Letter To Laodicea (part 40)

We now progress from the eleventh chapter to the fourteenth chapter, so as to find Jesus at another meal.  This chapter is prefaced with “Now one Sabbath when Jesus went to dine at the house of a Pharisee, they were watching Him closely” (14:1).  This builds on the tension surrounding Jesus that we saw at the close of the eleventh chapter, in which Luke informs us, because of what Jesus has said at a meal, that “the Pharisees began to oppose Him bitterly, and to ask Him hostile questions about many things, plotting against Him, to catch Him in something He might say” (11:53-54).  Having laid that foundation of opposition, Luke proceeds to elevate the tension level. 

In the opening of chapter twelve, Jesus speaks to a crowd of thousands, saying “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (12:1).  Clearly, though the setting has changed, Luke wants the reader to keep in mind the words that Jesus is said to have spoken to the Pharisees while at the previously recorded meal.  When Jesus here speaks of hypocrisy, He does so in a context in which He has also just said, among other things, “woe to you Pharisees!  You give a tenth of your mint, rue, and every herb, yet you neglect justice and love for God!” (11:42a)  If we lose the sense of narrative, we also lose the sense of what Luke is doing, so we guard against that loss.  Additionally, it is this narrative-identifying approach to the Gospels and their presentations of the Jesus tradition within the early church that allows us to stand shoulder to shoulder with the church at Laodicea, and so enables us to make credible sense of what is being communicated to them, within the context of what was perceived as being of great importance to Jesus. 

As this tension is borne in mind, we see its elevation in the thirteenth chapter, when Jesus “was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath” (13:10).  There, Jesus heals a woman of a physical infirmity, provoking the ire of “the president of the synagogue” (13:14a).  This man says: “There are six days on which work should be done!  So come and be healed on those days, and not on the Sabbath day!” (13:14b).  Now, this man is not identified as  Pharisee or an expert in religious law, but he gets lumped in with that group based on Jesus’ response, which begin with “You hypocrites!” (13:15b)  With these words, an alert reader or listener recalls Jesus words about hypocrisy from chapter twelve, which He explicitly links with the Pharisees, and in turn, with what was said to those Pharisees and experts in the religious law.  So now, when Jesus speaks of “hypocrites,” it is reasonable to imagine Him packaging all of the “woes” of the eleventh chapter and re-directing them into this situation as well.  If this was not Jesus’ intent, then we can comfortably suggest that this was the intent of the author. 

After His suggestion of woeful hypocrisy, Jesus adds: “Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall, and lead it to water?  Then shouldn’t this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be released from this imprisonment on the Sabbath day?” (13:15b-16)  The kingdom pronouncements here are significant.  Jesus speaks of Abraham, which will immediately remind His hearers of the Abrahamic covenant, and the blessing of the families of the earth that it promises and demands.  Jesus desires to see that covenant brought to pass, but sees the leaders of His people falling short of what it is that God requires of them.  The issue of this widow is a microcosm of the larger issue, in that she is looked upon as an outcast (a Gentile), whereas Jesus calls her a daughter of Abraham that should be released from her imprisonment.  Such words would also, quite likely, have been cutting to the group of hearers, as they too were also desirous, as children of Abraham, of being freed from their imprisonment to a foreign power.  

Realization of the very fact that there was not a willingness to extend mercy to this poor woman, and on a Sabbath no less, would have been a cold dose of reality, as they earnestly awaited God to act on their behalf to procure their freedom from Rome.  Indeed, they were willing to extend mercy to oxen and donkeys before extending mercy to a woman who they perceived of as having little value for them (much like the perception of Gentiles) in their efforts to procure the advent of the kingdom of God.  We find little reason to wonder then why “all His adversaries were humiliated,” though “the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things He was doing” (13:17). 

Do we go too far in suggesting that Jesus is making a reference to the kingdom of God with the way He speaks about the woman?  Not at all, for the very next verse has Jesus asking, “What is the kingdom of God like?” (13:18b), while also going on to say “To what should I compare the kingdom of God?” (13:20b)  With this humiliation, the tension continues to build; and just before Luke has Jesus seated to dine with the Pharisees again, and presents an extraordinarily extended narrative in conjunction with that particular meal, Jesus goes on to say, “people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and take their place at the banquet table in the kingdom of God.  But indeed, some are last who will be first (woman with the infirmity), and some are first who will be last (hypocrites)” (13:29-30).