Author: John T Squires

We have seen how the two faithful followers to whom Jesus referred in his sermon in Nazareth differ from one another (in terms of gender and social status). We have also noted the way in which they are similar, as characters who are displaced from the mainstream of society. See https://johntsquires.com/2022/01/24/jesus-the-widow-of-sidon-and-the-soldier-of-syria-representatives-of-the-community-of-faith-luke-425-27-epiphany-4c/

Now, we consider all four faithful figures together. There are two faithful Gentiles: one from Sidon, another from Syria. Each of these individuals receives and responds to a faithful Jewish prophet, respectively Elijah and Elisha. Taken together, the four figures stand for another dimension of the inclusiveness of the community of the faithful: both Jews and Gentiles are part of this community.

For Luke, this theme assumes a place of high importance, and comes to dominate especially the second volume of his work, the Acts of the Apostles. The verse which is often cited as being the key to this volume is the declaration of Jesus, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Such a movement of the mission can be systematically traced throughout the work, from the centre of Judaism (chs. 1–7), into Samaria (ch. 8), on into various hellenised Jewish communities (chs. 9–11), then throughout the Diaspora (chs. 13–21) and on to the capital of the Roman Empire (ch. 28).

Three times in the course of preaching to Jews in the Diaspora, Paul announces that he is turning from the Jews and taking the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 13:44–49; 18:5–6; 28:23–28). These announcements seem to be symbolic of the broadening scope of the church, beyond the Jewish world, into Gentile arenas. Yet Paul continues preaching to Jews as well as Gentiles.

After his declaration in Antioch that he is turning to the Gentiles, he persists in returning to the synagogue when he visits Iconium (14:1), Thessalonica (17:1), Beroea (17:10), Athens (17:17) and Corinth (18:4). After a similar declaration in Corinth, he twice visits the synagogue in Ephesus (18:19; 19:8). Even though he announces in Rome that “the Gentiles will listen”, in contrast to the Jews whose ears are blocked, he continues to preach to “all who came to him” in that city (28:30–31). In context, this comment must refer to both Jews and Gentiles.

Even when he reaches Rome, the capital of the Empire and the symbolic heart of the Gentile world, Paul deliberately meets with “the local leaders of the Jews” (28:17). His mission is resolutely oriented towards Jews and Gentiles alike. The great breakthrough in this regard has come when the story of Peter and Cornelius is told (10:1–11:18). Luke takes great pains to underline the significance of these events.

Four times the narrative indicates that what happens to the Gentiles who are gathered in Caesarea is of the same order as what happened to the Jews who were gathered in Jerusalem at Pentecost. Peter declares that they “have received the Holy Spirit just as we have” (10:45), that “the Holy Spirit fell on them just as it had upon us at the beginning” (11:15), and that “God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed” (11:17). The council gathered in Jerusalem thus concludes that “God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life” (11:18). For Luke, there is no doubt that the community of believers incorporates Gentiles on an equal footing with Jews.

And so it is that, when Paul narrates his ‘conversion’ on the road to Damascus, he reports that the commission which he received was to “be a witness to all the world” (22:15). This global mission field has already been specified, in Luke’s initial narrative of the incident, in God’s charge to Paul to be “a chosen instrument, to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and the people of Israel” (9:15).

The same global vision has already been made clear, however, long before Paul’s Damascus road encounter. In Luke’s report of the preaching of John the baptiser, the prophetic vision was already in view: “all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6, citing Isa 40:5). And even at the moment when the spirit-inspired Simeon holds the infant Jesus in his arms, he speaks of God’s salvation as being “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (2:32).

The universal implications of the Gospel are thus in view from the very earliest stages of Luke’s first volume. Specific indicators of this in the first volume are relatively rare. The crowds from Tyre and Sidon who listen to Jesus’ teachings are Gentiles (6:17), as is the centurion who exhibits great faith (7:1–10). The mission of the seventy-two disciples (10:1–20) may allude to the Gentile mission begun in the Acts of the Apostles. The centurion who exhibits sympathy for Jesus at the moment of his death (23:47) is, of course, a Gentile. Yet the course has been clearly set by the Lukan Jesus for the ultimate inclusion of Gentiles into the people of God.

Having noted these explicit statements and implicit portrayals of Jewish- Gentile relations, then, when we return to the incident in the synagogue in Nazareth, we can see the symbolic significance of the figures to whom Jesus referred. He speaks of two Jewish people, each linked with a Gentile person. Each connection is a microcosm of the faithful community. Luke has carefully shaped the sermon of Jesus so that it delicately prefigures the faith community which is created in the second volume of his work—a community in which Jews and Gentiles belong together.

