Luke 4:1-13

This passage is found in the RCL, Lent 1, Year C (Most recently: March 6, 2022)

Summary:  I'd like to propose an understanding of this reading that I think is fairly Lutheran.  (Shocking, I know).  I was struck by the idea that Jesus is full of the Spirit.  What does this mean?  It means he is filled with the Word in order to combat the devil.  The Word and the Spirit go together; to be Spiritual means you know the Word well enough that it becomes part of you, so that you might draw on it in time of temptation.

Pastoral note:  I think this is what sanctification actually looks like, that the Word has become so a part of us that we can actually draw on it.  In my experience, when people go through challenging times, the immediate reaction of the Christian is not much different than a pagan.  However, the Christian, when she or he hears the promise, either in a verse or hymn, has something resonate in his or her soul that revives them.  The pagan does not. The Word, like daily bread, has a shelf life, but it also eventually converts itself into muscle that can be called on for great strength.

Key Words
πληρης ("filled", 4.1)  This adjective means filled.  This is straight forward; interestingly the only other time in Luke's Gospel this word occurs it refers to someone filled with leprosy.  Also interesting is that leprosy normally entailed banishment, which is what Jesus is suffering here in the wilderness.  Even without the leprosy connection, Luke and the synoptic Gospels make it clear: to be baptized means to be led by the Spirit which entails confronting evil.  Once again, we see how in Scripture the Spirit and Word work together.

αγω ("lead", 4.1, 9)  Intensifying this connection between the work of the Spirit into confronting evil:  The Spirit "leads" Jesus into the wilderness; later, the Devil "leads" Jesus to a high mountain

πειραζω ("tempt", 4.2)  but really:  "μενος" (this is not a word, but is the ending of a word.  Greek participles are complicated, but when you see this five letter suffix, you know you have an present, passive participle; 4.2.)  In this case, the verb for "tempt" is a present, passive participle. This means two things. First, that the temptation was on-going. Second, because "being tempted" is a present participle, this action occurred concurrently with the action of the main verb.  In this case the main or governing verb is "being led" by the Spirit.  (which is a passive and imperfect verb). So while he is continually being led by the Spirit, he is continually being tempted by the Devil. The two are on-going and concurrent actions.

Further, the word here for "test" (4.12) is essentially the same word as tempt (the word has a little preposition to intensify its meaning). Jesus here tells the Devil to stop tempting him basically -- do not put the Lord, ie, me, to the test!

παραδιδομι ("betray" or "give over", 4:6)  The word for "given over" is paradido-mi, which also means "handed over" as in "betrayed."  This suggests that perhaps the devil is not fully honest in his description that all things have been handed over to him.  If they have, it is through betrayal, where people thought they gained someone for themselves only to have the devil take it back.

Grammar:  Since you are the son of God!

ει ("if" or "since", 4:3) The Greek for "if" here (ει) does not necessary translate as "if." Normally, the decision to translate "ει" as "if" or "since" depends on the mood of the verb; if the corresponding verb is indicative, then one translates it as "since." In this sentence, the corresponding verb, "to be" is in the indicative. This means "if" could, if not should, read "Since you are the son of God..."

Another grammar tid-bit:
4:4 "Man does not live by bread alone." Interesting here is that the Greek takes this Hebrew imperfect (which connotes it as on-going or future) and puts it in the future: "Man will not live by bread alone." Making it a promise more than a given reality!

Luke 9:28-36 (Transfiguration)

This passage is found in the  Revised Common Lectionary on Transfiguration Sunday, Year C (Most recently:  February 27, 2022)  The Roman Catholic church does not celebrate Transfiguration at this time.

Summary:  The Greek gives one license to drive this sermon in just about any Scriptural direction one's heart desires.  It is all there -- Baptism, end times, resurrection, even the Exodus.  The inclusion of Elijah and Moses already suggested this, but the Greek allows for all sorts of connections!

Key words that are unique to Luke's account:

οκτω ("eight"; 9:28)  In the early church, the 8th day was significant because it was the day on which the resurrection and hence all Christian worship, was celebrated.  In modern times, we often think we worship on the 7th day, but really, we worship on the 8th day!  That the transfiguration happened on the 8th day.  In this way, Luke points us toward the resurrection.  A possible sermon:  Our baptismal charism is the ability to see resurrection where others see death!?

προσευχομαι ("pray"; 9:28)  Jesus prays quite a bit in Luke's Gospel, far more than in the other gospels.  (Curiosity:  Although he does pray in John's Gospel, the word is never used!)  In fact, in Luke's Gospel, Jesus is praying as the heavens are opened in his baptism.  Jesus prays other times too, but these are unique to Luke's Gospel.  This suggests that for Luke, there is a connection between prayer, baptism and the gates of heaven being opened for us.

εξαστραπτω ("shone brightly"; 9:29) The Greek for "brilliant" (his coat) has tucked within it the word "astra" like "astronomy." Jesus is bright like the stars. Interestingly, the only other place this word appears in the whole Bible is Ezekiel and Daniel, whose passages are filled with "end-times" language.  (One could argue that Luke suggests the person seen by Daniel in Daniel 10 is a pre-incarnate Jesus; that perhaps the one riding the chariot in Ezekiel is also Jesus!)  Even if that is too much, this a reminder that transfiguration has an eschatological bent -- it is the future breaking in.  When it looks like the past, that is simply because the future broke in then as well.

