The Gospel According to Luke 19:28 Through 24:53: A Bible Study

By William Flewelling

The Bible studies I chose to do came about in answer to a request from my first congregation out of seminary. I consistently sought to present a serious, somewhat scholarly, approach to the interested among my parishioners. I would take a book in the Bible to study, assume it was written or edited to be read from the beginning, and make sense to the reader in that way. I attempted to discover for myself and my group what the book sought to convey. In this volume, the study of Luke 19:28–19:27 followed that pattern exactly. This volume completes the study of Luke, following volumes on 1:1–9:50 and 9:51–19:27.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728303505

William Flewelling

I am a retired minister from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) living in central Illinois. Led by a request from Mildred Corwin of Manua OH when I arrived there in 1976, I long developed and led a series of bible studies there and in LaPorte IN and New Martinsville WV. These studies proved to be very feeding to me in my pastoral work and won a certain degree of following in my congregations. My first study was on 1 Peter, chosen because I knew almost nothing about the book. I now live quietly in retirement with my wife of 54 years, a pair of dogs and several cats.

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© 2019 William Flewelling. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/07/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-0351-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-0350-5 (e)

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Scripture quotations marked RSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

Contents

Foreword

Notes On The Gospel According To Luke

1. Luke 19:28-40

2. Luke 19:41-48

3. Luke 20:1-8

4. Luke 20:9-19

5. Luke 20:20-26

6. Luke 20:27-40

7. Luke 20:41-44

8. Luke 20:45-21:7

9. Luke 21:8-19

10. Luke 21:20-28

11. Luke 21:29-33

12. Luke 21:34-38

13. Luke 22:1-6

14. Luke 22:7-14

15. Luke 22:15-20

16. Luke 22:21-30

17. Luke 22:31-38

18. Luke 22:39-46

19. Luke 22:47-53

20. Luke 22:54-71

21. Luke 23:1-5

22. Luke 23:6-12

23. Luke 23:13-16

24. Luke 23:18-25

25. Luke 23:26-32

26. Luke 23:33-38

27. Luke 23:39-43

28. Luke 23:44-49

29. Luke 23:50-56a

30. Luke 23:53b-24:12

31. Luke 24:13-35

32. Luke 24:36-49

33. Luke 24:50-53

About the Author

Foreword

The longest book I ever undertook as a topic for Bible Study was this one, the Gospel According to St. Luke. I set it out and figured it into the sequence of three years of study. Luke divides neatly into three segments, the opening [running through the transfiguration and until he sets his face toward Jerusalem], the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem as a literary device, it seems, and the passion-resurrection narrative, beginning when Jesus arrives at Jerusalem. These took up the seasons of Bible Study planned for 1983-84, 1984-85 and 1985-86 and were prepared during the years I spent as pastor at First Christian Church in LaPorte, IN.

The Gospel story comes in four interpretations – I had taken exegetical courses on John and Mark while at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis between the Spring Semester 1973 and my completion in June of 1976. Turning to study a Gospel, I chose Luke over Matthew for convenience and intrigue. I had thoughts that never materialized of following up this study with one on Acts. The other two were passed over as they had been studied before by me, in the classroom context. I did like to pick on those books that I have not visited in detail before. And, looking at the text, the pattern flowed so neatly to the needs of summer breaks on the Bible Studies, that the choice of Luke came to seem natural.

I began revisiting these notes, typing them from the hard copy into an electronic format and editing them slightly in the process, during the latter months of the lectionary year using Matthew. The combination intrigued me to think of doing a similar work on Matthew, for my own benefit. But I have no setting for dealing with presentation of the study, and I am ever more deeply into retirement anyway, and past 72 in age. I suspect that my delight in these Bible Studies will remain in the revisitation of the texts long done. There remain several taken from the Minor Prophets that I would like to combine into a collection once Luke is done.

The text picks up the notion that Luke gave an ordered account – that ordering not necessarily, nor likely, being in any sense chronological, save that the passion-resurrection section did come at the last, and the early parts of the beginning [through the Temptation] were historically prior to the rest. The story is raised for a certain Theophilus for whom Luke wishes to introduce Jesus in a deep-knowing sense. It is my hope in this review of the Study of those mid-1980s years to lure myself and my readers into a deep-knowing of Jesus, as I think Luke would like to have happen from his text.

I hope you, my reader, will find satisfaction in the questions and probings that this study provides. For practical purposes, the entire Gospel Study will appear in three volumes, corresponding to the three years of its initial production.

William Flewelling

Notes On The Gospel According To Luke

***

Bibliographic References:

Brown, Raymond E., The Birth of the Messiah, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, NY, 1977. [Second Edition, 1993]

Fitzmyer, Joseph A., The Gospel According to Luke I – IX, The Anchor Bible, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, NY, 1981.

Fitzmyer, Joseph A,. The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV, The Anchor Bible, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, NY, 1985.

LSJ = Liddell, Henry George and Scott, Robert, A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented by Sir Henry Stuart Jones, Oxford University Press, New York, 1968.

