|
Review: As we get into Luke, we'll discover a couple of things that make his Gospel unique: first, he sets all the events of Jesus' life and ministry in a historical context (e.g., "In the time of Herod king of Judea. . . " 1:5); and second, Luke includes more detail about each event, and more parables, more post-resurrection appearances, and more about Jesus' birth than the other three Gospel writers. Perhaps this detail comes from Luke's having researched the accounts of Jesus' life and ministry by talking with many eye-witnesses; perhaps it simply was his style to create a fuller story; perhaps it was from his stated purpose to Theophilus: "so that you may know with certainty of the things you have been taught" (1:4). All who read may be sure that Luke was sure of the factual nature and the spiritual implications of what he wrote. When we finished chapter 1, we had been introduced to the angel Gabriel as the messenger of good news to Zechariah and Elizabeth and to Mary; in the first instance, Zechariah and Elizabeth were to become the parents of John, and he was given a prophetic ministry. In the second, Mary was told she would become the mother of the Messiah. All three recipients of these stories of miraculous births praised God for his deliverance of Israel. The coming of the Messiah had been prophesied as long ago as anyone knew, and yet, for 400 years, there had been no word from God. Hope had dimmed; now it was revived by the births of two sons.
Luke 2: In this most familiar of the Christmas stories, we read of Mary and Joseph, along with thousands of others in Israel, being forced to make a trip to participate in the Roman emperor's census. Again, Luke places us in history: "In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world - or as the old KJV has it, "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." The census or enrollment as some translations have it, was for the purposes of taxation.
Here's what David Guzik, a pastor whose on-line commentaries cover most of the Bible writes of this emperor (who ruled from 31 B.C. to 14 A.D.):
| |
He was born with the name Octavian, named after his father. His grandmother was the sister of Julius Caesar, and being a talented young man, Octavian came to the attention of his great uncle. Julius Caesar came to adopt Octavian as his son, and he was made his official heir in 45 B.C. Within a year Caesar was murdered, and Octavian joined with two others - Mark Antony and Lepidus in splitting the domination of Rome three ways. For decades, the whole Mediterranean world was filled with wars and violence; now, under the Triumverate, it became far worse. There were years of bloody, brutal fighting for power and money in Rome and the provinces.
Octavian and Antony soon pushed Lepidus out of the picture, and for the next thirteen years Octavian and Antony were engaged in a stand-off, but in 31 B.C., the huge armies of Octavian and Antony assembled. Antony, with the help of Cleopatra, brought 500 warships, 100,000 foot soldiers, and 12,000 cavalry. Octavian answered with 400 warships, 80,000 infantry and 12,000 horsemen. But Octavian had the better strategy and the more mobile ships, and he defeated the combined forces of Antony and Queen Cleopatra of Egypt at the battle of Actium. Now Octavius was the sole ruler of the Roman world.
For decades, the world Augustus lived in and Jesus would be born into, the world of the Mediterranean basin, was one of wars, destruction, brutality, and immorality.
"The lusty peninsula was worn out with twenty years of civil war. Its farms had been neglected, its towns had been sacked or besieged, much of its wealth had been stolen or destroyed. Administration and protection had broken down; robbers made every street unsafe at night; highwaymen roamed the roads, kidnapped travelers, and sold them into slavery. Trade diminished, investment stood still, interest rates soared, property values fell. Morals, which had been loosened by riches and luxury, had not been improved by destitution and chaos, for few conditions are more demoralizing than poverty that comes after wealth. Rome was full of men who had lost their economic footing and then their moral stability: soldiers who had tasted adventure and had learned to kill; citizens who had seen their savings consumed in the taxes and inflation of war and waited vacuously for some returning tide to lift them back to affluence; women dizzy with freedom, multiplying divorces, abortions, and adulteries." (Durant)
Caesar Augustus changed conditions in a dramatic way. First, he brought peace because he had defeated all his rivals. Second, he brought political and administrative skill, perhaps even brilliance. Third, he brought a truckload of money from Egypt to pay all the soldiers and pump up the Roman economy.
