Luke 12:
Life-Styles of an Apocalyptic Commune
During the summer and autumn of every third year (Year C,
2019, 2022, etc.), users of the Revised Common Lectionary hear a lot of Gospel
readings from the middle chapters of the Gospel According to Luke. This section of Luke is often called the
“Travel” or “Journey” narrative, and it has been surprising, puzzling, and
confusing to scholars for over a century.
Three of the Lectionary readings in August 2019 were from Luke 12, near
the center of this Travel narrative. As
I meditated these readings this year, I had a kind of epiphany about this
chapter. I share my conclusions in this
little study.
Two Big-Picture Issues around Luke 12:
1. Luke’s “Travel Narrative”
2.
The Apocalyptic Jesus
I begin with a discussion of the
“Travel Narrative” as background to Luke 12.
I will save the topic of the Apocalyptic Jesus to the end, to briefly
relate my conclusions about Luke 12 to this 20th century issue
concerning the “historical Jesus.”
Outline of this Essay
Luke’s Travel Narrative
The Extent of the Travel narrative
The Content of the Travel narrative
Luke 12 – What’s in
It?
1.
Seven Sayings in Twelve Verses, 12:1-12
2.
Parable of the Rich Fool, 12:13-21
3.
The Do Not Worry Speech, 12:22 -31
4.
You Get the Kingdom, So Sell Everything, 12:32 -34
5.
Be Prepared for the Lord’s Coming, 12:35-40
6.
Who Is the Prudent Manager…?, 12:41 -48
7.
I Came to Bring Fire…, 12:49 -53
8.
Signs of the Time…, 12:54-59
The Apocalyptic
Jesus
What is the Apocalyptic Jesus?
From John the Baptist to the Church
Luke’s Travel Narrative.
In its broadest outline, most
scholars would agree that the Gospel According to Luke is structured in six
major parts:
- The birth stories of John the Baptist and Jesus, chapters 1-2.
- Jesus’ ministry in and around Galilee, roughly chapters 3-9.
- Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, roughly chapters 10-18 or 19 (see below).
- Jesus’ actions, controversies, and teachings in Jerusalem, chapters 20-21.
- The Passion narrative in Luke, chapters 22-23.
- The Risen Jesus, chapter 24.
(In addition, it
should be remembered that “Luke” also wrote the sequel to this Gospel, the
scroll called Acts of the Apostles. The
two works share writing styles, continuity of story line, and overall religious
perspective.)
The Extent of the Travel narrative.
The beginning of
the Travel narrative is clear:
“When the days drew
near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem”
(Luke 9:51 , NRSV).
Where the Travel
narrative ends is not so clear, and there is an array of scholarly
opinions.
There is no
itinerary followed in chapters 10 to 18.
Jerusalem is mentioned a
couple of times, but there is in fact no travel narrated. It is allegedly a long and varied journey,
but one that does not in fact get anywhere – until maybe Luke 18:15. In the Galilean part of the Gospel (chapters
3-9), Luke mostly followed the outline of events given in Mark’s Gospel. In the Travel narrative no material is common
to Luke and Mark until Luke 18:15. There
Mark shows up again as a source followed by Luke. Thus some scholars end the Travel
narrative there.
However, Jesus has
definitely NOT arrived at Jerusalem
yet in Luke 18. He spends some time in
Jericho (the Zacchaeus story, 19:1-10) before finally arriving at the Mount of
Olives on the east side of Jerusalem, which he does at 19:28. Here at last, many scholars think, the
“journey” to Jerusalem is
completed!
However, it
is not commonly recognized that while Luke does have a “triumphal entry” story,
it is NOT INTO JERUSALEM! Jesus arranges a big show, a grand parade, on
the Mount of Olives (which is across a deep valley from
the city), but the parade stays there:
As he rode along,
people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.
As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of
Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God
joyfully and with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen,
saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest
heaven!” (19:36-38.)
Then, after all that
and a brief argument with the Pharisees,
“As he came near
and saw the city, he wept over it…” and went on to lament Jerusalem’s
coming destruction, “because you did not recognize the time of your visitation
from God” (19:41 -44).
ONLY THEN, after the
show and lament on the Mount of Olives, do we hear,
“Then he entered the temple…”
Understand that he
entered from the east (the Mount of Olives), where a
major gate went directly into the temple, so entering the temple is also
entering the city. (See the geography
presented in Psalm 118, the “Hosanna” psalm chanted by the people for Jesus’
triumphal entry in Mark and Matthew.)
Thus, if we follow
Luke very strictly, the “Travel” to Jerusalem
does not really end until Luke 19:44.
Many recent commentators on Luke have recognized this and give the total
extent of the “Travel narrative” as Luke 9:51
to 19:44 .
The Content of the Travel narrative.
As mentioned above, the Travel
narrative has no organization by geography, by chronology, or by topic. The geographical references are so careless
that at 17:11 (after 7 chapters of
the “journey”) we hear, “On the way to Jerusalem
Jesus was going through the region between Samaria
and Galilee.” “…[T]he region between Samaria
and Galilee”? Not
only would this be at the very beginning of the journey, it’s equivalent to
saying he was in no-man’s-land. There
was no “region between Samaria and Galilee,”
only a border. No other geographical
references in the Travel narrative are much clearer. The “journey” is not about geography – nor is
it about stages in an itinerary nor about a logical sequence of teaching
topics.
