Abstract
This study is being published in two parts, the first extending through four occasions of divine guidance and the Travel Narrative in the previous issue, and this part beginning with the fifth and final instance of guidance. The abstract of the study as a whole is as follows. Luke represents Jesus’ death as the martyrdom of a prophet. M. Dibelius noted this in 1919. C.H. Talbert added in 1982 that Jesus’ death “is not an atoning sacrifice.” Such an assessment of Jesus and his death, for the “Christ” who “atones for sins,” is anemic to some scholars. F. Bovon prefers to say, “[T]he attitude of the people... testifies not only to the exemplary character but also to the redemptive nature of the passion.” The question is thus posed: Was Jesus’ passion in Luke “redemptive”? The answer is found in Luke’s divine call of Jesus. Luke portrays Jesus as being progressively informed of God’s plans for him on five occasions, each evidently following a time of prayer. The first, after his baptism (3:21b-22), reveals to him divine approval in royal and servant terminology. Next, after a night of prayer (6:12), he selects twelve apostles and proclaims new teaching in the “Sermon on the Plain.” Then come two times of prayer (9:18, 29), the first prior to and the second on the occasion of his visible transformation on a mountain, the “Transfiguration,” regarding Jesus’ prophetic role and his coming suffering. Finally, after declaring at his last meal the beginning of a new covenant, but without reference to sacrifice for sins, he prays for guidance one last time on the Mount of Olives (22:41-44), preparing for anticipated suffering and vindication. We conclude that Jesus’ death, in Luke’s Gospel, is the martyrdom of a prophet that does not atone for sins but does seal a new covenant (22:20).