Luke 12
Ten thousand are warned against hypocrisy, a farmer builds bigger barns and dies that night, and slaves wait for a master who returns at midnight.
Summary
Chapter 12 opens with a characteristic Lukan scene: a crowd of tens of thousands pressing so close that they are trampling one another. Jesus addresses the disciples privately within the crowd about hypocrisy — the Pharisees' leaven — assuring them that concealment is temporary and that everything whispered in the dark will eventually be proclaimed from the rooftops. He reframes fear: do not fear those who can kill the body; fear the one who has authority to cast into hell. But the fear is balanced by particular care: sparrows sold two for a penny are not forgotten by God; the very hairs of every head are numbered. Acknowledgment of the Son of Man before others will be reciprocated before the angels; denial will be denied. The Holy Spirit will provide words when needed for those brought before authorities. A man in the crowd asks Jesus to tell his brother to divide the inheritance; Jesus refuses and warns against greed. The parable of the rich fool follows — the man who plans for decades and dies tonight — with the explicit lesson: this is what happens to those who store up for themselves and are not rich toward God.
The teaching against anxiety is sustained and specific. Do not worry about life or food or body or clothing: the ravens do not sow or reap and God feeds them; the lilies outshine Solomon's glory and tomorrow are thrown into the fire; anxiety cannot add a single hour to life. Seek the kingdom and these things will be added. Sell what you have, give to the poor, store up treasure in heaven. The parables of readiness follow: slaves who keep their lamps burning and wait for the master's return from a wedding feast will be served at table by the master when he comes. Blessed is the slave found at work when the master arrives. The thief's visit is unpredictable, which is why readiness is permanent. The faithful manager who feeds the household at the proper time will be set over all the master's possessions; the unfaithful one who beats the servants and feasts will be cut in pieces and put with the unfaithful. Then an unexpected note: I came to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled. Do you think I came to give peace on earth? No, division — even father against son, mother against daughter. The chapter ends with a challenge: you know how to read weather signs; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
- 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.