Therefore, most scholars
recognize that the “travel/journey narrative” is a literary device for
collecting a vast amount of very diverse and very interesting teachings of
Jesus.
The journey is a depository of
materials not found in Mark, though about half of the teaching in the Travel
narrative is also found in Matthew.
(This is the Q Sayings Source in critical scholarship, an early
collection of mostly Jesus teachings known to both Matthew and Luke, though
each used it quite differently.) The remaining
material is found only in Luke, with no parallels in Matthew or Mark – materials
scholars label “L.”
Many of Luke’s best parables are
in this collection – Good Samaritan, the Rich Fool, Prodigal Son, Rich Man and
Lazarus, Widow and the non-God-fearing judge, to mention a few. The greater part of Luke’s hard sayings
about wealth are here (the prohibition against possessions, 12:33 ; 14:33 ;
the dishonest manager, 16:1-8; the rich ruler and the eye of the needle, 18:18 -25).
Also teachings about prayer (including the Lord’s prayer), casting out
demons by Beelzubul, woes on the Pharisees, no anxiety about food and clothing
(consider the lilies), the sudden coming of the day of the son of man.
While teachings predominate, there
are some events, such as the mission of the seventy-two disciples (chapter 10)
and the Zacchaeus episode (19:1-10).
Many scholars have not resisted
the challenge to find an order or pattern in these diverse materials, of
course. Various theories of chiastic
structures – envelope structures of A-B-C-D-C’-B’-A’ with many convolutions –
have been proposed. One theory has it
that Luke created a Christian scroll of Deuteronomy, in this section, with
teachings corresponding to a sequence of topics found in the Old Testament
book. None of these theories has gained
any significant following among critical scholars, and they will not be
discussed here.
Luke 12 – What’s In It?
Scholars have been reluctant to
deal seriously with Luke 12 as a unit.
They mostly view it as a series of sayings or collections of sayings –
often with connecting links of common words or themes, but not a sustained
discourse. In this they are basically
right; it is not a sustained discourse.
However, I will argue that the sequence of passages has a
systematic coherence, the basic message of which is expressed in my
title for this chapter.
There is not much controversy
about the main parts of the chapter, though there are differences about exactly
where to divide some parts.
- Verses 1-12, Seven Sayings in Twelve Verses (my title; see below).
- Verses 13-21, Parable of the Rich Fool.
- Verses 22-31, Do Not Worry speech. (Some include verse 32 here.)
- Verses 32-34, You get the kingdom, so sell everything. (Often merged with verses 22-31.)
- Verses 35-40, Be prepared for the Lord's coming ("Keep your lamps trimmed and burning").
- Verses 41-48, Who is the prudent manager…? (Sometimes merged with verses 35-40.)
- Verses 49-53, I came to bring fire (division), not peace.
- Verses 54-59, Signs of the times and coming to terms before judgment.
Many commentators continue chapter
12 to include 13:1-9, since there is no new heading at the beginning of chapter
13. I don't find this satisfactory. I think chapter 13 is
a self-contained unit (a mini-gospel in its own right).
I will now examine each of the
successive parts of the chapter.
1. Seven Sayings in Twelve Verses (12:1-12).
Most scholars recognize that this passage
is made up of a group of originally independent sayings. This is not a single sustained
discourse. Many, however, view the
sayings as designed to support a particular theme, such as avoiding hypocrisy,
faithfulness in persecution, encouragement to make public witness, or
fearlessness in the face of martyrdom. In
their commentaries they give this section titles expressing one or another of
these themes.
All of these sayings are also
found in Matthew. Here is the list:
Saying
1. Luke 12:1 is similar to Matthew 16:6.
Saying
2. Luke 12:2-3 is similar to Matthew 10:26-27.
Saying
3. Luke 12:4-5 is similar to Matthew 10:28.
Saying
4. Luke 12:6-7 is similar to Matthew 10:29-31.
Saying
5. Luke 12:8-9 is similar to Matthew 10:32-33 (also Mark 8:38 ).
Saying
6. Luke 12:10 is
similar to Matthew 12:32 (also Mark 3:28 -29).
Saying
7. Luke 12:11-12 is similar to Matthew 10:19-20 (also Mark 13:11 ).
Not
one of these sayings is unique to Luke.
We are dealing with a body of Jesus lore that circulated well before the
composition of the current Gospels.
My
title for this section is:
Preamble to Life in an Apocalyptic Commune.
"Be Thou My Vision," Mike Moyers, courtesy Vanderbilt Divinity Library.
What Luke 12:1-12 gives us is a set of basic principles that will govern the members of a
sectarian community, defined by their unqualified allegiance to Jesus as God’s
agent, the Son of Man.
Saying 1. Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. (12:1b, NRSV.)
The immediately preceding chapter
had delivered a massive attack on the Pharisees and the lawyers (Luke 11:37 -52).
Included in that harangue was this:
“Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but
inside you are full of greed and wickedness” (11:39 ). Clearly an indictment of them as hypocrites,
though the terms hypocrites and hypocrisy are not used in chapter 11. Nevertheless, that chapter 11 passage may be
in the background of the “hypocrisy” statement in 12:1.
