Luther Seminary Digital Commons @ Luther Seminary Faculty Publications Faculty & Staff choS larship 2018 Looking High and Low for Salvation in Luke Matthew L. Skinner Luther Seminary, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.luthersem.edu/faculty_articles Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation Skinner, Matthew L., "Looking High and Low for Salvation in Luke" (2018). Faculty Publications. 306. https://digitalcommons.luthersem.edu/faculty_articles/306 Published Citation Skinner, Matthew L. “Looking High and Low for Salvation in Luke.” Currents in Theology and Mission 45, no. 4 (September 17, 2018). http://currentsjournal.org/index.php/currents/article/view/147. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty & Staff choS larship at Digital Commons @ Luther Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Luther Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Looking High and Low for Salvation in Luke Matthew L. Skinner Professor of New Testament Luther Seminary St. Paul, Minnesota uke’s Gospel, more than any other Gospel, politicizes the salvation God accomplishes through Jesus Christ. he magnitude of Luke’s promises In other words, Luke calls attention to certain politi- Lcal aspects of the “good news” that angels, prophets, John, Jesus, Tabout sociopolitical change and his followers announce and enact. The deeds Jesus performs, has made the book a vital source for the declarations he makes, and even the sheer reality of who he is—these things have social, interpersonal consequences that affect liberative theologies—for good reason the mores and assumptions that undergird people’s interactions and identities. When Jesus teaches and acts, he confronts and and with life-giving effects. transforms the configurations of power and powerlessness that inform a collective sense of value and human dignity. To call some the Messiah means everything is changing; after the resurrection, dimensions of the Gospel according to Luke “political,” therefore, nothing seems impossible. When Jesus describes his own ministry is not to imply that Luke is concerned about issues such as an (Luke 4), he speaks of liberation from all kinds of oppressions. individual’s relationship to a governing body or one’s legal status within a geopolitical entity. Luke does not offer explicit reflection But those who preach and teach from Luke sometimes struggle on what modern people refer to as “the state,” policy, or citizenship. to reconcile the Gospel’s most lofty assertions with the rest of Luke, however, delights in good news that has public, regenera- the narrative, which has much less to say about such widespread tive ramifications for life lived in relationship with other people. social change. Luke poses challenges for many interpreters who The Third Gospel, especially when it speaks about God’s abil- are eager to understand how Luke’s vision comes to fruition. The ity to reorder people’s social standing and honor, informs social grand upheavals promised in some texts are difficult to detect in constructs about belonging. Salvation in Luke involves changed other passages. loyalties. It promises transformed identities. It rewires the social This article explores a handful of prominent texts that are circuitry and individuals’ grasp of their and their neighbors’ place unique to Luke and that paint the Third Gospel’s notion of within it. Those are the kinds of “political” consequences that salvation in revolutionary hues: Mary’s and Zechariah’s prophe- manifest themselves when God, to borrow a pair of Lukan images, cies (Luke 1:46–55, 67–79), an angel’s announcement of Jesus’ calls people to “move up” and occupy seats of greater honor and birth (Luke 2:8–14), and Jesus’ brief sermon in Nazareth (Luke security (14:7–11) and pronounces someone like a mercy-seeking 4:14–21). With these passages Luke leads its audience to expect tax collector more righteous than a Pharisee (18:9–14). Jesus big things, but then the rest of the narrative can lead one to won- makes it obvious that, with him, the old ways of navigating the sociopolitical landscape no longer apply. der whether that initial rhetoric was exaggerated. The whole of The magnitude of Luke’s promises about sociopolitical change Luke nevertheless still sees big, revolutionary change coming to has made the book a vital source for liberative theologies—for pass through Jesus Christ. The task, especially for preachers and good reason and with life-giving effects. This Gospel, especially teachers who lead others through the Gospel bit by bit, is to let the in its early chapters, sets high expectations. In several passages whole narrative indicate where to look for that change occurring. Lukan characters perceive far-reaching and