Luke's Passion

The scriptures referred to are Luke 22 and 23.

Cops know that when you interview multiple witnesses to an event, you get multiple accounts. The witnesses will generally agree on basics (there was a car accident, it involved a white car and a blue car, it took place on the corner of 1^st and Main) but will vary in regards to details (one person will note that the white car was speeding, another that the blue car crossed the center line, a third that one car was avoiding a box lying in the road). Nobody has all the details. This is because of different vantage points, differences in attention to details, differences in what struck the observers. A witness who is a car mechanic will emphasize different aspects than a witness who is a nurse. Cops know that if all the witnesses agree on everything, they have colluded. Because it is normal for different people to see things differently.

Or consider the parable of the blind monks encountering an elephant for the first time. The one touching one of the elephant's legs declares that an elephant is like a tree trunk. The monk patting its side says an elephant is like a wall. The one feeling its trunk announces that an elephant is like a snake. The one touching its tusk insists it it like a spear. All are correct—in regards to the part of the elephant they are encountering. The problem comes when they dismiss the others' observations. All the details the monks note are true but none of them has exhaustive experience of the elephant.

One of the things that convinces me that the gospels are not made up is that they show this natural variation in viewpoints. If they were fictions, the church would have harmonized the details and given us one official version. But instead 4 versions were collected and preserved and not altered even when the details seem hard to reconcile. Again, as in our examples, 3 witnesses will say the cars were white and blue; one witness will inevitably say one car was green. That witness is named John.

What's more remarkable is that we know that the synoptic gospels, the first 3, used a lot of the same sources. Matthew and Luke both used Mark as a source: Matthew contains about 95% of Mark and Luke about 50%. In addition both Matthew and Luke had access to another document, which scholars call Q, that accounts for things they both cover but which are not in Mark. And Matthew and Luke each have material which is unique to their own particular gospel. And yet neither felt the need to hew to a single version of Jesus' life. Their attitude seems to be that of your wife who, when you are recounting to a friend a story from your own life, feels free to amend and even contradict parts of it.

Luke is the only Gentile writer in the Bible and his Greek is the best in the New Testament. He is a doctor and a researcher and he knows how to write a contemporary history. He emphasizes Jesus' compassion for the poor, the sick, the disabled, the marginalized. He focuses on the role of women in Jesus' life and ministry. He recounts more songs and parables than the other gospels and pays special attention to the action of the Spirit. All of this shows in his account of Jesus' death.

One thing we learn in Luke's passion narrative is that Jesus' healing ministry went on right up until his arrest. All 4 of the gospels tell us that one of the disciples cut off the ear of one of the slaves of the high priest. Only Luke, the doctor, tells us that Jesus healed the wounded man. (Luke 22:51) Since this slave was not a bystander but a member of the group who came with swords and clubs to arrest him, what Jesus is doing here is showing love for his enemies. (Luke 6:27-28) He practices what he preaches.

John tells us the sword wielder was Peter and his actions also could have precipitated a melee in which the Twelve, only having 2 swords, would have gotten massacred. Jesus defuses the situation by pointing out he is not the leader of a rebellion. He has been teaching and making his positions clear every day in public. Nobody touched him then. That point, and Jesus' healing the slave, kept the situation from escalating. Jesus is concerned about sparing his disciples. (John 18:8-9)

Only Luke tells us that when Peter denied his Lord for the third time that Jesus turns and looks at him. Since Peter is outside in the courtyard of the high priest's residence, we can infer that Jesus was being moved at that time, either to his place of confinement for a few hours or to the Sanhedrin. But the moment is chilling. It means not only did Peter deny Jesus 3 times, as Christ predicted, but the last time he did so Jesus was within earshot. When Jesus looked at him, Peter would know that he had heard. He failed Jesus and did so in front of him. He must have felt mortified. He was flooded with guilt and shame. No wonder he went out and not only wept but wept bitterly. (Luke 22:60-62)

Only Luke gives us the specific accusations that Jesus was charged with: perverting the nation, opposing paying taxes to Caesar and declaring himself to be a king, the Messiah. The first charge was of no interest to the Romans. Both of the next 2 charges were capital crimes. The second one, however, is false and is never seriously considered by Pilate. It is the third that ultimately sticks. Among the synoptics only Luke reports that Jesus answers affirmatively when Pilate asks if he is a king. It is John who tells us why Pilate did not take that admission at face value.

Only Luke reveals that Pilate sends Jesus to Herod, the tetrarch who rules Galilee, as a way of avoiding passing a verdict and because he technically has jurisdiction. But the man who executed John the Baptist decides against killing another popular religious figure and puts the whole issue back in Pilate's lap. Pilate, who never got along with the people he ruled and who had been reprimanded by Rome over his treatment of them, eventually caves like the politician he is. Jesus is condemned and Barabbas, a notorious rebel and murderer, is released. The innocent Jesus is to die literally in place of a sinner.

Luke, who as a doctor saw a lot of suffering, does not cover the additional abuse heaped on Jesus by the Roman soldiers. But with his focus on women, Luke does cover Jesus' grim saying to the women who routinely mourned those who were to be executed. Jesus' saying is quizzical but seems to say, “Save your tears for you and your children. Because if this is what is done to the living tree, me, what will be done to the dead wood, namely Jerusalem?” In 40 years, one Biblical generation, Jerusalem will fall to the Romans. Josephus, who saw the siege, describes how, during the famine in the blockaded city, a woman killed and ate her own infant. Would that she were barren. Josephus says that as many as 500 people a day tried to escape from Jerusalem, only to be captured and crucified, until they ran out of crosses and ran out of spaces to put the crosses. Jesus is haunted by this horrific vision of the future of Jerusalem as he carries his own cross up the hill of Golgotha outside the city.

