his ministry.  Those in Luke’s Gospel are listed below:

• Luke 5:16 – Jesus found time to be alone and pray when he began his ministry of teaching, preaching, healing and deliverance
• Luke 6:12 – Jesus went onto the mountains to pray and then decided to formally announce the names of the 12 disciples.
• Luke 9:18 – while Jesus was praying he asked the disciples ‘who do people say that I am?’  This question led Peter to make the declaration ‘You are the Christ ...’
• Luke 9:28 – Jesus took Peter, James and John onto the mountain to pray, and while He was there, He was transfigured and was seen with Moses and Elijah
• Luke 11:1 – It was while Jesus was praying that the disciples came to Him and asked Him to teach them to pray.  Jesus’ answer was the famous ‘Lord’s prayer’.
• Luke 22:41-46 – Jesus’ most agonising prayer, and the only one of which we have some record, is the prayer he said in the garden of Gethsemane before he was arrested and taken to His death.

It is easy to believe that Jesus prayed to the Father about everything that was happening as he took on the complex ministry He had been given.  We can hardly suggest otherwise.  However, it is at least worth asking why Luke records Jesus as praying at this moment and after this healing miracle.  There are two possible answers.  Firstly, Jesus had already resisted the temptation to do miracles that would draw attention to Himself as the Messiah (see 4:1-13).  Perhaps He had to keep close to the Father when performing miracles such as this to ensure that the boundary line was not crossed, and the healing miracles were indeed for the glory of God and not merely to parade Himself as Messiah.

This last point is supposition, of course, but the next is more factual.  If we look ahead beyond this passage, we will see that the next two incidents recorded by Luke contains the first confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees.  This confrontation was to become a defining feature of His ministry, and one that foreshadowed His eventual persecution by the authorities in Jerusalem and death on the Cross.  This was certainly an important point in Jesus’ life.

Lastly, Luke reports that it was Jesus’ habit to pray; it was something he did regularly.  It is a mercy that Scripture does not recall whether the regularity was daily, several times a day, or any other figure.  If we had this information, then it would surely be regarded as the only proper way for Christians to organise their quiet times!  The important thing to remember is the fact that Jesus did this regularly; it was His custom to pray.  Whatever practice we maintain for our prayer life, regularity is the key to a good prayer relationship with the Lord.

Luke 5:12-16 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

This is a very basic story about Jesus’ miraculous healing ministry, but it is profoundly insightful.  Jesus is shown as wanting to heal and to help people in the midst of difficult personal circumstances, and Luke does not hide this.  As we saw in yesterday’s story about the miracle of the large catch of fish, a miracle is a sign of God’s work in the world, but a healing miracle is almost always offered out of sheer compassion.

God’s people are called to follow in Christ’s footsteps, so we should be people who want to help those who are in need of healing, in every possible way.  Unless there is a heart amongst God’s people to help others as Jesus helped them, healing ministry becomes stale.  Sometimes the ministry of the church turns into a matter of intricate discussion, of taking care not to offend, of defining when and where this ministry can take place, and who can do (and who must not).  Surely, if healing within the fellowship of the church is made into such a monster, it has ceased to be the ministry of Christ.  If we feel we have nothing to offer except by hedging this around by caveats and conditions, then we have lost touch with the Spirit of our Lord, who saw need and acted immediately to help, out of compassion.

Just as we cannot fully understand the nature of the illness written about in this passage of Scripture, most of us cannot hope to understand the complexities of modern medicine and its amazing ability to deal with a wide variety of human conditions.  However, the church’s ministry of healing is still an essential part of both its own mission to bring the Gospel to all people, and also a ministry to those who are sick, for no other reason than that they are people in need who are sick.  Surely there is no Christian who cannot both pray and do things to help those who suffer.  All of us may do this differently, and all of us can learn from our fellow Christians how we can extend the gifts and graces God has given us, and increase our own ministry.  This is the true starting place for the healing ministry of God’s people.  When a church fellowship maintains a base-line of care and practical love, it can then offer an effective healing ministry at other levels.  Some of these may be prayer for the sick after its services, and further specialist ministry for those who have deeper troubles by arrangement with those who are trained.  Too many people start with such things, and when people who receive ministry find that no one cares for them on a day to day basis, they give up hope, and even trust in Jesus.

A heart of care like Jesus’ heart of care will always find a way to help, and a Christian heart of care is one that knows the Holy Spirit is just waiting to help and bring relief to suffering through every form of help, prayer and service we can offer.  Also, we do not have to copy the particular words of Jesus from any of His healing miracles, we only need to have a personal relationship with Him so that He can tell us what to do.

Luke 5:12-16 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. How does this passage of Scripture help us understand and develop the healing ministry of the church today?
2. In your group, use any means available to you (encyclopaedias, internet, etc.) to learn more about leprosy and its affect on countries and societies across the world today.  What can the church do to help those who suffer?
3. What does this passage of Scripture say to us about prayer and its relationship to healing ministry today?

Topics covered by this text

• The healing ministry of God’s people, the church
• Prayer and its importance as a regular activity
• The importance of healing enabling people to return to ‘real life’

Personal comments by author

I have been involved with different forms of healing ministry for years, and I am convinced that the most important feature of healing ministry is a loving community in which people feel cared for and supported.  Yet too often, people find it hard to accept that this is part of Christ’s ‘healing ministry’, and those who have genuine gifts in healing ministry discount the importance of this to their peril.  Yet where all God’s people work together in bringing healing to a community, the results can be amazing.  The Lord longs to work in our midst in power, and to do it through us!

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• How comfortable are you with praying for healing?  Start by praying and talking to the Lord about your own illnesses and problems.  Then extend this to speaking to Him about other people’s problems.  The more you do this, the more you will find blessing in your own health and be a means of God’s blessing of others.
• Seek to discuss the healing ministry of the church with people in your own fellowship.  As you read through Luke’s Gospel, you will find there are many stories of healing.  Make a note of each of them and their characteristics as you go through the Gospel.

Final Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, help all of us who read about your healing of the leper, to be ready to offer help to those who ask us.  May we never be afraid to give time and attention to those who are sick, and may we never be scared to pray for healing.  Use us to care for others we pray.  AMEN

Bible study for Luke 5:17-26

Luke 5:17-26 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

This is one of the well known stories of Jesus’ healing ministry, and it occurs in each of Matthew, Mark and Luke, roughly in the first part of Jesus’ ministry.  Our attention is drawn to the story for several reasons.  To begin with, this is a dramatic story.  Whilst teaching, Jesus was suddenly interrupted by a commotion from above, and a paralysed man was lowered in front of Him from the roof!  In addition, the story deals with the difficult subject of sin and sickness in an intriguing way, with Jesus cutting through the religious presumptions of the authorities, leaving the paralysed man both forgiven and healed.  We might ourselves finish reading with many unanswered questions about the connection between sin and sickness, but those who were there were amazed, and praised God (5:26)!

Before we go on, it is worth checking out what is happening here in Luke 5.  After relocating His ministry in Capernaum (Luke 4), Jesus gathered some of the first disciples and made it clear that His ministry would change people; Peter, James and John left their work and followed Jesus (5:11).  Next, Jesus healed the leper (5:12-16) and changed this needy person’s life dramatically.  Jesus then changed the life of a paralysed man (today’s reading), but also made people think, and the Pharisees and scribes were challenged to the core by Jesus.  So there is a simple structure here within Luke’s Gospel, with chapters 5 and 6 both containing stories that describe the effect of Jesus’ ministry on individuals, and these stories then form a backdrop for teaching about the Kingdom (5:33-39 and 6:20-49).  We will find that a similar pattern of stories and teaching continues after chapter 7, but with different themes.

The story of the healing of the paralysed man is deeply moving for several reasons.  Firstly, we discover here that Jesus was willing to be distracted from his teaching by the needs of an individual.  We can imagine the picture.  Important people were gathered close to Jesus to hear Him; they were Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, people who were charged with interpreting the Law for people to understand.  They needed to know what Jesus taught and they would doubtless tell everyone what they thought about Jesus in due course.  They certainly believed they had God’s authority!

Into this setting, the fervent faith of a few friends brought a man in dire need, but they had to push the boundaries of possibility to get their friend into Jesus’ presence, to see the man who could heal people with a word.  Eventually, the man came crashing through the roof in front of Jesus, quite possibly making a considerable mess of mud, tiles and wooden roofing; and in the midst of this chaos, Jesus said ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you’!  We might think Jesus was forgiving the man for his intrusion, except that Luke explains that He said it in response to the friend’s faith.  The man was healed later because of Jesus ability to forgive his sin, not because of his friend’s faith; but their faith was crucial because it brought the man to Jesus.

Jesus intended to heal the paralysed man, but He decided to do so in a manner that would address the complex situation before Him.  People in those days had many beliefs about sin and sickness, and we will look at these later (see ‘going deeper’).  Mostly importantly, they accepted that sin caused sickness (even though not all sickness was caused by sin), but they believed that God alone could forgive, and bring complete healing; however, their narrow understanding of God meant many were left either unforgiven or trapped in sickness.  Jesus therefore healed the man and answered the questions of the authorities with one authoritative command.  He told the man to walk and go home (5:24); which he did!

Those present were filled with awe.  The fact that Jesus healed the man highlighted His authority to forgive, and therefore made them wonder, for they knew this must have been a work of God.  Today, people still have many questions about sin, forgiveness and healing, but Jesus still asks, ‘why are you questioning?’ and he still heals!

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• Some further thoughts about Luke’s concern for the individual
• What did people believe in Jesus’ day about sin and sickness?
• What does forgiveness have to do with healing?

Luke 5:17-26 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Translation Notes

Important words

V20 ‘Friend’

The Greek says literally ‘O man, your sins are forgiven ...’ but it was not as formal as this might suggest.  I have preferred the translation used by most modern version, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven ...’, though you may well find that some translations still have ‘man, your sins are forgiven ...’.  The phrase is merely a colloquial way of addressing someone directly.

Significant phrases

V17 ‘Around then ...’

Other translations:

‘One day ...’   (NIV)

‘Now it happened that on a certain day ...’   (New Authorised Version)

The Greek reads something like this, ‘and it so happened that in one of those days ...’.  In reality, this is merely a generality, and to translate all this would be to overplay the meaning of the text.  I prefer ‘Around then ...’, simply because the extremely shortened translation ‘One day ...’ can sound like the beginning of a fictional story.  ‘Around then ...’ is no better or worse a translation than ‘One day ...’ but it correctly locates the story at roughly the same time as the other events recorded in the chapter, and this is clearly Luke’s intent here.

V17 ‘the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal’

Other translations:

‘the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick’   (NIV)

‘the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing’   (New American Standard)

The Greek reads most naturally, ‘the power of the Lord was present with Him to heal’.  However, in the sentence as a whole, it helps to make it clear that the power of the Lord was specifically with Jesus.  Along with one or two other translations, including Today’s English Version, I have included Jesus’ name.

V24 ‘(he then spoke to the man who was paralysed)’

Other translations:

‘He then said to the paralysed man’   (NIV)

I simply point out that this comment is like an added phrase that today we might put into brackets, as I have done here.  With this comment, Luke points out that in the middle of His speech, Jesus changes His address from speaking to the Pharisees and teachers of the law, to the man who was paralysed.

Problems with the ancient Greek/Hebrew text

V17 ‘they had come from all the villages ...’

The Greek sentence says this ‘they had come from every village ...’.  This suggests that there were Pharisees and teachers to be found in every village in Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem, which is highly unlikely.  Some of the ancient manuscripts have been significantly altered because those copying the sentence did not think it right!  Instead, I suggest that this phrase of Luke’s is regarded as a generalisation, hence my translation.

Luke 5:17-26 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Some further thoughts about Luke’s concern for the individual

It is hard to define precisely, but when we read Luke’s account of the healing of the paralysed man, we can sense that Luke wrote with a degree of understanding and sympathy for the individual who was healed.  The other Gospels write about a man being carried to Jesus, but Luke writes about some men who were ‘attempting to bring him in and set him down before Jesus’ (5:18).  The phrase shows more interest about the particular circumstances.  Similarly, when Jesus first addresses the man, Luke reports the words, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you’ (5:20), but Matthew says ‘Your sins are forgiven you’ (Matt 9:5), and Mark says ‘Child, your sins are forgiven’ (Mark 2:5).  None of these is negative in any sense, but Luke’s words indicate Jesus’ concern to speak to the paralysed man as a man like any other.  It is a characteristic of Luke’s Gospel that he presents Jesus in a very ‘human’ light, and this is reflected in the way he tells the stories.

Some people think of this as insignificant, but we need to accept that the Gospels each convey particular truths about the works of Jesus, and each one can teach us something different, even from the same story.  In the healing of the paralysed man, Matthew and Mark (Matthew 9:1-8 and Mark 2:40-45) each convey messages particular to their Gospel; Matthew, characteristically, highlights the regal authority of Jesus.  Luke shows Jesus’ personal and human interest in the individual concerned.

What did people believe in Jesus’ day about sin and sickness?

