Luke 7 - God's Justice, Jesus' Way

There’s something rather special about some fly on the wall documentaries as they give you an insight into what goes on behind the scenes.  That was definitely the case recently in a fly on the wall documentary about Canterbury Cathedral.  The actual fly on the wall who spent a year with camera and microphone in hand was our own David Waters.  Then someone else did the editing of all the hours of recording David had done to order it into four hour-long documentaries.

After spending a year with us as a Time for God Volunteer David went on to study Theology at Durham University and then on to work at the BBC where he has worked on such programmes as Songs of Praise, Blue Peter.  One of the first programmes he worked on as a researcher was a series on the Miracles of Jesus.

It was fascinating talking to David as the programmes were being made and then to see the finished product – not only in its British version for the BBC, but also in its American version for an American Audience.

Each programme was the same on both sides of the Atlantic except for the voice-over … and more than that for the approach the ‘link-person’ made.

For the American audience the links through each episode involved a street magician and the question the voice-over came back to repeatedly was ‘are the miracles’ just a magic stunt, or is there something more going on?

You might have thought as a fully paid up member of the Cotswold Magical Society that I would have loved that approach.  I didn’t.  I cringed.  It seemed to me to miss the point entirely of the Gospel miracles.

I was much more drawn to the BBC’s more staid approach for the British audience.  They employed a BBC journalist who had done a lot of reporting in the Middle East to give a much more sober and reflective link to the each of the episodes.  As an investigative journalist his quest was to find out what was really going on behind the miracles of the Gospels.

That approach resonates with the approach Luke takes in the writing of his Gospel.

At the very outset he explains what he is doing.

Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.

Luke draws on other sources, many of whom are eye-witnesses, and then he organises all he has researched and give it an order – and the whole process has a purpose.   It's rather as if Luke is the editor working on the all the footage shot by those eye-witnesses and others who had put the story together before.

It is so that the Gentile Theophilus, or any ‘Theo – philos, Friend of God’ may know the truth concerning the things about which they have been instructed.

What is meant by ‘the truth’ in that sentence, I wonder?

Does Luke want to make sure that his readers know the exact actuality of everything that happened?   There’s an element of that, it seems to me.

But there’s something more going on in that introduction too.

He wants his readers to know the truth, the significance, the meaning of everything that he is recording.

It’s the same enterprise as that documentary series on the Miracles in its British version.

There’s a very real sense in which Luke works as the maker of a fly-on-the-wall documentary maker.  He draws on the work of a number of people who had been there – those were the David Waters’s with microphone and camera in hand, as it were.

Luke follows his source Mark, and shares common ground with Matthew, in making a very strong link between John the Baptist and the message he shares and the message Jesus takes up once John the Baptist has been imprisoned.

As Jesus takes up the mantle from John and begins his ministry in Luke 4 Luke tells us that ‘he began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

That’s not enough for Luke, however, he gives us the opportunity to be a fly on the wall in one of those synagoguegs and to hear what Jesus had to say.

And so in Luke 4:16-30 we join Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth.  It is as if for Luke this occasion encapsulates the mission Jesus had begun to undertake, it summed up his message.

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

   because he has anointed me

     to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

   and recovery of sight to the blind,

     to let the oppressed go free,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

The people are ‘amazed at the words of grace that come from his mouth’ … but their amazement turns to rage when Jesus tells two stories to throw light on exactly who the poor, the blind, the captives are who are to receive this good news.

The expectation of the people was that it would be for us and our poor, for us and our captives, for us and our blind.  And definitely not ‘for them’ – the Gentiles, the Roman powers that with the Herodians were oppressing the people.

Jesus told the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, the Gentile from Sidon,, and the story of Elisha and Naaman the Syrian, the Gentile leprosy suffer who was healed.

When they heard this all in the synagogue were filled with rage and got up and drove him out of the town.

But of course Jesus passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

He heals hurting people and proclaims the good news of the Kingdom of God throughout the land – for this, says, Jesus is what he had come to do.

He draws others into the enterprise – it’s something worth passing on, fishermen, Levi one of the hated Publicani caught up in the Roman state’s oppressive ways, and then from all those disciples he appoints twelve to be sent out and pass the message on.

And what is the message they are to pass on?  Again, it’s as if Luke draws on a fly-on-the-wall documentary maker and he gives us a glimpse of Jesus the teacher at work in the wonderful Sermon on the Plain, Luke’s condensed version of the Sermon on the Mount.

It’s hard hitting stuff … exactly in keeping with the original message in Luke 4.

‘Blessed are you who are poor,

   for yours is the kingdom of God.

21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,

   for you will be filled.

‘Blessed are you who weep now,

   for you will laugh.

