THE GOSPEL OF LUKE (Part IV)

Rejection
Throughout the Gospel, Luke gives full weight to the rejection of Jesus by his own people. Jesus was born rejected, outside the city of David (Bethlehem) and died outside the city of David (Jerusalem). This rejection is marked especially between the first prediction of the passion of Jesus (9: 22) and the passion itself; as John puts it, “Jesus came unto his own and they received him not”. But through their rejection and humiliation  at the hands of his own people, Jesus is able to become the Saviour of the world. Through his death he was glorified. His glorification is witnessed by his followers, who proclaimed him as the Servant of the Lord, Messiah, New Moses, and Lord. But above all, he is the light of the Gentiles, that is to all people, no matter who they are.

Structure
Luke adopted the structure of the Gospel of Mark as the basic pattern for his own Gospel. His narrative of the life of Jesus also contains, as did Mark’s Gospel, an early period of ministry in Galilee and a later period in Jerusalem, where Jesus was executed and resurrected. But he added Jesus’ Journey from Galilee to Jerusalem whereas Mark describes it in a few verses (Mark 10: 1 - 11: 10 ). Luke stretches his version over almost ten chapters (Luke 9: 51 - 19: 40 ). This narrative expansion allows Luke to include a great amount of additional teaching material that is not in Mark. Jesus is portrayed as teaching to his disciples. Since the journey was begun soon after the first prediction by Jesus of his own martyrdom (Luke 9: 44), the sign of the cross looms over it all. This reminds of Mark who accomplished the same by connecting the individual oral traditions of Jesus to the passion narrative. The crucifixion and the resurrection become the interpretive key to full understanding of these teachings of Jesus.
 
 

(to be continued)