In Jesus’ day, it was quite normal to believe that sin caused sickness.  This is reflected in countless Old Testament stories; for example, when King Hezekiah fell sick and was told by Isaiah that he would die, the king immediately set about confessing his sins and those of his ancestors, imploring God to forgive any sin he may have committed so that he might live (2 Kings 20:1f.  Isaiah 38:1f.).  Psalm 107 says this, ‘some were sick through their sinfulness and because of their iniquities endured illness.’ (Psalm 107:17).  The ancients were far more attuned to the idea that if you contravened the laws of God in creation (that is, you sinned), then you were likely to pay the price in physical sickness.   However, it is quite clear that people did not believe that behind every sickness lay a sin.  Elisha, for example, did not berate the Shunammite woman for any sin before going to heal her son when he collapsed (2 Kings 412f.).

Throughout the Bible, we find a balance between the assumption that sin will create trouble including sickness, and the compassion of God for those who are ill, not necessarily for their own fault.  An example of this is found in John’s Gospel, where Jesus dealt with a man blind from birth (John 9:1f.) and had to work against the attitude amongst some that the man was blind because his parents had sinned!  In this case, Jesus confronted this attitude by saying that it was false, and that the blindness was not the result of any sin; Jesus said, ‘he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed through him’ (John 9:3).

It is best to assume that the Old Testament indicates to us that sin will always have consequences and one of these can be the suffering of physical illness.  The point is not list on us, because we too can clearly see that someone who is having relationship difficulties may well get ill with stress, for example.  However, we do not like to suggest that someone who is ill might consider that it is right to confess sin as a first step in finding healing.  To do this might sound presumptive to us.  However, it was not presumptive in Jesus’ day, so it was not rude for Jesus to respond to the paralysed man’s presence before him and say ‘your sins are forgiven’ (5:20).

What does forgiveness have to do with healing?

Some people reckon that Jesus said ‘your sins are forgiven’ to the paralysed man, in order to bait the Pharisees and challenge them about their perception of authority.  However, I do not believe this was the case.  I suggest that the paralysed man may have harboured sin in his life and Jesus dealt with this by offering forgiveness.  Forgiveness was necessary in this case, where it was obviously not required for the leper (see 5:12-16).  We do not know exactly what sin was involved because Jesus kept the equivalent of what we might call ‘doctor-patient confidentiality’.  He allowed the man the dignity of not having his personal sins discussed by generations of Christians studying the Bible!

However, in saying this, Jesus faced the difficulty of the presence of the Pharisees, who immediately felt that Jesus was speaking inappropriately.  They would have regarded such words as blasphemy, because as Luke reports, ‘who can forgive sins but God alone?’ (5:21); they were not about to give Jesus the honour of regarding Him as God.  However, Jesus knew what the Pharisees and scribes were thinking, and said ‘why are you questioning this in your hearts? (5:22), which was a challenge to the Pharisees about their understanding of the forgiveness of sins.  The Jewish system of sacrificial worship was designed around the forgiveness of sins, and it was to be available to all (as recorded in the book of Leviticus).  However, the way it was managed in Jesus’ day meant that only the High Priest in the Temple handled the forgiveness of sins, and he did this once a year, on the day of atonement.  This was a long way away from God’s original intention, which was that atonement for sin was readily available for all.  In this story, Jesus made God’s forgiveness available to the paralysed man and cut across two thousand years of tradition to the original wishes of the Father.  Could the Pharisees not understand this, he asked?

Jesus went on to ask a question, which appears to be something a trick question to the Pharisees, ‘which is easier, to say “Your sins are forgiven you” or to say, “Stand up and walk”?’ (5:23).  But this was no trick question; this is only how it appears to us today.  Jesus asked this question to see if the Pharisees would accept that He was right to go to the heart of the man’s illness and thus enable him to be set free from his illness.  It would have been easy to say ‘stand up and walk’, but not deal with the root of the problem, and the Pharisees should have known that.  Having made his point, Jesus then said these words, and they were effective precisely because he had earlier forgiven the man’s sins.

The overall effect as far as Luke was concerned was to render everyone speechless.  Other Gospels indicate that the Pharisees and other religious authorities present were angry, but Luke was not interested to say this.  He had yet to begin the theme of the Pharisees’ opposition to Jesus.

Luke 5:17-26 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

What does this story tell us about healing ministry?  Clearly, there is a connection in this story between sin and sickness; that is not to say that Jesus always linked the two, and we should watch out for the presence of any such connection in other stories still to come in Luke’s Gospel.  Because of this, we ought to be looking for possible connections between sin and sickness even today, but not presume they exist.  Where they do exist they must be taken into account with the love and compassion of Jesus.

Our problem today is that many people are in denial about this connection, for example, those who drink too much tend not to believe that they will have health problems as a consequence.  More importantly, if we were to suggest to people who are ill that they should consider confessing sin, even politely and without presumption, then we would be told that this was inappropriate.  Certainly, such a question would cause offence; indeed, some believe that to suggest that sin causes sickness implies that God is somehow punishing people for sin.  Unfortunately, this attitude displays a rather skewed understanding of the nature of the world in which we live, and does not tie in with what is revealed in Genesis.  God made the world good, but we experience it as bad, not because God wants to punish us, but because our world has become separated from God, and ‘in Adam’, people have chosen to rebel against the ways of God (Genesis 3).

So, Biblical teaching suggests that it is indeed appropriate question to ask whether sin and sickness are connected.  In our own day, it is perhaps only possible to deal with this issue by making a general appeal, as I do here, for people to remember that sin will often cause sickness, so if we become ill, it is at least worth our while examining ourselves before God.  We can only answer such questions for ourselves, before God, and sometimes with the prayerful help of others.  I write this as someone who has his own chronic illness and who has asked this of himself, and the results of my enquiry are mine alone to handle.  If I had not, I would not dare write this.

We can also learn from the story of the paralysed man that real faith in Jesus paves the way for healing, as is shown here by those who brought the man to Jesus.  Healing miracles are of course for the individual, but they are also a demonstration of the authority of Jesus and the power of God, and they are a witness given to those who receive them and see them.  In our story today, the healing of the man forced people to think about who Jesus was, and in this case, they decided to honour Him, at least, for the moment.  In this sense, the healing was ‘evangelistic’, and it pointed to the person and power of Jesus.  Healing miracles will often do this, and they are an important part of the work of God’s people, the church.

Luke 5:17-26 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. In your group, discuss the difficult question about the connection between sin and sickness.  How would you define this?
2. Discuss the importance of the faith of the friends who brought the man to Jesus.
3. What is more important today, a ministry of forgiveness or a ministry of healing?  What is the difference, in practice?

Topics covered by this text

• The healing ministry
• The connection between sin and sickness
• The importance of faith in healing
• Worshipping God for what He has done

Personal comments by author

I find it hard to write about this subject because for me, it is close to ‘home’.  I am someone who is chronically ill, and many people have prayed for my healing.  Indeed, I have come across those who have indicated to me that they do not think I have been healed because I have un-confessed sin in my past.  I could take great offence at this, but I have chosen to not to be offended.  I must answer for myself, to the best of my ability.  However, I will not stop writing what I believe to be the Biblical truth, which is that sin and sickness are often connected, even in ways we do not understand, and it is always worth exploring the question in our pursuit of godliness.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Check out your own thoughts about what we have been talking about here.  Where do you stand personally on this issue of sin and sickness, and what do you feel has resulted from any sins in your past? I would not presume to suggest further, but ask the difficult question and trust in the Lord your God to guide you as you explore it.
• Pray for those who exercise a healing ministry in your church or in other places of ministry with which you have a connection, such as a healing centre.

Final Prayer

Jesus, we thank You for the amazing grace of God by which we are constantly healed of our sins and sicknesses.  We praise You for your forgiving and healing power, and we ask You to make this real in our lives as we confess our sins and appeal to you for healing now.  Thank You, Jesus, thank You.  AMEN

Bible study for Luke 5:27-32

Luke 5:27-32 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Our passage today describes the call of Levi, the tax-collector.  We would be outraged by this story if it were not for the fact that we are familiar with it, and it is difficult for us to appreciate the sheer hatred that existed in the first century between Jews and those of their own people who collaborated with their Roman overlords.  Throughout history, people have born hatred towards those who are different, but such hatred is multiplied many times over, when a few individuals of one proud nation choose freely to side with a bitter enemy and extract taxes from their own people.  If Jesus’ calling of Peter was amazing (5:1-11), His healing of the leper liberating (5:12-16) and His healing of the paralysed man challenging (5:17-26), then His call of Levi was groundbreaking; and with each incident we learn more about Jesus’ ministry.

The details of this story are largely well known, and the story has often been preached upon.  When Jesus called Levi, He did so with the same power and authority with which He called Peter and healed people, yet neither Luke nor the other Gospel writers give other details.  They simply say that Levi ‘got up, left everything, and began to follow Jesus.’ (5:28).  Too often, we want proof that people have changed before they can show it, and it is easy to get this story mixed up in our minds with that of another tax-collector, Zacchaeus, who immediately atoned for his sins by giving away money (19:1-9).  The proof of Levi’s conversion would come later, for this was the man we know as Matthew, the disciple who wrote the first Gospel (see Matthew 9:9-12).

Levi seems to have understood straight away that Jesus’ mission was to reach out not just to him but to those like him.  He therefore invited Jesus to his house to meet with others who were outcast from normal Jewish society.  They, like anyone else, had a common need of friendship, and it is not surprising that those at table were ‘sinners’ in the eyes of most Jews.  Those who grumbled about what Jesus did (5:30) may have admired His ministry but they could not overcome their prejudices.  They had begun to think of Jesus as a holy man, possibly the Messiah, but why did He spend time with outcast ‘tax-collectors and sinners’?  This question brought from Jesus a famous ‘sound-bite’, ‘I have not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners’ (5:32).  These words sum up the Gospel appeal of a loving Saviour to those who know they have sinned, and they warn those who think they are blameless before God to be cautious about this presumption.

In Jesus’ day, the Jewish people believed they were different because they had a ‘right’ relationship with God (called ‘righteousness’) through their obedience to the Law and their lineage from Abraham.  To them, Tax collectors were like those who did not keep the Law and were therefore outcast, and they were called ‘sinners’ with more distain than we can imagine.  Yet it does not take much reading of the Old Testament to discover that although God is fundamentally opposed to sin, He is equally determined to overcome both sin and its consequences.  So Jesus was not doing something new when He reached out to Levi to call him as a disciple; rather, He challenged the God’s people to overcome their prejudices and accept God’s message that He was in the business of overcoming sin, not just condemning it.

God’s opposition to sin and His determination to overcome it does not change, and the message of Levi’s call is equally true today and applicable to sinners and religious people alike.  We should also be careful to link this story with those that go before it, which describe God’s work amongst people: The call of disciples (5:1-11), the healing of the sick (5:12-16), and the forgiveness of sins (5:17-26).  As so often in Luke, they work together to give us a glimpse of the priorities of Jesus’ emerging ministry.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• Who were the tax-collectors, and why were they so disliked?
• What is the significance of banquets, especially this one here?
• What does Jesus mean by ‘repentance’, both here and elsewhere?

Luke 5:27-32 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Translation Notes

Important words

V27 ‘revenue booth’

It is difficult to translate the Greek word here, which refers to a wayside booth where tax-collectors did their business in the first century.  Some translations say ‘tax-office’, but although we might know what this means today, the idea created by the term is far too grand.

Significant phrases

V28 ‘... and began to follow Him’

Other translations:

‘... and followed Him’   (NIV, NRSV etc.)

The Greek verb here is in the ‘imperfect’ tense, which describes what we might call a ‘continuous action’.  Although it is not wrong to translate ‘... and followed Him’, as is done by other translations, I reckon that ‘... and began to follow Him’, captures the idea of beginning a continued course of action, as the grammar of the sentence clearly indicates here.

V29 ‘sat down to eat with them’

Other translations:

‘were eating with them’   (NIV)

‘sitting at table with them’   (NRSV)

The key Greek word here is ‘katakeimai’, which means simply ‘recline’.  In those days, the word described the position in which people ate meals; they ‘reclined at table’.  The translation ‘sat down to eat’ best reflects what was going on, while not being unfaithful to the original text.

Luke 5:27-32 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Who were the tax-collectors, and why were they so disliked?

Levi is described here as ‘sitting at the revenue booth’ (5:27).  In those days, the Roman Empire was held together by a system of taxes, which paid for the army and the entire mechanism of Empire.  Although the Roman Empire was disliked, it was responsible for relative peace, and although the Jews intensely disliked their Roman overlords, the Emperor had given Jewish people considerable freedom within their own lands.  However, all this was dependent upon the payment of the necessary taxes.  Ultimately, the ruling Herods were responsible for this (Antipas in Galilee), but the practical task was farmed out by a process of bidding, and those who felt they could extract the most from the population would get the job.  These tax-collectors were rewarded by a certain degree of protection by the Roman state, in recompense for the fact that they were ostracised by the Jewish community.  There is some uncertainty about the taxes collected by such people, but it seems that their main job was to tax the movement of goods, and this is why we read about a ‘revenue booth’ (5:27).

The whole of the story here in Luke is filled with potential contradiction and problems.  On the one hand, Levi responded to Jesus by leaving his booth and following Jesus, and the text says that he left everything behind.  However, Levi was still able to summon the resources for a banquet (5:29), an expensive undertaking usually offered by those with considerable resources.  Certainly, Luke says that this was a large meal, with many people attending (5:29).  We can almost hear the cries of the Pharisees and others complaining that the meal at which Jesus was the guest was paid for by the honest work of Jewish men and women who had been robbed!  Furthermore, the activities of these people made them ritually unclean!