For hundreds of years, Rome prided itself on being a republic - a nation governed by laws, not by any man. Now, Octavius would change all that. In 27 B.C. he persuaded the Roman Senate to give him the title Augustus, which means "exalted" and "sacred." Now Rome wasn't a republic, governed by laws; it was an empire governed by an emperor. The first Emperor of Rome was this same Caesar Augustus.
Durant on the title Augustus: "Hitherto the word had been applied only to holy objects and places, and to certain creative or augmenting divinities; applied to Octavian it clothed him with a halo of sanctity, and the protection of religion and the gods."
One of his early titles was imperator, the commander in chief of all the armed forces of the state. But he came to make the title mean emperor. This says something important about the world Jesus was born into. It was a world hungry for a savior, and a world that was living in the reign of a political savior - Caesar Augustus - but that wasn't enough.
"Augustus and his successors had not solved the basic problems of the Mediterranean world. They had obscured them. For what appeared to be a failure in government they had substituted more government, and government was not the answer." (Latourette)
|
Luke 2:1: The world Jesus is to enter is one of political jealousies, and especially in Israel, resentment of foreign domination. The emperor held power over a wide geographic area - all the European nations touching the Mediterranean, all the territories in Northern Africa bordering in the same sea, and of course, the countries of Asia Minor and Israel. Israel at this time had known nothing but foreign occupation from the time of the monarchy. Solomon was the last king to reign over a united 12 tribes; after his death in 930 B.C., the kingdom split into northern 10 tribes, known as Israel, and the southern 2, known as Judah. Assyria conquered the northern kingdom in 721 B.C., and Babylon conquered the southern in 586 B.C. Persia conquered the Babylonian empire, the Greeks conquered it, and finally the Romans took over. The Greek and Roman rule, however, facilitated the spread of the Gospel: a common language, Greek, prevailed over the world around the Mediterranean. And the Romans built great roads. Both the common language and the roads allowed Paul and other apostles to take the gospel far from Jerusalem. But that's getting ahead of the story.
Luke 2:4: For the census, Joseph and Mary travel to Bethlehem, though not yet married (Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, we're told in v. 5), from Nazareth with other descendants of David. And of course this trip fulfilled the prophecy of Micah 5:2: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." God's plan of salvation, conceived in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:15) and promised to Abraham, David and through Isaiah and the prophets is about to take bodily form. The savior is to be born in humble circumstances in an over-crowded town, and shepherds will hear the news from an angel choir. God's ways are not our ways, Isaiah says, and certainly this is a prime example. We'd have had the prince of glory born in a palace, or at the least, in a Marriot Hotel with room service and a 5-star restaurant. But from the first, God gave his son to the humble, the poor, the outcasts. Jesus' ministry to the poor and needy is foreshadowed by these circumstances. Shepherds weren't welcome in polite society; they were dirty, rough-living men. Remember when Joseph introduced his father and brothers to Pharaoh, he told them to say "we're shepherds" so that the Pharaoh would give them their own land apart from the rest of Egyptian society. Egyptians didn't care for shepherds, and apparently, the opinion of these keepers of the flock hadn't changed much in the intervening centuries. But God cared about them and knew that the poor would not resist the message of hope the Messiah's birth brought. The angels told the shepherds where to find Jesus, they followed the message, found the baby and then they spread the word. Jesus wasn't born with the halo the painters give him, but there was something special about this child for the ones to whom God gave the message hurried to see him. And when they left, "they glorified and praised God."
Luke 2:19: Here is the first of two statements that "Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart" (the second is in v. 51). From the announcement Gabriel made to her that she'd been chosen by God to bear his son, she'd been pondering and treasuring words, sights, sounds. No videotape was made of the birth; no fancy announcements sent out or banners placed on the garage. But Mary didn't forget a single detail.
Luke 2:21: Now we have the first indication that Mary and Joseph would bring Jesus up as a true son of the law. On the eighth day, they circumcised him and called him Jesus (just as John was circumcised and named on his 8th day of life). Both Zechariah and Joseph were following God's command to Abraham and to his descendants that all males be circumcised as a sign of the covenant. And then at the end of Mary's confinement of 40 days, the young family traveled to Jerusalem from Bethlehem to the Temple for her purification. The law prescribed that a mother be confined for 40 days following the birth of a son, and 80 days following the birth of a daughter, after which she was to engage in the ritual of purification which included a sacrifice at the Temple (Lev. 12). And so Mary and Joseph, not wealthy people by any means, offered the two doves for their sacrifice. This was the least they could bring; wealthier families would be required to offer a larger animal. Jesus, as a firstborn male, also was to be consecrated to God at this time (Ex. 13).
