This article was first published in 2009

I am neither black nor oppressed nor American. I have not known discrimination on the basis of colour, creed or class. I am the most median of middle class; the virtues (and vices) of my aspirational forefathers are visited on me. I am, despite my best efforts, educated. I read the Guardian and share many of its prejudices. The only badges currently missing are 1.4 children, a Volvo and a mortgage.

All of which made my reaction to Barack Obama’s election win and acceptance speech in Grant Park more than a little surprising to me. Having stayed up on election night with friends, wine and cheese (!), I found myself with tears in my eyes as Obama accepted America’s decision to elect him. I had very little personally invested in seeing Obama win, beyond an obligatory distain for George W. I shared none of the history but still felt an upsurge in hope, an optimism that for once a politician might be able to deliver change.

It was against this backdrop and with these feelings still fresh that I approached Luke 3-6. I think that recent events in America offer us a helpful window into what is happening in these chapters. Perhaps the most illuminating parallel is the way in which both Obama and Jesus were able to gather their nations stories around themselves but give them a new twist.

One of the most brilliant aspects of the Obama campaign was the way in which he was able to identify himself completely, both through words and actions, with the American story. From his address on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial recalling Martin Luther King’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech, to his train journey retracing Lincoln’s journey to Washington before his inauguration, Obama was able to draw so many of the threads of America’s story together around himself and present himself as the next stage - even the fulfillment - of that journey. Completely consonant with what had gone before, but a new chapter nonetheless.

Jesus is doing exactly the same thing in these chapters. As we saw in Matthew, who is telling a Jewish story, Jesus is unmistakably Jewish. Our understanding of Jesus and his ministry is impoverished – to the extent of distortion – if we forget this. However, Luke, the Hellenist doctor, tells a Jesus’ story very different to Matthew. In these chapters, Luke reminds us that while Jesus is indeed telling a profoundly Jewish story, he is reshaping it and directing its future in new and scandalous ways.

One of the most helpful descriptions of the Bible I have heard is that it is a giant echo chamber, spanning many hundreds of years, incorporating thousands of voices. Some voices are thrown and find resonances and sounding boards which keep them being heard, some are amplified at certain times, some are muted, some are lost altogether. What we find in these chapters is Jesus echoing the voices and re-enacting the deeds of previous generations, but adding his own utterly distinctive tone and cadence to these echoes, which give new depth, new resonance, and ultimately a new sound. Let’s quickly look at a few echoes and what Jesus does with them.

Echo 1 – Baptism in the Jordan (Lk 3)
The Jordan was the river that was crossed before completing the Exodus from Egypt to the promised land. Jesus passing through the waters of Jordan was not a private initiation ceremony but had overtones of a new conquest of the land, a land currently overrun by Rome’s imperial forces. But here is the tweak: Jesus was baptised in the Jordan. Baptism was a rite for Gentiles who converted to Judaism. What need was there for Jesus a Jew already to be baptised? Jesus was calling for a distinctively new way of being Israel that challenged the status quo irrevocably.

Echo 2 – Forty Days, Desert and Bread (Lk 4)
It is not difficult to crack Luke’s code here! Clearly, Jesus is being described in Exodus' terms. Reaching right back to the foundational event in Israel’s history and identity the echo is pretty deafening.

But again there is a new note, Jesus does not eat in the desert, he does not sin, not wander for forty years. He is obedient Israel rather than the hard-hearted Israel which Moses knew.

Echo 3 – Messiah - Isaiah 61 (Lk 4)
Jesus’ direct use of Isaiah 61 recalls the hope of vindication for Israel, which was bound up with the complex hope of a Messiah figure emerging. Jesus is gathering this imagery to himself, to his situation where Rome overruled. No wonder the crowd where excited and impressed.

But again Jesus does something new – he first of all does not complete the quote from Isaiah, which should read ‘the day of vengeance of our God.’ And secondly he goes onto suggest that the anointed one of Israel is in the line of Elijah who went to the pagan widow and Elisha who went to the pagan leper. Scandalously, Jesus is challenging the ugly nationalism which is present in Isaiah (just have a read of Isaiah 40-55!) and is suggesting that perhaps the Messiah figure is not inextricably linked to political nationalism. That Luke has Jesus’ next healing encounters with a woman, a leper, a paralysed man, a tax collector (all marginalized groups) only underlines this point.

Echo 4 – Temples and Sabbaths (Luke 5-6)
Next Jesus’ actions in forgiving the sins of the leper and in doing what was unlawful on the Sabbath suggest links to King David. David was the one to whom Yahweh entrusted the building of the temple (2 Samuel 7). By forgiving sins outside of the temple system, Jesus challenged a key foundation-stone of Judaism.

In speaking of David in relation to the Sabbath, Jesus is enlisting perhaps the greatest hero of the Old Testament, under whose reign the united Monarchy actually became a regional power. Jesus is gathering to himself the hope of a king like David. However, unlike David, his power is not demonstrated in military victory but in the healing of an outcast’s withered hand.

Echo 5 – Mountains, 12 Tribes and Blessings and Curses (Lk 6)
Jesus calls 12 disciples, echoing the 12 tribes of Israel, goes up a mountain, echoing Moses on Mt Sinai and then teaches giving the conditions of blessing and curses, echoing the final chapter of Deuteronomy in which Moses underlines God’s law as received on he mountain.

The twist here is obvious – Jesus is not deferring to Moses, his law or the 12 tribes. He is doing something new which challenges the very foundations of Judaism. Jesus is implicitly challenging the Old Covenant and suggesting that he has the authority to do something new. To see how that ends we will have to wait for the rest of Luke, but the roots are here.

So in these few chapters we meet a young man at the start of his public life. Jesus is a master communicator who through action and deed has managed to fully identify himself with Israel’s story. In just three chapters Jesus has managed to draw on and gather to himself the symbolic and explanatory power of Exodus, Law, Temple, David, Sabbath and Messiah imagery. But in the same breath he has managed to challenge the core assumptions lying behind all of these, to hint at ways in which Israel’s story might proceed, and to suggest that he is in some way key to Israel’s future. Quite a feat and one that puts Obama firmly to shame!

Reflection:

NT Wright has said that ‘as Jesus to Israel, so the church to the world.’ And so, how can we follow in Jesus’ footsteps and through words, but perhaps more significantly through symbolic action, live and act the Jesus story in ways that challenge our society’s core values, especially as the story our society has been telling itself is cracking and crumbling with every bank failure and every new redundancy notice.

Lord, grant us the wisdom to see the half truths we tell ourselves, the courage to renounce them and the creativity to follow in your footsteps.