“Where have you been for the past week? You must be the only one in town who doesn’t know what happened.” Cleopas and his friend were rushing to get out of Jerusalem. Three days before, the Romans had captured their teacher, tried him, and crucified him. They knew what Romans did . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Exhortation to Martyrdom ( Origen: An Exhortation to Martyrdom, Prayer, and Selected Works , p. 61 ), Origen ponders why Jesus would have resisted martyrdom by asking His Father to remove the cup from him. Origen quotes from the synoptics, each of which quotes Jesus praying for the removal . . . . Continue Reading »
Luke 12:49-53 begins with Jesus impatient to cast fire to the earth. He wants to kindle the fire that he came to kindle. John the Baptist came to burn the fruitless trees, and said that Jesus is the one with the Spirit and fire. Enough already; let it burn, Jesus says. But then immediately He . . . . Continue Reading »
Luke’s genealogy of Jesus is a “Gentilic” genealogy, with 77 names, a riff on the 70 nations of Genesis 10. But embedded in the genealogy are other numerologically important sequences. Ruth ends with a ten-generation genealogy from Perez to David, inclusive of both. Luke’s . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus prays in Gethsemane, and the Father sends an angel to strengthen Him. That means prayer time is over, right? The angel soothes Him. Not for Jesus. Jesus begins to pray so intensely that he sweats blood, and this happens after the angel comes. Angels don’t come to end prayer. They come . . . . Continue Reading »
Three times Luke tells us that the Spirit was with Simeon (Luke 2:25, 26, 27). He enters “by the Spirit” into the temple, and there “ses” the fulfillment of his hopes for the “consolation” ( paraklesis ) of Israel. In the Spirit Simeon “sees” . . . . Continue Reading »
Luke records John saying that he is not worthy to loose the latch of teh shoe of the One who baptizes with the Spirit (3:15). In relation to Jesus, John is the lowliest of servants. But John may also intend something else. When Yahweh hoists the standard and hisses for the invading goy (Isaiah . . . . Continue Reading »
Luke 3-4 follows, like Matthew 3-4, the history of Israel. Jesus is the true Israel, recapitulating Israel’s failed story. But the sequence is somewhat different in the two passages. In Matthew, Jesus receives baptism from John, enters the wilderness to be tempted, begins His ministry in . . . . Continue Reading »
The parable of the unjust steward is one of the most difficult of Jesus’ stories. The following essay is an attempt (following Joel Green and other recent commentators) to make sense of the story. Though Jesus begins a new parable in Luke 16:1, and is speaking to the disciples, in many ways . . . . Continue Reading »
In Luke 24:49, Jesus says that the disciples should expect the coming of the promise of the Father. This is clearly a reference to the Holy Spirit, but the terminology is interesting. Augustine said that the Spirit is both “Gift” and “Love,” and Luke 24 adds . . . . Continue Reading »
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