From the very first verses of Luke 11, it is obvious that the pace of gospel has changed. There is an unmistakable urgency, a ratcheting up of tension. Where before Jesus seemed content to fulfil the nomadic role of an itinerant preacher, going where the wind blew, we are left under no illusion that the Jesus of Luke 11-18 is on a journey with a very definite end. Jerusalem looms large on the horizon, and you get the sense that time is running out.

There is lots and lots of material in these chapters; much to be pondered, much to challenge. I want to pick up just one main theme which runs through these chapters; that theme is Israel.

In these chapters, Jesus is challenging the nature of Israel’s vocation. As we have seen in previous chapters, Jesus has been doing this since the start of his ministry. However these chapters crystallize the challenge. As we shall see by the end of the passage, Jesus is offering the people a stark choice; continue to live as you are and face utter destruction, or repent and follow his way of being Israel.

So what are the options? Negatively, what Israel isn't meant to be is made clear by Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees. One of the most striking aspects of these chapters is Jesus’ continuing antagonism towards the Pharisees; they are full of greed and wickedness (11.39), like unmarked graves (12.44), compared unfavourably to tax collectors (18.14), lovers of money (16.14), hypocrites (12.1). It seems as if Jesus is continually picking a fight!

But why? The reformed traditions has taught us that the Pharisees are bad boys because they claimed that you could attain righteousness by good deeds. There has been a huge debate about this over recent decades (see this Wikipedia page) and a significant re-thinking of this position. It is now widely argued (if not yet universally accepted) that this ‘works righteousness’ was not why Jesus so roundly condemned the Pharisees. Rather, Jesus attacked them because they represented a narrow nationalistic understanding of Israel’s vocation. This certainly makes sense better sense of how Jesus can maintain that ‘it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of the letter of the law to pass away’ (16.17).

Also condemned is Herod’s way of being Israel. Jesus ridicules his pretensions to power (13.31ff) and puts him firmly in his place. Jesus’ work will be finished when he decides.

So if neither the religious nationalism of the Pharisees nor the militarism of Herod will cut it, what vision of Israel’s vocation does Jesus offer? Two things to note.

Firstly, Jesus - as we have witnessed throughout the gospel - continues to redraw the boundaries lines of who is in and who is out of God’s kingdom. He eats with tax collectors, heals bleeding women, Samaritan lepers, he heals on the Sabbath. Added to this we have numerous parables which re-enforce the point – it will not be the rich, those with the best seats, who inherit the kingdom. Rather it will be the poor widow, the tax collector, the prodigal son. Again and again Jesus illustrates that God is on the side of the poor and the marginalised. Israel’s vocation, it seems, cannot be confined to a focus on Israel herself.

Secondly, Luke’s Jesus draws on the Abrahamic and prophetic traditions, something which he hasn’t previously done. Three times Jesus mentions Abraham, each time in contrast to the demands of the law. Each time Jesus is anchoring Israel’s identity, her vocation, in the covenant with Abraham (see Gen 15). Israel was called into existence by the grace of God before the law was given. Jesus is in the line of Abraham, he is acting out Israel’s real vocation, to be a blessing to all the peoples of the world.

Does this then mean that the law is null-and-void? Lk 16.16 and 16.31 give a clear and resounding NO. But with the hint (which we will meet again when we get to grips with Paul’s letters) that the law itself is not equipped to fulfil the grand vision found in Gen 15.

Also prominent in these passages is Jesus strong self-identification with the lineage of the prophets. And what happens to prophets? Well they are killed, usually in Jerusalem. Again Jesus is establishing his credentials as true Israel. He is in the line of Jonah, Zechariah, Elijah, John the Baptist. He is the one through whom Yahweh is speaking – him, not the religious establishment.

By anchoring himself in the prophetic tradition, Jesus is also able to call Israel to repentance – that is what prophets do. Just as Jeremiah or Ezekiel did, so Jesus summoned Israel to reconsider the meaning of her vocation as people of God and to repent of the national pride which interpreted that vocation in terms of privilege and worldly greatness.

Which leads us to the last thing to note from these chapters: Jesus’ warnings were so urgent and consistent because the judgement of God was at hand. Jesus, the prophet, read the signs of the times - the strained relations between Jew and Gentile, the frequent outbreaks of patriotic frenzy, and the growing severity with which these outbreaks were suppressed by the Romans. God’s judgement was at hand and, paradoxically, it would not be the pagan Romans who would be judged but Israel herself. With history’s hindsight, we know that within a few short decades Jerusalem would be sacked and the temple destroyed. It would take near on nineteen centuries before Israel would have a land of her own again.

To put it another way, the urgency (which we started out by noting) does not come from Jesus suddenly realising that he is running out of time and that he needs to get a lot off his chest. No – the urgency comes from the fact that God’s judgement is at hand. Israel needs to choose and choose quickly what her vocation is; that of the Pharisees and Herod, or that which is being lived out by Jesus. As in the days of Isaiah, when God had used Assyria as the rod of his anger, so now God was about to use Rome as the agent of judgement upon his people; only immediate repentance could save them (see Lk 13.1-5).

Where we so often read our intricate second-coming theology into these gospel passages, Luke’s Jesus remains firmly rooted in the prophetic tradition, dealing not in abstract speculation but in real-life politics.

However Jesus is unlike any other prophet Israel had known. The shocking thing about this prophet is that he is suggesting that God’s vindication will be achieved not through triumphal national political supremacy (see for example Isaiah 40-55) but through suffering, rejection and death. And that in some mysterious way, it will be the prophet’s own suffering and death which will achieve this.

You can understand the disciples’ confusion – either choose the way of the Pharisees and judgement at the hands of the Romans or the way of Jesus which was also suffering and rejection. No wonder ‘they understood nothing about all these things’ (Lk 18.34)!

However their confusion, and ours, will not last forever and as we enter Jerusalem together and the final days of Jesus’ life; Luke has some wonderful surprises in store for us.

Reflection:

What is our vocation as Christians?

Is Christian vocation something for professional Christians (missionaries, ministers, theologians) alone or can a fundraiser, computer programmer, music teacher feel the same sense of vocation?

In what ways can we live the way of Jesus, to be a blessing to all nations in our communities?