Luke 9:28-36 (Transfiguration)

This passage is found in the  Revised Common Lectionary on Transfiguration Sunday, Year C (Most recently:  March 2, 2025)  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?

διαγρηγορήσαντες (from διαγρηγορέω; meaning "awake", 9:32)  This word is so long that one might be tempted to keep moving!  It comes from two words that are more common:  δια + εγειρω.  When you add δια to a word, it intensifies it.  They are thoroughly arisen.  Which is interesting then to read the verse: "After they had thoroughly arisen, they saw his glory."  Somehow, seeing Jesus in his glory requires a resurrection of us!

This to me is the crux of the preaching challenge I am experiencing in 2025.  People want a resurrection -- they want a sanctuary, a moment of peace and hope.  Yet we are called back into action in a very chaotic world - in Jesus' case, his exodus in Jerusalem.  How can worship on Sundays (and preaching) be something where people experience the sense of sanctuary AND equipping for the chaos?  Obviously, the sanctuary experience itself is equipping, but to what extent do we need to mention/discuss/resist even the events in the world?

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.

3)  2025 aside -- the second person plural form of the imperative and indicative are the same for this verb.  What does that mean?  Jesus may also be saying:  "You are loving your enemies."  My sense is that this "command" is a statement -- a promise -- of what God intends.  One day, we will love our enemies.  There is no other way for humanity to exist on earth...and definitely not in heaven!

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.

Luke 6:20-31 (Luke 6:17-26)

This passage occurs in Revised Common Lectionary for All Saints Sunday in year C, most recently November 2022.  A similar passage, Luke 6:17-26, also occurs in the RCL, year C, Epiphany, most recently February 16, 2025.
 
Summary:

You don’t need Greek to catch the big picture here: Jesus is turning the world upside down and is, well, happy about it!  The Greek helps us wrestle with the thornier issues of 
WHO are blessed;
WHEN are they blessed;
& WHAT does this blessing look like?

The Greek doesn’t change the radical nature of the passage but rather invites us into the rugged yet rejoicing terrain of Jesus’ thought.

A Warm up:

οχλος ("crowd", 6:17 and 6:19; embedded in a verb in 6:18)  The word means crowd in a pejorative way.  This is the riff-raff.  There is a strange verb in 6:18 (ενοχλεω) that means to cause trouble, giving a sense of the connotations around the word οχλο. 

καταβας (participle form of καταβαινω, meaning go down, 6:17).  It is worth pointing out that before he begins to preach to the masses, he goes down and then stands among them -- on a level playing field.  We've forgotten how to do this in the church, to go to people and meet them where they are.

επαρας (from επαιρω, meaning "lift up", 6:20).  Jesus did not simply look up, but he lifted his eyes into them. Luke begins this passage with emotional intensity!

Key Words:

μακάριος (‘blessed’ or ‘happy’: 6:20; 21; 22): The theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Spicq) helps us understand the striking nature of Jesus' use of this word.  After a long summary of the Greek understanding of what it means to be blessed (pretty much what average Americans think), the Lexicon finally reviews Jesus' words: “It is impossible to insist too strongly on the meaning of this μακάριος …This is much more than contentment; it is an interior joy that becomes external, elation translated into shouts, songs, and acclamation. …Secondly, the new faith implies a reversal of all human values; happiness is no longer attached to wealth, to having enough, to a good reputation, power, possessions of the goods of this world, but to poverty alone.”

οι πτωχοι ("the poor", 6:20).  Blessed are the poor. The Bible does not say, “Blessed are you who are poor.” It simply says, “Blessed are the poor.” I prefer talking about people as individuals first and adjectives second (the people who are poor vs the poor).  But it brings up the question here -- is Jesus talking about the individuals who are poor or the whole group?

πλουσίος (‘rich’; 6:24): Luke uses this word more times than the rest of the Gospels combined. Generally, Luke has a fairly negative attitude toward the rich, however, it would be unfair to say that Luke, or therefore Jesus, simply criticizes them. Zacchaeus, for example, is rich; Jesus comes to his house!  It is also hard to imagine that the rich does not include most of the people that listen on a Sunday to us.