However, in a much bigger
picture, for a couple of centuries the Pharisees had believed and taught
that people would be resurrected to judgment after death. (Resurrection belief in the second century BCE
is seen in Daniel 12:2 and II Maccabees 7.)
Others did not believe in the resurrection – the Sadducees conspicuously
(Luke 20:27-38). That is to say, next to
Jesus and his disciples, the Pharisees were the only other game in town, when
it came to dealing with life after death.
(The Essenes, who had similar beliefs, are not mentioned in the New
Testament.)
Though the Jesus followers and the
Pharisees were in the same business – showing ways to be saved in God’s
judgment – Jesus warns the disciples to stay away from the way the Pharisees do
it. They, Jesus says, do not live up to
what they preach! (Not to mention they
do not recognize who Jesus is.)
Saying 2. Nothing is covered up that will not be
uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark
will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors
will be proclaimed from the rooftops. (12:2-3.)
Commentators commonly take this
saying as an elaboration on the hypocrisy-of-the-Pharisees statement preceding,
and it will certainly fit that reading.
That is, this is a further warning to the disciples: don’t follow the hypocrisy of the Pharisees
because it won’t work. Everything will
sooner or later be exposed to the public, so don’t try to hide what you are
saying.
However, this same saying in
Matthew is not about hypocrisy; it’s about proclaiming the imminent arrival of
the kingdom of heaven.
So have no fear [of those who
persecute you]; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and
nothing secret that will not become known.
What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear
whispered, proclaim from the housetops.
(Matthew 10:26-27.)
Here the saying is about
revelation: what is covered up will
become uncovered. Note: the word “uncovered” in Greek is from the
verb apokaluptÅ, as in apocalyptic!
In Luke this saying may be mainly
about avoiding hypocrisy, but we are moving into the language of revelation and
apocalyptic proclamation.
Saying 3. I tell you, my friends, do not fear those
who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has
authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell
you, fear him! (12:4-5, NRSV.)
This is a most important
saying! What does this really say? Its actual meaning is: There is something worse than
death! Just being killed is not
the worst thing that can happen to you! Beyond death, you can be sent to hell. (“Hell” translates the Greek word gehenna,
the traditional Judean term for the fiery pit where idolaters used to burn
their children in the valley southwest of Jerusalem
Without this fundamental principle,
all other talk about being delivered from God’s judgment after death is beside
the point. The entire Jesus enterprise
(and before him the entire John the Baptist enterprise) is irrelevant unless
there is something beyond death. This is
a sine qua non of the Jesus movement and the proclamation of the
imminent arrival of the kingdom of God
Saying 4. Are not five sparrows sold for two
pennies? Yet not one of them is
forgotten in God’s sight. But even the
hairs of your head are all counted. Do
not be afraid; you matter more than many sparrows. (12:6-7, NRSV, the last sentence
modified.)
Commentators often take this as
simply an elaboration of the previous saying.
Fear the one who controls your destiny after death. And you can trust him (God), because he
oversees every little incident in the life of the world, including the fate of
a tiny hapless sparrow! He even knows
the tiniest minutia of your body. You
can trust your eternal destiny to him!
There is nothing intrinsic to the
sparrows saying that ties it to the saying about God as ruler of your
post-death destiny, but Matthew used the two sayings the same way Luke has (perhaps
because they were thus combined in the Q collection), so the meaning here is
certainly a reassurance that God will not overlook any detail that may affect
your life beyond death.
Saying 5. And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges
me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the messengers of
God; but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the messengers
of God. (12:8-9, NRSV, reading
“messengers” rather than “angels,” which is simply the Greek word for
messengers.)
This is one of the notorious sayings
about the Son of Man and the last judgment, which many critical scholars have
long denied could have been said by the historical Jesus. Whatever was the case with the historical
Jesus, this passage makes the confession of Jesus, as the Son of Man, the
unqualified test case for who gets in and who is left out at the final
judgment.
Whoever gets acknowledged by the Son
of Man before the heavenly messengers is, of course, saved from God’s
judgment. (The background here is Daniel
7:1-14, where the “one like a son of man” carries out the Ancient One’s
judgment on “the peoples, nations, and languages” of the world. That world is now [in Daniel 7:9-14] being
delivered from the overwhelming power of evil which had ruled it for Four Ages
[the four Beasts]. The heavenly
messengers [“angels”] are the assistants to the son of man in that
judgment.)
This pronouncement is second only to
Saying 3 in importance for the Jesus movement.
First, judgment after death is the sine qua non for any talk
about salvation, but secondly, confessing Jesus as the Son of Man in a fully
public way is the only way to get exempted from condemnation at that final
judgment. This is an unqualified
requirement for membership in the apocalyptic commune dedicated to Jesus as the
Messiah and Son of Man.
Saying 6. And everyone who speaks a word against the
Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
will not be forgiven. (12:10 , NRSV, which imports the Christian Trinity
by capitalizing Holy Spirit.)
This saying has caused Christian
theologians much labor over the centuries about blaspheming the Holy Spirit and
unforgivable sins. In Luke’s context,
however, it may not be very complicated.