Nevertheless, in the midst of all these difficulties, Jesus ate with the tax-collectors and sinners.  Luke does not mention clearly, as do Matthew and Mark (Matt 9:9-13 and Mark 2:13-17), that the disciples ate with Jesus, but this is presumed in the question of the Pharisees and scribes, ‘why do you eat and drink ...’ (5:30).  It must have been very hard for Jewish working men such as Simon Peter, James and John, to accompany Jesus at such a meal and be introduced to their new companion, who was a tax-collector!  It is a remarkable testimony to the authority and personality of Jesus that he held together a group of such different people!

We also forget that someone like Levi had arguably far more to lose than the other disciples.  Working men could always go back to their trade if things went wrong, and indeed, this is exactly what Peter and James and John did after Jesus was crucified (see John 21:2,3).  Someone like Levi would never be able to go back to the tight knit community of ‘outsiders’ who survived as Jews on the outside of Judaism, once he had left, and as a consequence, some regard Matthew as a particularly poignant example of discipleship.  Moreover, although Levi paid for a large banquet for Jesus and his friends, this was possibly the last such extravagance.  As far as we know from the rest of the Gospel, Levi (Matthew) would soon be travelling rough like the other disciples.  It was tough to journey from riches to rags.

What is the significance of banquets, especially this one here?

Banquets always have considerable significance in the Bible.  Most are royal banquets, such as those put on by Esther to obtain the agreement of King Ahasuerus (Esther 5f.) or the parables of Jesus when talking about the royal authority of God in His Kingdom (Matthew 22:2f.).  Others are wedding banquets, such as in the parable of Jesus about the ten foolish bridesmaids (Matthew 25:10f.).  Clearly, this occasion was more than any usual meal, even one of extravagance fitting for someone of wealth, as Levi would have been.  We cannot know for sure, but it is reasonable to think that Levi held this banquet because of what had happened to him in meeting Jesus.  Those present may well have known that such a meal would not have been laid out unless Levi intended to leave, and they would have wanted therefore to see the man who had been responsible for Levi’s decision.  Jesus was certainly willing to sit at table with these ‘tax-collectors and sinners’ gathered at Levi’s banquet, and cross the great divide, in this case between Jew and Jew.

It is likely that this incident was well remembered by Jesus’ opponents, for in both Matthew (11:19) and Luke (7:34), Jesus was aware of a common retort thrown at Him by His opponents, ‘for the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!”, yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’  The Pharisees were unable to believe that Jesus was the Messiah because all their interpretations of Scripture suggested to them that the Messiah would fulfil all the laws of cleanliness and would ‘clean’ Israel of her sins.  But to them, they believed such an action would entail throwing people out of Israel.  By attending the banquet, Jesus made graphically clear to them that He had different plans.  He intended to clean Israel by saving sinners rather than throwing them out, moreover, He demonstrated as He did in later teaching, that he did not believe ritual eating laws were relevant to the Kingdom of God (11:37-41).

It is not surprising therefore that when we read what Jesus says about God’s great invitation to salvation, He describes it as a feast at which all are welcome (14:16-24). 

What does Jesus mean by ‘repentance’, both here and elsewhere?

Repentance is an important theme in the Bible, and so far in Luke’s Gospel, we have only seen it in the preaching of John the Baptist (3:3,8).  The other Gospel writers tell us that Jesus preached the message ‘repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand’ (Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:15), but Luke does not mention this.  The story of Levi is the first one in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus speaks of repentance, and we must therefore ask some important questions.

Firstly, why did Jesus not mention repentance when giving forgiveness to the man who was paralysed (the previous story, 5:17-26)?  The answer to this must be that Jesus did not ask for it because it was not necessary, even though the man had sinned (see yesterday’s study).  It may well be that we drive the issue of repentance too hard today, for perhaps Jesus did not ask the paralysed man to repent because he already knew his past sins; he had paid the price for his past and he knew it.  He needed a healer.

The next question is this; why does Luke introduce repentance here, in the story of Levi?  Clearly, until Levi met Jesus, he was relatively unaware of his sin and had no way of following a path out of his life as a tax collector even if he had wanted one.  Jesus’ challenge ‘follow me’ (5:27) gave Levi choice, and he needed to respond.  By following, Levi made his choice, and he both accepted Jesus’ challenge and also turned his back on his past.  So Levi repented not because Jesus said to him ‘repent!’ but because he did what Jesus asked of him, and if we accept the theory that the banquet was a ‘leaving feast’ for Levi, then he was indeed repenting by leaving behind his past. 

Luke’s careful use of the word ‘repentance’ warns us today that although it is essential that people ‘repent’, they do so in different ways, and often without using the word ‘repent’.  In the mission of the church, we do well to realise that the Word of God confronts people in ways they can understand, and it is wise for us to be sparing with our use of language that can sound ‘religious’.  Jesus faced Levi with a call to follow rather than a call to repent, but following the call made Levi repent, in deed; even if he did not know the meaning of this word at the time.

Luke 5:27-32 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

This passage of Scripture indicates that God’s people should be like Jesus, who was willing to go out beyond the comfortable surroundings of familiarity and spent time with ‘sinners’.   Of course, the message that Jesus has come to call sinners to repentance is important at a number of different levels, but the primary level is that of evangelism.  This passage tells us about Jesus’ desire to win sinners and bring them to righteousness, and this lies at the heart of what we call evangelism today.  We are not told about how Jesus will save people here, and we have to read the rest of the Gospel to find this out.  But there can be no proper evangelism without the same godly desire on our part to see sinners saved.  Evangelism cannot be mechanistic, and we cannot expect to use methods and see automatic results.  The heart of evangelism is the desire to help people who do not know God come to know Him, and the desire to see people who know that they are sinners find peace with God. 

When writing this, I am aware that people will often respond to this challenge by saying ‘that’s the call for me’, waving goodbye to the normal routines of church life, and giving themselves to spreading the Gospel ‘on the front line’, on the streets, in pubs and bars and where prostitutes gather, for example.  I have noticed that the church can be divided between those who do such things and those who do not, and animosity can grow because of misunderstandings about commitment and mission.  How sad.  We will soon read those famous verses of the Gospel where Jesus implores His followers to be glad over ‘one sinner who is saved’ (15:7), and if we cannot share such joy then the true fellowship of the Kingdom has been compromised.

In different times and places, we can see dramatic examples of effective evangelism, but the most important evangelism comes from people being willing to be used by God.  Each Christian needs to be a ‘friend of sinners’ wherever they are, just as Jesus applied Himself to every circumstance in which He was led by the Father.  In this way, the church is at its best when all are enabled to fulfil the ministry they have been given through a combination of their gifts and graces, and the practical limitations of where God has placed them in the world.

Luke 5:27-32 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

• Discuss the meaning of this story about the call of Levi.  What does this tell us about Jesus’ ministry and mission in this world?
• Why did people grumble about Jesus, and can we hear echoes of such grumbling today; if so, where?
• What cultural and other boundaries do we need to cross in order to proclaim the Gospel today?

Topics covered by this text

1. Evangelism
2. The call to sinners to ‘repent’
3. Breaking down cultural and other barriers between people

Personal comments by author

This passage is only a short story’, but it is very important, for each story has been chosen by Luke and set in its place for a purpose.  I have read a number of books about Luke, and each one either says that there is little structure to the Gospel, or it advocates some limited form of structure, which is not accepted generally by other scholars!  Yet as I read the Gospel, I feel that Luke kept to a rather spiritual structure, and we can see this here in chapter 5.  At this point, the Gospel is about the contact between God and people through Jesus, which brings healing, forgiveness and in some cases, a call to discipleship.  We will see in coming days where the Gospel goes from here.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• What do you feel about evangelism today, and how you see it practiced?  Write down your observations about whether it has any connection with what you have read here or not.  Ask yourself whether you need to be speaking to anyone about Jesus or helping anyone who is burdened by problems.  These are your ‘mission’ opportunities.
• Pray for those whose lives are given to evangelistic endeavour, and pray that they will have God’s heart of love for ‘sinners’.  Pray that God’s people will overcome cultural barriers to speaking about God and about Jesus in society generally.

Final Prayer

Lord God, You are in control of Your mission to save people and save this world.  You alone can understand the complex nature of what is happening today, and You alone have the answers to our needs and the future of our world and our planet.  Help Your people to keep close to You through all the perils by which we are surrounded.  Thanks be to God.  AMEN

Bible study for Luke 5:33-39

Luke 5:33-39 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Here in this passage, Jesus makes three different observations about Christian discipleship.  While it is easy to understand what Jesus was saying, His meaning is not immediately clear.  He challenged His disciples not to pray and fast just as others did (5:33), which strangely suggests that He thought fasting was not relevant during His earthly ministry, only later, after He had ‘been taken away ...’ (5:35). After this, he spoke in two different ways about the ‘old’ and the ‘new’, suggesting that it is not wise to mix the two; and while this is obvious, what does it really mean for Christian discipleship?  Today, this saying is commonly used to justify the idea that if it is to succeed, a new venture must break away from its roots and ignore the past.

However, if we follow these interpretations, then we will have unfortunately misunderstood Jesus’ words.  These sayings are not abstract comments, free for us to use as we will.  They are specific sayings that would have had a very clear and different meaning to those who first heard Jesus or read the Gospel.  In the passage of time, we have lost track of the attitudes and feelings about God and His Messiah that connect these sayings, so we tend to misinterpret them.  Certainly, we will be unwise to draw any conclusions about fasting from this passage, and the Bible does not generally support the idea that God's past revelations must be thrown away.  We must therefore look more closely at the text.

Jesus had just healed the paralytic (5:17-26) and called Levi, the tax-collector (5:27-32).  These events had clearly raised questions in people’s minds, for they could see Jesus doing things their teachers said would be done by the Messiah.  For example, they believed that the coming Messiah would forgive sins and heal the sick, and would establish a new Kingdom by having a great banquet!

They were therefore understandably confused when Jesus ate with Levi and his friends, and this is why they asked Jesus about why His disciples did not seem to be ‘religious’ (5:33).  From their point of view, when the disciples of the Pharisees and of John fasted and prayed, they were doing what was expected of someone who was awaiting God's Kingdom.  We should remember, however, that Jesus had already announced the coming of God's Kingdom, so what was the point of fasting now that the Kingdom had come?  Jesus words are simply another way of telling everyone that He was indeed the Messiah, and it was therefore quite inappropriate to fast in His presence!  This reply would have shocked those who heard it. 

The next two sayings follow Jesus’ comment about fasting in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark as well as here in Luke, so this is strong evidence that all these sayings of Jesus belong together.  Jesus’ double and therefore emphatic allegory about the old and the new therefore have a clear and specific message.  God's Kingdom had come, and his new rule and authority could not be mixed up with the old.  God’s work through Jesus was something radically new.  Jesus told the people of His day in words they could understand that what He was doing in their midst was a work of God, and it was not to be compared with the old Jewish laws and way of life!

There is ample evidence in Scripture that early Christians understood Jesus as saying precisely this.  His words are reflected, for example, in Paul’s comments about the ‘old’ and the ‘new’, when he argues that the circumcision of the old Jewish covenant has no place in the Christian church (see Galatians 5:2f.).  Today, we must be careful to understand what Jesus meant by these words before we try to interpret them according to our own circumstances.  His words about the old and the new were not intended to justify every new passing fad!  They were about the coming of God’s Kingdom into this world, uniquely in Jesus Christ.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• What does the illustration of the wedding banquet mean and why did Jesus use it?
• What more is there to be found within the illustrations of the cloth and the wine?
• Why does burst 39 appear to contradict the rest of the passage?

Luke 5:33-39 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Translation Notes

Significant phrases

V39 ‘No one wants the new wine after drinking the old, for he says, ‘The old is good.’

Other translations:

‘And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.’   (NIV)

‘And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'    (New Authorised Version)

The two translations I have quoted above conclude this verse with the sentence, ’the old is better’.  However, the Greek says simply ‘the old is good’.  The translations change to ‘better’ because it seems to make more sense, but although this is easier to read, it is theologically wrong.  The one who drinks only the old wine is in no position to make a comparison and say ‘the old is better’, this person only knows what is old, and obviously, he says ‘it is good’ (see study).

Problems with the ancient Greek/Hebrew text

V39 ‘No one wants the new wine after drinking the old, for he says, ‘The old is good.’

A few ancient manuscripts do not have this verse.  In the second century, the heretic Marcion (who said that the God of the Old Testament was different from the God of the New), cut this sentence out of his version of the Bible because it made Jesus appear to say that the ‘Old might be better than the New’.  He misunderstood the text, of course, but because of his influential teaching, his ‘deletion’ found its way into some of our ancient manuscripts.

Luke 5:33-39 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Why did Jesus use the illustration of the wedding banquet and what does it mean for us?

This passage of Scripture is found in Matthew (9:14-17) and Mark (2:18-22).  In both these accounts, it was John’s disciples who came to Jesus, asking about the need to fast.  Firstly, it is interesting to note that the other Gospels do not mention prayer, as Luke does.  Pray seems to be a matter of concern to Luke, who mentions it more times in his Gospel than the others.  However, as far as our passage is concerned, Luke has generalised the setting in order to make the point more applicable.  The questions asked of Jesus assume that good religious observance is a better witness to pagans that joining them at table (as Jesus had just done at Levi’s house 5:27-32), and it is a reasonable question to ask (5:33).  Nevertheless, Jesus may have been concerned that those who asked did not see the difference between Jesus’ evangelistic work and the religious rituals of the Pharisees.  The illustration of the wedding banquet enabled Jesus to separate these issues in people’s minds, and the Jewish people had long since believed that when the Messiah came, there would be a great ‘banquet’!

