Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear friends,

In the Women’s Bible Study that has focused on the Gospel of Luke this Fall, we’ve been noticing a few overarching Lukan themes. One is that Luke portrays some of the actions of Jesus to be like those of Moses. It is after the light of the Transfiguration that his face, which glowed like Moses’, is set toward Jerusalem. In Chapter 13, our reading today, we hear the second of three mentions of Jerusalem, and we begin to walk with Jesus toward his Exodus, his departure to God. Another theme is that Disciples of Jesus, followers of Jesus, must learn to imitate him. So if Jesus is typed as a prophet like Moses in a new way, the ultimate, the people in the Church are typed as a people like Jesus. The Prophets and the Church point in, toward the heart of it all.

Throughout Luke the vision of Love Incarnate is self-sacrificial, and there are rather difficult moments when Jesus is teaching about sacrifice necessary to be a Disciple. Luke consistently warns of the need to use wealth rightly, to listen to Jesus and how he encounters the outcasts, and the Disciples begin to try to follow his example. The desire (and ability!) to gather all into the love of Christ, however, thankfully, necessarily, transcends our efforts: “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Seeking the lost (the lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son), and redeeming desperate situations, (and making people really uncomfortable with all the upside-down-Kingdom stuff), Jesus walks toward his final days in Jerusalem, leaving behind how we might follow and the Spirit who guides God's people home.

In Christ,
Taylor Devine