January 22, 2010
Sunday Scripture
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
The first part of this Sunday’s gospel is the author’s introduction to the document we call the Gospel of Luke. The document is written at the request of Theophilus. He is probably Luke’s financial sponsor for this expensive project of composing a major document. Luke puts to rest the simplistic concept that the gospels were written according to the dictation of the Holy Spirit. Inspiration, yes, but dictation, no! Luke had to work for success by travel, consultation and research.
He studied the “gospels” written before him. He began his task in the mid eighties of the first century. Apparently he did not consider his predecessors to have done that great a job of it, since he writes, “Since others have tried to put together a narrative of the things accomplished among us . . .” He notes that he had considered for some time to complete his own work, but to do it right, “ . . . to write an orderly account for you . . .” Luke recognizes not only written tradition but also oral tradition which fed into his document, that oral tradition “. . . delivered to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.” Luke is therefore a second or even third generation Christian. One of his written sources was the Gospel of Mark, which he diligently copies except when he disagrees with it, or sometimes contradicts it, and adds much, much more.
The second part of today’s gospel moves from chapter one to chapter four — the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. In Luke’s gospel Jesus just returned from a series of temptations in the wilderness. For Luke, the Holy Spirit is the mover of Jesus’ activity, thus “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.” His fame spread quickly. Later in this episode Luke will recognize that Jesus’ healing and teaching ministry had already prospered farther north, at Capernaum. Thus he was famous before he came to Nazareth.
As any faithful Jew would do, Jesus goes to the local synagogue on the Sabbath. His reputation as a teacher moved synagogue officials to invite him to speak. He read from Isaiah. Recall that Luke is describing this episode fifty to sixty years later. Luke has his own agenda, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Therefore he doctors the passage from Isaiah 61 and combines it with Isaiah 42:7 to describe the ministry of Jesus from his own (Luke’s) point of view. The quote from Isaiah becomes a description of Jesus’ ministry but also expresses a purpose for which Luke writes his gospel — a gospel par excellence of the poor, the oppressed, and a hope for the alleviation of all suffering.
Luke closes this part of the visit to Nazareth with a statement attributed to Jesus, “Today this Scripture (what Jesus read from Isaiah) has been fulfilled in your hearing.” That the Scriptures of what we call the Old Testament were predictive of the person, the life, and the ministry of Jesus was an accepted principle by the time the gospels were written. It should be pointed out that often our gospel authors composed their story of Jesus so that it reflected, echoed and “fulfilled” some oracle or other form of literature in the Old Testament. Sometimes they even changed a quote from the Old Testament so that it better served as a passage to be “fulfilled” in Jesus. We Christians do accept that Jesus is the ultimate perfection of God’s revelation which was recorded in the Old Testament, but “fulfillment” is more complicated than it seems. “Perfected” is a better translation of what our Greek-writing gospel authors expressed when they quoted from the Scriptures.
We move back into the 5th century B.C. News reached the King of Persia that the small community of Israel which had returned from exile a century earlier was falling apart. He sent two officials of the Jewish community in Persia to rescue the Jerusalem community from extinction. Nehemiah became civil governor. Ezra was the spiritual leader, their priest. Their constitution, by order of the King of Persia, was the Torah — the Scriptures. This reading was chosen for today because, like Jesus in today’s gospel. “Ezra stood up to read” to the assembled people from the Scriptures. While we respond to the reading of the Scriptures with “Thanks be to God” that assembly “raised their hands high, and said, ‘Amen! Amen!’, then bowed down and prostrated themselves before the Lord.” For our homilists: “Ezra interpreted it so that all could understand what was read.” He did not preach about himself, his travels, or his personal life.
Paul continues his struggle against disunity among the Christians of Corinth in Greece. He compares their parish to the human body. Each part has its own function, but they all need each other for the good of the whole community. Without respect and cooperation between the parts, the body ceases to exist. It may be some consolation to bishops, pastors and others engaged in diocesan or parish administration, that Paul lists administration as one of the gifts with which the Spirit functions in a Christian community.