One final comment remains to be made concerning the possible symbolic significance of Jesus’ reference to Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. Elijah is sent to her in a time of famine. The biblical account of this meeting reports how the Gentile widow was commanded to set before the Jewish prophet a jar of meal to eat and a jug of oil to drink (1 Kings 17:8–16). Implicit in the story is the sharing of food across what was, for the Jew, a clearly-defined boundary. This is precisely the issue which is at the heart of the events which draw Peter and Cornelius together (Acts 10:1–11:18).

The vision seen three times by Peter (10:9–16; 11:5–10) communicates the breakdown of the Levitical food laws, so that foods were no longer to be classified into ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ categories. This opened up the possibility of Jews and Gentiles sharing table fellowship together. This is indeed what takes place, when hospitality (a place to sleep—and presumably food to eat) is offered by the Jew, Peter, to Gentile messengers in Joppa (10:23); and then by the Gentile, Cornelius, to Jewish believers in Caesarea (10:48).

It is for this reason that the Peter-Cornelius story is such a watershed in the narrative. It makes explicit what has previously been implicit; in it, Luke argues that God now acts to bring together those who have previously been held apart by divinely-sanctioned laws. In the light of this incident, then, the table fellowship enjoyed by Jesus in Luke’s Gospel takes on an added significance. See https://johntsquires.com/2019/05/22/jesus-and-his-followers-at-table-in-lukes-orderly-account/ and https://johntsquires.com/2019/05/08/resurrection-life-economic-responsibility-and-inclusive-hospitality-markers-of-the-gospel-acts-9/

When he visits the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:16), Jesus claims that the Spirit has equipped him for his public activity (4:18). The gift of the Spirit had not yet been poured out on the faithful followers of Jesus; that comes at the beginning of Luke’s second volume, on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Jesus will call his companions to follow him (5:27; 9:23; 14:27; 18:22), confident that the Spirit will sustain them in their response; even before he explicitly issues this call to be faithful, the Lukan Jesus speaks about who may be called to such faith.

As he interprets the reading from Isaiah in the synagogue (Luke 4:16–21), Jesus retells two very short stories about faithful people long ago in the history of Israel. A faithful prophet, Elijah, is sent to a faithful widow in Sidon (4:25–26). Another faithful prophet, Elisha, is sent to a faithful Syrian (4:27). We hear these two stories within the Gospel section offered by the lectionary this coming Sunday (Luke 4:21–30).

The prophets who are described by Jesus were faithful to God’s call. Both Elijah and his successor, Elisha, are known as men who struggled with what it meant for them, personally, to be obedient to God’s claims on their lives. As prophets, these two men represented a class of people within Israel who dared to speak forth God’s word, recalling Israel to the covenant that they held with Yahweh. Jesus stands in that tradition, functioning himself as a prophet in his words and his deeds.

From their knowledge of the scriptural stories, those to whom Jesus spoke in the synagogue would have known that the woman who provided hospitality to Elijah declared to him, “now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth” (1 Kings 17:24). Likewise, they would have recalled that the man healed by Elisha was prompted to declare, “now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel” (2 Kings 5:15).

The figure of the prophet is important in Luke’s Gospel. This work contains the most direct description of the prophetic role of Jesus, when the crowds in Nain declare him to be “a great prophet” (7:16). There are prophets present at the start of Jesus’ life, amongst those who foresee his importance: Zechariah, who “speaks a prophecy” (1:67); Simeon, whose spirit- inspiration and predictive oracles surely qualify him as a prophet (2:25–35); and Anna, “a prophet the Acts of the Apostles, Luke makes mention of various prophets, both male (Agabus, Acts 11:28; 21:10–11; Barnabas, Saul and three others in Antioch, Acts 13:1) and female (the daughters of Philip, Acts 21:9).

In the stories about the ancient prophets, Elijah and Elisha, we see how they engage with people who have a representative function. The widow of Sidon and the soldier from Syria are singled out because, together, they indicate what is it that characterises the community of God’s faithful followers.

There are four aspects of those who are identified as such in Jesus’ hometown sermon: gender, social status, the inclusion of edge-dwellers, outcasts, and outsiders, and the inclusion of Gentiles alongside Jews.

1. The two prophets identified by Jesus in his Nazareth sermon, although both male, are sent to individuals of different genders. Elijah is sent to a faithful woman, who typically remains unnamed; Elisha is sent to faithful man, identified as Naaman. Each of these figures receives the prophet and their message. Once more Jesus does not elaborate on the point but it must have been self-evident to his Jewish audience from their knowledge of the scriptural stories (1 Kings 17:8–24; 2 Kings 5:1–14). The individuals who responded with faith and obedience represent both male and female genders. Each is equally capable of a faithful response.

This characteristic of discipleship is found in all four canonical Gospels, but is particularly noticeable in Luke’s orderly account: from the two faithful pairs early in his narrative, Zechariah and Elizabeth (1:5–25, 57–80), and Simeon and Anna (2:25–38), through to the end of his Gospel, where those who watched Jesus die on the cross include both genders: “all his acquaintances, including the women” (23:49), and women serve as the first witnesses to the empty tomb (23:55–56; 24:1, 10).

2. It is not only the gender of these two individuals which is significant for understanding discipleship in Luke’s Gospel. The pairing links another set of contrasting factors. Jesus refers to a faithful person of means, the military commander; this is balanced by his reference to the faithful person with no means, the widow. The snapshot of faithful followers which the Lukan Jesus provides is inclusive in terms of social status.

The widow represents those of the lower classes; specifically, she stands amongst those who are described as “the poor” (4:18, citing Isa 61:1). This is a term which recurs in Luke’s Gospel; the precise term used refers to the real struggle for survival which was faced by people without the security of income which came from being in a patron-client relationship. “The poor” were literally beggars.

In Nazareth, Jesus appropriates the scriptural task of “preaching good news” to the poor (4:18); as he subsequently reports to the messengers sent by John, this characterises his ministry (7:22). His preaching is marked by his thematic beatitudes, in which he reassures the poor, “yours is the kingdom of God” (6:22), and promises the hungry, “you will be filled” (6:21).

Alongside the poor widow, Jesus refers to Naaman (4:27), whom we know from scripture to have been a man of means, with servants (2 Kings 5:13), owning silver, gold and fine clothes (2 Kings 5:5), and commanding many troops, horses and chariots (2 Kings 5:9). If Jesus in Luke’s Gospel makes more references to the poor than in the other canonical Gospels, then he also makes more references to people drawn from the upper classes of his society.

Luke reports how Jesus engaged with a centurion who was wealthy enough to contribute to the building fund of a synagogue in Capernaum (7:1–10); a synagogue leader in Galilee (8:40–42, 49–56); and a chief tax collector who had grown rich from his business dealings (19:1–10). A number of his parables include characters drawn from the upper strata of his society (12:13–21; 14:28–30; 14:31–32; 15:11–32; 16:1–13; 16:19–31; 17:7–10; 18:1–8).

3. We have seen how the two faithful followers to whom Jesus referred differ from one another (in terms of gender and social status). Now, we note the ways in which they are similar. One characteristic that they share is that they are displaced from the mainstream of society. The community of faith thus includes edge-dwellers, outcasts, and outsiders.

Without a relationship to a husband, as her legal and financial protector, the widow of Sidon is dislocated from her place within society and is completely dependent on the goodwill of her late husband’s family. Being thus vulnerable to exploitation, widows were to be granted extra privileges (Exod 22:22–24; Deut 24:17–22).

From an Israelite point of view, the leper Naaman ought to have been banished to the outskirts of the society. He would have been forbidden to enter the city (Num 5:1–3), and must avoid anybody who might come into contact with him (Lev 13:45–46). Because his disease rendered him unclean, a leper was liable to undergo various rites of purification (Deut 24:8; Lev 13–14) and was certainly unable to participate in the temple rituals until purified (Lev 13:3, 8, 11, etc.).

Once again, we find that this particular characteristic of these figures points to a significant tendency running throughout Luke’s Gospel. Once again, also, we find that Luke takes a motif already present in his sources, and intensifies it. Jesus welcomes and incorporates those on the edge into the fellowship of his followers: women, lepers, those suffering from physical limitations, those described as being “possessed by a demon”. See https://johntsquires.com/2019/08/26/disreputable-outsiders-invited-inside-parables-in-luke-14/

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There’s a further post on this passage to come, considering all four characters together (two prophets of Israel, the widow of Sidon, and the soldier of Syria) …

And see also https://johntsquires.com/2019/02/01/scripture-fulfilled-in-your-hearing-luke-416-30/