The Son of Man has come among
people, many of whom not only misunderstand him but condemn him. Luke – it is clear from the early chapters of
Acts – believed that those Judeans who had rejected, even arranged the death of,
the Son of Man, could be forgiven (Acts 3:14-19; and compare 5:30-32). In Luke’s viewpoint, however, the whole
following of Jesus was the work of the holy spirit. The Jesus movement was a charismatic movement. The divine spirit was constantly at work in
it. The spirit was its fundamental
assumption. No blaspheming against the
charismatic endowment of the movement can be accepted. Son of Man yes; divine Spirit no!
Saying 7. When they bring you before the
synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you are to
defend yourselves or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at
that very hour what you ought to say. (12:11-12, NRSV.)
This does not need much
discussion. Having covered the
fundamental principles of membership in the Jesus movement, the Preamble
concludes with an assurance that those who confess Jesus as the Son of Man will
be supported in the world by God’s Spirit – whether they die in their faithful
witnessing or not.
Conclusion. What do these seven Sayings add up to, as a
religious movement? Surely a totally
committed community of followers, confessing a heavenly Lord who is expected to
soon carry out the judgment of God and deliver to God’s blessing those who
abandon all else and give themselves fully to his cause. These seven principles provide the foundation
for an apocalyptic commune, made up of Jesus followers.
The rest of chapter 12 presents the life-styles
of those who are members of this apocalyptic commune.
2. Parable of the Rich Fool, 12:13-21.
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher,
tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” 14But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over
you?” 15And he said to them, “Take care! Be on
your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the
abundance of possessions.”
16Then he told them a parable: “The land
of a rich man produced abundantly. 17And he thought to himself, ‘What should
I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build
larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many
years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20But God said to him, ‘You fool! This
very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have
prepared, whose will they be?’ 21So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not
rich towards God.” (NRSV.)
The introduction, verses 13-15. There is a full break here. Luke represents it as an interruption from
someone in the crowd. Someone wants an
adjudication concerning an inheritance. The
interruption shifts the focus of Jesus’ teaching onto a new topic: possessions, and the desire to
increase them (known as “greed”). (Luke
will later use an interruption by Peter to similarly shift the focus to a new
topic, verse 41.)
The NRSV makes Jesus’ reply much
more polite than does the Greek. Anthrope,
“man,” is much more like, “Hey buddy, what do you mean setting me up as a
judge… However, if you want my opinion
on getting rich, I have a little story for you.” And Jesus tells them the moral of the story
before he tells the parable: “Watch
yourself! The life that matters is not
about lots of possessions” (verse 15, paraphrased).
The parable, verses 16-21. The parable consists almost entirely of the
internal monologues carried on by the rich-man-getting-richer. “What should I do…?” “I will do this…” “I will say to my soul, Soul, you are set for
many years… eat, drink, be merry.” The
hearer is carried along with the rich man’s planning and excited anticipation
of how great things are going to be.
Strong temptation to adopt that view of the goals of life! Like most good parables, there is a tight
economy of words but with powerful feeling and effect.
However, the hedonistic life has
its pitfalls! Just as you are ready to
enjoy it all, you die.
“For what does it profit a man if
he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits his life?” (Luke 9:25, RSV,
slightly modified.) See the same moral
beautifully laid out by the wisdom teacher Jesus Ben Sira, in Sirach 11:14-19
(NRSV Apocrypha).
The ending of the parable takes us
back to the question of life and death.
How do you prepare for death?
Piling up more and more goods will not do the trick. The real question is, How does one get “rich
towards God” (verse 21).
The interruption and the parable
have put the question of possessions front and center for the crowd as
well as for the disciples. The
life-style of Jesus’ followers is definitely not greed, amassing as much
wealth as possible!
What is the alternative?
3. The Do Not Worry speech, 12:22-31.
22 He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not
worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will
wear. 23For life is more than food, and the body more than
clothing.
24 “Consider
the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn,
and yet God feeds them. How much more do you matter than the birds! 25And can any of
you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 26If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that,
why do you worry about the rest?
27
“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they
neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not
clothed like one of these. 28But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is
alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe
you – you of little faith!
29 “So do not
keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not
keep worrying. 30For the nations of the world strive after all these
things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31Instead,
strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” (NRSV, with small
modifications.)
In case readers do not notice, this is a really
superb little speech! It has lots of
rhetorical virtues, accompanied by poetic touches. Its basic point is simple and never lost
sight of. It uses repetition with
variation, constantly driving home that basic point with fresh and catchy
phrases. It uses concrete terms rather
then generalities – “ravens,” “lilies,” “Solomon.” A little hyperbole helps – “the nations of
the world…strive after all these things…”
(A very similar version of this speech is also given in Matthew’s Sermon
on the Mount, 6:25 -33, both,
presumably, derived from the Sayings Source Q.)
If the rich man’s monologues lured hearers toward
his viewpoint, how much more does this effusion of the simple God-sustained
life envelop the imagination?
Bottom line: alternative
to the life of greed is the life of worry-free trust in the God who cares!
It is important, of course, to attend closely to the
last instruction of the speech: “Strive
for [God’s] kingdom and these things will be given to you as well.” It turns out that the worry-free life is
available to those who make God’s kingdom their top priority. Join the kingdom (movement), contribute to
its business, and all that you really need will be given to you!