Luke 2:25: While they are in the temple, an old man is moved by God at the sight of Jesus, and he prophesies in what we know as the nunc dimittis, or the Song of Simeon. As Zechariah had praised God for answering Israel's prayers for a Messiah, and as Mary has praised God for his deliverance of his people, so Simeon praises God for his salvation. Jesus, Simeon says, is the Messiah. He blesses Jesus and tells Mary and Joseph that Jesus will "cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul, too." Think of the response to Jesus: no one was neutral. People followed him with joy, clamoring for healing and teaching - or they reviled him as a Sabbath-breaker, a man who scoffed at tradition, and who ate with tax collectors and sinners. And "a sword pierced" his soul as well as his mother's as he died on the cross. What a prophetic picture of the Messiah - not the conquering king the people pictured, overthrowing Rome, taking the throne of David, but the "suffering servant" of Isaiah who would die for his people's sins and for ours, too, redeeming the whole world from the sin of the garden.
Luke 2:36: Simeon isn't the only prophet; Anna, an old woman, is also in the Temple observing Jesus' dedication. She also thanks God for sending a redeemer to Israel. When Joseph and Mary left the Temple and Jerusalem for the trip home, they had much to consider. And Luke tells us "the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him." In Matthew, at about this time, Joseph is told in a dream to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt because Herod wants to kill him. They are there until Herod dies and then they return to Nazareth.
Luke 2:41: Luke is the only Gospel writer who shows us Jesus as a youth; in fact, he's 12 when he stays behind in Jerusalem after the Passover, while his parents and the rest of the Nazareth caravan head north. A day out, Joseph and Mary look for Jesus and can't find him in the group. They'd supposed that he was with the other young people, but after searching the whole traveling party, they returned to Jerusalem to find him in the Temple. And that's when he tells them "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" The KJV adds: "and about my Father's business." Jesus is conscious that he has a special calling, and the teachers of the law and priests of the Temple notice that he's way ahead of others his age in knowledge and understanding of the Law. We can imagine that he's teaching them. Here again Mary takes in the scene and records it, "treasuring it in her heart." They go home and the rest of Jesus' youth is summarized: "And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." He's a good son, a good student, a good friend, and he's God's chosen one - this identity revealed when he's 30 years old.
Luke 3: "In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar - when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea." Israel is still under the rule of Rome; Tiberius succeeded Caesar Augustus in 14 A.D. (after being co-regent from 11-14 A.D.), and it is now about 25-26 A.D. Pilate we know; he's the same governor who sentences Jesus to death. He was governor from 26-36 A.D., having his official residence in Caesarea on the coast, but spending time in Jerusalem during periods of unrest, or potential unrest, around the Jewish holidays. He hated Jerusalem and hated the Jews. But he did his duty, and Jewish leaders, we know, came to an uneasy truce with him. He accommodated their religious practices as long as they kept a lid on things; they tolerated him since he gave them this freedom. We're given more historical details by Luke: Herod is tetrarch of Galilee while his brother Philip has responsibility for a neighboring territory and a third man, Lysanias rules in a third. The title "tetrarch" indicates that the region of the Roman Empire that included Israel was divided into fourths, with a different ruler in each. Rome had great oversight over its widely flung empire. Further, the Jewish community was under Annas as high priest, and later under Caiphas. These were now political posts rather than strictly religious as when the Tabernacle system was established under Aaron. Annas and Caiphas wielded considerable influence. Luke now brings John the Baptist onto this stage of multi-layered and tricky political hierarchies and allegiances. John the Baptist is outspoken, and preaches repentance of sins. He baptizes those who repent, and tells them to truly turn around, leaving behind their sinful practices in the water of baptism. Luke gives us the full flavor of John's sermons: he minces no words, and when people say "what should we do?" he tells them. He's a prophet, teacher and reformer. The silence is broken; God has intervened once more. People wonder if John is the Christ, but he tells them he is not, but the Messiah is coming. And the Messiah, John says, will shake things up even more than John's message has.