According to the Laws of Moses, Jewish males were only required to fast once a year on the Day of Atonement, but rigorous Pharisees had introduced the practice of fasting twice a week, on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  Fasting meant abstaining from food in the daylight hours from morning until sundown; and a meal was had in the evening.  It is not clear, but the implication in this passage is that John’s disciples had taken up the rigorous weekly rules of fasting advocated by the Pharisees.  Note that the term ‘the disciples of the Pharisees’ in verse 33 is rather strange, and although we can understand what it might mean, there are no other references in Jewish writings of Pharisees having ‘disciples’.  It seems therefore that in this passage, it simply refers to those people who followed the Pharisees’ practice of fasting.

However, Jesus was concerned that people understand the nature of the work of God that was happening in their midst, and the creation of the Kingdom of God.  Everyone knew that fasting was a sign of sorrow, and normally expressed repentance for sins.  However, Jesus but now that Jesus had now come as the Messiah, indeed, this had been announced by John himself (3:15-17) so what reason was there for sorrow? Clearly referring to Himself as the Bridegroom, Jesus said that sorrow would be relevant when He was ‘taken away from them’ (5:35); He was referring to His future and His eventual death in Jerusalem, and He said that when it came, this would be the time for mourning.  Jesus’ boldness is extraordinary, and the imagery would not have been lost on those present or on the people of the early church who first read this letter.

We should also notice that this is the first time that Jesus likens Himself to the figure of the ‘Bridegroom’.  The marriage of God with His people was a long established image of the relationship of God and Israel, going back at least to the prophecies of Hosea, which is interesting, because in Hosea, the Bridegroom is God.  Jesus was bold enough to equate Himself with the Bridegroom, and the imagery would not have been lost on those present.

What more can we find within the illustrations of the cloth and the wine?

The two sayings of Jesus that come next are very well known, and are about the false wisdom of sowing a patch of new cloth onto old material, and the true wisdom of putting new wine into new wineskins that would allow for the expansion of the fermenting wine.  Jesus said absolutely nothing new when saying this; it was all common knowledge.  The allegory He gives however is radical, and not necessarily what we expect, and it does not really say anything about how to combine new and old.  If you read the first part about sewing up an old coat again, you will find that Jesus’ concern is that the ‘old coat’ is not torn unnecessarily!  This comment is possibly a rebuke to the disciples of John, who were still hankering after the old religiosity of Judaism, having been given a glimpse of the Kingdom of Heaven through John’s ministry.  On the one hand, Jesus was inviting John’s disciples to look forward to God’s fulfilment of John’s work in Him, and not look back.  On the other hand, He was not about to damaged the ‘old coat’ of the Old Covenant.  Those who lived by it needed it even if they failed to understand the Messiah.

Next, we come to the saying about wineskins.  It is easy to see that new wine that is still fermenting might burst an old wineskin which has become hardened with age.  All in all, putting new wine into old wineskins was not simply a false economy, it was daft, and it would not work at all!  The message appears clear enough, saying that when it comes to delivering the ‘new’ things of God, the ‘old’ will not do.  This is exactly what Jesus said and meant, because by the evidence of the previous two incidents (the healing of the paralytic – 5:17-26, and the calling of Levi – 5:27-32), the new message of the Kingdom of God could not live alongside the old system of Jewish faith.  The old religious systems simply could not cope with what He was making – the ‘new wine’ of the Kingdom of God.

But this is not all that these verses say.  Read them carefully, for you will see that whilst Jesus talks about new and old not being able to live together, and He is clearly identified with the new, the mini-parables (which is what they are) make it clear that it is not right to rip old garments or burst old wineskins!  The moral of these texts could well be that even though the new is important as God’s work for the future, the old should not be compromised.  The old does not have to be torn or burst for the new, even though the two cannot be integrated!  It is helpful to read the passage in this way because unless we do, we cannot make sense of Jesus’ heartache for His own people (Matt 23:37f. and Luke 13:34f.).  This also helps us keep a perspective on the relationship between the Covenant of the Old Testament and that of the New. The Old is our heritage and must be respected as such, but it is not the same as the Gospel found in the New Testament.

What does verse 39 mean, and why does it seem to contradict everything else?

If you have read the notes on the translation, you will know that verse 39 is a little contentious.  Certainly, people tend to read it and express puzzlement because according to the way you read it, it could seem to suggest that there is nothing wrong with the ‘old ways’, for those who appreciate them and keep them.  Indeed, I have heard people say that when starting a new church, these sayings justify leaving Christians who are content with an ‘old’ form of church life to their own devices.  I doubt that this is a good use of Scripture given that the whole of God’s Word testifies to God’s desire that His people be ‘one’ (see the work of David to unite the people of God in 2 Samuel 1-7, for example, or Jesus’ prayer in John  17).

So we must be careful about words and try to work out what Jesus meant by what He said.  If you accept my argument that the last word in the passage is ‘good’, not ‘better’ (5:39 – see above), then the passage reads like this.  Jesus said this as a sad remark about people who were content in themselves and did not want to change or follow Him into God’s new Kingdom.  It is a prophecy which said that some Jews would prefer to stay as they were with the Old Covenant, and it is a prophecy that has already been proved true.  In the early days of the church, especially when the Romans raised Jerusalem to the ground in 70AD, some Christians hoped and prayed for the day when all Jewish people would accept Jesus as their Saviour.  The fact is that Scripture says two things about this.  Jesus says (here) that not all Jews will want to be a part of the new wine of God’s Kingdom.  Secondly, Paul says (Romans 11), that the Jews will persist in their ways until the end of time, when God will ‘graft’ them back into the true stock of God’s people; for at the present time they have been ‘pruned’ and are not connected to the covenant of God because of their rebellion.

Luke 5:33-39 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

There are many discussions about the various points raised in this text; firstly, the issue of fasting.  Jesus suggests that people only fast when the bridegroom is absent (2:20) seems a throw-away remark, but it is important, and we should be aware of the history of how this passage has been interpreted.  In truth, it is the basis for the main long-standing regular Christian practice of fasting on Friday’s.  This is because Friday is the day Jesus died, and was taken away from His disciples as the ‘bridegroom’.  Of course, in fulfilment of this passage, He was taken away only ‘for a time’ until the resurrection.  Because of this, it has been the practice of many Christians over many centuries  to fast until sundown on Friday, and some people still observe this today.  Most know that this is done because of the link with Jesus’ death, but are unaware of the connection with this passage..  Today, many Christians in new or growing churches are asked to fast, but only a few (to my knowledge) make a particular point of this centuries-old, Scriptural Christian practice.  It is certainly worth considering this, and doing it regularly as a memorial of Christ’s death, as this passage suggests.

I close with the observation that too often, people take the sayings of Jesus about  the cloth and the new wine as a way of promoting ‘the latest thing’ in church as God’s way forward, and trying to indicate that what has gone before is useless.  This is an unhelpful misinterpretation of this passage.  Jesus was talking about His establishment of the Kingdom of God, and not discussing what we do with it!  Christ died to save us and bring us into His New Kingdom once for all time, and this has completed its purpose for us when we accept that Jesus has died and risen again for us, and we are part of His ‘new’ Kingdom, which is the Church of God.  We would be unwise to use it in now for anything less than this pure Gospel message, because it is an allegory about the meaning of the Gospel, not about what we think we should do to put it into practice!  The Holy Spirit will frequently work amongst His people by sweeping away what has been precious for previous generations so that the Gospel may be preached afresh to others, but this is not ‘new wine’ in the Scriptural sense.  Scripture bids us remember that the church of God’s people is always the ‘new wine’.  We should not be too quick to condemn what God has used in His church in the past as if it were comparable to the Old Covenant which has been superseded.

Luke 5:33-39 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. What does this reading tell us about the Kingdom of God and the work of Jesus as the Messiah?
2. Does this passage of Scripture have anything to tell us about fasting today; if so, what, and if not, why does Jesus use the illustration of fasting?
3. Do you think that the saying about the old and new coat and the old and new wineskins is making the same point, and if so, what is this point?

Topics covered by this text

• The coming of the Kingdom of God through the work of the Messiah
• The incompatibility of the old Kingdom and the new Kingdom
• The importance of understanding the background to a text before interpreting it

Personal comments by author

In this passage of Scripture, Jesus catches religious people off-guard.  Interestingly, the passage catches many Christians today off-guard.  Frankly, I became aware of this passage of Scripture as a youth when people attempted to justify to me the idea that anything new they did was incompatible with the old.  The matter was particularly interesting to me because some of my friends used this passage to justify joining a new church because they could not put up with a previous one, and I could not see that Jesus really wanted people to reach such a conclusion from what He said here.  Back then, I could not work out why I felt this, and I have only been able to work it out over time.  There may be good reasons for someone to leave one church and join another, and even good reasons for people to leave one church and start another, but this is not one of them.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Whatever conclusions you may come to about this Scripture and the issue of fasting, it is worth checking out whether fasting is something you feel you should be doing or not.  Take the opportunity to pray about this, preferably with a friend or close family member.
• Dwell on the last three verses of this passage and ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand what it may be saying to you.  Even though it may not be about justifying being a member of one church or another, this passage is still about the old and the new and what God is doing.  What is it saying to you?

Final Prayer

We love You, Lord Jesus Christ, because although we find it hard to understand what You are saying to us sometimes, You are always helping us on our spiritual path and we can depend upon You for sure, careful and just guidance.  May we always hear what You are saying to us through Your Word, and with Your help, live it, until You come again, and we are transformed in glory.  AMEN!

Bible study for Luke 6:1-5

Luke 6:1-5 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

At the beginning of Luke 6, Jesus’ mission gathers pace.  In this story, Jesus confronts the Pharisees over some important social and religious laws, the laws of the Sabbath day.  After challenging them, He did not allow them any time to respond, and He swept aside any potential criticism with this authoritative word; ‘the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath’ (6:5).  Together with Jesus’ later reference to David (6:3), this was a challenge to the Pharisees’ authority. They believed they held a monopoly on the interpretation of Scripture, and had stamped their authority on the Jewish people over many centuries.  Laws about the Sabbath, derived from only a few scriptural texts, were essential to their authority, so Jesus acted unilaterally to claim back that authority for himself (6:5).

The Sabbath had started so peacefully.  Jesus and the disciples were walking through grain fields, and the disciples were taking heads of grain and rubbing them in their hands to release the edible grain from the chaff (6:1).  If we wonder whether this was allowed, then we should remember that Deuteronomy 23:25 gives this permission;

‘if you go into your neighbour’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbour’s standing grain.’

The Pharisees, however, regarded any gathering of food on the Sabbath as forbidden.  Of course, there is no such specific law within the Old Testament, but this was how the Pharisees interpreted the Sabbath rules about work and rest (e.g. Ex 23:12, Lev 16:13, 25:4f.).

Jesus dealt with the matter properly by going back to Scripture, and referred to an Old Testament story to prove them wrong.  He quoted David’s flight from Saul, when the young David had been banished from court because of the jealousy of King Saul.  With only a few unnamed friends, David escaped from the court and came to the city of Nob.  The tent of the Tabernacle was there, and in great need, David urged the priest Ahimelech to hand over the sacred ‘Bread of the Presence’, for him and his famished friends to eat.  This bread was presented regularly in the sanctuary, and the law stated that it should normally be eaten only by priests (e.g. Lev 7:13,14 etc.) because they were ‘holy’.  Why then did David take the bread?  He justified his actions by claiming that he was on a holy mission, ordained by God.  So Ahimelech handed over the bread, and David survived a critical period of his life to become the Greatest king of Israel

The detail of all this is important.  Jesus did not simply justify what the disciples did, He argued that both He and the disciples were on a holy mission appointed by God, knowing that the Pharisees would have taken great exception to this.  They probably knew that the Sabbath laws did not forbid someone from eating on the Sabbath, for they were picking a fight with Jesus.  However, they lost the argument because they stood on their authority, not on the detailed truth of God's Word.

Jesus won the argument, because of his authoritative interpretation of God's Word, and in itself, this is an important message for us.  Certainly, we should know what God's law says about the Sabbath and everything mentioned in this story.  More than that, we must now accept that Jesus is the standard by which we assess God's law.  He is the one through whom we can discover the truth about the Sabbath and all other aspects of life; we look to Him for guidance.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• What does the phrase ‘on the second Sabbath of the Passover’ mean (6:1)?
• What does the Old Testament say about the Sabbath, and what did the Pharisees say about it?
• Why does Jesus say ‘the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath’ (6:5), and what does this mean?

Luke 6:1-5 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Translation Notes

Important words

V4 ‘Bread of the Presence’

The Greek expression ‘artoi tes prothesis’ translates as ‘bread of loyalty’, but it is a technical expression of Jews meaning the ‘Bread of the Presence’.  This is the special bread baked and placed daily on a table in the ‘Holy Place’ within the Tabernacle, and later, in the Temple.  It was regarded as especially holy and was therefore to be eaten only by priests.

