Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Wednesday, February 20, 2013 Read – Luke 11:27-36 Only Luke shares the brief story of the woman in the crowd declaring her blessing upon Mary, the mother of Jesus. Jesus appears to reject, or at least play down her blessing with another – “Blessed are those who hear and obey!” In the “Sermon on the Plain” Luke had emphasized hearing and doing. That emphasis is once again highlighted. Luke has been depicting a growing crowd of people who have come to listen to Jesus. Now Jesus chastises that crowd as an evil generation seeking a sign. No sign will be giving except the sign of Jonah. Luke shares this episode with Matthew – thus it was likely in his “Q” source – though Mark also mentions the Pharisees seeking a sign (Mark 8:11-13). In Mark’s short statement there is no mention of Jonah and the firm declaration that there will be no sign, period. Luke had omitted this part of Mark in that long section we noticed earlier. Matthew’s story is longer and clearer – Matthew explains the sign of Jonah by saying that just as Jonah was three days in the belly of the whale so Jesus will be in the earth (Matthew 12:38-42). Matthew also tells us it was only the Pharisees and scribes who seek the sign and are thus the evil generation – Luke’s accusation is much broader. Both Matthew and Luke add comments about the Queen of South coming to hear the wisdom of Solomon – but in Jesus something greater than Solomon is present. Both Matthew and Luke declare that the people of Nineveh, to whom Jonah had preached, will provide condemnation of the present hearers because they repented when they heard Jonah’s words – the present hearers do not repent. Though Matthew explanation of the sign of Jonah is clearer, for Luke it is really the effect of repentance generated by the proclamation of Jonah that is the sign that is given. The present hearers ought to respond like Jonah’s hearers did. One is left to wonder if they “got” the sign. Earlier in his sections on parables Mark had told a parable about how no one brings a lamp into a room only to put it under a bushel (Mark 4:21). Following Mark in the earlier part of his gospel Luke had shared the same parable in a slightly modified form (Luke 8:16-18). Now that parable comes up again in a slightly modified form and then Luke attaches words he found in “Q” to it. The words in “Q” are about the soundness of one’s eye. Matthew had shared about the soundness of one’s eye earlier in the “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 6:22-23). The meaning of this saying is hard for us to comprehend – it likely has to do with the idea of the “evil eye” which is a concept that is foreign to our thinking. In some ways, this section of Luke’s “travel narrative” sounds a lot like Mathew’s “Sermon on the Mount.” In a “travel narrative” we expect to be on the move toward a destination. Though Luke’s “travel narrative” will eventually get us to Jerusalem, in the meantime much teaching is taking place. Perhaps the purpose of the “travel narrative” is less to give a journal of the trip than to prepare Luke’s readers for the outcome. We have heard that Jesus is resolute in “setting his face” toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:51) but now he seems to be in no hurry to get there.