Luke indicates his views about Jesus in a speech attributed to Peter on the day of Pentecost – the first point at which Luke reports preaching about Jesus after his exaltation. In addition to the image of Jesus baptizing in the Spirit (which Lk 3:16 presumably derives from “Q”), in Acts 2:33 Jesus “pours out” the Spirit, a clear allusion to God pouring out the Spirit in 2:17-18 (the only other passage in Luke-Acts that uses ekcheo). Jewish texts also speak of God pouring out wisdom (Sir 1:9) as his gift (Sir 1:10; cf. Acts 2:38). But the most obvious source of the language, in view of the allusion to Acts 2:17-18, is Joel 2:28-29, where God pours out the Spirit.
Moreover, Peter interprets the name of the “Lord” (the divine name in Hebrew) in terms of Jesus of Nazareth in Acts 2:21, 38 (interpreting Joel 2:32 by way of Ps 110:1). By concluding that the gift of the Spirit was available to “as many as God would call,” Luke clearly echoes the end of Joel 2:32 (3:5 LXX), completing the quotation interrupted in Acts 2:21. That is, having finished his exposition of “whoever calls on the Lord’s name” (2:21) by showing that the name on which they must call is Jesus’ (2:38), he concludes the quotation in 2:39. The salvific name of God, then, is “Jesus.” That other early Christians interpreted the Joel text similarly in the 50s (Joel 2:32 in Rom 10:9, 13) signals that Luke follows an earlier tradition of interpretation.
Craig S. Keener, The Historical Jesus of the Gospels (Grand Rapids, MI: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), 279.
It is safe to say that in telling the story of Jesus both the ascribed and acquired honor of Jesus were of first priority on the agendas of Matthew and Luke. Both of them wrote for literate, urban audiences who expected to read a story of an honorific person. So how were they to gain a hearing when their story is actually one about a lowly village artisan (Mark 6:3)? Moreover, the actual circumstances of Jesus’s birth were potentially embarrassing. In the audiences of Matthew and Luke a carpenter’s son from a village like Nazareth was the kind of person who should be listening, not speaking.
The strategy both Matthew and Luke follow is to move Jesus as far up the honor scale as possible. Moreover, in attempting to do this they each had two basic options. One would be to address the ascribed honor of Jesus, the other to address his acquired honor. Matthew and Luke actually make bold use of both options, …. We shall describe Matthew’s arguments about Jesus’s ascribed honor and then later Luke’s regarding his acquired honor. Each is key in the respective author’s rhetorical strategy.[1]
[1] Richard L. Rohrbaugh, “Honor: Core Value in the Biblical World” in Understanding the Social World of the New Testament, ed. Dietmar Neufeld and Richard E. DeMaris (London: Routledge, an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group, 2010), 120.
Augustinian Hypothesis: The opinion of *Augustine that the current canonical order of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) is the actual chronological order in which they were composed.
Arthur G. Patzia;Anthony J. Petrotta. Pocket Dictionary of Biblical Studies (p. 17). Kindle Edition.
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10
Once I was lost for 3 hours in Kathmandu which is the capital city of Nepal. It isn’t even as crazily busiest as most other capital cities around the world. Since this incident, I rather shut my mouth from blurting before people that I was once lost when they talk about their first visit in the city. I reckon that to be pretty embarrassing to admit. Subsequently it can also raise a question at my basic knowledge of the city thus may jeopardize my whole identity as a knowledgeable or well-informed person. For this reason, I always discover different ways to get by in order to hide the story of being lost. I may feel what I am supposedly feeling inside but people may continually respect and accept me. This is my very propensity, and I am pretty convinced that I am not alone doing this!
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When a person says, “I have never been lost,” it must either mean that (s)he must have already been under Him and expected to constantly grow in the grace or totally deceived by his own lies and desperately in need of His grace.
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The Bible plainly affirms that the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Yes, Jesus came to seek and save the lost, but as a matter of fact, “I have never been lost. Why then should I need him?”, says my deceitful heart. And maybe so does yours. The real problem is not to comprehend Jesus’ coming, but rather admitting that I am the lost. When a person says, “I have never been lost,” it must either mean that (s)he must have already been under Him and expected to constantly grow in the grace or totally deceived by his own lies and desperately in need of His grace. Honestly, being in the state of deception is not equated with being in the state of found.
Well, It is not bad at all to feel found because God has created us with the feeling of found, not with the lost. The feeling of found, however, can be experienced in its intended way and at fullness only in Him. Sin has separated us from God in such a way that we will never take the initiation to search Him to be found. Moreover, Paul says in Romans 10:3 that people have established their own ways to make them feel found without God. But their hearts know that he has, by any means or performance, not been found but the false sense of being found is merely an ostentation. His pretension of being found is an idle endeavor to convince self that he was never lost in the first place to be found later. Sadly, this erroneous thought reflected my own thinking too.
Conversely, the Son of Man – the title Luke borrowed from Daniel 7:13-14 for Jesus in his Gospel- helps us to understand who Christ indeed is. Despite his grandeur majesty, he chose to stoop down to us in order to help us see that we are not what we claim to be but a guilt-ridden creatures who have utterly fallen through. He also invited us to trust in him, because he is only our hope who alone can fix our broken fellowship with God. His agonizing outburst with excruciating pain: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), was on our behalf so that we may be eternally found in Him!
All of us need the Son of Man whether we claim to be lost or found. Here is question for you and me: Do I want to knowingly believe in my false claim in order to feel found or do I want to believe in Christ so that I might be found in Him not only for this life but also for the life yet to come? If you are already found by his grace, are you seeking to grow even more in his grace or again discovering Christian ways of feeling found?
The author is a M.Div student in Calvin Theological Seminary. You may follow him in his Facebook page.
according to popular culture? according to Matthew? according to Mark? according to Luke? and according to you?
This is a fundamental question that was being raised over and over in the gospels. People around the world have also been asking the same question who Jesus really is. The same question Jesus asked Pharisees and his disciples in the first century who they think he was. This question remains and will continue to remain on the table for debate and explanation for the days to come. And our generation has a burden to tell the world who Jesus really is, as he is revealed to us in the gospel accounts and extra biblical materials.
ACCORDING OT POPULAR CULTURE
According to popular culture, Jesus is a man who was born into a nomadic people group in the vicinity of Palestine 2000 years ago. He is a good moral teacher and revolutionary leader. Probably, he is an apocalyptic teacher. In the throng of isms, some have very lowly view of Jesus. A person like Oprah Winfrey thinks that Jesus is a ‘guru’ who came to the world to awake our Christ’s consciousness that was non-operational in its deep slumber. He is a path or a god who can lead to the essence of all consciousness.
The another conception about Jesus in our present day culture is that he is a man who claimed to be the Messiah but failed miserably to live up to his own claim. He is a poor deluded guy. And some people are simply ignorant to all the historical facts and reject that he ever lived in this world. Continue reading Who is JESUS?→
CAFNepal 