systemic changes, This article, through an overview of texts and concluding reflec- depicting an alternate society in which justice and restoration tions on working with Luke in the current sociopolitical climate, come to full bloom. To people like Mary, Zechariah, and Simeon aims to help preachers and teachers appreciate ways in which the (Luke 1–2)—as well as Jesus’ witnesses in Acts—the coming of early chapters of Luke can shine a light on the Gospel as a whole. Currents in Theology and Mission 45:4 (October 2018) 23 Skinner. Looking High and Low for Salvation in Luke Visionaries in the infancy narratives (Luke 1–2) ust as God’s favor turns her slave- Mary like “lowliness” into acclaimed The first characters who appear on Luke’s narrative stage are proph- J ets; they interpret God and God’s activity with images of disorder- blessedness because of her role in ing and reordering. When Gabriel, Elizabeth, and especially Mary and Zechariah speak, they anticipate widespread, lasting, social bringing about God’s new future, so change. A new order has arrived, or is certain to arrive. Mary’s also God dismisses sovereigns from statements (1:46–55), in which she weaves her experience as an unlikely chosen one together with Israel’s memories and hopes, their seats of authority and elevates the tell of a God who brings about upheaval. Just as God’s favor turns powerless.…God reorders the categories her slave-like “lowliness” into acclaimed blessedness because of her role in bringing about God’s new future, so also God dismisses and corrects the injustices. sovereigns from their seats of authority and elevates the powerless.1 When God acts, the stage is large. God causes the hungry to receive food. Mary may not dwell on what cruelties caused their hunger of a slowly developing eschatological symphony. None of those in the first place, for her greater point is that God will be their answers is exactly correct, yet the original question about the sustainer. God reorders the categories and corrects the injustices. Magnificat’s function is reasonable. After all, when the Gospel’s Commentators often refer to Mary’s praise (the Magnificat) narrative concludes, the powerful remain on their thrones and the as a declaration that “a great reversal” is at hand.2 God’s promises rich still enjoy full stomachs. Easter’s victory does not exactly mir- to Israel will come to fruition when the Davidic king in Mary’s ror other revolutionary events from scripture such as the Exodus. womb (1:32–33) comes into his reign, and those promises In fact, Mary’s song would seem more appropriate to Miriam’s will utterly alter the sociopolitical terrain. Mary is not inciting context on the bank of the Red Sea (Exod 15:20–21). Moreover, revolution through human effort but extoling a God whose past along the way in Luke some powerful and wealthy characters accomplishments and on-the-record scriptural statements have emerge as virtuous, perhaps even as a consequence of the power endorsed and pledged justice—specifically a justice that refuses to and privileges they possess, such as a centurion with exceptional allow one class of people be victimized by another. By describing faith (7:1–10) and a wealthy tax collector who can show great God in terms of God’s professed commitments and God’s power, generosity (19:1–10).3 Not everyone in Luke falls into a neat echoing values and phrases already voiced in scriptural texts, her category of either “the powerful” or “the lowly.” Not all of those words call on God to act on God’s own deep dissatisfaction with presumably on top are thrown to the bottom. the way things are. Her pregnancy and Gabriel’s revelations do Read in light of the overall narrative, the function of the Mag- not lead her to dream of an abstract hope but convince her that nificat cannot be said to reduce the people on the losing sides of the arrival of the Messiah simply cannot leave the current state of Mary’s prophecy—the proud, the powerful, and the rich—to flat affairs as it is, where the powerful hold sway and the vulnerable stereotypes. This is not to suggest that the Magnificat’s exuberance are considered of no account. should not be trusted. Rather, it is to note that Mary’s declaration But are the political energy and passion of the Magnificat’s extols God as the one who will identify and expose the proud, vision sustained? Upon reaching the end of Luke, and again the powerful, and rich wherever they reside. And they may show up end of Acts, readers may ask what the Magnificat was all about. It in surprising places. can be read as hyperbole, spiritual metaphor, error, or the overture Interpreters limit the Magnificat if they take it to apply only or primarily to national rulers or others with significant power 1.