Significant phrases

V3 ‘when he and those with him were hungry ...’

Other translations:

‘when he and his companions were hungry ...’   (NIV)

‘when he was hungry, he and those with him ...’   (New American)

This is only a small point, but the translation I have given is fairly close to the text.  The Greek does not include a word for ‘companion’, saying only ‘those with him’, so although companion is a relatively neutral modification of the text, I feel it is unnecessary and implies something about those with David that is not there in the Greek text.

Problems with the ancient Greek/Hebrew text

V1 ‘On the second Sabbath of the Passover ...’

Other translations:

‘One Sabbath ...’   (NIV)

‘Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first ...’   (New Authorised Version)

As you can see, there is some confusion about the beginning of this story!  Of the many ancient copies of the whole New Testament (called Uncials), there are four dated earlier than the fifth century AD.  Of these, two begin this sentence ‘One Sabbath ..’, and two others, the oldest by a hundred years, add another Greek word after ‘Sabbath’.  The added word is peculiar and appears nowhere else in all Greek writing, and it is ‘deuteroproto’, meaning ‘second-first’.  This has been a puzzle for centuries!

Quite extraordinarily, scholars have omitted this word from the generally published Greek text of the New Testament, on the grounds that it is unexplainable, even though it is strongly supported by evidence of the oldest manuscripts.  Elsewhere, scholars of the Greek text usually argue that the more incomprehensible some part of the text is, the more likely it is to be original, on the grounds that no one would invent it if it was not there already!  I have decided to accept the word, along with the Authorised Version and the New Authorised Version, and I explain a possible meaning of it in the study, because it has a bearing on the whole story as told by Luke.

V4 ‘only the priests ...’

One of the ancient manuscripts has a peculiar change to the text here, moving verse 5 after verse 10 and adding another verse in its place.  This reads ‘on the same day, He saw a man working on the Sabbath and said to him, ‘Man, if you know what you are doing, you are blessed; but if you do not know, you are accursed and a transgressor of the law.’  Like other translations, I have omitted this because it is only found in one manuscript, and should be regarded as something of an oddity.

Luke 6:1-5 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

What does the phrase ‘on the second Sabbath of the Passover’ mean (6:1)?

Before reading this, please read the note above for verse 1 under the heading ‘problems with the Greek/Hebrew text’.  If we are willing to accept the oldest and most difficult evidence about what Luke wrote, then we must try and work out the probably meaning of the strange Greek word found here, which means literally ‘second first’.  The sentence is clearly about the Sabbath and the story is about eating plucked ears of corn and eating grain, and both of these give us some clues about where to go in Scripture to find an answer to this conundrum.

In Leviticus 23:6-14 Moses gives complex and rather unclear instructions about the celebration of the Passover feast, which are similar to instructions found elsewhere in Exodus 12:8 (and elsewhere).  The overall picture given is that the festival of unleavened bread should last for a whole week, beginning on a Sabbath day (Saturday), and coming to an end with a feast seven days later (Friday), the day before the next, or second Sabbath day (Saturday).  The Old Testament describes a number of festivals as like this, but the Passover festival is the first of the Jewish year and probably the most significant, given that it has come to be so closely associated with the identity of the Jewish people.  With this in mind, it has been suggested that the term ‘second-first’ here in Luke 6:1 was a technical term for the second Sabbath of the first festival of the year.  Moreover, in describing this exact Sabbath day, Leviticus 23:14 says this, ‘you shall eat no bread or parched grain or fresh ears of corn until that very day ...’ and this reminds us very closely of our passage today!

All in all, this suggests that the obscure Greek word in Luke 6:1 identifies the Sabbath day when Jesus and His disciples walked through the fields as the Sabbath immediately after the Passover and at the end of the week-long festival of ‘Unleavened Bread’, of which the Passover is a part.  It was the one Sabbath day with a clear instruction in the Law allowing the eating of fresh ears of corn!

This interpretation is open to many criticisms, but it does point us towards the idea that Jesus was indeed taking on the Pharisees in a battle about their knowledge of Scripture.  Jesus did not pursue this line of attack on the Pharisees and preferred to justify the disciples’ actions on the basis of the story about David, but it is possible He left this hint for future generations to discover!

What does the Old Testament say about the Sabbath, and what did the Pharisees say about it?

This story is the first of a number in Luke that mention the Sabbath day, and it is good for us to be clear about what the Bible says about the Sabbath, and what the Pharisees said about it.  In this way, we will not come unstuck in our understanding of these texts simply because we have made suppositions about the Sabbath that are factually incorrect.

The Sabbath was instituted by God immediately after He finished Creation (Genesis 2:1-3), and this command is therefore one of the first commands given to people by God, coming after the commands to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ (Gen 1:28) and ‘have dominion’ (1:28).  We must note that God defines the Sabbath as a day of blessing through rest, on one day in seven (Gen 2:1-3).  Nothing more is said about the Sabbath day from that point until the giving of the Ten Commandments, where the fourth commandment requires people to do as God does, and rest on one day in seven.  The commandment says that resting is a blessing and one that is essential for all people, but it does not say that people should worship God on that day, or make any stipulations about what should or should not be done.  In most of the rest of the ‘Law’ (the first five books of the Bible), the Sabbath is mentioned as a day appropriate for rest (see Leviticus 16:31) and for certain festival celebrations of one kind or another, when certain acts of sacrificial worship were to be carried out (see Leviticus 23:3f. 25:2f, Numbers 28:9f. etc).  Apart from saying that no work should be done, little else is said.

It is against this backdrop that the Pharisees developed a large body of work, specifying what constituted ‘work’ on a Sabbath day.  The Jewish people were characterised by the Sabbath, and so these detailed rules were of fundamental importance to them.  In Jesus’ day, various written works were used by scribes and other scholars, called the ‘Mishnah’, and roughly a quarter of this was about the Sabbath.  It was hard for scholars to keep up with the vast range of laws that had been developed about the Sabbath, but they pursued the matter with extraordinary zeal, limiting what could be done to the bare essentials of life.

It is important for us to know this for several reasons.  Firstly, we should be aware of what the Bible does and does not say about the Sabbath, for in truth, God says one things about this day, and one thing alone.  He instructs us to rest and do no work.  Secondly, we must appreciate that Jesus did not fight against Scripture when he fought the Pharisees on this point, he fought legalism and bad interpretation.  Thirdly, He probably knew the Scriptures far better than His opponents, who in their religious zeal, had lost sight of the true Word of God. 

Why does Jesus say ‘the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath’ (6:5), and what does this mean?

The phrase ‘the Son of Man’ has long been argued over by scholars.  This is because in Greek, it is just another way of referring to people, and it is virtually equivalent to saying ‘man’, or ‘people’.  This is not a matter of debate, there are hundreds of examples of the Greek use of this phrase in various literature, which mean just this.  It is not unlike the way people today use the expression ‘son of a ...’ to make either a pleasant or rude comment about someone.  For this reason, some scholars prefer to translate our passage ‘Man is lord of the Sabbath’.  However, there is also evidence that the expression ‘Son of Man’ was a phrase used by people when speaking about themselves, and this is equally well attested in literature, meaning that the last verse in our passage could be translated as Jesus saying, ‘I am Lord of the Sabbath’!  So, are either of these right, or is there any good reason to keep with the idea that ‘Son of Man’ is more than this, perhaps a ‘title’ used by Jesus about Himself, which makes the claim that He is the Messiah?

The key to this is found in Daniel 7:13, where the expression is used to refer to one who come ‘on the clouds of heaven’ and was presented to the ‘Ancient One’.  Although there are many features to the interpretation of this text, it has for centuries been accepted as a messianic prophecy speaking about God’s sending of His servant to bring His Kingdom in this world.  The prophecy of Daniel is remarkable because it indicates this servant of God is human, but the imagery present Him as divine, and the paradox is true of Jesus, as He is portrayed in Luke’s Gospel.

In recent years there has been intense interest in this phrase and some scholars have felt that its use as a reference to the Messiah has been overplayed.  However, it is virtually impossible to argue that the term ‘the Son of Man’ is not used by Jesus about Himself, or that it can refer to the Messiah.  Whether Jesus wanted people to see this as a personal claim to be the Messiah is uncertain, because of His known tendency to want people to come to this conclusion for themselves rather than be told it.  However, for those who accept Jesus as Messiah, it seems to me that there is no reason why we should not read it in this way.

Luke 6:1-5 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

Each one of us should bear in mind the authority of Jesus.  If we have given our lives to Him, then we must accept that he has the authority to tell us what is wrong in our lives, just as He longs to help us in all we do.  We have something of a cheek to accept His comfort, salvation and sustenance if we will cannot accept His authority and judgement about what may be wrong in our lives!  Moreover, the only way we can be sure that we know His judgement is to check out with Scripture the particular things we seek to know.  Too many people say too much about morality, and although we should weigh this up because God can indeed speak to us through others, it is surely right for us to decide for ourselves about God’s judgements according to what is revealed to us in the Bible.

I find that this passage brings us back repeatedly to the authority of God’s Word both in Jesus and in the Bible.  The one and the other are complementary, and we can hardly journey very far in the spiritual life without making sure that we explore the Bible regularly and with care.  Too often, people presume to know what the Bible says without making sure that they understand it clearly, and the results can be devastating.  I have met people who have heard a sermon on some important matter (such as the Sabbath), then in the belief that the preacher they heard is right, have lived their lives accordingly.  They remain unaware that the sermon they heard was well intentioned but less than a full expression of God’s Word on the subject, and have never explored the matter for themselves.  Surely if we are God’s people, then we will want to do this before committing to some course of action.

Lastly, this Scripture should encourage us to believe that Jesus has given us the authority to speak for Him.  If we are willing to hear Him and perceive what God would say to this world, then together with Jesus in this passage, we can challenge the ‘status quo’ of religious rules and attitudes we believe to be less than a worthy representation of God’s Word today.  This may be difficult ground on which to walk, but Jesus surely asks us to be ready to do this.  If we constantly hedge around the moral issues with which we are all faced today, then we dilute the Gospel and fail to present God’s righteous Word.  Jesus came as the Messiah to be utterly faithful to God’s eternal truth and His plan of salvation; and this is now our calling.

Luke 6:1-5 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. What does God require of us on the Sabbath day, and should we attempt to assess what is rest and what is work to be avoided?
2. What can we learn from this story about Jesus’ attitude to the law and to the Pharisees?
3. Discuss in your group the meaning of Jesus powerful statement, ‘The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’ (6:5).

Topics covered by this text

• How to handle God’s Laws in practice
• The Sabbath
• The authority of Jesus

Personal comments by author

I have written about this passage twice before, in my work on Matthew and Mark.  However, as I wrote this study, I felt no need to go back over what I had written before.  Although there is some obvious overlap with the other studies, I found different themes arising from this text, and this is how it should be.  I had not previously thought that Jesus intention was to take on the Pharisees in this way, and challenge their presumptions about Scripture.  This holds significant lessons for us today.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Write down your own ideas about how to observe the Sabbath.  Having done this, explore some of the Scriptural texts about the Sabbath mentioned in this study (or in any other study material you possess like a Bible dictionary) and see whether your own thoughts reflect what Scripture actually says.
• Look up the word ‘Sabbath’ on the internet, perhaps on ‘Wikipedia’ (www.wikipedia.com) and find out what other people or religions think about the ‘Sabbath’.  Compare these with what the Bible says, and then reconsider your own views!

Final Prayer

Lord God Almighty, You have given Your people laws by which to live.  We have not always understood these well, and we have sometimes made up laws and pretended they are Your imposition on us.  Forgive us for getting this all wrong, and help us to see the gracious way to try to help us live our lives for the best.  Lord God, give us a pure understanding of Your world and Your Law; AMEN

Bible study for Luke 6:6-11

Luke 6:6-11 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

In general, Jesus performed miracles in order to demonstrate His authority and power.  He did this early on in His ministry when He healed some people (5:12-31), and He also demonstrated His authority over evil by evicting demons (4:33-41).  But now, it was time for Jesus to show the Pharisees that He had divine approval for saying that He was ‘the Lord of the Sabbath’ (6:5), and He reinforced this claim by healing the man with the withered arm.

We can read this story as if it is only about Jesus’ compassion and mercy towards the sick, but it is much more.  It is proof that Jesus acted on earth with God’s authority and approval.  The Pharisees could not accept this, and the story demands that we decide where we stand.  Do we accept Jesus' authority or not?

The incident is certainly dramatic.  Jesus went into the Synagogue and became aware of the presence of a man with a withered hand (6:6).  The man was presumably a worshipper, but he may have been following Jesus in search of healing (4:42, 5:15).  His presence presented Jesus with a difficulty.  He may have wanted to heal the man simply because of his physical need, but he knew that the Pharisees would make something more of the situation. 

The Pharisees controlled everyday life within the Jewish community by applying hundreds of supplementary regulations to the basic Old Testament law of Sabbath rest.  They banned every form of definable work and watched to see if Jesus overstepped the mark.  They were prepared to pit their encyclopaedic knowledge of rabbinic law against Jesus’ Messianic claims, believing that if they could catch Jesus out, they would be able to say to the Jews; ‘He’s not what you think!’  They were not interested in the real needs of individuals, they were only interested in pursuing their own objectives, and Jesus knew that they were trying to trap him.  It is extraordinary that people who presented themselves as being the defenders of true religion should be so indifferent to illness and suffering.