This is, of course, the life of the committed
followers of Jesus, who form an apocalyptic commune.
4.
You Get the Kingdom, So Sell Everything, 12:32 -34.
32 “Do
not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you
the kingdom. 33Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for
yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no
thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.” (NRSV.)
Some commentators make this a
run-on from the Do-Not-Worry speech.
However, there is actually a not-so-subtle shift at verse 32. The Do Not Worry speech ended with the
instruction to strive for (traditionally “seek”) the kingdom and all the rest
will come with it. Here, God is giving
the kingdom, and an appropriate response by the “little flock” is ordered.
This impressive message of Jesus
to his “little flock” has an Assurance and a Therefore.
The Assurance: since you are my flock, God is pleased to
include you in the kingdom. You may be
confident, not only of God’s good graces, but of the care and support of a
worry-free life – even if, sooner or later, you have to give up your current
life for Jesus’ sake (see Luke 9:24 ,
“…lose their life for my sake…”).
And the other clause, the therefore? Therefore, sell your possessions and
give the proceeds to charity! That is
how you will become “rich towards God”!
It may be important to notice that
verse 32 and the beginning of verse 33 are found in Luke only, while the rest –
“Make purses for yourselves…” – is similar to a passage in the Sermon on the
Mount (Matthew 6:19-21). That is to say,
it is Luke only who says directly, “Sell your possessions,” in order to
lay up “treasure in heaven.”
Here we need to speculate, just
a little. If those who become Jesus
followers are giving the proceeds of their property to charity – what charity
would that be?
Posing the question virtually
answers it. They would give it to the
community they are joining. As Luke will
describe it later, they would sell their property and lay the proceeds “at the
feet of the apostles.” Here is Luke’s description
of the process when it was being fully carried out:
32Now the whole group
of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private
ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common…. 34There
was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned land or houses sold
them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.
35They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed
to each as any had need. (Acts 4:32,
34-35, NRSV. See also Acts 2:43-45.)
This is followed by a brief
narrative of how Barnabas, a Levite from Cyprus,
followed this process with the sale of a field, laying the money at the feet of
the apostles. (The notorious story of
Ananias and Sapphira is an indication that the system was not without its
problems, Acts 5:1-11.)
It does not take a genius to
recognize that this could not go on permanently. But these were apocalyptic communities;
the end was coming at an unknown time – but SOON. That expectation is in the background of
many, many sayings in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke.
Conclusion. It seems clear that Jesus’ speeches here
assume that his followers make up a commune (or communes) that supports its
members out of the charities given to God, charities that were laid at the feet
of the apostles (or, as they will be called later in this chapter, “prudent
managers”).
5. Be Prepared for the Lord’s Coming, 12:35-40.
Jesus has eliminated greed as the
basis of life, told of a worry-free life trusting in God’s care, and called the
followers to sell all and join the movement.
Now we hear what is the work of that community. What are the people of this commune doing? The answer is watching.
35 “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36be like those
who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that
they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. 37Blessed are
those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he
will put on serving clothes, have them sit down to eat, and he will come and
serve them. 38If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn,
and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.
39 “But
know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was
coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40You also must
be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” (NRSV, with small
modifications.)
(When I was studying this passage, I
listened to a delightful version of “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning” on
YouTube, recorded by the Shenandoah Christian Music Camp on September 4, 2018 .)
This passage does not need much
comment. Those who “acknowledge the Son
of Man before others” (12:8) are an apocalyptic community. They are waiting and watching for their
Lord’s return. They keep their lights
burning to watch for his imminent return from his heavenly banquet. And when he returns, he will bless them with
a banquet of his own preparation!
Commentators often call this talk
about the Lord who will bless his alert slaves a “parable,” or “parabolic
discourse.” I find that
unsatisfactory. This is clearly not a
parable in the same way that the Rich Fool is a parable. This is more like an allegory – though I
don’t think that’s a very satisfactory term either.
The language here might be called a
“coded metaphor.” We know very well who
the actors in this discussion are. The
“Lord” off at a wedding banquet is the risen Jesus, temporarily with his
Father, preparing to return for the final judgment. The “slaves” waiting to unlock the gate for
him, at whatever hour he comes, are the members of the Jesus community. Their business is to be ready when the final
hour comes – when they will be recognized and will receive their well-deserved
reward. “Blessed are those slaves!”
The saying about the owner of the
house not knowing when the thief is coming simply reinforces the
unpredictability of the Lord’s return. Uncertainty
about the time of the end is the counterpart to the certainty that the
end is near. This waiting is the life-style
of the believing and expectant apocalyptic commune of Jesus people!
At this point we have another
interruption!
6. Who Is the Prudent Manager…?, 12:40 -48.
41Peter
said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone?”
42And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and prudent
manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them their
allowance of food at the proper time? 43Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work
when he arrives. 44Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all
his possessions.
45 “But if that slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed
in coming’, and if he begins to beat the other slaves, men and women, and to
eat and drink and get drunk, 46the master of that slave will come on a day when he does
not expect him and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in
pieces, and assign his lot to the unfaithful.
47 “That
slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was
wanted, will receive a beating of many stripes. 48But
one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a beating of
few stripes. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required;
and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.” (NRSV, with small modifications.)