οὐρανος (‘heaven’: 6:23): It might be tempting to think of heaven as a “state of being” rather than a place. However, in Luke’s Gospel, heaven is not simply a relationship or a state of the world, but a place. Luke uses the word 35 times, almost exclusively to refer to the dwelling place of God, and in a very concrete way, namely, the space above us.  According to Luke, Jesus is not saying:  Well, you will be poor but you will have me. Jesus is saying, you are suffering now but have a reward (μισθός) in heaven. But we will return to this point!

μισθός (‘wages’ or ‘reward’: 6:23 also 6:35). This word literally means pay, as in a worker receives his pay for a day’s work (Luke 10:7; Matthew 20:8).

A Classic Theological Translation Problem  

η βασιλεια του θεου (6:20)

η βασιλεια του θεου: “Kingdom of God” is tricky. The genitive case has a lot of possibilities. In English this ambiguity is preserved because the word “of” is ambiguous too. A few examples of possible translations:

a) “Kingdom belonging to God” (The house of my family)

b) “Kingdom from God” (Sound of water drops)

c) “Kingdom done by God” (Singing of a choir)

d) “Kingdom for God” (Love of money)

e) “Kingdom consisting of God” (as in “bag of money)

So, which is the right one?  First, we can leave it ambiguous, as almost every translator does:  “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

But we could translate a bit more boldly:  “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom from God.”  The poor are blessed as they receive the most important gift...which is perhaps given to them by faith!

Missing word:  'To Be'
In Greek, as in Hebrew, a sentence can occasionally lack a verb. For example, Psalm 25:8 is translated as, “Good and upright is the LORD.”  The Hebrew simply reads "Good-upright LORD."  Admittedly, Hebrew always seems to be missing words the English reader longs for. However, here Hebrew is simply putting the adjectives (good and upright) in predicate form. This is how grammar people, whose addiction to Latin is scary, describe the placement of the word “brown” in: “The cow is brown” instead of “The brown cow.” The point is that the author is saying that the rest of the stuff in the sentence (like in Psalm 25: Good and upright) describes the subject (God). Because of the rules of Hebrew, you don’t have to use a verb when you do this. You let the reader do the work.

Greek does this less frequently (far less frequently) but on occasion it still happens. In verse 6:23 we have such a construction:ιδου γαρ ο μισθος υηων πολυς εν τω ουρανω
or literally “Behold for your wages great in heaven.” A predicate adjective, meaning, the phrase “great in heaven” describes the wages (even though we lack the verb "is" or "will" or any form of "to be").

So has our grammar helped us derive meaning? Well, maybe. The point is that the wages are great and are in heaven. We know then, the WHAT (great) and the WHERE (in heaven). The question then is WHEN do we get them! The sentence grammar suggests they are in existence now.  But do we have access to them?

For those that think this is too much of a stretch, consider that almost all of the promises are in the future: blessed are those who weep, they will be comforted.  However, the Kingdom of God belongs to the poor now.  Yet, again, do they (we) have access to it?  And in what way?

Luke 5:1-11

This passage occurs in the Revised Common Lectionary, 5th Sunday of Epiphany (which doesn't necessarily happen every Epiphany).  Most recently, February 9, 2025

Summary:  This is a great metaphor for the Christian life:  Jesus interrupts our life.  Asks us to do something small for the Kingdom.  We agree.  Jesus then pushes us beyond our comfort zone, to go deep.  We balk.  We do it.  We discover the riches of God's love.  This works something deep in our soul where we are brought to our knees.  We rise, ready to serve.

2022 insight:  I also reading Scripture with more of an eye on the community.  In this story, the work of ministry is too big for Peter alone; he needs his friends, even though Jesus is speaking directly to him.  After all of the ministry, family and church changes in the past few years -- who are your partners?

Key words:
εμβας (from εμβαινω, meaning "embark", 5:3)  Let's be clear:  The movement here begins with Jesus.  Not us.  Jesus gets in the boat, even uninvited!  (Jesus gets in the boat, in fact, after Peter had left it!)

