Lenten Bible Study Day 3; Luke 3

 

Luke Chapter 3 (NRSV)

Today we read about the very beginning of Jesus' ministry. We hear Luke's version of John the Baptizer's proclamation, and hear how Jesus himself introduced and framed his appearance. We hear too of how the people of his own community couldn't bring themselves to believe. And how they ultimately rejected him. Their rejection is a foreshadowing of the later rejections that happen in Luke's Gospel when Jesus' people and his friends also reject him and carry out the threat to kill him that we hear in this chapter.

All of this is a reminder that the Gospel, like a piece of music, has themes that appear again and again in the narrative, sometimes with and sometimes without a resolution. We hear all this read in church on Sunday. And I'm sure you've heard wonderful sermons on these texts over the years. But what about the very end of the chapter, the part that lists the genealogy of Jesus? That's not something we ever read in the lectionary (at least not that I remember). It's certainly not something that I've preached on.

I remember when I read this the first time I was reading the Bible the whole way through. I skimmed over the names. I wanted to get back to the story. What I didn't realize at that time was that Luke didn't put anything into his version of the Gospel without a purpose. And it wasn't until years later, when I returned to this list of names and started paying closer attention, that I began to understand some of the points that Luke was making here.

One of the points being made is that you and I share common ancestors with Jesus - we too are children of Abraham. And by giving the descent all the way back to Adam, Luke is reminding us that we share a common humanity with Jesus. It's a reminder that Jesus is really like us - much more than we pay attention to in our every day lives. It's something worth meditating on.

But there's another, to me, more interesting thing in this list of names. Rather than a march of heroes from generations to generation as you'd find in other genealogies of Luke's time, there are some surprising names in the list. There are a few people who are not exactly paragons of virtue. If you have time, do a little googling of the names in the list. See what you can find out about their lives. How amazing that Jesus own story has these odd characters, these twists and turns, these mistakes in that path. That too makes him like us.

But note that Luke is taking this history, warts and all, and showing that without the good and the bad, there would have been no earthly ministry. Surely God had the choice of who and how the generations would run. And God chose this a twisty path rather than a straight one. In a sense it seems that Luke is reframing the difficult parts and giving them a new meaning. They were difficult yes, but look at the fruit they bore.

Have you ever had to reframe the story of the hard parts of your life? Have you gotten to the point that you can recognize that the person you are today would not have emerged unless the you had trodden the twisty path you did? It's something that I try to keep in front of me when I complain about things to God in my prayers. Oft times there's a pathway that is carrying me with a purpose, but as I'm walking in a deep valley, I'm not able to see the peak that is where I'm ultimately heading to.

What parts of your life have you already reframed? What parts still need to be seen in greater context of the whole journey? Isn't it fascinating that the end of the Gospel reframes the repeated rejections of Jesus, the first of which we read this morning?