Moulton and Geden = Moulton, W. F. and Geden, A. S., eds. A Concordance to the Greek Testament, fourth edition, revised b y H. K. Moulton, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1970.

Schutz, John Howard, Paul and the Anatomy of Apostolic Authority, Cambridge University Press, NY, 1975.

TDNT = Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. by Gerhard Kittle and Gerhard Friedrich, nine volumes, plus an index volume, of various dates, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids.

Notes on Luke 19:28-40

First, the text:

                       going up into Jerusalem.

                                                                                and Bethany

                       toward the mountain, the one being called Olives,

                                   he sent two of the disciples,

                                               in the traveling into [it]

                                                                       you will find a colt

                                                           having been tethered,

                                                           upon which no man ever sat;

                                               and loosening him, come.

                                                           through what you loosen,

                                               thus shall you say:

                                                           because the Lord

                                                                       has need of him.

                                   just as he said to them.

                                                                                to them:

                                               why do you loosen the colt?

                                               Because the Lord has need of him.

                                               and, being ones throwing their cloaks

                                                                                   over the colt,

                                                           Jesus mounted.

                                                        their cloaks in the way.

                                                           of the Mount of Olives,

                                   there began all the company of the disciples

[to be] ones rejoicing,

                                               to praise God with a great voice

                                                                                concerning

                                                           all the might deeds

                                                                       which they saw,

                                               Blessed one, the one coming

                                                           in the name of the Lord.

                                               In heaven peace

                                                           and glory in [the] highest.

                                                                       said toward him:

                                   Teacher, rebuke your disciples!

                                   I say to you, if these would be silent,

                                               the stones would shout/cry out.

Having followed Luke’s progress in revealing Jesus to us deeply, through the ‘ordered account’, we have come to the entrance into Jerusalem and hence into the passion narrative. In the Galilean segment [if we include the prolog and infancy narrative, we have 1:1 – 9:50], we encountered a sense of Jesus the prophet, working wonders, healing, disturbing the way things are in Jewish Galilee. We talked of Jesus exhibiting a style of life in tune with God. We found him embodying the kingdom. We found the Sermon on the Plain setting forth the lineaments of kingdom living. We found ourselves stepping along the progress of Nativity: Baptism: ‘Othering’. The ministry into which we are guided – i.e., Jesus himself – is keyed to the fulfillment of prophesy from Isaiah; John’s disciples find that text returned to them as a sign that this ‘is he for whom we waited’. Secondly, as an Act 2, we saw Jesus revealed as the ultimate pilgrim. We took our pilgrimage into Jesus, into the kingdom of God eve as we moved with him toward Jerusalem. Other-directed, we are the lost being found in losing ourselves. We learn of the crucial importance of the small taking root or leavening. We speak of trees being planted in the sea. We encountered a drastic transformation in us [invited of us, at least] through the vision of Jesus Luke has given us. We have, in Luke’s eyes, been made ready to enter the Holy City, Jerusalem, for the event Jesus has thrice foretold.

Jesus ended his trek to Jerusalem [in Luke’s presentation of it, an overtly interpretive presentation] with the parable of the pounds [really minas], as if the rest of pilgrimage lies in the faithful fruitfulness of the good slave. Having sad these words [and Luke is picking up the telling of the story from the parable reported], Jesus traveled/pilgrimaged ahead, going up into Jerusalem. The pilgrimage language takes us at least to the gates of the city [and beyond, as we will see]. The pilgrimage continues through the consummation of the passion; the followers going to Emmaus also travel/pilgrimage. We further notice that he goes up into Jerusalem. One goes up to the important places. One goes up into Jerusalem. [Mary and Joseph went up from Galilee; they went up [to the Temple] according to custom; the paralytic’s friends went up with him upon the roof; Jesus went up onto the mountain to pray; two men went up into the Temple to pray; ‘we’ go up into Jerusalem; Zacchaeus climbed up the tree.] Now we go up into Jerusalem for the climax of our entire story. We climb the hill spiritually and emotionally as well as physically. What is Luke providing to our experience in faith?

On the outskirts of Jerusalem are found places known as Bethphage and Bethany [‘house of unripe figs’ and [perhaps] ‘house of response/witness/testimony’ or ‘House of Ananiah/Hananiah’]. Jesus paused there, we are told [parallels: Matthew 21 and Mark 11], toward the Mount of Olives. Our geography is being suggested to us. From there, he sent out two disciples [apostles are those sent out: same root here: might an apostle be one going to get the colt for the Lord’s service?] into the opposite village – whatever place that is. We ought to see a clustering of villages, gatherings of the dwellings of those who work the fields and vineyards and orchards around the central city of Jerusalem. These are satellites, dependent on the city and in easy commerce with the city whose walls offer protection to the near-by supporting populace. They are different than the modern suburb.

