Luke 11
The disciples learn to pray, an exorcism triggers controversy about Beelzebul, and the Pharisees receive a series of pointed denunciations.
Summary
The teaching on prayer is placed by Luke after the disciples observe Jesus at prayer — a significant narrative frame, since Luke records Jesus praying more often than any other gospel. The version of the Lord's Prayer he gives is shorter than Matthew's form and lacks the doxology: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, and lead us not into temptation. The parable of the friend at midnight then illustrates the character of effective prayer: a man who needs bread at midnight for an unexpected guest goes to his neighbor, who protests that the door is locked and the children are in bed. The neighbor will eventually get up and give what is needed not because of friendship but because of the petitioner's shamelessness — the word is anaideia, sometimes translated impudence or persistence. The lesson is reinforced with the ask-seek-knock triad and concluded with the argument that if human fathers give good things to their children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.
The Beelzebul controversy arises after an exorcism: some in the crowd attribute the exorcism to the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of demons. Jesus argues from logic that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, and then asks by whose power the Pharisees' own exorcists work. If by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon them. The section on signs follows: this generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah. The Queen of the South came to hear Solomon's wisdom; Jonah's generation repented at his preaching; something greater than both is here. A saying on the lamp concludes the section — your eye is the lamp of the body, and if your eye is healthy your whole body is full of light. The chapter ends with a sharp sequence of woes addressed directly to Pharisees and lawyers at a dinner where Jesus is a guest: the Pharisees clean the outside of the cup but their inward parts are full of greed and wickedness; they tithe herbs but neglect justice and the love of God; they love prominent seats in synagogues; they are like unmarked graves. The lawyers have loaded people with burdens they do not touch, built the tombs of the prophets their ancestors killed, and taken away the key of knowledge.
- Luke 1Chapter 1 opens with a formal literary preface — Luke addresses a certain Theophilus and claims to have investigated everything carefully, setting himself apart as a self-conscious historian among the gospel writers.
- Luke 2Chapter 2 contains the nativity scene that dominates Western cultural memory of the gospels: the census under Quirinius, the journey to Bethlehem, the birth, the manger, the swaddling cloths, the angels appearing to shepherds in the fields at night.
- Luke 3Luke situates John's ministry with extraordinary chronological precision — the fifteenth year of Tiberius, the governorship of Pilate, the tetrarchies of Herod and Philip and Lysanias, the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.
- Luke 4The Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness for forty days, where the devil offers him bread, political authority over all the kingdoms of the world, and divine protection — and is refused at each turn with a quotation from Deuteronomy.
- Luke 5By the Lake of Gennesaret, the crowds press against Jesus and he steps into Simon's empty boat to teach.
- Luke 6The chapter opens with two Sabbath controversies: the disciples pluck grain as they walk through fields, and Jesus defends them by citing David's eating the showbread when his men were hungry.
- Luke 7Three distinct episodes give chapter 7 its range.
- Luke 8Chapter 8 moves quickly across a range of narrative modes.
- Luke 9Chapter 9 is a turning-point chapter.
- Luke 10Jesus sends out seventy (some manuscripts say seventy-two) in pairs ahead of him into every town and place he intends to visit, with instructions similar to the twelve's but addressed to a larger group and a longer journey.
- Luke 11The chapter opens with Jesus praying in a certain place; when he stops, a disciple asks him to teach them to pray as John taught his disciples.
- Luke 12With ten thousand pressing around him, Jesus addresses the disciples first: beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
- Luke 13Some report to Jesus about Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
- Luke 14Jesus goes to eat at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees on the Sabbath, watched carefully by those present.
- Luke 15The Pharisees and scribes grumble that this man receives sinners and eats with them.
- Luke 16Chapter 16 contains two of Luke's most difficult parables.
- Luke 17The chapter opens with warnings about causing stumbling — better to have a millstone around your neck and be thrown into the sea — and the obligation to rebuke and forgive a brother who sins seven times in a day and repents each time.
- Luke 18Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow to teach that they ought always to pray and not lose heart: a widow in a city where a judge neither fears God nor respects people keeps coming to him demanding justice against her adversary; he eventually grants it not because of justice but because she is wearing him out.
- Luke 19Jericho contains the Zacchaeus scene, unique to Luke: a chief tax collector who is wealthy and short climbs a sycamore tree to see Jesus over the crowd.
- Luke 20Chapter 20 is a series of confrontations in the temple.
- Luke 21Looking up at those putting gifts into the treasury, Jesus observes that a poor widow puts in two small copper coins — the smallest unit of currency — and says she has put in more than all of them, because they gave from their abundance and she from her poverty gave everything she had.
- Luke 22Satan enters Judas Iscariot and he goes to the chief priests to discuss how to betray Jesus.
- Luke 23The assembly brings Jesus to Pilate, accusing him of perverting the nation, forbidding tribute to Caesar, and claiming to be king.
- Luke 24Very early on the first day of the week, the women — Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others — bring spices to the tomb and find the stone rolled away.