Jesus rose to the Pharisees’ challenge by openly defying them, and he had good grounds for doing so.  He knew that both the Old Testament and the rabbinic laws of Judaism said that the saving of life was more important than any definition of what constituted ‘work’ or ‘rest’ on the Sabbath day.  The Law said that God had called people to rest on the Sabbath day, but for centuries, it had been accepted that the giving of life and health was more important than such a law, and the giving back of life through healing reflected the loving nature of God as creator.  So when Jesus asked the question ‘is it right to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or destroy it?’ (6:9) the Pharisees had no answer.

If we look carefully, we will find that Jesus introduced an important new idea.  His words imply that to choose not to heal the man would be tantamount to harming him (6:9).  This is a crucial insight, and it highlights the fact that much harm can come from inappropriate neglect.  For example, unattended disease or injury can leave people dangerously vulnerable, and those who have lost some of their faculties are often among the socially deprived in any society.  The Kingdom of God must surely be proved to be better than this, so Jesus demonstrated God's love by focusing upon the need of the man with a withered hand.  To leave him without healing was ungodly and destructive neglect (6:9).

The healing itself is dramatic because of its simplicity.  In an instant, Jesus spoke and the man was healed.  The Pharisees might have argued that healing involved work, but Jesus did not touch the man or do any perceptible ‘work’!  He simply spoke to the man, saying ‘stretch out your hand’ (6:10).  In this way, Jesus made His authority over the Sabbath clear, and the Pharisees were ‘filled with fury’ (6:11). 

From Jesus’ point of view, His ministry was beginning to fall into place.  The Pharisees were scandalised, however, they were beginning to gather evidence with which to charge Jesus with blasphemy.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• Further comments about Old Testament law and rabbinic law on the Sabbath
• The details of Jesus’ healing of the man with a withered arm
• Salvation and healing

Luke 6:6-11 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Translation Notes

Important words

V9 ‘is it right ...’

The Greek word for this is ‘exesti’, meaning ‘is it right ...’. However, this refers to religious law, not moral law, and to what is permitted or forbidden by the law of God.  This is why some translations have ‘is it lawful ...’.  However, I have avoided using the word ‘lawful’ because the word is easily misunderstood by Christians who think of all law as being superseded by grace.  This phrase simply means 'what is right before God.'

Significant phrases

V8 ‘get up and stand in front of us’

Other translations:

‘get up and stand in  front of everyone’   (NIV)

‘come and stand here’   (NRSV)

The Greek says literally, ‘Get up and stand in the midst’.  The various Bible versions indicate different attempts to make this sound more natural in the flow of the sentence.  I prefer not to go down the route of the NRSV, which leaves out ‘in the midst’ altogether.  The phrase ‘in front of us’ captures the sense of Jesus’ command, which requires the man to stand in the sight of everyone present.

Luke 6:6-11 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Further comments about Old Testament law and rabbinic law on the Sabbath

This was not the first time that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day.  One of His first miracles was performed after He had spoken for the first time at the synagogue in Capernaum (4:31-37), where the eviction of an evil spirit was dramatic enough for people to forget rules about the Sabbath.  As Jesus' ministry progressed, the issue of Sabbath Law became more important, because this was a fundamental principle for the Pharisees.  These and other laws enabled them to keep control of the Jewish people.

There is no doubt that the rabbinic law of Jesus' day contained a large number of regulations forbidding all forms of work on the Sabbath day.  Regulations had also been written down in a document called the Mishnah identifying deeds of healing as forms of work, especially such actions that were not a matter of life or death.  To this extent, and to this extent alone, healing was indeed forbidden on the Sabbath day, but we should not imagine that the Old Testament has ever contained such laws.  There is nothing within its pages to forbid any form of healing on the Sabbath day.  The Bible speaks about the Sabbath in terms of rest and cessation from work, and little else.  The dispute here is about rabbinical law, not the Bible as we know it.

What we do know is this.  Rabbinic law does indeed say that ‘whenever there is doubt as to whether life is in danger, this overrides the Sabbath’ (Yoma 8:6).  It is possible to argue about whether Jesus’ healing of the man with a withered arm constitutes saving his life, as if Jesus was indeed trying to overcome the Pharisees with a greater or better understanding of their own laws.  This is doubtful.  The Sabbath was itself supposed to be an example of the Messianic age, and what Jesus did was to show something of the meaning of God’s rule on earth.  God’s Kingdom would be one in which people would be healed.  The Pharisees were unable to get out of this age!

The details of Jesus healing of the man with a withered arm

The story of Jesus’ healing of the man with a withered arm is recorded in both Matthew’s and Mark's Gospel (Matt 12:10-13 and Mark 3:1-6).  Luke’s story is hardly different, though he does mention that the withered hand was a right hand.  We do not know exactly what kind of disease caused the withered hand, and we can only guess that it was some kind of muscular atrophy.

Luke mentions the man's right hand, which suggests that it was important to him, perhaps it was the hand he used to work.  This is confirmed by one of the other apocryphal Gospels (not Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John), which suggests that the man was a stonemason who wanted to work.  The Pharisees may have objected to the man's desire to work being expressed on the Sabbath, but it is hardly worth exploring this idea, because it is only incidental to the main themes of this part of Luke's Gospel.  The idea that the man was a stonemason merely helps us understand how important it was for any man to have his full faculties, if he was to fulfil his own place in Jewish society.  He needed to be healed.

One part of the story has attracted considerable attention, which is Jesus’ call to the man to 'stretch out' his hand.  The man’s healing occurred almost instantaneously, and some think that this ‘stretching out’ was a means of the man's healing.  By doing this, the man showed faith in Jesus; he obeyed Him, and was therefore healed.  Of course, Jesus used many techniques in His healing ministry.  For example, He healed blind people in a number of different ways, by speech (Mark 10:46f. ) and by touch (Matt 9:27f. 20:30f.).  Jesus never seems to place much emphasis on general technique.  Perhaps it is best to think of Jesus' call to the man to stretch out his hand as a pure and natural invitation.  The man obeyed Jesus and was healed.

It may also be that the Pharisees regarded the stretching out of the man's hand as some form of work done in order to obtain healing.  This is not what scripture says, but it is a theory that some think worth considering.  The idea has little mileage, however, for Jesus was only ever interested in healing the man as a demonstration of God's authority in His Kingdom.  There was therefore no room for compromise or for partial healing;  Jesus would not countenance any result other than complete healing.  God's ultimate purpose was to heal and to save.

Salvation and healing

Stories such as this within Jesus' general ministry, are usually all about demonstrating the Kingdom of God.  It is not surprising, therefore, that a number of stories about the Sabbath day occur here in Luke's Gospel.  The Sabbath had long been regarded as a special gift of God, and in Jesus' day, people thought that the Sabbath was a sample of God's rule on earth.  Therefore, each and every story about the Sabbath day can tell us something about the kingdom of God.

With this in mind, our story today tells us that God's intention is to heal and to save.  It also tells us that God will defeat his enemies, for they stand in the way of His Messiah.  Jesus came to save not to destroy, but if people like the Pharisees reject God’s generous love, then they called destruction down upon themselves.  Here in this story, the Pharisees were filled with fury (6:11), and their rejection of God is clear.  Yet again, they showed their intent to do harm to Jesus, although this is implied rather than said explicitly in today's text.  Even early on in verse seven, where the Pharisees are described as watching Jesus, the Greek word for ‘watching’ suggests a sinister meaning, perhaps false reasoning (see Rom 1:21, 1 Cor 3:20).

In the midst of the dispute, Jesus had looked around him (6:10) before healing the man.  In this way, He gave those around him an opportunity to respond, but we get the impression that the Pharisees simply sat and looked at Him.  Others would have taken their cue from them.  God is always giving people the opportunity to respond to His grace, and Jesus does not heal without extending this invitation.  Those who dismiss or oppose the idea of God’s grace and the healing ministry of Jesus oppose the liberation of humanity from suffering and distress.  If this is not evident within our story, then what is?  The task of God's people must surely be to make sure that the institution of the church follows the liberating path of the Holy Spirit as found in Jesus, and not the stultifying blindness and legality of the Pharisees.

Luke 6:6-11 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

It is sad that people even today will place institutional regulations about life above the humanitarian need for help, whether such help is in the form of healing, support or practical help of those in need.  In this story, Jesus shows contempt for those who oppress God’s people rather than liberate them into the service to which they are called, and He clearly toys with the Pharisees in order to make a mockery of them.  When will we learn that the way we create rules, customs and standards for doing things in the life of the church are secondary to the principles of the Gospel and the nature of God as found in the Bible.  We must always check the things we do against the fundamental principles God has revealed in His Word.

For example, many churches have such a tightly regulated concept of Christian ministry that they are unable to offer any other formal vocation than that of being a minister or deacon.  So in an age when God is clearly calling people to a wide range of ministries, the church is tragically unable to find a way of structuring its formal ministry that relates effectively to either the needs of the world or the way in which God is calling His own people to work for Him today.

This is a big subject and an important one.  Moreover, just like the healing of the man in our story today, it is not a casual matter even if it may appear to be so.  As long as our churches think only in terms of full time ministry for priests, ministers deacons and the like, then it fails to develop the gifts God has given to His people to extend the Kingdom in new exciting and refreshing ways.  There are signs that churches are becoming more open to the ways of the Spirit, but too much is held back by argument, division, questioning and suspicion, and those who are looking to follow the Spirit too often have to move outside of the suffocating environment of church regulation.  Why can we not recognise Pharisaism?

Healing ministry has always lain at the heart of the Gospel and the proclamation of the Gospel to the world.  Medicine does a powerful work of God for many people, but it can never offer the complete ‘shalom’ of the soul granted by God to those who are healed by Him.  We may be complete novices in this ministry, but all that is required is a heart of love for those who suffer, and the desire to bring them to the Lord in prayer.  I am naive enough to believe that God will guide people from there to do the works of power by which people are healed and saved, appropriate to their circumstances.  This is how the Gospel is declared by deed as well as word.

Luke 6:6-11 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. What can we learn from this passage of Scripture about the healing ministry of the church today?
2. How do we stop the Holy Spirit from working in our midst by adhering to outmoded rule and regulation?
3. How can we save life today, and bring hope to thousands of people living all around us?  Is it reasonable for us to imagine that the Gospel can break through in power through us and our own ministry?

Topics covered by this text

• Healing on the Sabbath
• Healing and salvation
• Opposition to the work of God and the Holy Spirit

Personal comments by author

All of us struggle to understand the way in which our accumulated rules and regulations hinder the ministry of the church.  It is obvious that rules and regulations have their place within the life of the church at any time and place, but why do we have such difficulty moving on?  How can we find godly ways of determining what it is right for us to retain and what must be left behind?  Who will address these issues without prejudice and offence, and with care and integrity?  All things are possible in Christ, we say, but do we really believe this when it comes to the ‘tough stuff’ of organising the church for what lies ahead?

Ideas for exploring discipleship

Read this passage carefully several times, and let it speak to you about what the Lord can do through you and through the life of your church.  Let God speak to you through the Holy Spirit and be ready to hear His Word.

• Pray for people, perhaps people you know, who find it hard to let go of those things of the world and of the past that are not required by the Lord for His mission in the future.  Pray for yourself, and for your own difficulties in this.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to break through in power.

Final Prayer

Jesus, You can see the truth within each situation and You can perceive the rights and wrongs of each moment of our lives.  Help us to seek Your judgement on all we experience in this life so that what we say and do is aligned with Your Gospel and Your Kingdom.  Make us worthy of our call, we pray, and make us ‘doers’ of Your Word.  AMEN

Bible study for Luke 6:12-19

Luke 6:12-19 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Today's passage appears to be a simple and factual piece of Scripture, but it is a significant turning point in Luke’s Gospel.  After telling us about Jesus’ work in the previous chapters, Luke now changes tack and chapters 6 and 7 describe significant amounts of teaching.  But before beginning this, he tells us that Jesus prayerfully choose a small group of His followers for a special role, and called them ‘Apostles’.

The list of apostles is similar to that found in Matt 10:1-4 and Mark 3:23-29, though there are some differences.  The list appears at a different point in each Gospel.  Luke names the twelve just before Jesus begins His teaching ministry, Mark lists them within his general description of Jesus’ ministry (Mark 3), and Matthew names them just before giving instructions for mission (Matthew 10).  In addition, some of the names in Luke’s list are different from those in Matthew and Mark, but the differences are minor.

Here in Luke, Jesus had burst onto the scene in Nazareth and Capernaum and created a stir.  People began to think that He was the Messiah, and as a result, some were aghast (the Pharisees).  Others began to follow Jesus, and all who did so were called ‘disciples’.  A disciple is defined firstly as a follower and secondly as a learner.  Jesus’ disciples both followed Him and learned from Him, and they consequently learned about God and His kingdom.

We have already met some of the apostles named in this passage.  Simon Peter, James, John and Andrew had been found by Jesus earlier on (5:1-11), and Levi had only recently responded to His call.  Yet before they were named apostles, they were no more than individuals amongst a large number of followers.

On a number of occasions, Luke reports that Jesus prayed before important events (9:8, 11:1, 22:40f. etc.), and He did so here.  After prayer, Jesus chose these five disciples and seven others, and they formed a wide ranging group of individuals.  The first four were fishermen, the next was Levi, a professional man, and the others included a radical, Simon the zealot, and also an intellectual (that is, if Bartholomew is the same person as Nathaniel in John's Gospel - John 1:45).

