Reading the Gospels Together The Storyline of Luke’s Gospel – Part 11 Like Mark, Luke now has Jesus at the summit of the Mount of Olives at the towns of Bethphage and Bethany. Luke follows Mark in telling of the sending out of two disciples to find a colt for Jesus ride upon as he enters the city. Luke’s story of Jesus entering into Jerusalem is somewhat more dramatic than Mark’s was and he tells his readers that the Pharisees notice and command Jesus to tell his disciples to be silent. Jesus refuses saying that if they were to be silent the stones would cry out. At this point, Luke inserts a reprise of Jesus weeping over the city of Jerusalem. Luke had already told that story once while Jesus was journeying toward Jerusalem, but he reminds his readers of it here. The passion of Jesus is highlighted and Luke’s main theme comes to the fore. Luke tells the story in such a way that he depicts the very scene of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. Josephus gives the same description in greater detail. The city is surrounded and siege works are placed against it and the outcome is that not one stone is left upon another. Luke’s first readers would likely have noted the scene and remembered that it did happen in 70 AD just as Jesus had said it would. And then Luke adds the verdict. This has happened because the people “did not recognize the time of their visitation from God!” Luke changes Mark’s storyline a bit by telling of Jesus entering the Temple and cleansing it on the same day as he entered Jerusalem. Luke’s version is shorter than Mark’s and less dramatic and Luke mentions nothing about the fig tree withering. And Luke adds a note to his gospel that seems to indicate that he views Jesus as teaching for many days in the Temple. The way in which Mark told the story Jesus would have entered Jerusalem on a Sunday, cleansed the Temple on Monday, argued with the Religious leaders on Tuesday and perhaps Wednesday, made preparation for the Passover on Thursday, ate the Passover that night which would have become Friday at sundown, was crucified on Friday and raised on the next Sunday. Luke is much vaguer about the timeline and says that Jesus was teaching in the Temple many days. He stretches out the Temple Controversy for a longer period of time. When we come to John’s storyline we will discover that he envisions the Temple Controversy lasting for about five months. We will need to notice this later. Luke does follow Mark quite closely the content of the Temple Controversy; however, he does seem to remove the Pharisees from the scene. The controversy begins with the chief priests, teachers of the Law, and the elders question Jesus about his authority to cleanse the Temple. Next Jesus tells the parable of the owner of the vineyard followed by an attempt of the teachers of the Law to trap Jesus with the question about paying taxes. Next, the Sadducees question Jesus about the resurrection. Luke omits the material in which Jesus identifies the greatest commandment and moves on to Jesus’ own question about how the Messiah can be David’s Lord and son. The controversy ends with Jesus warning of regarding the hypocrisy of the teachers of the Law and Jesus praise of the widow’s offering. All of this is much like Mark’s storyline with the few modifications noted. Jesus now speaks to his disciples about the destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem. Luke follows Mark quite closely but he omits the part of Mark that he had moved forward in his narrative of the journey to Jerusalem. Luke has been following Mark rather closely for some time. At the very end of the narrative about the destruction of Jerusalem, Luke adds some significant words telling his readers that Jesus had spent days teaching in the Temple and spending his nights at the Mount of Olives. We are reminded once again that Luke has stretched out the Temple Controversy and having Jesus spend much more time in Jerusalem than Mark did. We noted earlier that perhaps Luke was aware of a greater ministry of Jesus in Jerusalem. We will need to note this as we begin comparing the storylines of all four gospels.