Reading the Gospels Together The Storyline of Luke’s Gospel – Part 10 Luke now does an interesting thing with his storyline. He takes some of the material that will be a part of Mark’s dialogue between Jesus and his disciples about the destruction of the Temple and the coming end and moves it forward in his gospel. We have seen before how Luke moves things forward from where they were in Mark’s gospel. Here he is addressing ahead of time the concern about the coming of the kingdom. And Luke’s point is a huge one. He tells his readers that the kingdom that is coming is already now within them. They are not to look for it “out there” but “inside” themselves. Luke is addressing the delay in the return of Jesus. He does not deny that there will be a return but that in the meantime we are to know that the kingdom is already here. Luke will tell two more parables before he will return and pick up Mark’s gospel once again. The first parable is meant to encourage disciples to be persistent in prayer. And the second is about the need for humility before God as a tax collector and Pharisee are the main characters of the parable. Only Luke has these two parables. They are part of a collection of material that Luke wants to share with his readers that is not found in Mark’s gospel. So, we have observed that Luke has interrupted Mark’s tightly constructed narrative of Jesus instructing his disciples regarding the need to understand that Jesus will be the Crucified Messiah and that in seeing this reality their eyes will be opened. Since Luke has inserted such a large amount of material into Mark, Mark’s intentions all but disappear. But we are far better off with all the wonderful material Luke provides us. With the story of Jesus blessing the children, Luke returns to Mark’s storyline and will stick closely to it for the rest of his gospel. Like Mark, Luke follows the story of the blessing of the children with a story about the dangers of wealth – a familiar theme for Luke. Then he continues with Mark’s third “passion prediction” only this time Luke leaves out Mark’s story of how Jesus’ prediction of his death is misunderstood since Luke does not tell the story of James and John wanting the places of honor his Jesus’ kingdom. We have noticed how Luke places the disciples in a far more positive light than Mark. He also left out the story of Peter’s rebuke. But, having left out James and John, Luke continues with Mark’s story of the healing of a blind man at Jericho. Luke’s version is shorter and leaves out the name, Bartimeaus, but we can be sure it is the same story. Mark had told the story of the healing of the blind man as Jesus was leaving Jericho. Luke tells the story as Jesus enters and then goes on to tell a story only he provides his readers – the story of Zacchaeus, a rich tax collector who become as follower of Jesus. Luke is often tough on the rich and told the sad story of a rich man who ends up in the fires of hell because he does not notice the poor man, Lazarus; and also the story of another rich man who leaves in sadness rather than give up his wealth to follow Jesus. The story of Zacchaeus has a different outcome and brings hope that even the rich can find a place in God’s kingdom. At this point Luke inserts into Mark’s storyline a story he shares with Matthew. But Luke’s and Matthew’s versions of this story are very different and likely have opposite outcomes. Luke adds to the story the news of a tyrant who goes to a far country to receive his kingdom. In the meantime he has charged the people of his would be kingdom to earn money for him. Upon his return he blesses two who have earned money for him and condemns a third who has not. And when Jesus tells his audience that the tyrant will take even what the third person has and give it to the one who made the most, they protest, “God forbid!” Most of the time we think of the two who earned more as the heroes of the story, but perhaps we need to read Luke more closely. Could it be that Luke is really turning this story around? The story sounds a lot like Herod Archelaus going to Rome to receive the kingdom after the death of his father, Herod the great. In that story the people did not want Archelaus to become their ruler, but he does receive at least a part of the kingdom and upon his return kills many who had opposed him. Perhaps Luke has this story in mind and his point is not to make more in order to be a hero but to resist the tyrant and not do his bidding. An interesting story we will need to ponder more at a later time.