Kingdom Prayer: The Gospel of Luke With N.T. WrightIsampula

Jesus performs seven Sabbath healings during Luke. What’s going on with these scenes? We must think about them in the context of the larger narrative arc of Luke, in which tension is rapidly building. Jesus himself is increasing the number and severity of the warnings he’s been giving, cryptic though they may be. And the sense of danger in the events of Jesus’s long journey to Jerusalem also seems to be hurtling towards a precipice. For those who know the outcome, Jesus’s life is in palpable danger, as are the agendas of the violent factions within Israel.

So, Jesus is being watched by the self-imposed authority of Pharisees, hoping he’ll slip up. He knows this, and yet he heals the man in front of him (apparently without much of a conversation). At its most basic level, Jesus appears to be forcing what was a live question at the time. Is healing ‘work’? Or, as Jesus will implicitly argue, is it a sign of the in-breaking new age? The Sabbath is supposed to be a day set aside as a sign of God’s in-breaking new age, celebrating in advance the arrival of God’s Kingdom. It was when heaven and earth came together. Does healing count as one of these signs? If we are reading with the logic of divine reversal as our guide, remembering the Magnificat and the Nazareth Manifesto, we know the answer.

Reflection:

What signs of God’s New Age do you see in society?