24 ‘But woe to you who are rich,

   for you have received your consolation.

25 ‘Woe to you who are full now,

   for you will be hungry.

‘Woe to you who are laughing now,

   for you will mourn and weep.

It’s about loving your neighbour … and it’s about loving your enemy too.

It’s powerful stuff – worth passing on.

How can you be sure?

How can we know the truth of the matter?

What’s going on?

The thing is in the way Luke is unfolding this story what’s interesting in chapter 7 is not so much whether what Jesus does involved magical healings.  What’s interesting is the significance of what’s going on.

This is what interested the makers of David’s documentary series on the Miracles.  It’s what interested Luke in telling his Gospel story.

From the sermon on the plain Luke moves straight on to tell at similar length two Miracle Stories.

But notice what’s going on here.

Back in Nazareth in Chapter 4 Jesus told two stories – one was about Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, the Gentile woman, and the other was about Naaman the Commander of the Syrian army who was suffering from leprosy.

After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. 3When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. 4When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, ‘He is worthy of having you do this for him, 5for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.’ 6And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, ‘Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; 7therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. 8For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, “Go”, and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this”, and the slave does it.’ 9When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, ‘I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.’ 10When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

The whole point of this story is the way Jesus does exactly as Elisha had done with Naaman, the Gentile, Syrian army commander.  Jesus brings healing to the household of this army commander, this Roman centurion.

Jesus is amazed to such an extent that he says, ‘I tell you not even in Israel have I found such faith.

Jesus is doing exactly as Elisha had done.

Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain and his disciples and a large crowd went with him.

11 Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. 12As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. 13When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ 14Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, rise!’ 15The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us!’ and ‘God has looked favourably on his people!’ 17This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

You can track through the story of the raising of the widow’s son at Nain and it runs parallel with the raising of the widow’s son in Zarephath.  Something that’s explored in David’s documentary marvellously.

It’s as if Jesus is putting into action that sermon in Nazareth and bringing healing to the Gentile world in exactly the way Elisha and Elijah before him had done.

What’s fascinating is the reaction of the crowd.  Such an event doesn’t prove the divinity of Jesus – that was not at stake.

By Luke 7:16 the crowds recognise exactly what’s going on.  Jesus has taken up the mantle of that wonderful line of prophets stretching back through John the Baptist, through Isaiah to Elisha and to Elijah

they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us!’

What’s more – this really is the breaking in on of the year of God’s favour for they went on to say,

‘God has looked favourably on his people!’

It’s at this point that we cut back to John the Baptist.

Messengers come from John the Baptist.  John is in prison and he wants to know whether it’s happening.

18 The disciples of John reported all these things to him.

John’s disciples report what’s going on.

And John wants to know what really is going on.

So John summoned two of his disciples 19and sent them to the Lord to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’

That’s the burning question for John the Baptist.

20When the men had come to him, they said, ‘John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” ’

Luke builds up the tension by repeating the question in full.

21Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. 22And he answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. 23And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.’

That’s the measure.

This is the program.

This is what it takes to be that one, the one who ushers in the kingdom.

This is what it is about.

This is what’s worth passing on.

It’s no flash in the pan.

As Luke’s gospel unfolds this is the heart of the message.

24 When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? 25What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who put on fine clothing and live in luxury are in royal palaces. 26What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27This is the one about whom it is written,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

   who will prepare your way before you.”

28I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.’

There’s a choice here.

This is the crux of the matter.

It is all about the justice of God.

29(And all the people who heard this, including the tax-collectors, acknowledged the justice of God, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism. 30But by refusing to be baptized by him, the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves.)

31 ‘To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32They are like children sitting in the market-place and calling to one another,

“We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;

   we wailed, and you did not weep.”

33For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, “He has a demon”; 34the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” 35Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.’

This is the way of the kingdom.

These are the values of the kingdom.

This is what it’s all about.

This is for John the clincher.

This is ‘the truth concerning the things about which we have been instructed’.

These are the values of the kingdom – this is what it takes when God’s rule is made real in the world, when God’s kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven, when God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is what we need to be on the look out for among those who would exercise rule over us as an election approaches.  That's what the House of Bishops were seeking to do in their letter to electors that really is worth reading in the original and not in the press summaries.  That's what Vincent Nichols was saying on the Radio this morning the Roman Catholics are doing as they put together questions to ask of candidates at the election.  That's what The Methodists, the URC and the Baptists are doing as they prepare their pack for churches.  That's what we will be doing at the Hustings meeting we shall be holding on 25th April when we get the opportunity from the churches to question our candidates.

This is the measure of what we should look for from those who would seek to govern in our country ...

God’s justice.

Healing for hurting people who are at their worst.

Acceptance of the outsider.

Good news for the poor.