Jesus tells the disciples that in that village they will find a colt tethered. A young colt, it has never been ridden before. They are to loosen him and bring him back. They are not going to know the owner; they are Galileans who have been to the city only for the feasts, as a part of the mobs which flowed into the city at those special times. The owner is not likely to be pleased. They are to say, when asked, that this colt is needed by the Lord. So, they go; they find the colt as Jesus said; they are asked about their suspicious actions by the owner; they tell him the Lord has need of the colt; the owner lets them go with thee colt. That in itself would be astounding except for the social function of one titled ‘lord’: the assumption would be that such a man possessed considerable power. Power came before wealth in Roman times, - and was necessary for security in holding wealth. Power would be understood coercively first; only in Jesus have we seen a fundamental change in that perspective. [What power do we expect in Jesus? What kind of power do we find? What is the difference? Is Jerusalem unfolding for us a final sense of contrast between the power, popularly conceived, and the power in Jesus?]

The disciples led the colt to Jesus. They threw the cloaks upon his back and Jesus mounted. He rode now, one traveling in a new way. His colt had never been ridden. He is new, pristine, untarnished in prime condition [not broken down] for carrying his first ‘royal’ burden. The literal concern over an unbroken animal is quite likely misplaced for Luke has given us strange pictures before which make sense when seen in the light of the allusions to the Old Testament; rather than the literal image of a wild and skittish colt, the memory of the animals who have never borne the yoke from the Old Testament familiarity [e.g., Numbers 19:2; Deuteronomy 21:3; 1 Samuel 6:7] rises. Such a beast [usually a red heifer or a milch cow] would be taken for sacrifice for sin; in 1 Samuel 6:7, the Philistines are shown caring for the troublesome Ark respectfully, having its cart hitched to milch cows who had never borne a yoke – to get rid of it. The image that comes is that of a beast which is unblemished, left clean [in a ritual sense] and undefiled for holy purposes. Is not the bearing of Jesus into the Holy City a holy task? What about with us?

Descending the Mount of Olives, there came to be a gathering about him. The gathering or company would be like those outside the Temple praying at the our of incense [1:10], or the angels at the birth of Jesus, praising God and singling Glory and Peace [2:16], or the crowd of fish straining Simon’s nets [5:6], or the crowd coming to the Sermon on the Plain [6:17], or the crowd disturbed by the healing of the Gerasene demoniac and the attendant loss of swine [8:37]. These were his followers/disciples now. They were gathered into a group in a moment of wonder or prayer or teaching. They, as the angels, praised God with a great voice; they rejoiced over all that they saw. They called out ‘Blessed One, the coming one, the king in the name of the Lord’. [Jerusalem would not see him until they heard/called ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.] They proclaim peace in heaven as earth-born men at the opening of the passion as angels proclaimed peace on earth as heavenly beings at the opening of the Nativity. With the angels, they proclaim glory in the heights. Is there a link between Nativity and Entrance in Luke’s view of Jesus? Or why would we find that link in words and themes between those two sections? What might that link suggest to us?

The Pharisees are upset. They want it quiet and proper. They are from – away from, that is, and not representative; they are separate from – the crowd. To them, separate, Jesus is the Teacher [a title nearly always used inappropriately in Luke]. They want him to rebuke [as one would rebuke a demon, for example – or as Peter was rebuked once] the disciples. He told the Pharisees that, should the disciples be silent, the very stones would shout/cry out. Can silence be kept when the kingdom of God enters the midst of the crowds, even in unaccustomed form? The full measure of Jesus entering in this well-packed moment would cause the stones of Jerusalem to cry out. {There might be a reflection of Habakkuk 2:11, as well.]

Luke alone has Jesus called the king here. Luke alone has the call of peace. Luke alone changes the otherwise common hosanna to Glory. Luke leaves off the rich use of Zechariah so prominent in Matthew. The announcement comes outside the city and the crowds seem to be his disciples. There are no palm branches mentioned. Luke is telling us something different than the others; we need to recognize that it is different and not import the other, related stories into Luke’s vision.

Some thoughts:

(1) Luke gives us a restrained view of the entry into Jerusalem. We have disciples taking the place of angels [as in Chapter 2]. But we do not have mobs in the city. We have Pharisees griping as no other telling does. What tis the weight of Jesus coming into Jerusalem now, as LUKE portrays it?

(2) Geographically, we have the Mount of Olives set over against Mount Zion/Jerusalem. Olives suggest oil for healing and cooking and anointing. Jerusalem stands as the city killing those who are sent to her. Are we being set up with a contrast of opposing mountains? Is that opposite village one away from the Mount of Olives? separated from that retreat place?

(3) Luke has taken us on pilgrimage for ten chapters [or thereabouts]. What difference does that trek make on our conscious preparation for these last few chapters in the Gospel?

Notes on Luke 19:41-48

First, the text:

                                                                    that toward peace’.

                                   Now they are hidden from your eyes.

                                   and your enemies will throw up

                                                           alongside you ramparts

                                   and they will surround you

                                   and they will hem you in from all sides,

                                               and your children in you,

                                   and they will not leave stone upon stone

                                                                               in you

                                               because you knew not the time

                                                                       of your visitation.

                                                                       the selling ones,

                                   And my house will be a house of prayer;

                                   you will not make it a cave/den of robbers.

                   The high priests and the scribes tried to destroy him