As Jesus' ministry of healing did not end in Gethsemane, neither did his ministry of forgiveness and reconciliation. Luke tells us that, as he hung on the cross, Jesus prayed for his killers: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Typically those who were executed were supposed to say, “May my death atone for all my sins.” But Jesus' death was to atone for the sins of the whole world, and that included those who were responsible for his death. And who exactly are the “they” Jesus is referring to? The Roman soldiers on the death squad? Pilate and Herod, who had the power to stop this? Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, who misunderstood the kind of Messiah Jesus was, had him arrested and shouted for his crucifixion? We don't know. But if any of them had repented and come to the cross, Jesus would have forgiven them.

We know that not only from Jesus' prayer to his Father, but also from another thing Jesus says from the cross. Only Luke tells us that one of the criminals crucified with Jesus changes his mind about hurling abuse at him. We are not sure why but he must have seen something in the way Jesus acted or spoke from the cross. Perhaps he overheard his prayer asking forgiveness for those who put him there. Whatever it was, this criminal reevaluated his opinion of Jesus and tells the other crucified man to knock it off. “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong.” And to Christ he says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:41-42)

We don't know what this man did but we know that crucifixion was reserved for slaves and rebels. It is quite likely that he was arrested along with Barabbas, and charged like him with insurrection and murder. This man had blood on his hands. But at this point there is nothing he can do to make up for his crimes. There is nothing he can do but speak. But his confession of his guilt and his faith that Jesus did indeed have a kingdom he would come into possession of was enough. In a remarkable act of grace, Jesus says to him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) This violent criminal, this terrorist, is the only person in the whole Bible given that assurance.

All the synoptics say that Jesus gave a loud cry just before dying. Only Luke tells us what he said. “Father, into your hand I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46) This line from Psalm 31:5 was, according to William Barclay, the prayer a Jewish child was taught to say every night before going to sleep. To Jesus, death was sleep, a sleep from which he would awaken 3 days hence. The pain was almost over. The long night was coming. As Jesus lost consciousness from loss of blood, as his breathing became too difficult to maintain, as his heart failed, as numbness spread through his limbs, he thought of his Father, in whose bosom he would soon find rest.

We need all 4 gospels to get a full picture of Jesus. And it is good that we have Luke's view of our Lord. We see in his last hours how Jesus continued to heal, continued to forgive, continued to love his enemies at a time most of us, were we in his place, would be consumed with our own pain and suffering and the injustice of what was happening to us. We would not be as gracious as he.

And that is really why he went through all this. It was not just to wipe out our sins but to transform us from what we are into what God wants us to be. Just as Jesus changed the criminal on the cross, the woman who washed his feet, and Zaccheus the corrupt tax collector, he wants to change us. Like the prodigal son in the parable, he wants those of us who were dead to be alive again. (Luke 15:11-32) He wants us to be as compassionate as the good Samaritan. (Luke 10:30-37) He wants us to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind to our banquets. (Luke 14:12-14) He wants us not to judge, not to condemn, but to forgive. (Luke 6:37) He wants us to renounce ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow him. (Luke 9:23) The only way we can do this is if the kingdom of God is within us (Luke 17:20-21), which comes when we ask our heavenly Father to give us the Holy Spirit. (Luke 11:13)

As Paul, Luke's mentor, wrote, “...if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) and “Do not be conformed to this present world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...” (Romans 12:2) As C.S. Lewis put it, God doesn't want nice people, he wants new men and new women.

Towards the beginning of his ministry, Jesus read these words from the book of Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to release the oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

That was Jesus' mission statement. And as the Body of Christ, the ongoing embodiment of God's love and grace, anointed by the Holy Spirit in baptism, it is our mission statement. Jesus' healing ministry goes on. He wants to heal this sick world and transform it by healing those who are blind to their sins, who are deaf to the cries of their fellow human beings, who are mute in the face of injustice, who are too lame to get off their butts and spread the good news. He wants us to feed the poor with bread and the poor in spirit with his Word. He wants us to free prisoners from the chains of injustice and those who are prisoners of their own sinful thoughts, words and deeds. He wants us to be the people “who have turned the world upside down.” (Acts 17:6)

It is not normal to heal those who have come to harm you. It is not normal to forgive the friend who denied knowing you when you needed him the most. It is not normal to ask God to forgive the people who are in the very act of killing you. It is not normal to assure murderers of a place in heaven. Jesus was not normal. Go thou and do likewise.

Let us pray:

Lord God, heavenly Father, King of the universe,

we thank you for Luke's perspective on Jesus, our Messiah.

We thank you that he highlighted how different he is from the kings and rulers of this world.

We thank you that he showed us how to live.

We thank you that he died for us.

We thank you for raising him to new life.

And we thank you for raising us to new life in him.

Help us to renounce all rights to ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow him.

Help us to extend your invitation to the wedding feast of your son to all we encounter on the highways and byways of this life.

And when your son returns, may we be found doing the work our master gave us to do.

We ask all these things in the name of your son, our savior Jesus Christ,

and through the power of your Holy Spirit,

who live and reign with you, Father,

one God forever and ever.

Amen.