Day 18: More Background, and Jesus begins his Ministry

.... in an orderly way, of course.

Chapter three starts off, as you'd expect (by this time, anyway), with the arrival of the adult John the Baptist on the scene.  His presence is announced, almost as if the Court is announcing, "Hear ye!  hear ye!  In the 15th year of the reign of emperor Tiberias....."  Do we expect some royal personage, in purple robes and aristocratic bearing, to enter the scene?  Instead, it is the lowly and humble John, appearing not in the seats of power but in the wilderness, preaching not prosperity but repentance.

But, that's Luke, for you.

Luke also has a geneaology, but notice that Luke works backwards from Joseph and arrives at Adam (instead of at Abraham), and, if you are brave, notice that some of the names are different, too.  What do you suppose the purpose of working backwards and ending at Adam would be for Luke?  what's the point?

In Luke 4, Jesus is tempted.  The content of the temptations is very similar to Matthew, but they are in a different order (an orderly account, remember?)  Afterwards, Jesus begins his ministry by going to his hometown, wowing them all with his preaching, and, within the space of a few minutes, making everyone angry enough to want to kill him.  The theme of Jesus' ministry is set then from the beginning.  The sentence we hear him read in the synagogue, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.  He has sent me to preach Good news to the poor....." is the theme of his ministry.  Large, appreciative crowds, and anger and rejection also appear right here in Luke 4.

In Luke 5, Jesus calls disciples.  John has already been put in prison (see Luke 3), so their ministries do not overlap.  When Jesus calls Simon, the fisherman immediately recognizes that he is in the presence of holiness, "I am a man of unclean lips", he says.  Then, Jesus begins healing and casting out demons. 

Luke 5 ends with the saying (we may recognize) about the new and old wineskins.  May I say that on one level I understand this metaphor (Jesus is the new wine, and the old wineskins will not be able to hold him), but on the other hand, there's more than meets the eye.  So what does the last verse mean:  "No one who drinks a well-aged wine wants new wine, but says, "The well-aged wine is better."  (It's literally true, of course, but otherwise, what does it mean?)  What do you think?

By the way, when I was looking for images, I found this great blog post about the miraculous catch of fish. 

Day 1: Family Trees, Dreams, Repentance

I am starting my summer reading with a new Bible Translation:  The Common English Bible.  So that will shape at least some of my reflections over the summer.  I hope that you will think about the particular words you read in the Bible, and part of our conversations will be around the similarities and differences we see.

Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogy:  Jesus' family tree.  I will admit that in the past I've found these lists of names to be something to skim instead of really to read.  If you really want people to keep reading your story, why would you start with a list of names?  Why begin with  "A record of the ancestors of Jesus Christ." instead of something like this:  "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," or "Call me Ishmael," or even "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"?  But Matthew must have thought that it was most intriguing, because he put it first.  He must have thought it would draw people in, make them curious.

There's actually a lot to be curious about in this family tree.  There are stories underneath every single name, and perhaps the people to whom Matthew wrote know more of these stories than we do.  For me, the women named are most interesting:  Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah (that would be Bathsheba), and Mary.  Delve into just one of their stories, and suddenly this boring genealogy gets a lot more interesting!

Reading along, I noticed how often God speaks through dreams:  to Joseph and to the magi.  To both the good news is announced in dreams; both are warned about dangers through dreams.  I wonder how often we consider a dream as a sign from God?

I noticed as well, reading three chapers at a time, how abrupt was the shift to John the Baptist.  Joseph returns with his family in Egypt, settles in Nazareth, and suddenly! -- John the Baptist is crying in the wilderness, offering forgiveness with repentance, haranguing the scribes and the Pharisees, baptizing Jesus.

In my translation, the voice from heaven says, "this is my Son whom I dearly love; I find happiness in him."

Some questions:
1.  As you read these three chapters, what images or themes leap out at you? 
2.  What do you wonder about?  What is most difficult?
3.  Who is one person from Jesus' genealogy that you are curious about?
4.  In the NRSV, the passage from Matthew 2:2, "we have seen his star in the east," is translated, "we have seein his star at its rising."  Either translation works; does it matter which we use?
5.  Do you think that the baptism of John is different than baptism in the name of Jesus?  If so, what is the difference?

*Image is from The St. John's Bible, Genealogy of Matthew.