 |
| from the catacombs of Rome fourth cent. |
Reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings, one finds many characters, such as Gandalf or Aragorn,
who are not always who they seem. They are mysterious and multidimensional
personalities, but if their whole being was not, eventually, revealed in the
stories, the stories would not qualify to be truth as it is understood by
Tolkien.[1]
Jesus, who is Truth, is multidimensional, he is teacher and prophet and king.
But above all he is God incarnate and Lord of the Church.
Judy Yates Siker, author of the Presbyterian Women’s 2016-2017
Bible Study, “Who is Jesus? : What a
Difference a Lens Makes,” in the lesson “According to Luke” focuses mainly
on Luke 4:16-30. This is the story of Jesus’ reading prophetic texts in the
synagogue in Nazareth. He speaks of himself as the fulfillment of those words,
which combine some of Isaiah 61 and 58.[2]
Siker sees Luke presenting Jesus as God’s prophet. And yet, although he is a prophet like Moses,
(see Dt. 18:15 & Acts 7:35-37), in Luke, as in the other gospels, he is so
much more.
Siker, looking at Luke 4:16-30 including Jesus’ rejection by
the people of Nazareth, writes:
‘This, in a nutshell, is the story of Jesus in Luke, a prophet
of God, rejected by his own, as so many other prophets of old had been
rejected. What we see here, and what we will see throughout the Gospel of Luke,
is a Jesus who comes in line with the prophets who have come before him and
whose ministry reaches (eventually) beyond the Jews to the Gentiles. While this
doesn’t happen in Luke’s Gospel as much as in Acts, Luke uses the story of
Jesus as a prophet to carry the story from the Hebrew Bible to Jesus and the
Church.”
Siker uses her focus on Jesus as prophet to emphasize his
ministry to the outsider, the poor, the oppressed, the Gentile. This is not
wrong. Jesus came to minister to broken people. He came to save sinners, But
Jesus, in Luke, is more than the prophet of God. In fact, E. Earle Ellis in his
commentary points out that in the ninth chapter of Luke, the transfiguration,
God rebukes Peter because he equates Jesus with Moses and Elijah. Suggesting
that they build a booth for all three.[3]
Instead, God states, “This is my Son, My chosen One, listen to
him.”
These are the words that truly clarify “who Jesus is” in the
gospel of Luke. Additionally, the prophet John, as his father Zacharias states,
goes before the Lord, to prepare his way. (1:76) The angel’s words to Mary should be added, “He
will be great and be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will
give him the throne of his father David; and he will reign over the house of
Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end.” (1:32-33)
Of the words that Jesus appropriates for himself in the Isaiah
texts, at one point amid the skeptics at Nazareth who question why Jesus has
not performed any signs among them, Ellis writes:
“The original perspective of Isaiah’s prophecy was deliverance
from political oppression. Its messianic fulfillment has a much vaster scope.
It is a personal and cosmic deliverance from the power of sin and of death.
Demonic possession and sickness are visible manifestations of these powers.
Therefore the ‘signs’ of Jesus’ ministry are pre-eminently exorcism and
healing.”
Siker ends her study with reference to a text with which she uses
to begin that part of her study that focuses on the question ‘who is Jesus.’
It is part of Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:22-24; 32-36. It
contains the reference to the Psalm where David states, “The Lord
said to my Lord. ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your
footstool.” It also contains the end of
Peter’s sermon, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that
God has made him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.” This is
who Jesus is.
Without commenting on Peter’s words except to say that Luke
also uses this to answer the question of who Jesus is, Siker writes that she
will return to the text at the end of her study. This is what she writes at the end of her study:
“Because we are able to see the rest of the story in the book
of Acts, we have a picture of Jesus that is fuller in many ways than in the
other Gospels. Here, as the disciples gather at Pentecost (Acts 2) we are able
to see how, according to Luke, God keeps God’s promise to Israel and pours out
upon the disciples (Now Apostles!) God’s spirit.
This is the same spirit that came
upon Mary, that animated Jesus throughout his ministry, that brought healing
and compassion to the outcast, that Jesus
gave up to God at his death and that now has been poured out by the risen
Jesus upon his followers (and us).”(Italics mine)
Siker goes on to write of our continuing ministry to the
outcast, as she puts it, “this prophetic ministry of preaching the good news of
inclusion of the outcast, this challenging message to all insiders to be
attentive to the outsiders among us.”
In these statements are several problems. The first is that
Siker returns to the text that points to Jesus as Lord, but doesn’t comment on
the identification. One problem may be editorial, but it is none the
less a problem. If Siker is speaking of the ‘spirit’ as the Holy Spirit then Spirit
should be capitalized because the Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the
Trinity.
One problem is a muddle. Siker says the ‘spirit’ is the same ‘spirit’
“that Jesus gave up to God at his death.”
That is where Jesus states, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
That is not the Holy Spirit. It simply
means that Jesus gave up his life. Augustine put it this way, “He gave up his
life because he willed it, when he will it, and as he willed it.”[4]
The final problem is the dismal process of reducing the good news
to news of inclusion and a wariness that insiders not neglect outsiders. It is
certainly true that the good news brings the wanderer home. And it is true that
we all must be attentive to those who are on the margins of society. But this
is not the good news. The good news is that Jesus Christ, who is fully human
and fully God, entered our human world to live for us, die for us and be
resurrected. Because of his love we who had no hope, no forgiveness, no joy,
now hope in Christ Jesus, are forgiven by him and live in his joy. We have the
promise of forever in his presence.
[2] E. Earle Ellis, The
New Century Bible Commentary; The Gospel of Luke, reprint (Grand Rapids: Wm. B.
Eerdmans 1991)
[3]Ibid.
Ellis, Century, 143.
[4]
Found in Vincent’s Word Studies of the
New Testament, Synoptic Gospels, reprint of 1886 (Mclean, Virginia: McDonald Publishing Company
no date) 145.