Most of this speech, especially from verse 43 on, is
also found in Matthew’s version of Jesus’ Apocalyptic Discourse (Matthew
24:45-51). Peter’s interrupting
question, however, is only in Luke, and it needs a few comments.
Literally, Peter says, “Lord, are you saying this
parable to us or also to all [Greek pantas]?” He calls the preceding speech a “parable”
because in Luke’s viewpoint anything Jesus says about the future may be a
parable. More important is who Peter
refers to by “us” and “all.” Most
interpreters have thought that “all” refers to the plurality referred to in the
preceding speech, the faithful servants dressed, lighted, and ready to open the
gate to the expected lord (verses 35-40).
Who then is the “us”?
Jesus’ reply to Peter speaks of individual “slaves”
rather than the group, and each individual has some responsibility for the care
of the group (distributing food). Thus,
the “faithful and prudent manager” (the Greek is oikonómos, a
house-ruler) is a person appointed by “the lord” to provide food on schedule to
the rest of the slaves. When that person
performs properly he (it is masculine in Greek) will be rewarded by promotion
to oversight of all the lord’s properties (verses 43-44). When that person thinks he has lots of time
and begins to abuse the other slaves and to live a riotous life, the lord will
come unexpectedly and wreck a terrible punishment on that unfaithful manager
(verses 45-46).
Most scholars have thought this is Jesus
anticipating conditions for his followers after his departure (while the “lord”
is still away). Thus, the references are
to future leadership responsibilities in the Jesus communities. Other interpreters resist reading this
passage as addressed to the problem of the “delay of the parousia [Jesus’
return].” They attempt to read this
reply to Peter as if it simply continued the talk of verses 35-40 about
everybody needing to be on the alert for a sudden return of the Lord. Thus, Peter’s “us” and “all” are simply the
same folks, seen in slightly different perspective. (Some recent commentators show this tendency. It is said, for
example, that Jesus’ reply to Peter’s question, “us” or “all,” is “Yes!” [Joel
Green, approved by John Carroll].)
(See Paul's discussion of this aspect of congregation-building in I Corinthians 3:10-15.)
(See Paul's discussion of this aspect of congregation-building in I Corinthians 3:10-15.)
Conclusion.
Having talked in the previous speech (verses 35-40) about the work of
the common members of the commune, the discourse now turns to matters of
leadership of that commune.
As I read Jesus’ reply to Peter it goes something
like this. “Now that you raise the
question, Peter, I have some instructions that apply specifically to you
leaders.” (Peter [not “Simon”]
represents, of course, the “apostles,” at whose feet later charitable
contributions are laid – Acts 4:35).
Jesus speaks here in the third person – the "prudent
manager whom his master [Jesus] will put in charge of his slaves [members of
the Jesus communes] to give them their allowance of food at the proper time…”
thus maintaining the speech style of the “parabolic discourse.” From the narrative’s viewpoint, it is still
all future stuff, but the hearer has no difficulty recognizing that Jesus is
talking about administration of their common life as they wait faithfully for
the Lord’s return. It IS an apocalyptic
community.
7.
I Came to Bring Fire…, 12:49 -53.
49 “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were
already kindled! 50I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what
stress I am under until it is completed! 51Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the
earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52From now on, five in one
household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53they will be
divided:
father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Review. We have gradually escalated the life of the
commune from the rejection of acquisitiveness (greed), to worry-free trust in
God to provide, with the accompanying call to sell one’s possessions in order
to enter the kingdom, to descriptions of the commune’s charge to watch
and of its leaders to manage their resources responsibly. Now, quite suddenly, we hear in a very
different tone the voice of that Lord who brought the message of the kingdom in
the first place.
Jesus’ Task. The community exists because of Jesus its
Lord. Jesus now confides to his
disciples his own agony before the grand climax. That climax is his own baptism by fire, his
own death that is necessary in order for the kingdom to come. In a world that has been dominated by
increasingly evil and destructive forces (Daniel 7:2-8), the costs of
transformation to a divine reign of peace are extreme. A suffering servant must lay down his life on
the way to an ultimate victory (Isaiah 52:13-53:12).
The Commune Divides. And not only will Jesus suffer, those who
become his committed followers will also suffer. Because of their public confession of Jesus
as the Son of Man (verse 8 above) they will be thrown into conflict with
others, and most tragically with their own relatives.
The verses that describe the family
members divided against each other (52-53) are based on the prophet Micah’s
description of the social chaos that precedes the ultimate intervention of God
(Micah 7:1-7, followed by 7:8-17). “Son
against father, daughter against mother,” etc.; a really fundamental conflict
within the social body is caused by the commitments to join the new community,
the apocalyptic commune. The apocalyptic
commune breaks up families. This is not
an idle or easily made commitment. It is
a life-or-death decision. It is truly
apocalyptic – about the end of the world as we have known it.
It is the life-style of the
apocalyptic commune that the commune takes the place of family and other social
ties. “Truly I tell you, there is no one
who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of
the kingdom of God
As the decades (and centuries) were
to pass, commitment to the ecclesia of Jesus the Lord was to re-make
Roman society in a new image (though not always that of the Jesus seen in
Luke’s Gospel).