Why did Jesus choose twelve people to be apostles?  It is highly likely that He did so to symbolise the creation of a new People of God.  The old nation of Israel was constituted from twelve tribes, and so Jesus' choice of these twelve was a bold statement of intent.  They were the pioneers of the new people of God, advancing His new Kingdom, already announced by Jesus in word and deed.

The twelve Apostles continue to be famous to this day.  By following Jesus through the three years of his ministry, they are the primary witnesses to His life, work, death and resurrection.  It is worth remembering, however, that we know little about most of them.  Matthew wrote a Gospel, John did the same, and Peter became the head of the Church.  The early church did not leave us with information about the work of most of the apostles after Jesus resurrection, and only a few stories have survived, for example, about Thomas (John 20:24f.) and Philip (Acts 8:26f.). 

Nevertheless, it is good to know that Jesus lived and worked with this small group of people.  Most of what we know about them is to do with how they responded as a group to Jesus and His ministry.  A great deal of Jesus' teaching came about because of their questioning or because of what happened as they were travelling with Jesus.  They became crucial to God's work on earth through Jesus.

It is significant therefore that after choosing the twelve, Jesus was ready to teach.  Verse 17 describes Jesus taking up his stand at a place where crowds could hear Him teach, and we will read more of this teaching in coming days.  Our passage finishes with Luke reminding us of everything Jesus had done to demonstrate the Kingdom of God in His ministry to date (6:18,19).  His signs and wonders had demonstrated God's love, and the people gathered in their droves to receive God's blessing through Jesus (6:18,19).

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• The Mission of Jesus and the Kingdom of God
• The consequences of God’s choice
• The characteristics of an apostle

Luke 6:12-19 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Translation Notes

V12 ‘in prayer with God’

Other translations:

‘praying to God’  (NIV)

‘in prayer to God’  (NSRV)

Nearly all the translations describe Jesus as praying ‘to’ God. it is quite possible, however, to translate Greek phrase as 'prayer with God'.  This gives us a clearer picture of Jesus' communion with His father, and in my view, it is preferable to the phrase ‘praying to God’.

V17 ‘took up His position’

Most Bible versions simply state that Jesus ‘stood’ on a level place.  The Greek word is ‘istemi’, which can be translated in a number of different ways, but is often used in scripture for taking up some position (e.g. when the Messiah is said to ‘stand’ on Mount Zion).  Jesus is setting out to take a formal position for teaching (as the coming verses of Luke 6 indicate), so I think it appropriate to speak of Jesus taking up an appropriate position for this.

V18 ‘Those who were troubled by evil spirits were being cured’

Other translations:

‘and those who are troubled with unclean spirits were cured’  (NRSV)

‘as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. and they will heal.’  (NKJV) 

Because of the way that verses have been assigned, most translators try to make this phrase part of the same sentence as the first part of the verse.  However, the tense of the verb is quite different from that in the first half of the verse.  For this reason, I suggest that it makes sense if it leads into the next verse.  If you read through my translation, you will see how this phrase works to lead into the last verse of our reading.

Luke 6:12-19 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

The Mission of Jesus and the Kingdom of God

The mission of Jesus was to establish the kingdom of God.  Each of the gospel writers has a different way of explaining how Jesus went about that task, and we should not be surprised to find differences between Luke and the other Gospels.  In Luke's Gospel, the time had come when Jesus needed a small group of people who would remain with Him throughout his ministry. 

As we have seen, his choice of twelve individuals illustrates His intention to establish God's new people within His kingdom, but it does more than that.  The name 'apostle' is fascinating because it means 'one who is sent.'  It is hard to think of much that the disciple did when Jesus was alive to justify this name.  The name looks forward to a time, after Jesus is resurrection, when the disciples would have a job to do far beyond anything they could have imagined when they were first called.  It points to the time when God required the message of His Kingdom to be spread throughout the whole world.  The apostles were to be the first of Christ's disciples to take the message of God's love to all people. 

It is also not surprising that Luke saw fit to add to the story of the summoning of the twelve by summarising Jesus’ ministry.  The kingdom of God was to be the place where the evils of suffering and ill health were broken down, and Jesus demonstrated this through his healing and deliverance ministry.  The apostles were not called to found churches, that is, to start a new religious institution.  They were called to show in word and deed that God’s love could break down barriers here on earth.  Healing still remains an essential part of the ministry of God's people, as does deliverance from evil.  The church of God cannot afford to ignore its fundamental call.

The consequences of God’s choice

The subject of 'choice' is important throughout the Bible.  Clearly, there were many disciples following Jesus at the time He chose the twelve, and we must face the fact that out of His many followers, Jesus chose only a certain number of people to have a special role as apostles.  Did Jesus chooses this twelve simply to be His special close friends, or because they had special talents and gifts that He would be able to use?

Certainly, there is strong evidence from within the Bible and outside of it that some of the apostles (such as Peter and John) became towering figures of spiritual importance within the early church, and they have left a considerable impression upon the history of humanity.  But there is absolutely nothing within the Gospels to suggest that God could not have done something similar through His choice of any other individuals.

Millennia before, God had chosen Abraham out of all the peoples of the Earth, to begin His work of salvation in the world.  God's choices have always been something of a mystery, and we look at them with awe.  His choice is not based upon people’s merits, but upon His intention to do His will on earth.  His choices are always a matter of His eternal plan for the world.  No human being can ever fully understand God's purposes, so neither can they pretend that they know any better how He makes His choices.

God chooses individuals according to His need to do special work at special times in special places, but there is no merit in heaven for anyone who has been chosen for a special task.  The only merit any individual can claim before God is the faith by which they were saved, and that comes only by the grace of Jesus Christ through his death and resurrection.  Any man or woman can claim such faith, of course, but those who have been called to special tasks have no glamour or status in heaven, even the apostles.  They, together with all the greats of Christian history and leaders of the church, simply bear the responsibility of being accountable for what they have been called to do before God’s throne of grace.

No man or woman would be wise, therefore, to seek a special call of God.  The Lord will call people to do His will according to His own purposes, and the duty of true disciples is not to ape God's authority and put themselves forward; as if they can govern God’s work on earth better than He does.  Their duty is to be ready to hear His call and respond to it.

The list of the apostles

It is worth looking at the three Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and looking at the lists of the twelve provided by each.  The lists are similar, but we would be wise to be familiar with their differences, and understand them.

• LUKE                              MATTHEW                    MARK  
• Simon                            Simon                            Simon  
• Andrew                          Andrew                          Andrew
• James                             James                            James
• John                               John                               John
• Philip                              Philip                              Philip
• Bartholomew,                Bartholomew                  Bartholomew
• Matthew                         Thomas                          Matthew
• Thomas                          Matthew                         Thomas
• James (so Alphaeus)      James (so Alpheus)         James (so Alpheus)
• Simon (the Zealot)         Thadaeus                        Thadaeus
• Judas (so James)           Simon (cananean)           Simon (cananean)
• and Judas Iscariot          Judas Iscariot                  Judas Iscariot

These three lists are broadly similar.  There is no single list of disciples within John's Gospel to compare with these, and there is no reason to suppose that John new anything different about the twelve.  His gospel does help us in one way, however.  Most of the names appear to be paired.  You can see this in the way that the gospel writers speak about James and John (Matt 4:21 Luke 9:28), Simon and Andrew (Mark 1:16, John 1:4), Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas (Matt 10:3, Mark 3:18).  These pairings seem consistent and may have reflected genuine friendships.

The figure of Bartholomew is a little controversial, however, because church tradition suggests that he is the same as Nathaniel in John’s Gospel.  If we look in John 1, we will find the story in which Jesus meets Nathaniel, who is introduced to Jesus by Philip.  He seems to be an intellectual, and with Bartholomew not being mentioned in John’s Gospel, some have assumed that this is the same person.  Such things can never be known for sure, but we can sometimes be reasonably confident of a good assumption, especially if it has historical validity.

There are two other differences between the list of names found in Luke's Gospel, and those found in Matthew and Mark.  In Luke's Gospel, the names of Matthew and Thomas appear in a different order to that found in the Gospel of Matthew, which is the same as that found in Mark.  It may be that Matthew changed the order; after all, he was the writer of his own gospel!  Lastly, Luke appears to have omitted the name Thaddeus (as found in Matthew and Mark), and included another Judas, being the son of James, not Judas Iscariot.  Generations of Christians have simply concluded that Judas (son of James and Thaddeus are in fact the same person.

In the light of our discussion of God's choice and what it means to be an apostle, it is probably unwise for us to spend too much time trying to delve into these details.  We should not be interested so much in those called by God to the special task of apostleship, rather that God chose to work in this way to establish His Kingdom and to assist Jesus.  This was also God’s way of preparing His people for the task ahead, that lay beyond Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Jesus’ choices had eternal consequences.

Luke 6:12-19 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

Today, the Church of God is heavily dependent upon the leadership of people who have titles and status.  Bishops have power and authority, priests, pastors, ministers and church leaders are encouraged to take higher degrees, perhaps doctorates, if they wish to be highly regarded.  But in the light of what we have read today in God's Word, this must surely be questioned.  Surely, the leadership of God's people within His kingdom is a matter of call and not special privilege.  Those who are called must be properly trained and supported for the ministry, but their place in the kingdom of God is no higher than any other disciple. 

These principles do not come simply from this passage of Scripture, they come from all of Jesus' teaching.  We will know that revival has come upon us when the most talented, inspired or intelligent of people do not feel they are called to lord it over everyone else by assuming that they are the best church leaders.  They do not serve God’s people by creating titles for themselves, asking for money on television, or creating gaudy garments with which to parade their status.  God's Kingdom is not advanced merely by the creation of ‘house churches’, ‘bishoprics’, or ‘apostolates’ or any reorganised church structures.  These things are sometime necessary, but God’s purposes are pursued when all His disciples follow Him with determination and integrity, led by those who spurn the things of this world and aspire to spiritual holiness.

The list of the twelve Apostles is found at a significant point in Luke's Gospel.  Jesus had already begun the work of the kingdom of God, and His choice indicates His desire to continue that work for ever.  We should remember that the work Jesus eventually gave his twelve Apostles now falls upon all the church today.  Not everyone is an ‘apostle’, not everyone is a ‘minister’, not everyone is a ‘pastor’, not everyone is a ‘preacher’, not everyone holds office within the church, but all have their place in God's order as a disciple.  He has a role for each of us within His plans, and it is crucial that we understand our calling and do His will.

Luke 6:12-19 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. What do you think is the difference between an apostle and a disciple?
2. Who are the apostles in our own day and age, what is their call, and in your opinion, are they doing what they are called to do.
3. Luke describes the signs that accompany God's kingdom as healing and deliverance.  What signs accompany the church today.

Personal comments by author

It is very challenging to read what the Bible has to say about the Apostles.  We tend to place them on pedestals, but they were ordinary people given a special task.  I long for the day when God’s people will organise the church in a way that reflects the Biblical example, and accept leaders who demonstrate the primary apostolic gifts of chosen-ness, humility, and desire to learn of God.  Of course, things are more complex in today’s world, but is the example of the apostles not for our guidance?

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Think about the manner in which your own church is led.  You will no doubt feel some allegiance to it.  Assess carefully whether it reflects what we know about God’s purpose for His church and the leadership of the apostles.
• Take the opportunity to research the internet to find out more about the twelve apostles.  Be careful only to accept evidence that it provable and reasonable

Final Prayer

Lord God, You have guided Your people throughout two millennia of human history, and you perceive the truth of our circumstances more fully than anyone can do today.  Inspire Your people therefore to live by Your Word and work by Your guidance, and therefore be successful in demonstrating Your Kingdom rule on earth.  This we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord.  AMEN

Bible study for Luke 6:20-26

Luke 6:20-26 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

These words mark the beginning of Jesus' teaching in Luke's gospel, and they introduce the idea of God's Kingdom (6:20).  After bursting onto the public scene in Galilee (4:14f.), Jesus began to demonstrate His power and authority, and people were beginning to believe that He was indeed the Messiah.  The Messiah was expected to establish God's Kingdom and rule, so it is not surprising that Jesus began to teach about the Kingdom.  People wanted to know what He had to say about it.

This teaching consists of eight, mostly brief sayings, and they remind us of the Beatitudes found in the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ in Matthew's Gospel (Matt 5:1-11).  There are clear similarities, but Luke presents Jesus’ teaching in a very different way.  He reports Jesus as pronouncing four blessings followed by four woes, with each ‘blessing’ matched by a ‘woe’.  Furthermore, Jesus’ use of a group of four is interesting, because we might have expected three.  In truth, the number four is more important in the Bible than we imagine, so we will look at this some more, later on in the study. 

The first three blessings are pronounced upon the poor, the hungry and those who are sad, and each are assured of blessing in God's kingdom.  To begin with, it is good to know that God's intention is to bless those whose life is a struggle for whatever reason.  The harder teaching is found in the following three woes, which reveal a parallel but opposite truth.  The Kingdom is not a place for those who dominate this world now; the rich, the well fed and those who are happy.  This teaching presents a stark contrast, which is contrary to people’s worldly expectations.  But what does it mean?