επαναγαγε (meaning "put out to see", 5:3,4)  Jesus commands Peter and the others twice to put out their boats. 

• The first putting out is: ολιγον (meaning "few" or little", 5:3).  
• The second time Jesus calls them to set their boats into the βαθος (meaning "deep," 5:1)
  

At first Jesus only asks for a bit of favor - a little movement!  The second time he asks them to take a risk.  The first time Jesus asks them to use what they have, in comfortable ways, for Jesus' purpose.  The second time, Jesus asks them to go a bit deeper -- less comfortable.  The word βαθος in Greek, like English, can refer simply to a physical measurement (something is deep), but also connotes a more mystical deepness, of something unknown and perhaps even unknowable (Psalm 69:2; Micah 7:19, 1 Cor 2:10 and Ephesians 3:18).  This seems a fitting metaphor for our life in Christ.  At first, we are asked to do something we know how to do, something we like to do, and then boom, we find ourselves pushed beyond our comfort zone, into the deep end of the pool!

ἐπιστάτα (vocative form of word meaning "master", 5:5)  It is only in Luke's Gospel that the disciples calls Jesus by this title.  In parallel stories in the other synoptics, Jesus is referred to as teacher.  While Luke indicates that Jesus is teaching (εδιδασκεν, 5:3), Jesus keeps with επιστατα.  Luke here seems to be suggesting a higher level of respect and admiration.  If I were translating this word, I would use "guru."  In ancient Greek επιστατα can mean "one who is set over, a commander, of a tutelary god, a president, steward of the games, a training-master."  (Liddell Scott)   BDAG also suggests this word is used as one would lead the student/mentee into virtue.  In short, this word might include teaching, but it is more of a moralistic if not wholistic teaching.  It describes one who is entrusted with the responsibility of a project, and that project might be our moral formation.  In short, when Peter calls Jesus this name, he is demonstrating great faith.  It is also worth noting that the confession that Jesus is κύριε (Lord), begins with Master.  Following Jesus may not begin with an all out acknowledgement of his divinity; this can happen as a later development.

It is also worth noting that Peter's confession of sin follows his witness of Jesus power and even after his obedience to Jesus.  Evangelism that begins with proclamation of wrath may not be the only way to bring a potential follower of Christ to his or her knees!

τα δικτυα (plural of "δικτυον" meaning "nets", 5:2, 4, 5, 6)  They are not cashing a fishing line; they are casting a net!  So, go fish!  Use your fishing metaphors, but don't use a fishing line.

χαλασατε (from χαλαω, meaning "drop nets", 5:4)  The word for "drop nets" means to "loosen."  In order to catch fish, they have to "loosen" their grip.  What ministry area are you holding on to too tightly?

μετοχοις (μετοχος, 5.7) and κοινωνοι (κοινωνος, 5.10)  Both of these words mean partner.  μετοχος comes from the Greek for "with-have"; the other, κοινωνος, comes up in other places in the New Testament in terms of fellowship.  

• Peter cannot do his work of fishing or ministry-fishing alone.  He needs others.  After this time of pandemic and ensuing reorientation, who are your partners?  (Also, note that the verbs in vs 5 and 6 are in the plural.  Someone else is in the boat already with Jesus!)
• Fellowship in Christian communities is also economic (Paul picks up on κοινωνος in his letters to the Corinthians)
  

ζωγρων (meaning "capture alive", 5:10)  It seems really strange here that would capture humans like fish.  Isn't Jesus about freedom and life?!  Jesus uses a different word than "fish"; he uses a word that means capture alive, as opposed to kill  In fact, in Ancient Greek, this word had two meanings:
1) to take alive, take captive instead of killing
2) to restore to life, revive
Jesus is interested in a live harvest!

παντα ("all", 5:9 and 5:11) A reminder that they left everything.  Worthy to reflect -- what did they leave and what did they leave behind?  For Peter, he seems to have left behind his guilt and shame!