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THE PENTATEUCH

GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS 1.1-7.38 --- 8.1-11.47 --- 12.1-16.34--- 17.1-27.34--- NUMBERS 1-10--- 11-19--- 20-36--- DEUTERONOMY 1.1-4.44 --- 4.45-11.32 --- 12.1-29.1--- 29.2-34.12 --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- PSALMS 1-17--- ECCLESIASTES --- ISAIAH 1-5 --- 6-12 --- 13-23 --- 24-27 --- 28-35 --- 36-39 --- 40-48 --- 49-55--- 56-66--- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL 1-7 ---DANIEL 8-12 ---

NAHUM--- HABAKKUK---ZEPHANIAH ---ZECHARIAH --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- 1 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-16 --- 2 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-13 -- -GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS 1-6 --- 7-10 --- 11-13 --- JAMES --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- REVELATION

--- THE GOSPELS

Commentary on Luke's Gospel

By Dr Peter Pett BA BD (Hons-London) DD

Introduction.

When I was teaching in a comprehensive school in England I was once called on to take a class of fifth formers for a one off RE (Religious Education) class. They greeted me quite cynically on my arrival, although with no hostility, and made it quite clear that they thought that religion was purely speculative. What grounds, they asked, could there ever possibly be for accepting it? And besides, there was no proof that Jesus ever existed. They were not interested in anything that I had to say.

So I commenced by saying, ‘well, let us look at the facts’. At least that brought a reaction. Their instant (and totally expected) reply was, ‘there are no facts. It is all just people’s beliefs’. To this I replied, ‘OK. I will write a fact on the board and you can then tell me whether it is a fact or not.’ I then proceeded to write on the board, ‘The Gospels exist.’ Of course they immediately began to say that that did not prove anything, but I pointed out that I was not suggesting that it proved anything about the Gospels (that is discovered by reading them sympathetically). All I wanted them to agree to was that they did exist. At last I got them to admit that it was true. In the end they admitted that whether they contained truth or not, they did exist. After all I had a copy of them with me. There was the first fact.

I then went on to point out that those Gospels contained teaching which was universally admired around the world. Wherever they reached the teaching within them was acknowledged by most thinking people, if not all, to be that of a ‘master’, indeed, a moral genius. This was not disputable. This too was a fact. They now had two facts. I then asked them where that teaching had come from. It had not existed in the previous century, and yet here it was suddenly arising in 1st century AD. What then was its source? Either we had to posit a number of moral geniuses who all wrote at the same time and pretended that what they wrote was spoken by someone else, (a unique event in the history of the world), or we had to posit that there was one moral genius of whose teaching they all wrote. One thing was sure it was not the production of a committee. Such unique gems do not result from committees. And had anyone even begun to manipulate it, its moral genius would have been lost. We know we have the genuine teaching of Jesus because if it had not been recorded accurately it would have been obviously spoiled. So now we had the fact that in 1st century AD there walked this earth a unique figure whose teaching is contained within the Gospels.

Then I pointed out that it did not matter what name we gave him. All we needed to see was that within that teaching that living genius had made claims that in any but a madman would be impossible. He had claimed to be the unique and only Son of God (e.g. 20.1-18), and that although He would leave this world through death He would one day come in glory to gather those who were His to be with Him for ever. Now such a claim could be made by a religious fanatic or a madman. But this was no religious fanatic or madman. He was surrounded by religious fanatics, and He alone remained calm. Every word He spoke revealed sanity and moral purity and perfection. Read His teaching for yourself. If He was not sane, no one was. This too was a fact, for these teachings were not just added on, they were interwoven within all His teaching. They were an essential part of it.

So now they had three facts where previously they had had none, firstly that the Gospels exist, secondly that they contain a moral teaching second to none spoken by someone who actually lived by them, and thirdly that He claimed that He had uniquely come from God, was looked at uniquely by God, and that He had come to fulfil God’s will in a unique way. We will see more of this in the Gospel.

Thus I left them to think about something that they had never realised before. There were facts and they needed to think on them. And that is what the Gospel of Luke is all about. If you are not already a believer read it carefully and ask yourself, ‘From where did this man have these things? Who was He’. For Luke is not just a history, it is a living reproduction. And it reveals Someone Who was ‘out of this world’. And for your own sake, not for mine, you need to ensure that you come to the right conclusion about Him.

The Construction of the Gospel.

As with Acts which is its second instalment, Luke’s Gospel appears to be carefully constructed. Luke says that he wrote his Gospel ‘in order’. And that is certainly true for it is split into eight sections, beginning at the commencement of His life and ending with His death, each of which ends with a final telling phrase which can stand by itself. These phrases are as follows;

Each of the sections which are closed by these statement follow a chiastic pattern, a pattern favoured both by the Hebrews and the Greeks, bringing out and emphasising the central point in each passage. These central points are as follows:

  • a Jesus is born in Bethlehem among the domestic animals, being laid in a manger (where He is proclaimed Saviour and Lord Messiah) (2.1-7).
  • b As the Son of God Jesus faces His temptations as to what His Messiahship will involve and defeats the Tempter (4.1-13)
  • c Jesus proclaims in parables concerning the secrets of the Kingly Rule of God (8.1-18).
  • d Jesus teaches His Disciples the Lord’s Prayer for the evangelisation of the world and deliverance from the trial to come (11.1-4).
  • d The crooked woman is healed on the Sabbath, for Jesus has come to release from Satan’s power and introduce God’s rest (13.10-17).
  • c After first being rejected The Son of Man will be revealed in glory (the Kingly Rule of God is openly revealed) (17.22-24).
  • b In the parable of the vineyard Jesus reveals Himself as the only Son (20.9-18).
  • a Jesus is crucified in Jerusalem among thieves where He is declared to be ‘the King of the Jews’, the Messiah (23.26-34).

Thus, whatever other emphases we discover in Luke, in his central themes he parallels the other Gospels, themes which apart from the account of the crooked woman are found also in those Gospels.

Note how in ‘a’ He is born in Bethlehem, because He is in the line of David, and yet is born among the lowly (and is proclaimed King by the shepherds), while in the parallel He dies in Jerusalem (becuase He is in the line of the prophets) among the lowly, but is proclaimed King of the Jews. In ‘b’ His Sonship is revealed in His conflict with Satan, in the parallel it is revealed in His conflict with men. In ‘c’ the secrets of the kingly Rule of God are proclaimed, and in the parallel the Kingly Rule of God is openly revealed. In ‘d’ the disciples are taught to pray for God’s deliverance to be revealed on behalf of His people, and for Satan to be thwarted and in the parallel the crooked woman, symbolic of God’s people, is delivered and Satan is thwarted.

Each of these sections of Luke can now be analysed as follows:

SECTION 1.

The Birth of the Messiah: The Birth of John and Jesus (1-2).