Advent Readings: Luke 16

Luke 16

This chapter is a part of continuation of the previous conversation with the Pharisees. Here Jesus shifts his attention to the disciples. He teaches them an important lesson – one cannot serve God and money (Lk. 16:13).

That’s where Pharisees interfere – making snarky remarks about money… Jesus’ responds with somewhat an ambiguous statement on self-justification. It gets clearer as He talks about the Law and the Prophets – two main parts of the Hebrew Scriptures of Jesus’ time. Sometimes people contrast the books of the Old Testament with the books of the New Testament. I don’t think that this reading is correct. What Jesus leads people to understand is the texts of the Law and the Prophets are going to be followed up with the Gospel – the Good News, which is first preached then it was recorded by the four Gospel-writers.

Yet, to give the Pharisees an idea that there is no contradiction between the parts of the Scriptures, Jesus teaches them a parable. Technically, it doesn’t have a title of “parable,” but it has all the properties of the parable. Regardless, the story of the Rich man and Lazarus tells that people of Jesus’ times have Moses and the Prophets to read and meditate upon (Lk. 16:29-31). The Scripture is quite sufficient to bring one to the proper relationship with God. No “extra-curricular” or magical experience can substitute for the pure, written, and inerrant Word of God. Listening and adhering to the Word will bring one to repentance and reconciliation with the Creator (2 Cor. 5:19). 

Romans: St. Paul owes to Everyone

St. Paul owes to Everyone  

Passage: Rom. 1:13-17

Structure:

a. 1:13a, I intended to come to you

a’. 1:13b, to reap some harvest among you

  b. 1:14, I owe to Greeks and barbarians

    c. 1:15, I am eager to preach the Gospel

    c’. 1:16a, Gospel is the power of salvation

  b’. 1:16b, to Jew first, also to the Greeks

d. Righteousness of God

d’. Righteous shall live by faith   

Important terms:

Harvest (lit. fruit) – might be a misleading term, for it can create a notion of a fundraising campaign. If we would have word “fruit” in place that leads a reader to better understanding of St. Paul’s purpose: “he is thinking primarily about gaining new converts to faith.” (Middendorf, Romans 1-8, p.81).  

Righteousness is a very complicated term in the Bible. Basically, this single word can be “blamed” for the Reformation. The main difficulty for a good understanding is the “attribution” – is it an act/actions of man or of God?

Jews, Gentiles, Greeks and barbarians. It is vital to set this terminology straight – Jews and Greeks (v. 16) is a description of two parties within the Church of the First century in the boundaries of the Roman empire (those who were born into a community of believers and those who converted to faith). Yet, the apostle recognizes that there is a deeper division among the nations, beyond the usage of Greek as their prime official language – Greeks/Roman citizens and barbarians (very not PC term, seriously). Together they would comprise the Gentiles – in Hebrew goyim.        

Commentary:     

The paragraph has a very Pauline beginning – “I don’t want you to be unaware, brothers” (1 Cor. 10:1, 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 1:8; 1 Thes. 4:13).

St. Paul wants to come to Rome and see the members of the church face to face – as we talked in the previous lesson – but was prevented. Prevented by what or who? St. Luke records that the life of the apostle was under a close guideship of the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6). Is it the same reasoning here? Or he simply had a scheduling conflict? I don’t think it has to be either-or verbiage. He could’ve been busy with ministering to other congregations, another trouble he got himself into, or anything else, while noticing the Holy Spirit is behind these preventive actions.

He wants to preach the Gospel in Rome. There can be two underlining reasons for it. Rome has a congregation, and Paul wants to see his friends and gain more people for salvation. At the same time, seeing the imperial capital as a center of the outreach can help us to appreciate St. Paul’s example of strategic thinking. Out of Rome the power of salvation can outflow to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

The fact that Paul refers to Habakkuk is important. As a [former, we’ll talk about it discussing 5:8] Pharisee, he operates not only in the confinement of Torah (5 Books of Moses) [like a Sadducee would] but uses the Scripture as a whole. Later, he will build up “a case for righteousness” based on Abraham’s example (4:3). Here he introduces himself as a pastor and a theologian with “Pharisean” tool bag.                   

Book of Concord: 

1:16 – AC XXVIII:8-9, On Church Authority, the blessing of salvation can reach us only by the ministry of the Gospel through proclamation of the Word and administering the Sacraments. For it is “the power of God for salvation.”

1:17 – FC, Epitome, III:10, discussing the justification and saved through faith alone in Christ.

Hymnal:

LSB 555 – Salvation unto Us has Come

LSB 586 – Preach You the Word

ROMANS: GREETINGS

 GREETINGS

Passage: Rom. 1:1-7

Structure:

A. 1:1, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle

  B. 1:2-4, Son of God… Jesus Christ

A’. 1:5-6, Through whom we received grace and apostleship

  B’, 1:7, grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

Important terms:

Paul – we know that his “birthname” was Saul (Acts 7:58), like the first king of Israel. Yet, at some point, he adopted the name/title Paul (Acts 13:1 to 13:13). Paul means “a little one.”    

Servant – the better translation is “slave.” Lit. “owned body and soul.” The term is used often for the dedicated personalities serving God (Moses – Josh. 1:2; Samuel – 1 Sam. 3:9-10; David – 2 Sam. 3:18; 7:5,8).    

Called – two important things to note: (1) Paul is called, not “became.” It is Jesus Christ who calls to the ministry or in apostleship. (2) The word “called” is related to the word “church” – those who are called out.    

Name is proclaimed among the nation for salvation (cp. 4:12). Jesus is the name that God presents Himself to the world (John 17: 6,11-12).

Grace is a gift (3:24), used in Romans 24 times.  

Peace – a part of a regular Jewish greeting – Peace be with you, Shalom aleichem. Paul successfully combines the grace from God that results in peace among the people.  

Commentary:

Gospel was promised beforehand by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. This means that the OT is a great witness for the Gospel. It is an important skill to able explain life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.   

Gospel was declared to be [the person of] the Son of God. Therefore, according to Paul the Gospel is not a set of propositions or theological statements, but the person of Jesus Christ. The main prove of the Gospel is His resurrection from the dead – victory over death that Adam brought into the world (5:12-14).    

In his discussion of the Son of God Paul sets juxtaposition of son of David and all nations. David was a king of Israel. Yet, it is through him God made a covenant promising that the God’s anointed will sit on the throne forever (2 Sam. 7). This Messianic King will be a blessing to all of the nations for the promise goes back to Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3).

Book of Concord:

1:3 – FC, SD VIII:37, in discussion of distinctive features of the person and the nature of Christ.

1:4 – FC, SD VIII:85, quoting Luther’s Treatise on the Last Words of David (LW 15:293-294), authors of the Formula of Concord reiterate the importance of identification of the human nature of Christ (not losing from sight His divine nature from the eternity).