Progressive reflections on the lectionary #51

Monday 27th January 2025

Luke 4:21-30 Jesus' first execution

The reading this week follows directly on from last week’s narrative of Jesus’ first recorded sermon (a whole nine words!) and moves from the rapture of initial reception to a concerted attempt to put him to death.

The verisimilitude of Luke’s story telling starts to fray a bit, here, as Jesus, having been ‘driven’ from town now escapes ‘through the midst’ of the angry crowd.

How quickly a mood can change. How quickly a crowd can shift its sympathies, from amazement at the graciousness of [Jesus’] words to the determination that he must die. In Luke’s telling this is a short journey indeed. There’s probably more than enough truth in that one idea for us to dwell on as it is.

But it’s worth digging a little deeper - because people weren’t simply routinely executed by crowds without good reason in those days.

“They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.” (Lk 4: 29)

“Translation is interpretation,” insisted my college lecturers, and they made a good point. Individual words and ideas change in shape and import according to the point of view of those who assess their meaning. Hence the reason we’ve ended up, arguably, with the word ‘almighty’ applied to the divine.

At issue here, though, is not nomenclature but the interpretation of the law concerning idolatry given in Deuteronomy 17:2-7, our translations usually say something like: “then you shall bring out to your gates that man or that woman who has committed this crime, and you shall stone the man or woman to death.” Jewish tradition diverged somewhat from, or perhaps elaborated on, this though.

According to the Talmud, the condemned man, about to be stoned, should first be pushed from a height, about twice the size of a man, then if he were not already dead the stoning would begin.

The people in Luke’s story weren’t just chucking Jesus off a cliff out of spite, a fit of peak, or for larks, they were taking him to the appropriate place for him to be stoned to death for the crime of idolatry, which is to say: “going to serve other gods and worshiping them.”

What had Jesus said to turn them from delight at his short but pointed sermon to this determination that he was, in fact, a heretic of the worst sort and needed to be ‘bumped off’ (literally!)?

“…the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months and there was a severe famine over all the land, yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many with a skin disease in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” (Lk 4: 25-27)

What do the widow at Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian have in common? They are outwith the chosen people - they are gentiles.

Luke’s Jesus is doing what Luke’s Paul will later do: globalising Jesus’ Messiahship. People would first be called ‘Christian’ in cosmopolitan, gentile Antioch home to the notorious temple of Apollo at Daphne with its bevy of temple prostitutes.

All this attention for the gentiles was not in the job description. As a reminder - the role of the Messiah is/was to restore the fortunes of Israel. Back in the first century this was an urgent priority. The ten tribes that were removed from the land were already long gone, only ‘the Jews’ were left, (Judah and Benjamin) and they were occupied by invaders. The Messiah is the one who is promised to bring them all back together again and lead them to freedom. When Jesus read the Isaiah passage in last week’s lectionary reading and then said ‘this happens today’ - it’s a declaration of his role as Messiah. The jubilee has been in abeyance since the dispersal of the tribes (if it were ever practised) but Jesus is saying that it’s back on, which means that he’s here to restore the fortunes of the scattered people.

“Great!” Everyone says, “fantastic!” The hometown boy has done well, “is this not Joseph’s son!?” And then Jesus goes and spoils it all by saying something like: “this is a message for everyone, not just the children of Israel.” Not for the last time, people are ready to follow Jesus to the barricades. And not for the last time, the mood turns sour, the crowd turns nasty.

“This,” they say as Jesus explains his position, “is heresy. This is a crime, this must not be allowed to continue.” Foreshadowing, anyone?

The punishment for idolatry, for the worship of false gods, for contravening the sacred laws of Israel, is death by stoning. So they take him to the place, the place twice the height of a man from where they will push him. If he’s not dead on impact then the stoning will begin.

But Jesus slips away, somewhat improbably, ‘through the midst of them’.

The agenda for Luke’s Jesus is clear: this is now a globalised messiah, not a ‘particularised’ one. It’s good news for all, the dispersed tribes have gone, like yeast into dough or wine, perhaps. Now the good news is for all - we can all be part of the family of God.

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Image: Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash