Bible for Catholic Nerds – Luke’s Passion Narrative

 Luke’s Passion Narrative

On the first day of the week, at dawn, women (who had followed Jesus to the cross and to the tomb) went to the sepulcher to perform the burial rite. They had not had time on the evening of Jesus’ death, the Passover feast had begun. They hurried back in time before sunset; they had not been able to fulfill with the rites of devotion and now, with the ointments bought after the feast, in the early morning of that day, which is the first after Saturday, when the new week begins they went to the gravesite and are surprised to find something they did not imagine.

They did not expect the resurrection of Jesus; they were surprised to find the stone removed from the tomb and upon entering they were amazed at not finding the body of the Lord Jesus. They wondered what the meaning of all this was. They kept their faces bowed to the ground, downward facing, closed in pain; and are surprised by two divine messengers who ask why they seek the living among the dead.

Chapter 24 of the Gospel according to Luke is dedicated to the encounter with the Risen Lord. None of the evangelists narrate the resurrection, the fact itself. They narrate the subsequent effects: the empty tomb, the encounter with the Risen one, the transformation of the disciples. These are those precious and significant clues that narrate the change, the novelty brought by Jesus. The crucified is no longer there, he is not in the grave. The angels explain it, like at Christmas they had explained to the shepherds that the Savior who is Christ the Lord had been born for them.

Thus, now, the angels explain to the women: “He is not here, he has been raised.” And they do an elementary catechesis. They tell them: “Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” We find this impersonal verb: ‘must be handed over’ – ‘must’ is repeated three times in this chapter 24 of Luke and represents a formative discourse; it is an essential point of Christian catechesis. That ‘must’ – ‘it is necessary’ refers to God’s plan. It is inevitable that this will happen.

Remember the episode of the loss of Jesus in the temple at the age of 12 When the mother asks the son: “Why did you do this”, he responds: “Didn’t you know that I must occupy myself with my Father’s things?” In Jerusalem, during a Passover feast, for three days, there is a loss and then a discovery and after the discovery, to the question ‘why’, the answer: ‘It must be like this.’ It is necessary to be in the Father’s project. Jesus is in the Father’s project and the disciples must learn to grasp that same project and love it. “It must be so.” The angels tell women: “Remember what he said to you…” He had said, “must be handed over.” Things turned out as they should.

Remember what he told you and what happened. Now it’s about announcing the victory event and those women, “Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others” … “but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them.” Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb, but they did not find Jesus.

The second episode narrated by Luke is the encounter with the disciples of Emmaus. An exclusive text of the third evangelist and one of his literary masterpieces. It is the synthesis of Lucan theology; a story of an encounter during a trip.

Luke likes travel stories; He has walked a lot as a Christian, going through the ancient world with Paul and he realizes that the road is the place where Jesus is to be found.

Two disciples on the night of the same first day of the week, Sunday, Easter day, returned home, tired and disappointed, they returned to their privacy, disappointed in Jesus. And they talk to each other. Heartbroken they tell of the things they saw in those days, the tragedy of his arrest, of his condemnation, death and then the impossibility of going against death. He’s already dead and buried so they think it’s all over. While they are on the road Jesus joins them; they do not know that it is Jesus, they take him for any pilgrim, they do not recognize him.

Their eyes were unable to recognize him; and Jesus pedagogically accompanies them and makes them speak: “What were you talking about on the way?” About what happened in Jerusalem … What happened there? Jesus asks them, as if he knew nothing. How? They say: Are you a foreigner?

Remember the parable of the Samaritan. Jesus hides behind the figure of this stranger. He is the divine foreigner… he looks like a foreigner, but actually, he is perfectly inserted in the story. They explain everything to him; they tell him about the tragedies of the death and burial of Jesus. They also tell him about the experience of visiting the tomb and say, with an almost malicious attitude, that the women went to the tomb, they said they had a vision of angels who claim that he is alive, but they did not see him. Some of our people went to the tomb, but they didn’t see him.

As they look Jesus in the face, they are saying wryly that their companions when they went to the tomb they did not see Jesus. Nor are they seeing him now. They look at him and don’t see him. They explain the meaning of what has happened, upsetting everything, without realizing that they have not understood. And that stranger addresses them calling them fools and slow-hearted.

In biblical language, the heart is the head, the intelligence. Slow of heart is a hard-headed person, slow to understand, a fool. The speech does not start well. This foreigner insults them. He makes them notice their inability to understand the meaning of what has happened. They are slow to understand the meaning of the prophets, of what the Scriptures had said.

Jesus himself tells them (it is the second time –verse 26– that this impersonal verb returns): “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” It was something expected, it was not an accident on the road, it was the project, it was necessary to pass for these sufferings to enter into glory. And beginning with Moses and following by all the prophets, he explained to them what in all the Scripture referred to him. Jesus is doing a biblical catechesis to the two disciples.

The journey they make together to Emmaus is a catechetical path, a path of formation. Jesus reminds them of the bible, presents episodes, scenes, words, prophetic announcements and gives a Christological interpretation of Scripture. It shows that everything that had been written by the prophets was relative to him and it was realized in the paschal mystery. These two disciples feel their hearts burning. Hearing the words of Jesus, they are transformed.

