At my secondary school there were two teachers who I remember vividly. Both language teachers, one taught Latin and one German. But there the resemblance ended. They were opposites in character and in teaching methods. The Latin teacher was what you might call a dragon of the old school. We were terrified of her, people used to regularly cry in her classes. We sat up straight, prepared like blazes, shook with nerves and watched the clock hoping against hope that the bell would ring before she got round to asking me to translate. The German teacher on the other hand was lovely. She loved us and we loved her. You wouldn’t dream of messing around in her class. You wanted to work for her. We trusted her so much that we used to confide in her about how terrible the Latin lessons were.
Both these teachers got excellent exam results out of us; but in very different ways. I remember my utter gob smacked astonishment when one of my friends announced that she was going to take Latin A level – alone – with that dragon. I thought that took bravery to ridiculous proportions. Needless to say, I dropped Latin and took German A level.
Well those two teachers in some ways resemble opposite ideas of God. Some people imagine God as fierce, hard to please, demanding, strict, disapproving of pleasure, and so on. Perhaps that image of God is less common these days than it used to be – as there are fewer teachers and parents who take that kind of line with children – but it still survives. The opposite view of God is one of love and welcome, a God who bathes us in love and approval, endlessly seeing potential and inspiring and lifting us towards it. That is the kind of God we see reflected in Luke’s gospel in the person of Jesus. And it’s the kind of God we see in Jesus on the cross.
Several passages in the account of Jesus passion and death are unique to Luke: the trial before Herod Antipas; the penitent thief; the women of Jerusalem following him to the cross. Each of these tells us something important about Luke’s view of the cross.
Also other smaller differences in the way certain events are related. It’s often in the differences that we see Luke’s distinctive theology coming out. There are 4 broad themes in Luke’s view of the cross that I want to outline.
Jesus/God is in control and Gods will is being fulfilled.
-
In Gethsemane or rather on the Mount of Olives, Jesus simply kneels, he doesn’t throw himself to the ground.
-
His arrest had to wait for a healing (the servant’s ear) – only when he is ready can the soldiers carry out their arrest. Jesus tells them now you can go ahead – this is your hour 22.53.
The Jewish leaders were at fault for rejecting Jesus but not all the Jewish people.
-
Luke has Jesus tried by Herod Antipas as well as Pilate – only one of gospels – and emphasises that both of them found Jesus innocent of any crime. Pilate says to the Jewish authorities, ‘I have not found this man guilty of any of your charges against him; neither has Herod; indeed he has done nothing to deserve death.’ 23.14-15 ie it wasn’t the secular authorities or Rome, but the Jewish authorities.
-
In Matt the whole nation rejects J and accepts his blood on their head. In Luke a distinction is drawn between the leaders and the people. All through the gospel as the tension builds up it’s a contrast between the narrow legalism of the Pharisees and the spontaneous open love of Jesus. The old order against the new.
-
In Luke only crowds followed him from Jerusalem: ‘a great number of the people followed him’ including many women beating their breasts in the traditional way of mourning, and he addresses them as ‘daughters of Jerusalem’ This was a Jewish crowd.
-
Joseph of Arimathea is an exception to this– socially man of status and power however as a secret disciple he is an exception to the general picture of the Jewish leaders being blind to and hostile to Jesus. This breaks a stereotype, just as Jesus did every time he paid attention to a sinner, woman or Gentile. Luke makes the careful point that Joseph of Arimathea was good and righteous, and did not consent to the Sanhedrin’s judgment.
The whole of the Jesus event was salvific, not just his death.
-
The centurion comments when he saw ‘what had taken place’, not just how Jesus died – he praised God and said this man was innocent.
-
The veil of the temple tears before he dies – Jesus whole life is redemptive, the place of knowing God face to face
-
Luke doesn’t present the death as atoning or substitutionary. It is the climax and the route to glory but there isn’t one moment of salvation.
Gospel themes of accepting outsiders – women, Gentiles, sinners, outcasts
-
The penitent thief is only in Luke. His words to Jesus are hardly a declaration of faith, yet the response from Jesus is very strong. Typical of the Lukan open acceptance of the outsider, never mind how disreputable.
-
The Roman centurion is the first to express faith after his death. Opening the gospel to the Gentile world is a v important theme of Luke. This man, hardened to the brutal facts of death by crucifixion, could see like Pilate and Herod, that Jesus was innocent.
-
The importance of women among disciples is shown here as well as throughout the gospel. The women watching the crucifixion at a distance; the finding of the empty tomb where the angels give the women a message explaining what had happened – but its for them, its not just for them to pass onto the men.
For Luke the cross is about those arms stretched out wide. His vision of salvation is a universal one; his Jesus is the Jesus of compassion, forgiveness, acceptance. His death is a continuation of his life as well as the climax; he dies as he lived, in love for all around him; and following the will of his Father. Salvation is open to all people; Jews and Gentiles, outcasts and sinners, rich and poor. The cross culminates and completes his life but it does not stand alone as the means of our salvation. Salvation is the result of Jesus’ whole life and his death.
|
