november 30th, 2024

Does it feel like it is a new year? Probably not. It definitely is a new year, but that is only according to the church’s calendar. The church has a different perspective, and in this case, that can be a good thing.

The church takes a significant amount of time throughout the year to focus on Jesus Christ, the One who was both fully God and fully man. We may try to do some god-like things like Jesus, but we usually fail miserably. We may try to focus on God the Father or God the Holy Spirit, but that might be distracting with some other not-as-good news. A focus on those things would not get you as quickly to the very heart of the matter. Things all around in this world are sinful. And Jesus came to this world to save us from that sin.

The first season of the year, the season of Advent, starts to focus the person on the comings of Jesus, that most-significant factor in the history of the world. If Jesus were just a normal person, it would be normal to start at his beginning, his birth, and then go to his end. But since, as both God and man, his main purpose was to be the sacrifice for our sin, his entry into that important city of Jerusalem was a critical beginning of the end.


So the Gospel reading for this Sunday, the First Sunday in Advent, in series C, the year that focuses on the Gospel according to Luke, is Luke 19:28-40 (and there is also an alternate reading of Luke 21:25-36.) Over the three years of Jesus’ ministry, he collected a large crowd of disciples (the text describes it as a ‘multitude of disciples’; see Luke 19:37). Jesus had all the power. But those in Jerusalem who thought that THEY had some power did not like Jesus and his ‘mighty works’ (see again Luke 19:37). So this was the beginning of the end.

This is a story that you would not expect the middle or the end. That is one reason why you can look at not just one or two accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, but there are four accounts of that amazing action, and three of them are quite similar.
The three accounts of the Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke may be connected to the three living creatures of the LORD’s throne that are normally on the earth, that of a man, a lion, and an ox (see Ezekiel 1). And the Gospel according to Luke is most frequently connected to that of an ox, a strong, obedient creature (unlike the wild lion). Connections between this Gospel account and the living creature have been made because of way this Gospel account starts, near the temple, a place where sacrifices are happening.

The ox is sometimes an animal that is sacrificed, but connections will be made between the ox and the use of the historical presents in this account (where a present-tense verb appears where a past-tense verb was expected). These will come significantly later in the account.

For now, with these writings, we will be looking at a small section of the Gospel according to Luke, in the way that it was originally laid out by the writer. A section at a time will be given, and it will be given in what could be termed a very literal translation.
Such a translation may be difficult to understand at times, and so another translation or a study bible nearby may be helpful. What this literal translation does is to keep the order of the words the same as when they were given by the writer. And with this language, the important words were usually earlier in the sentence. So the order may be confusing, but the importance given may be helpful.

What follows is a very literal translation of what is typically called the introduction to the Gospel according to Luke. The similarity of this introduction to what may be termed the ‘Apostolic Decree’ in Acts 15 is shown very briefly below as well. Luke was closely connected to Paul, and since Paul was present at this Apostolic Council, it would not be surprising that a similar structure appears both times. What was at stake at that Council was the precious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. (It is interesting that this chapter is the first time the word ‘Gospel’ appears in a noun form; before this, in the writings of Luke, it was only in the verb form.) Some people heavily influenced by the Old Testament believed that the good work of getting circumcised was a part of salvation (see Acts 15:1). Peter says in verse 11, “But on the contrary, through the grace of the Lord Jesus, we believe that we are saved….”

Here, then, is Luke 1:1-4 (the hyphens indicate that the multiple words in English come from the same word in the Greek):

Since(!)  many  they-took-in-hand  to-draw-up  narrative  about  the  having-been-fulfilled  in  us  matters,  just-as  they-handed-down  to-us,  the-ones  from  beginning  eyewitnesses  and  attendants,  having-become  of-the  word… 
…it-seemed-good  also-to-me,  having-followed-closely  from-the-source  all-things  carefully,  in-order  for-you  to-write,  most-excellent  Theophilus,  in-order-that  you-may-learn  concerning  which  you-were-catechized  things,  the  certainty.
And here is Acts 15:24-26.

Since  we-heard  that  some  out-from  us  having-gone-out,  they-disturbed  you  with-words,  unsettling  the  minds  your,  whom  not  we-ordered…

…it-seemed-good  to-us  having-become  of-one-mind  having-chosen  men  to-send  toward  you  with  the  loved-ones  our  Barnabas  and  Paul,  men  having-handed-over  the  lives  their  on-behalf-of  the  name  of  Lord  our  Jesus  Christ.