8. Signs of the Times…, 12:54-59.
54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising
in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. 55And when you
see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it
happens. 56You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance
of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
57 “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right [smart, prudent]? 58Thus, when you
go with your accuser before a magistrate, on the way make an effort to settle
the case, or you may be dragged before the judge, and the judge hand you over
to the officer, and the officer throw you in prison. 59I tell you,
you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.” (NRSV.)
Outsiders. Having covered the major points the members
of the commune should hear, Jesus returns to speaking to “the crowds” (verse
54). We now hear two arguments addressed
to outsiders. The arguments are,
of course, reasons why those folks should hear Jesus’ proclamation of the
kingdom and join the kingdom movement.
It is the special business of
apocalyptic folks to “read the signs of the times.” Jesus says to the people at large, You are
good at reading the signs of the weather in heaven and earth; why can’t you
read the signs of the present time? (A similar
challenge, but with different wording, is given in Matthew 16:2-3.)
If they read those signs, they
would (1) realize that God’s judgment is imminent – as John the Baptist had
taught all Judea, (2) understand that there is something worse than death – as
the Pharisees also have been teaching, and (3) recognize that God has sent an
alternative to condemnation – not just baptism but a totally new life for those
who will be acknowledged by the Son of Man before the heavenly messengers at
that great final assize (verses 8-9 above).
Before It’s Too Late. Jesus’ second speech to the crowds (verses
57-59) presses the urgency of responding to Jesus’ warning. You better not wait until you get into (that
final) court. It will then be too late;
you will be indicted, found guilty, and turned over to the jailer (those
heavenly messengers) and you will never get out. (A similar message is given in the Sermon on
the Mount, Matthew 5:25-26.)
But you do have a last chance! Come to terms with the one leading you to
judgment. His terms have to be better
than waiting too long! Come to terms with
Jesus – and join the blessed community that is faithfully waiting for his final
return to complete that final judgment.
Conclusion on Luke 12.
The seven sayings of the Preamble
(12:1-12) state the fundamental beliefs of the Jesus Movement: (1) that there is more to life than dying,
that personal identity beyond death is what proper living is really about; (2)
that there is a judgment that will determine for each person whether that
further life will be a blessing or a fiery torture; (3) that how one comes out
of that judgment depends on whether one acknowledges Jesus as the Son of Man,
who will preside over that judgment; (4) that that judgment is close at hand,
making one’s decision urgent; and (5) that God’s spirit is the overseeing power
that guides the lives of those who confess Jesus and wait through persecution
for the great saving outcome. These
beliefs, and actions, are the foundation of a radically committed community
life, an apocalyptic commune.
What is life like in such a
community? What is the life-style of
an apocalyptic commune?
The rest of the chapter answers
this question – in sequence:
- One does not accumulate possessions.
- One trusts God to provide one’s basic daily needs.
- One sells ones goods and gives the proceeds to God (i.e., to the commune).
- One’s occupation is watching for the imminent return of the Son of Man.
- Some are assigned (by the “lord”) to management responsibilities for the commune.
- The commune will be one’s family and will replace one’s former goods.
- Acknowledging the Son of Man will include knowing of his suffering and death.
- One will be prepared for persecution, even death, because of Jesus’ name.
- One will be attuned to the signs of the times and will be ready for the judgment.
Chapter 12 of Luke’s Gospel,
understood in these terms, is an astonishing presentation of the kind of
religious movement that eventually won over vast populations within the Roman
empire . The Jesus Movement declared the reality of life after death, and offered a way that life could be a blessing rather than hell!
The Apocalyptic Jesus
The apocalyptic orientation of
Luke 12 is not Luke only! Such
apocalyptic sayings are attributed to Jesus throughout the Synoptic
Gospels. (The Gospel of John is quite
another matter.) For well over a hundred
years, that has raised for historians the question of the apocalyptic Jesus.
What is the Apocalyptic Jesus?
The apocalyptic Jesus is the Jesus
who said, “The kingdom of God
The “historical Jesus.” For seventeen hundred years no one read the
Gospels except churchmen and devoted Christians, so no one understood those
“coming soon” sayings as applying to Jesus' own time. When
European scholars, with humanist training, began to distinguish between the
Jesus of the church and the actual human Jesus of the first century, a gap
opened up between what Jesus said and did and what later believers thought
about Jesus.
At the beginning of the twentieth
century, the later-famous scholar and humanitarian, Albert Schweitzer, traced a hundred and fifty
years of the many reconstructions of what the “real,” the “historical,” Jesus
had been like. This history showed, of
course, that scholars tended to find a Jesus who had much their own interests
and values. (Albert Schweitzer, The
Quest of the Historical Jesus , Eng.
Schweitzer concluded his book with
his own reconstruction, following the original work of the German scholar
Johannes Weiss, Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom of God, tr. R. H.
Hiers and D. L, Holland, Fortress Press, 1971 (original German, 1st
ed., 1892). These two works became the
great banners for historians who acknowledged the reality of the apocalyptic
Jesus throughout the twentieth century.
(See the detailed account of work related to the historical Jesus until
1960 in Norman Perrin, The Kingdom of God in the Teaching of Jesus, SCM
Press, 1963.)