Luke 3:19: Herod, who marries his brother Philip's wife, comes in for criticism from John, and so he locks up the prophet. But before he can, John baptizes Jesus in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus, and the Father's voice is heard from heaven. The full Trinity is present at this consecration and anointing of Jesus for ministry. Jesus, Luke says, is about 30 years old now, and about to begin his ministry. But Luke interrupts the narrative to give us Jesus' genealogy beginning with Joseph, Jesus' legal father, and going back through generations to David, and to Abraham, and finally, to Noah, to Seth, to Adam, "the son of God." Matthew begins with Abraham and goes the other way, counting down to Joseph; but Luke chooses to reverse the order, tracing Jesus lineage back in time to God's creation of Adam. Sin began with Adam; now a "new Adam," a sinless, spotless son of God has come to redeem the world from sin.
Luke 4: Jesus' ministry begins with testing in the desert for 40 days. There when he's hungry and weak, the devil comes to tempt him physically, emotionally and spiritually. To each temptation, Jesus replies with scripture, each time citing Deuteronomy as his defense against the devil. The devil wants to bring Jesus down at the beginning of his ministry; if he can defeat him now, he'll prevent all that Jesus was sent to accomplish. Notice that at the end of this testing, "he left him until an opportune time." The devil is persistent; he's not about to give up, and we see his attacks on Jesus throughout his ministry. But Jesus defeats him at the cross.
Luke 4:14: Jesus had been in Judea, on the east side of the Jordan where John was baptizing. Now he goes back to Galilee where he'll spend the first two years of his ministry. Capernaum will be his headquarters. Luke tells us "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him." Luke doesn't mention Jesus' healing ministry; apparently at this stage, he's concentrating on his teaching and preaching. In fact, we next see Jesus in his hometown, Nazareth, and in the Synagogue, Jesus reads from Isaiah and tells the people "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." But they can only see the carpenter's little boy, the kid who ran around Nazareth with the other boys, the young teen who delivered finished tables and benches for Joseph. He's just Joseph's son to them. Jesus continues to speak to them of himself and hints at his miraculous healings in Capernaum, but they are ready to lynch him. What he says seems mad to them, and they drive him out of town to a cliff and intend to throw him over, but he escapes. How did Jesus antagonize them? Probably he made them feel uncomfortable about rejecting him, just as the Pharisees and teachers of the law felt challenged by him. They want him out of their sight. And he goes. Mark tells us "He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith" (Mark 6:5-6).
Luke 4:31: Jesus, back in Capernaum, does into the synagogue on the Sabbath and there a demon-possessed man says "I know who you are - the Holy One of God," meaning the Messiah. Jesus quiets the demon and restores the man to health. People are amazed at Jesus authority. He speaks of what he knows and acts on it. The crowds respond to him and the news about him spreads. Jesus continues to heal, and we see one particular incident when Simon's mother in law is ill with a fever; Jesus heals her and she gets up and waits on them. As the oldest woman in the household, it was her responsibility to feed everyone. Once she's feeling better, she gets up and does so. He casts out demons, heals others, and then, at daybreak the next day, goes to a solitary place to pray. Jesus is God's son and as such, knows his strength is in his relationship with the Father. The same is true for us. People interrupt Jesus' prayer, hoping to keep him there in Capernaum. But he tells them he must move on, and he does.
Next week: Jesus calls the disciples and continues his healing and teaching ministry.
Homework for those who want to go deeper:
1. After Jesus is 12 years old, we don't hear anything more about Joseph as Jesus' father. What influence did he have on his son? What can you say about Joseph as a man and as a faithful Jew?
2. Ponder John the Baptist's message as one appropriate for Lent. Is it enough to repent? How do we show our repentance is real?
3. Jesus prayed often; we have an example of this in Luke 4:42. How important is prayer to us as Christians? Paul said "pray without ceasing" (I Thes. 5:17). Think of ways you can carry out this imperative in your day to day life.
|
Let's close in prayer.
|
