Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Thursday, March 7, 2013 Read - Luke 16:16-18 Luke began the chapter with the words, “There was a rich man…” He will soon repeat those words as he tells another of Jesus’ parables – the parable of the rich man and Lazarus – and here in the middle Luke seems to have dropped in three sayings that, at least at first, seem unrelated. Once again commentators have wondered at the meaning of all of this. Why did Luke place these things here? Luke shares all three of these saying with Matthew although Matthew places them all in different contexts and does not join them together. Were they together in “Q” and Matthew has pulled them apart? Or, were they brought together by Luke? We simply can’t tell. The first saying recalls the ministry of John the Baptist – something Luke has kept somewhat at arms-length. The division between the ministry of Jesus and that of John is at issue here. John was the ending of something and Jesus was the beginning of something new. But, lest we emphasize that division too much, we need to remember that Luke has gone to great ends to picture the ministry of Jesus as the continuation of the OT. The lines of demarcation are not to be stressed too much for Luke. It is not to be understood that what God was doing in the OT has been abandoned and now God is doing something else. Luke does not abandon the OT people of God and replace them with a “New Israel” – the church! Luke is being delicate in his appraisal that the emergence of Jesus has meant something new – but it is the continuation of the old. The last part of this saying is likely made difficult for us because of a translation issue. What does Luke mean by saying that “everyone enters it violently”? Perhaps a better translation would be to say, “everyone enters it urgently, or with zeal.” There is a radical nature to the coming of the kingdom of God. The second saying makes far more sense in the context that Matthew places it – the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew is talking about the “higher righteousness” of the kingdom. Luke seems to be anticipating his next saying regarding divorce. The Pharisees, following Moses, had made provision for divorce. Jesus makes no provision here – not one dot of the law will become void. Luke’s words of Jesus regarding divorce make many of us uncomfortable. We have come to a different understanding of the tragedy of divorce. And for many of us our accommodation makes us a little uncomfortable – yet we share compassion with those who experience that tragedy. We will not easily make peace with the words we find here. Mark will also talk about divorce in a different context. For Mark the issue arises as Jesus enters Judea for the first time and is confronted with by the religious leaders who are testing him. They desire to trick him with questions. Jesus’ words in Mark are equally as harsh and difficult as those we find here in Luke (Mark 10:1-12). It is interesting that, although Luke will once again be following Mark at that point in his gospel, Luke omits the story of the religious leaders attempting to trick Jesus. Perhaps he has already dealt with the subject here and chose not to do so again – or perhaps Luke does not share Mark’s complete rejection of religious leaders.