Luke: Crossing Boundaries in Galilee

Luke: Crossing Boundaries in Galilee

By Fr Tom O'Reilly SSC

Dante called Luke the 'scribe of the gentleness of Christ.' While Luke tones down some of the strong reactions of the Markan Jesus, his Jesus is by no means an anaemic character without passion. The Lukan Jesus is a Spirit-filled Saviour and Prophet with a strong and urgent sense of mission, wanting all to experience God's salvation, having a special concern for those who are excluded and to whom life is most denied, finding direction and energy for his mission in prayerful union with God, and trusting in the fidelity of God, despite opposition, rejection and death.

Jesus is anointed with the Spirit (Lk 3:21-22; Acts 10:38) and shortly afterwards announces his programme for a mission directed and empowered by the Spirit. Luke places the episode in the synagogue in Nazareth at the beginning of the Galilean ministry (Lk 4:16-30) – in Mark and Matthew it comes much later (Mk 6:1-6; Mt 13:54-58). He expands the report by telling us what Jesus said and emphasising the strong reaction to Jesus. Quoting Isaiah 61:1-2, Jesus understands his mission as a time of liberation for the poor, captives, blind and oppressed. He calls his mission 'the year of God's favour,' comparing it to the Old Testament sabbatical and jubilee years (Lev 25:1-7; Deut 15;1-18), when right relationships were restored in God's covenant community – by releasing people from slavery and debt, returning land to its rightful owners, and allowing overworked land to lie fallow. His mission is not a time of judgement, but of God's hospitality for all, without exception.

At first, the people of Nazareth are overjoyed, but they want to monopolise God's salvation. Jesus resists their exclusivity and insists that he is the prophet of God's salvation for all. He compares his mission to those of Elijah and Elisha, prophets who reached out to all, including non-Israelites. The people of his home-town cannot accept such a prophet and cast him out. The one who brings the good news of God's acceptance and hospitality for all does not experience hospitality and acceptance at home.

Luke understands Jesus' Galilean ministry as a crossing of boundaries between clean and unclean, holy and profane, insider and outsider. To make the point that God's salvation is for all, Jesus reaches out to the poor, outcasts and excluded ones. Women, who were marginalised in the patriarchal structures of the day, are given prominent roles in Luke's story of Jesus. Perhaps nowhere is the boundary crossing of Jesus seen more strikingly than in his table fellowship with excluded ones. The Lukan Jesus is often going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal. No wonder some saw him as a 'glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners' (Lk 7:34)! Jesus, however, was giving the message that no one is to be excluded from God's table.

The powers-that-be concluded that such unconventional practices would destroy the established religious system and social order, so something had to be done about this revolutionary prophet (see Lk 6:11). In a way, Jesus will die because of his eating habits!

Jesus' salvation brings liberation from whatever prevents people experiencing the life God intends for them and also restoration to a state of wholeness. It affects the whole person and all aspects of life, the physical and the spiritual, the individual and social. Jesus' healing miracles must be understood in terms of this liberation and restoration. The cure of the Gerasene demoniac in Lk 8:26-39, which for some strange reason is not found in our Lectionary, is a powerful illustration of this.

Lk 4:16-30 is perhaps the key text for understanding Christian mission today. It reminds us that the Gospel is essentially good news for the poor and that, as missionaries, we are boundary crossers. What boundaries do we need to cross today in solidarity with the poor and with the message of God's all-inclusive hospitality?

[Gospel of St Luke - Reflections by Fr Tom O'Reilly SSC]