Here is, once again, the mercy of Jesus in action. This time it’s a catechetical mercy, it is a good word that has exposed their stupidity and has cured them with its wisdom. It is already night; they were approaching the town of Emmaus. Jesus pretends to have to go further. Once again it is a pedagogical gesture and those two do not want to part with him, they invite him to stay, they perform a work of mercy, offer accommodation to a pilgrim who has no home, still has a way to go. “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them”.

Let’s understand this word well because it is fundamental. “He went in” – we understand their house; but the evangelist does not say it. His affirmation is more profound: he entered into them, he entered their lives. He came in to stay. In the house, it is Jesus who presides over the dinner: “He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them”; the Eucharistic gesture is evident. When he broke the bread, “their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.” He is no longer a stranger; he had entered inside. When they recognize him, they no longer see him.

The expression “their eyes were opened” is an important biblical quote. Remember in the Genesis narrative, it is said of the man and the woman that after eating the fruit that God had forbidden them to eat, “their eyes were opened” and they realized that they were naked. Now, in the Eucharistic encounter with the risen Lord, the eyes of the disciples are opened and they see, not his own nakedness, but his presence. They have understood the Scriptures; they have eaten with him.

You can see that the episode is a kind of description of the Mass. Two parts: liturgy of the word and liturgy of the bread. The road along the way, reviewing the Scriptures to understand the meaning of the life of Jesus and his disciples. Then the common table, the opening of the eyes, the understanding of the mystery. Jesus enters inside, changes them and those two tired and disappointed disciples are now transformed, they go back.

From Jerusalem to Emmaus the road it goes downhill; they were coming down, coming home in the afternoon. Now that it’s dark they retrace their way up the hill, they run back to Jerusalem to say: ‘We have met the Lord who has risen … we recognized him by breaking the bread.’ And as they arrived at the Upper Room, the disciples comment that they too have seen him. They know it even in Jerusalem. They say: “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”

And while they were all in the Upper Room, Jesus made himself present again. Third appearance; always on the same day. This time all the disciples gathered. Luke highlights how difficult it is for the disciples to accept the resurrection; it seems too good to be true; they are unwilling to accept it; doubts arise in their hearts. For the joy –Luke says who always tries to excuse the apostles– they still did not believe and were filled with astonishment. At this moment, Jesus has a catechesis with them.

For the third time, in verse 44 the impersonal verb appears: ‘must be fulfilled.’ For the third time the central thought is repeated. “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” Also in this case, there is the reference to biblical scriptures. Here the Hebrew form was just mentioned referring to the Bible: the law of Moses, the books of the prophets and the other writings of which the psalms are the first. In the biblical scriptures, the messianic event is spoken of as the moment of death and resurrection. It is the path chosen by God, many times mentioned in ancient scriptures, performed in Jesus. ‘They must be fulfilled and it was fulfilled; it is written, the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead.’

Now Jesus gives the disciples the mission to announce that he is the Christ and above all to offer conversion and forgiveness of sins to all peoples, beginning with Jerusalem. Of this the disciples are witnesses, witnesses of the historical life of Jesus, witnesses of his death, witnesses of his resurrection. They have lived the event of God’s mercy that transforms; they themselves needed to be transformed. Peter and the others have changed because of the encounter with Jesus. The risen one has opened their eyes, he has opened their minds. The evangelist Luke says it explicitly with a wonderful expression: “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scripture.”

The risen Lord open the minds of the disciples, open their eyes, open their heads, allow this great and new understanding. It is the revelation of Easter; it is the realization of mercy and authentic salvation. From this moment on the disciples are the continuators of the work of Jesus.

The narrative of the evangelist Luke ends with the scene of the ascension, which seems to take place on the same Easter night. “Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them.” It is a precious detail: Jesus blesses the disciples with raised hands. It is a priestly gesture. The blessing was reserved for the priests in the temple after the sacrifice.

With this particular detail Luke means that Jesus is the true priest and after having made the only authentic sacrifice, that of himself, raising his hands invokes the blessing on the people, on the new people, on the disciples who have welcomed him. “As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.”

The gospel of Luke began in the temple. Remember that the first scene narrated is the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Zacharias in the temple; the last narrated scene is again in the temple. Several years have passed and the world has changed. Now the apostles of Jesus are in the temple praising God with great joy. The change of humanity has come. They have received the true blessing, they have borne witness of the resurrection, the glorification of Jesus. They have begun to announce to all the peoples conversion and forgiveness of sins.

The mercy that the apostles have received is announced to others. And so the Gospel of Luke ends and immediately the second book of Luke begins: the Acts of the Apostles that narrates how the Church, after listening, undertakes to act; after receiving mercy, they are ready to transmit to all peoples the Lord’s mercy so that all human beings can heal, as the apostles were healed by the mercy of Jesus.

And also for us: Take the Gospel of Luke in hand and meditate on it with its precious details. It can be an authentic experience of mercy, which can change our heads so that the heart can also be transformed, that we can be healed by this therapy of God. I wish you a good experience, like a beautiful encounter that leaves a mark and transforms; and really heals.