What is worth noting is that the word transformation (μεταμορφοω) is not used in Luke's Gospel (as opposed to Matthew and Mark.  Jesus face just became "other" (ετερον, literally "hetero.")

εξοδος ("departure"; 9:31) The word for "departure" here is literally "exodus." Moses is talking with Jesus about Jesus' exodus.  A couple of points here:
- The term exodus is not accidental.  There are a number of other allusions to the original exodus:
They go up a mountain to encounter God (ορος 28); God's glory (δοξη 31) appears in a cloud (νεφελη 34) through which a voice appears; the humans seek to build a tent/tabernacle (σκηνας 33) to worship him.
- Jesus has just been preaching about his death and resurrection; so quickly turning to this event gives us permission to read the paschal mystery in light of the exodus!
- Is the Christian exodus more of a social/political exodus (leaving behind oppressive governmental systems) or is a spiritual exodus (away from the power of death and sin).  Both?  Regardless, it seems fair to understand Jesus mission within the context of the second book of the Bible, one of liberation.
- Jerusalem is the goal of this exodus.  Jesus will soon set his face toward there (9:53); he will be crucified, resurrected and ultimately glorified there.  Why is this so important to Luke?

Note:  For those hungry for some more morsels, I also have a previous post on this text http://lectionarygreek.blogspot.com/2010/02/luke-928-36.html

Luke 6:27-38

This passage occurs in the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, 7th Sunday of Epiphany, most recently February 20, 2022.  

Summary:  Books and books have been written about Jesus words here.  I unpack how Jesus uses the verb "love" here, which I think may open up some new preaching directions for those who feel they've been down this road before.  At the end of the day, I think Jesus is challenging the individuals and the whole community to love, I mean really...truly love, even those we don't want to love.

Words
αγαπάτε ("love", verses 6:27, 6:32, 6:35)  Most people reading this blog will be familiar with the various words for "love" in Greek and know that αγαπη refers to a "higher" love, the sustained and sacrificial love embodied by Jesus Christ.  If you want to preach on this word, consider at least two other points

1)  This word is used as a verb throughout this section.  In English "love" is the same word whether a verb or noun.  We likely miss the fact that Jesus offers "love" here as an action, not a concept.   Furthermore, αγαπάτε is a present tense verb, indicating the action is on-going.  So a better translation would be "Constantly engaging in the act of loving to your neighbors."  Love is not a concept here, love is an action.   The entire structure of Jesus mini sermon is verbs in command form, unpacking what it means to love:

Do 

Bless
Pray
Offer (cheek; metaphorically, vulnerability)
Do not stop (again, vulnerability)
Give
Lend & Do not ask for return
Do good

Be merciful

My sense is that almost any sermon can wax and wane poetically on loving and do to others...a good sermon will conclude with God's mercy for us...but I wonder if a sermon that really gets at what Jesus is trying to say will linger a bit on the verbs in this section. 

2) The verb is in the second person plural.  This means it is not necessarily directed to individuals but to the community.  In fact, this whole section is generally in the plural
* Back in verse 20 Luke indicates that Jesus is speaking to his disciples.  
* More importantly, nearly all of the other nouns and pronouns in this section are plural.  
In short, a more analytic translation of Jesus famous dictums would be:
"You all, keep loving, totally and sacrificially, your enemies, and likewise you all keep doing to those who keep hating you all."
"Just as you all are wishing that the people will keep doing to you all, you all are to keep doing to them likewise."

This is not to say that there isn't an individual component to this command.  Linguistically, 2nd person plural can refer to each individual in a group or the group as a whole.  Furthermore, Jesus switches to the 2nd person singular when talking about having your check hit.

I think this 2nd point, that the verb "love" is in the plural can be put into a sermon in two ways.  First, loving enemies is really hard.  Don't do it alone.  Second, Jesus isn't just calling us as individuals to think about our actions, but think about how we act as a whole body of disciples.

χαρις ("credit", 6:32, 33, 34)  This word is normally translated as "grace" or "gift."  Those words would make for very awkward English:  "What grace is that to you?"  But that is literally the translation!  This is brought home in verse 35, when Jesus talks about how God is good to the ungrateful and wicked.  The word for ungrateful is αχαριςτος, literally, without grace.  How haunting! 

What to make of this?  Perhaps Jesus just uses the word grace to mean credit.  But that seems odd, especially given the repeated use of the word.  I would offer that Jesus is suggesting that the root of love is grace, namely, God's grace to us.  As he concludes his argument, be merciful as God is merciful.

PS An an aside, I did some research on the use of prohibitions and negative commands.  I had always learned that a present tense negative imperative meant "to cease from current action."  But I am reading that in the last 20 years (the date of the texts I was using in Seminary) they've done more research and no longer think this is a helpful distinction.