Greetings to you all. I am slowly crossing more papers and projects off my huge list of everything to do in the next two and a half weeks. I think I will actually make it through. Other than slaving away at homework, I did get to play basketball for a couple hours yesterday. We played knock out for a while to warm up. If you do not know what knock out is, it's just a game where everyone lines up, the first two guys each have a ball, and as the game goes on, if the guy behind you makes their ball before you then you are out. So you shoot from the original line, most commonly the free throw line, and if you make it you pass the ball to the next guy in line. If you miss, you have to rebound the ball and try to make it from anywhere, most commonly a lay up. It is a fun game with a lot of running while chasing the ball and getting back to the back of the line so you are ready for your next turn. To mix it up just for a fun twist, we played from the three point line for a while and then we moved it back to the half court line. So everyone's first shot was from the half court line and then if anyone missed they had to run the full half court to rebound and keep shooting until they made it and could pass it back. Now it's not hard to figure out a half court shot is almost impossible to make; however, I made two. But before I brag myself up, our friend Ben Riley who is one of the most athletic guys I have ever met, made over ten half court shots. It was impressive and ridiculous all at the same time. Then once we were all warmed up from running around during knock out, we played several full court games of either 4 on 4 or 5 on 5. It was a blast, but I am sore today.
I got some awesome news this morning. My good buddy from college Logan just found out he will be doing eight weeks of student teaching in St. Louis. I joked with him that I guess the Lord doesn't want me to make it through the seminary after all. Logan and I have had some crazy but fun times together. It will be so much fun having him around again. Next quarter might just be the best quarter of my life. Erin will be back in classes and around all the time again. Logan will be here. I will have an easier load of classes, and spring IM's is softball which is my favorite. I just have to make it through two and a half weeks of classes, enjoy my two week break and then have ten wonderful weeks of spring quarter.
I am going to share with you a paper I wrote for Systems II. It is the same class that I wrote the paper on the real meaning of Christmas that I shared with you. Our last assignment was we had to either pick one specific Gospel or examine all four Gospels together as to why Jesus died. I used the Gospel of Luke and wrote my paper. The class doesn't do grades on the papers; they are all just pass or fail, and I passed. So here is my piece on why Jesus died according to the Gospel of Luke.
When looking at the reason Jesus died, there are multiple possible answers. However, looking at Luke’s Gospel specifically, I am going to focus in on one reason Jesus died. Luke includes Jesus birth, temptation, ministry, work, Passion Week from the triumphant entry to the resurrection, and ends with the ascension. With such a broad and complete overview of the life and work of Christ, we get a great insight to why He came, why He did what He did, and why He died.
In my opinion, Jesus states His own purpose for His work and ministry in Luke 4:43 when He says, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” Jesus mission was to bring the kingdom of God to His people. In fact, the phrase “kingdom of God” is used thirty-two times in the twenty-four chapters of Luke’s Gospel. Jesus constantly refers to the kingdom of God in His teachings, miracles, parables, and discussions with the disciples. Luke 8:1 again expresses Jesus traveling city to city, village to village proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Luke 9:2 tells us that Jesus sent out the disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal. Luke 9:11 it is Jesus again who is proclaiming the kingdom of God and healing. These are just a few examples of Jesus’ primary focus while He is here being to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God.
Jesus, being the King of Israel, the Davidic King who was promised throughout the Scriptures of the Old Testament, has come and brought the reign of God with Him. In the foretelling of Jesus birth, the angel tells Mary that God will give this child to be born the throne of David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end. This is the King who has been promised for so long, and now that He has come, He has taken the throne that is rightfully His once and for all. He has brought the reign of God with Him and this is the kingdom of God Jesus speaks of so much in Luke. When the Pharisees ask Jesus when the kingdom of God will come, His response is that the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. The King has arrived and He is the King who will reign for the rest of eternity.
So why does Jesus coming as the King of Israel, bringing the good news of the kingdom of God with Him, create so much opposition? Luke shows us through multiple examples the little things Jesus does that leads up to the ones who not only hate Him but actually scheme to kill Him. In Luke 5 we get the first hint of this opposition to Jesus. In the story of Jesus healing the paralytic, before Jesus heals the man, He first tells him his sins are forgiven. This is when the Pharisees charge Him of blasphemy for the first time. They make the realization that if only God can forgive sins, and this man is claiming to forgive sins, then He is claiming to be God. This is why they accuse Him of blasphemy, because He is clearly not God as He is sitting there in front of them as a human. Then in Luke 6 we see Jesus further the Pharisees uneasy feelings about Him as He both eats and heals on the Sabbath. Not only does Jesus and His disciples eat on the Sabbath, Jesus follows up by claiming that the Son of Man, Him, is the lord of Sabbath. Then on another Sabbath, Jesus heals a man’s withered hand. These are such wrongful acts to the Pharisees because they still obey the 613 laws dealing with circumcision, cleansing, and Sabbath. They have clung to these laws and strived to obey them perfectly for so long. And now Jesus publicly breaks these rules. In their minds, the King of Israel should keep these laws better than anyone else, not openly disobey them. However, Jesus is showing them that He is what matters, not their laws, but they do not take this well.
To really poke the bear, Jesus directly speaks woes against the Pharisees, lawyers, and scribes. In Luke 11:37-54 Jesus is eating with Pharisees and lawyers when He tells them everything they are doing wrong and should be ashamed of. He doesn’t hold back either and really lets them have it. Then in Luke 20 Jesus does the same thing to the scribes. There are several other times in Luke when Jesus heals or eats on the Sabbath. He eats with sinners and tax collectors. He tells parables that make the Pharisees and the scribes the bad guys. Then during His triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Jesus’ disciples are crying out “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” The Pharisees tell Jesus to rebuke His disciple, because again they see this as blasphemy. The relationship of the Pharisees and Jesus in the book of Luke is one of constant tension. They are always asking Him questions to try to trip Him up or trap Him, but He always has an answer that confuses them or leaves them speechless. They had to be careful because the people loved Jesus, His miracles, and His teachings. However, it all comes to a boiling point in Luke 19:47 when Jesus clings out the temple. The chief priests and scribes were now completely fed up and sick of this guy named Jesus and they sought to destroy Him.
Jesus knew these would be the very ones to kill Him though. Over three times Jesus foretells His death. Luke 9:22 He gives the very specific details when He states, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed.” Then in Luke 9:44 He says that He will be delivered into the hands of men. In Luke 17 Jesus states that He must be rejected by this generation. And again in Luke 18:31-34, He directly tells His disciples for the third time, “He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him.” Every time Jesus speaks of His disciples He uses terms like “rejected” or “handed over” and “be killed”. He never once says the Son of Man must die, or lie down His life in Luke. He knows the only reason He is going to die is because they do not accept Him.
Luke shows us through His Gospel that Jesus came to be the King of Jacob, He was sent to bring the good news of the kingdom of God to all people. Through this work and ministry He was opposed as the Son of God, opposed as the one whom God sent to have authority over sin, death, and even the law. The Pharisees, scribes, and chief priests dislike and contesting of Jesus early in Luke’s Gospel builds and increases to full hatred and seeking to kill Him. This builds up to the point where they do indeed successfully kill Him. The more He heals, the more He claims to be “lord of the Sabbath”, the more He forgives, the more He claims to be God, the more He teaches about the kingdom of God, the more He outwits, outsmarts, and insults them; all of this adds up to the elders, scribes, and chief priests finally having enough of Him and having Him killed charges of blasphemy.
So Jesus was killed on the cross because He was rejected by these religious leaders. They did not want Him to be the King of Israel, they did not believe He was God, and they delivered Him to be killed for this rejection. Luke continues to show us this same motif even through the crucifixion. In Luke 23:28-29 Jesus tells the women who were crying for Him as He headed up to be killed, “Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!” And then in verse 31, “For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” He is saying that if they act this evil and wicked while the Son of Man is present, how much more wicked and evil will they act once He is gone. Then on the cross Jesus cries out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” He knows they do not realize who they are actually killing. They do not realize they are rejecting the one true king. Even the centurion standing by Christ as he dies states, “Surely this man was innocent.” Even he knew that Jesus was everything He claimed to be, making Him innocent of blasphemy.
So Jesus is killed on the cross and His corpse is placed in the tomb. How then does the resurrection work as justification for Jesus? The resurrection of Jesus is His justification because He did what He said He was going to do. Luke shows us this in chapter 24, with the angel’s announcement of, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee.” Jesus told you He would be killed but then rise again on the third day, and the resurrection is His words made true. Then later in Luke 24, He tells the men on the road to Emmaus, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ‘Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” He has not only fulfilled His own promises and foretelling, but He has also fulfilled the Scriptures of the prophets who told of the Davidic King to come. He is the king who was promised and He did what that king was sent to do. He is unlike every other king, even David and Solomon could not restore the people Israel back to the Father. But Jesus did! He is the messiah, the King who finally reigns triumphantly and eternally. This is His vindication.
Finally, why is this good news? Jesus says it best Himself in Luke 24:44-47. Jesus tells the disciples, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” The repentance and forgiveness of sins proclaimed in His name to all nations is the good news. Our King reigns triumphantly over the entire world, over all nations, over all peoples. And as we live under His reign, we are included in that repentance and forgiveness of sins. Our relationship with the Father, which was broke at the fall, is now restored by our King who clears us of our debt, by forgiving us all our sins. This is our good news; it’s the good news of the kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim. Through His rejection and His vindication, He has proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God to us His people and has called us to proclaim that same good news to all nations.
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