We need to think carefully about what Jesus was saying.  He was not telling His disciples to tell all rich people that God will have nothing to do with them, neither was He guaranteeing a place in His Kingdom for all who suffer, irrespective of their faith or what they have done.  The teaching explains a basic truth about God.  On the one hand, He works to bring justice to the poor, hungry and sad.  On the other hand, such help is not needed by the rich, fully fed and happy, who consequently do not need Him.  This is powerful confirmation of God’s support for the needy, but a timely warning to the ‘haves’ of this world.  For the Father does not reject them out of hand, rather, He is concerned about their rejection of Him.

In the fourth blessing and the fourth woe, Jesus warns the disciples not to put too much store by what people say about them.  People’s attitudes will be no indicator of God’s blessing or approval because they stand for something the world rejects.  Jesus’ words are dramatic, He says, ‘they will dismiss everything about you as evil’ (6:22).  It is difficult for any of us to know that the people around us will reject us for our faith, but Jesus reminds all His disciples that throughout history, God has done His work through those who have endured such rejection.  He is talking of course about the prophets of the Old Testament.

There are several ways for us to apply this teaching.  We could seek poverty, hunger and sadness as a way of trying to gain God’s blessings.  Some have attempted this throughout history, though it is by no means certain what blessing they have gained.  Another way would be to take hold of the teaching about the liberation of the poor and the oppressed, and seek to put this into practice.  However, to do this would be to focus on one part of the message to the exclusion of the rest.  The passage is also a warning to the self sufficient of every time and generation.  It explains that those who reject God in this life have consequently rejected life in the next; they have already received their benefits and their prospects are bleak.

As with so much of Jesus’ teaching, it is wise to keep an eye on every aspect of what He says.  Nevertheless, there is one overriding feature of this passage.  This is Jesus’ first teaching about God’s Kingdom rule on earth, and it turns all worldly preconceptions upside down.  This will prove to be a major characteristic of all Jesus’ teaching.

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• What is the significance of Jesus’ use of four sayings?
• Who are the poor and who are the rich?
• What does the Old Testament example of the prophets reveal about this text?

Luke 6:20-26 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Translation Notes

V20 ‘He turned towards His disciples ...’

Other translations:

‘Looking at His disciples ...’   (NIV)

The He looked up at His disciples ...’   (NRSV)

The difference between the translations may seem slight, but it is worth exploring the proper sense of the phrase.  The Greek words speak of Jesus ‘lifting up his eyes towards’ the disciples.  This is not how we would speak today.  The Greek suggests that Jesus is looking intentionally at the disciples with purpose and expectation; the words of His teaching are addressed primarily to them, and through them, to us.

V22 ‘dismiss everything about you as evil’

Other translations:

‘reject your name as evil’   (NIV)

‘defame you’   (NRSV)

The Greek phrase here translates literally as ‘reject your name as evil’.  The meaning of this phrase depends on the ancient concept of the name representing a person and everything about them, and it is not how people speak about themselves today.  The phrase ‘dismiss everything about you as evil’ captures the sense of the phrase correctly without departing too far from the text.  It helps the reader understand what Luke was saying here far better than a more literal translation.

V24 ‘you have received your help’

Other translations:

‘you have already received your comfort’   (NIV)

‘you have received your consolation’   (NRSV)

I have chosen to translate the last word of this phrase as ‘help’ because this is a perfectly accurate translation of the Greek word here (‘paraclesis’), and it makes so much more sense.  Jesus is making an obvious point here, and this is made clearer by this translation.

Luke 6:20-26 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

What is the significance of Jesus’ use of four sayings?

It is well-known that ancient people placed special value on the numbers three and 7.  Today, we think of these as prime numbers, which are indivisible.  In ancient times, they were regarded as having special significance as perfect or holy numbers.  For example, the phrase 'on the third day', is found in a number of places of Scripture, and refers to more than just the resurrection of Jesus (Gen 31:22, Exodus 19:11, Hosea 6:2). 

We do not always spot the fact that the number four has special significance in the Bible as well.  In ancient times, there were said to be four corners of the world (Is 11:12, Ez. 7:2, Rev 7:1), four corners of the tabernacle (Exodus 25), or of an altar (Exodus 38), four likenesses of God in the vision of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1-3), four winds of heaven (Daniel 7:2), and four Gospels of the New Testament.  A number of prophets use the number four for emphasis, being one more than the perfect number 3 (see Amos 1,2, Jer 15:3 Zech 1:18 etc.)

If we look at the structure of the sayings in this passage, it seems that Jesus used a method very similar to that of Amos in the Old Testament.  He gave three blessings (6:20-21), and then added another; this fourth blessing is significantly different from the first three, and could be argued to be the main focus of Jesus' teaching.  In the second half of the passage, the structure is remarkably similar.  The first three woes are brief and to the point, and they mirror the first three blessings.  The fourth wae is emphatic and although it is brief, its theme mirrors the fourth blessing. 

If we examine the structure of the passage in this way, our presumptions about what it means may be changed somewhat.  Our first assumption may have been that this teaching is about God turning worldly values upside down, but we are now faced with the idea that the thrust of Jesus' teaching is about the rejection of the Son of Man and His disciples.  One aim of this teaching seems to be that of encouragement towards the disciples, for Jesus wanted them to know that although they would face persecution, they would receive a great reward in heaven for their perseverance in faith (6:23).  He wanted them to be focused on heavenly things not earthly (6:26).

In addition, it may be wise to make sure that we do not interpret verse 22 as being primarily about personal feelings.  Jesus does not say 'blessed are you when people hate you' in order to bolster the self image of Christians.  He says this as a matter of fact, something that should be accounted for when becoming a Christian.  Those who want to follow the Son of Man should know that He was persecuted and they will be too.

In all this, we should remember that Jesus taught not on the debating floor or the philosopher's lecture room, but in the sharp atmosphere of the public arena.  His teachings are addressed to the needs of the wide variety of people around Him, so we should not therefore allow ourselves to be coloured by one interpretation.  We need to look at the passage from the widest possible perspective.

Who are the poor and who are the rich?

The message of this passage is not popular, but Jesus had not come to preach an attractive message, He came to preach the truth.   The truth, as Jesus knew in His day, and as we know full well in our own, is that the poor are always with us.  Different societies and cultures throughout the centuries have sought to hide the poor.  Often, they are not written about in the annals of history, or they only appear as the fodder for war or the adventures of Kings.  In generations that are more recent, they appear as the 'proletariat' in communist revolutions.  Interestingly, it can be argued that such revolutions have occurred because the church has not practised its historic mission for the poor, and those who are disadvantaged have consequently risen up against their oppressors.

The Bible demonstrates that God’s concern for the poor has been consistent throughout history.  The earliest laws given to the people of Israel are to be found in the book of Exodus, where we can read ‘you shall not pervert the justice due to your poor' (Exodus  23:6).  Later laws about the celebration of festivals within Israel are designed to ensure that the poor are not neglected and have a place within the community (Leviticus 19:10), and other laws required just wages throughout Israel (Deuteronomy 24:12).

More than this, we find that God often works through people who know they are relatively poor.  The neglected wife Hannah gave birth to the famous prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 1,2).  The prophets chosen by God frequently came from those who were poor.  Certainly, the example of the prophet Elijah and Elisha have always encouraged men and women of God to turn away from worldly things to simple things, in order to live a life that is focused upon God.  A prime example of this is John the Baptist (Matt 3, Luke 3).

In the light of this, Jesus’ teaching is not radical, or new, it is the logical consequence of God's revelation throughout history.  But Jesus does not announce a blessing on poverty, hunger, or sadness themselves.  He pronounces a blessing on people who are poor, hungry or sad, and there is a big difference between these two.  It is not as if we should aspire to poverty, hunger, or sadness on purpose.  Rather, we know that when these things come, then if we are right with our Lord, we will find them to be a blessing.  This is a difficult message, but an important one.  God's people are to persevere through troubles within this world, and this is why Jesus speaks about persevering through criticism, like the prophets of old.

What does the Old Testament example of the prophets reveal about this text?

The Bible also tells us that the prophets suffered to deliver God's message.  This is referred to by Jesus in verses 23 and 26.

The people of Israel frequently did not accept the message of the prophets, and they endured personal suffering of many kinds.  The prophet Jeremiah was thrown into a pit (Jeremiah 38:11f.);  Amos was thrown out of Bethel (Amos 7:12), Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den (Daniel 6).  They certainly knew all about, hunger, despair and poverty.  In our passage of scripture, Jesus effectively commends the prophets and holds them up as an example of godliness.  They are Jesus’ example, which the disciples are encouraged to follow.

In contrast to this, we do not often read those passages of Scripture, which describe how false prophets were frequently encouraged and accepted by the people of Israel.  They were often employed by Israel's Kings.  It was demanded that they preach what was required of them and so bolster the position of their employers in the eyes of the people.  This is part of the background to the struggle between King Ahab and Elijah found in 1 Kings 17 and following chapters.

We also see false prophets in the stories of the great prophets.  Jeremiah struggled to make his prophecy known, because another prophet named Hananiah was close to the King, and this prophet gave the king the opposite advice to that of Jeremiah.  He found himself in conflict with Hananiah on frequent occasions, and after there was a fight between the two of them in front of the King, Jeremiah was thrown into a pit.  Though he was eventually rescued, his suffering was unimaginable (Jeremiah 28).

In this passage, Jesus teaches that the benefits of the kingdom outweighed all earthly joys, and trouble and strife in this life are recompensed by good things in heaven.  This, of course, is great news for the poor, and all those who seek to promote the words of God, such as the prophets.  This passage has nothing but blessing and hope for those who deservedly expect God's kingdom to come in glory and power and bring them to justice.

Luke 6:20-26 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

This teaching of Jesus is presented in the form of two extremes.  But we should be careful about trying to apply as it stands without looking carefully at its deeper meaning.  The teaching certainly encourages those who are poor, and it is a warning to those who are rich.  However, the rest of the Bible does not teach that the poor have access to the Father simply because they are poor; neither does it teach that the rich are rejected because of their riches.  As a whole, the Bible teaches that people are accepted by God on the basis of their faith in Jesus Christ.  This teaching is not a definition of who comes into the kingdom, but a warning to everyone of what will happen if they ignore God and think that they have provided for themselves, and an encouragement to all who are poor and who struggle with life, because God wants to help them.

If we are to apply this teaching, we must work out whether we believe we are numbered as the poor, or as the rich.  This is crucial.  For centuries, people of all kinds have tried to find ways of identifying themselves as poor in God's eyes in order to qualify for God's blessings.  You may have come across some such arguments.  One is to suggest that the word poor in this passage means those who are spiritually poor, and not those who are poor in terms of standards or possessions.  Some scholars try to construct this point from the Greek word used by Luke in this text, but the plain fact is that the Greek word you hear really does mean ‘poor’, just as we use the word 'poor’ today; it means people who lack the necessities of life. 

Nearly everyone who stands before this teaching is rich by the standards of this world.  Those who are truly poor will know it, but most Christians in the Western world live comfortably, and those of us who know that we are rich also know in our hearts that we are numbered among the ‘haves’ of this world.  We cannot get out of it, this passage, warns us that the kingdom of God stands in stark contrast to our way of life, and the many riches we possess, even if we regard our incomes, our televisions, our mobile phones, and our homes as essential to life.  If we accept that this passage is a warning to us personally, then we may perhaps hear what Jesus says, and take it seriously.  Unless we understand that all of our possessions are but nothing before God’s throne of grace, including our heritage of faith and our benefits of life in the Western world, then we have not yet submitted in full to the love of our Father.

Jesus longs for us to relinquish our dependency upon the things of this life.  Yet, if we submit to Him, we do not have to worry about this, for He will guide us and help us to do His will.  When we do this, we may well find that God is calling us to practice His will in daily life, by doing all in our power to alleviate suffering, help the poor, and comfort those who mourn.  Surely, this is our call

Luke 6:20-26 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. If you count yourselves as rich, how can your group help the poor, especially those who live nearby in your own town, village, or city?
2. If you count yourselves as rich, what does this passage say about God's will for you?
3. If you count yourselves as poor, what does this passage say to you about your attitude towards the rich?
4. If you count yourselves as poor, what does this passage say about God's will for you?

Personal comments by author

It is so easy to misinterpret this text.  People have suggested that this teaching condemns the rich, and others suggest that God’s favouritism of the poor means that they are accepted in His kingdom irrespective of their faith.  Some have sought to become poor by living in the desert, others have sought God's blessing by becoming celibate and rejecting the things of this world.  When they have become rich, some people have assumed that they are no longer acceptable before God, and have left the church and rejected faith.  How tragic, it seems that people are always trying to find alternatives to the truth about God as found in Jesus Christ.  People may only find peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ, and all other teachings in the Bible are designed both to help us understand that fact, or to live out that faith within the world.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Take time to think carefully about whether you consider yourself to be rich or poor.  What does this passage of Scripture teach you?  If you feel uncertain, it may be helpful to discuss this with someone else.  Always seek the advice of others if you are uncertain.
• Use the references provided in your Bible (if they are provided), to look at other teaching.  Look carefully to see whether these other passages add to what you have found here.

Final Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, you understand the human heart.  You know whether each person is rich or poor, and You know the truth about what each one possesses in this world, and what each one possesses in the next.  Assure us of Your love, we pray, and guide us both to learn from Your Word, and to do Your will.  This we ask in Your name.  AMEN