The Apocalyptic Jesus is the
historians’ Jesus. Weiss’ and
Schweitzer’s arguments carried the day – at least with people who didn’t have
religious or personal reasons for rejecting them.
Schweitzer’s “basic emphases –
that Jesus is to be situated in the context of first-century Palestinian
Judaism and that he was himself an apocalypticist – have carried the day for
much of the twentieth century, at least among critical scholars devoted to
examining the evidence.” (Bart D.
Ehrman, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of
the New Millennium, Oxford, 1999, p. 127.)
The list of highly esteemed historians who work on the assumption that
Jesus expected a near end of the world (as people then knew it) is long and
impressive. But, as Ehrman emphasizes,
it’s amazing how few people outside the academic world know that this is the
dominant view of serious historians.
Traditional Christians, of course,
must reject this view. If Jesus thought
the great judgment of God would come in his generation, then he was wrong. As Dale C. Allison says, “Most Christians
cannot abide an errant Jesus” (The Historic Christ and the Theological
Jesus, Eerdmans, 2009, p. 96.) Only
the destruction of Jerusalem
The corollary to Jesus’ coming to
found the church is that all the sayings about the coming judgment were
transferred to the “second coming,” For
later believers, this became a really grand finale, with many scenes and
diverse settings, to accommodate the wide range of predictions (in both the Old and
New Testaments) about the final judgment. That Second Coming was projected into a longer and longer future -- and the faithful are, of course, still waiting, a couple of millennia later.
From John the Baptist to the Church.
A few years ago, in a Special Note
in the Biblical Words Lectionary Studies, I sketched briefly the sequence of
“movements” in the beginnings of Christianity, as historians have come to see
them. This is my sketch of about six
years ago, slightly updated. [I follow
New Testament terminology by using “Judean” instead of “Jew” or “Jewish.”]
As historians see the relation of Jesus to John
the Baptist and the subsequent development of the early and later stages of the
church, there is a sequence of Movements.
(1-A) John
the Baptist headed a Judgment Movement to restore Israel
3:1
“See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom
you seek will suddenly come to his temple.
The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – indeed, he is
coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2
But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he
appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire
and like fullers’ soap…
4:5
Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the
Lord comes. (Malachi 3:1-2; 4:5, NRSV.)
The historical John
would have understood the “coming” one to be God, or God’s heavenly Messenger
(Angel). Later Jesus followers, of
course, understood it differently.
(1-B)
Jesus, beginning as a disciple of John, and thus sharing his apocalyptic
orientation, came to recognize, through his (Jesus’) healing powers and other
signs, that the Kingdom was in fact beginning to appear in his work among John’s
followers. His later opponents may have
attributed his power over demons to his being in league with Satan, but he
himself said, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons,
then the kingdom of God has come to you” (Luke 11:20 = Matthew 12:28).
Jesus thus
launched a Kingdom Movement in which, not baptism, but believing in and
experiencing the secret reality of God’s Reign was the center piece. (See the Beatitudes and the answer to John in
Luke 7:22-30 = Matthew 11:2-15.)
Crucifixion of
the leader did not destroy this Movement, but transformed it into an even wider
one in the next generation.
(2) After
their experiences of the Risen Jesus (I Corinthians 15:3-8, not the empty tomb
stories), the first generation of disciples/apostles led a Jesus Movement. They proclaimed, as the fulfillment of the
Kingdom movement, the special status of Jesus as the Messiah, Son of God, and
(for some, at least) heavenly Son of Man.
This proclamation was the inside secret about the Jesus of Nazareth who
got crucified by the Romans.
The Jesus
Movement, in its early stages, was a Judean movement, not yet involving
significant numbers of non-Judeans. In
time, the Jesus movement would expand beyond Judean circles, where Paul’s
activities led to many non-Judean assemblies.
(Luke narrates this work of Paul but, in Acts 10, he attributes the
first conversion of non-Judeans to God’s direct command to Peter to preach to –
and baptize – the household of the Roman army officer, Cornelius.) However, there was no “Christianity,” separate
from Judaism, until late in the second generation after Jesus’ death.
(3)
Finally, after the Son of Man did not come in glory during or following the
Roman-Judean war of 66-74 CE, the second generation of disciples/apostles
increasingly recognized that the Jesus-Movement-become-Church was here
for the long haul, and in a fairly short time (between 70 and 100 CE) they
wrote down the Gospels from the most authoritative reciters in their various
metropolitan centers. They also adopted
leadership structures not subject to the near-anarchy of uninhibited
charismatic movements, including methods for disciplining members, even to the
point of exclusion from the group (as in Matthew 18:15-18).
Luke 12, particularly when
complemented by other passages of Luke’s writings (like Luke 14:25-33;
18:18-30; and Acts 2-5), clearly reflects a stage of the Jesus Movement when
following Jesus meant a radical break with life as usual. It meant life in a separated community that
had given its possessions to the community, trusted God to provide, and devoted
its whole social and personal life to watching for Jesus and living the life of
the “Meantime” as they waited. In that
“meantime,” they lived by the radical demands of common life that Jesus had
taught. As their numbers grew, and
particularly as their children grew up, that common life became well
established – and in time it became the ethos and ethics of the Christian
churches.
Thank you, Luke, for this amazing
presentation of the life-styles of Jesus’ apocalyptic communes!
