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Introduction
In this lesson we will continue to look at the portrait of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. The lesson is
divided into two sections. The first deals with Jesus as a man of prayer, the second surveys Jesus’ role as a
healer.
Personal reflection question: Has God revealed to you something about yourself in prayer?
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wilderness—a deserted place—and entered into a covenant with God. Luke wants his audience and all
subsequent audiences of disciples to be like Jesus and to withdraw from the hustle and bustle of daily life
in order to pray.
Personal reflection question: How, when and where do you break away from the “busyness” of life to
pray?
Personal reflection question: What was it like to pray at a major decision point in your own life?
Personal reflection question: Have you ever prayed before you asked people who they think you are and
what you do?
Personal reflection question: How have you listened to God and Jesus and been transfigured by prayer?
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2. What are some of the major transition points in your life when you prayed? Did prayer help you
through the transition?
Day Two
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needs continual forgiveness (both from God and mutually among its members) (see verse 4a). The sense
is not that God waits to see whether humans forgive before offering forgiveness, but that human beings
block the flow of God’s forgiveness if they do not themselves lead forgiving lives. The final petition
acknowledges that the world in which the community (church) lives is very frequently a place of trial,
persecution, and temptation. The community—the church—prays that such troubles—such trials—will
not prove overwhelming, causing it to fall away from its high vocation (verse 4b).
The community of faith (the church) that prays the Lord’s Prayer is, then, a community that is
very conscious of its privileged closeness to God. But it prays the prayer in the world, as part of the
world, on behalf of the world to which it testifies the onset of the reign of God (kingdom). It is a
community that is praying for food, for reconciliation, for deliverance from evil, not just for itself but for
the entire human family, whose dignity and destiny as children of God it tries to model and proclaim.
This is what it means for the entire church to pray the prayer known as the “Our Father.”
Personal reflection question: What is it like for you to ask the Lord to teach you to pray?
Day Three
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Jesus’ exhortation to his disciples, “Pray that you may not come into the time of trial,” occurs at
both the beginning and end of the scene, forming a frame—an inclusion—for his own prayer. It is the
same petition Jesus taught the disciples in the “Our Father:” “Do not bring us to the time of trial” (Luke
11:4b). Jesus’ passion will be the test of the disciples’ fidelity and perseverance. Again, the disciples are
being tempted, and Jesus urges them to pray so that the trial will not lead them to either abandon or deny
the faith.
In Luke, the central focus of the scene in the garden is Jesus’ prayer. His prayer is directed to God
and becomes a model for the prayer of his disciples. Luke portrays Jesus in prayer, wrestling with the
thought of what lies before him. Jesus longs that “this cup” (a metaphor for his suffering and death)
should be removed, yet prays that the Father’s will, not his, be done.
The “angel” who appears only in the Gospel of Luke, is an indication that the Father has heard
Jesus’ prayer. The angel strengthens Jesus, though the struggle belongs to Jesus himself.
Luke uses the word “agony” (22:44)—a telling Greek term agonia. It does not simply mean
intense pain but comes from the world of sports or combat and means an extraordinarily difficult but
victorious struggle, as Luke’s readers would have known (the noun agonia is a word used for athletes
competing in the Olympics). Agonia is a word that denotes working up a real sweat. The kind of sweat a
person gets from a vigorous game of racquetball or a vigorous run. In the agonia, then, we see Jesus’
struggle for victory over his own desire not to suffer and die. What Luke depicts in this scene is a mighty
contest, a struggle to the death, as in a gladiatorial contest. Here, prayer for Jesus requires an Olympian
effort. Prayer means working up a real sweat with God. In Jesus’ case, according to the Gospel of Luke,
the sweat turned into blood. Prayer requires an Olympian effort of both Jesus and any disciple of Jesus.
At the Mount of Olives, Jesus admits his resistance to death. In this moment, Jesus is fully aware
of his freedom to say: “No,” to the passion. Jesus chooses God’s will, because that is what he wants more
than he wants his own safety.
Jesus is energized by prayer before the crowd arrives to arrest him. The disciples were, if
anything, in worse shape by that time, because they had been sleeping instead of praying. This was their
way of coping with the impending death of Jesus. The disciples simply could not face what was
happening. Either they do not fully believe it, understand it, or they deny it in some way. We all use
sleep from time to time as a way of coping with the unpleasant or unacceptable.
The scene of the agony in the garden concludes by contrasting Jesus and the disciples. Jesus “got
up from prayer” energized, while the disciples were “sleeping because of grief” (Luke 22:45). Jesus rises
because his prayer has made him ready to enter the trial, while the disciples are overcome with fear and
distress.
In the Gospel of Luke, what the agony in the garden scene teaches all would-be pray-ers is that the
endeavor is worth it, for if one is energized by prayer as Jesus was to face even death, once energized by
prayer, we too can also face death.
Personal reflection question: What is it like for you to work up a real sweat in prayer?
(Note to reader: This scene is also treated in a different fashion in lesson 11 of this commentary.)
The last two prayers that Jesus offers in the Gospel of Luke are offered from the cross. Jesus
prayed for those responsible for his death, asking: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they
are doing” (Luke 23:34). This prayer points backwards in the gospel to where Jesus taught: “love your
enemies, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:28); and when he taught: “forgive and you will be
forgiven” (Luke 6:37). Once again, Jesus fulfills the petition of the Our Father—“and forgive us our
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debts as we forgive everyone indebted to us” (Luke 11:4). Likewise, Jesus’ disciples of every age are
called to forgive their enemies and those who mistreat them. Prayer becomes the context in which one
develops a forgiving attitude toward all who harm us. Jesus’ final prayer in Luke, taken from Psalm
31:5: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). The Greek word for “spirit” is
pneuma, it means “breath” or “wind.” In this prayer on the cross, Jesus is returning his breath to God the
creator who breathed breath into all human life at the dawn of creation (see Genesis 2:6-7). At the point
of death, Jesus entrusts himself into God’s hands. Those same hands that formed humankind out of the
clay now receive Jesus, raising him from death to eternal life. We too need to embrace this final prayer of
Jesus as our own. We are called to have the same confidence in Jesus that God had. Like Jesus, we are
called to believe that God will draw us into God’s self through the doorway of death and give us eternal
life.
Personal reflection question: How can prayer help you forgive someone who has harmed you?
1. Can you think of times in your life when prayer has been an Olympian effort on your part?
2. Do you feel energized by prayer the way Jesus felt after praying in the garden?
3. What would it be like for you to forgive your enemies and persecutors as Jesus did?
Day Four
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The Parable of the Friend at Midnight and Connected Parabolic Sayings
Read Luke, 11:5-13
Personal reflection question: When have I prayed with confidence that God the Father would answer
me?
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contrition before God. By contrast, the tax collector stands “far off,” a position that anticipates his
confession of unworthiness before God.
The common posture for prayer in Jesus’ day and at the time of the writing of Luke’s gospel was
not on one’s knees with head bowed and hands folded, but rather standing upright and looking up to God
with hands raised.
While the parable makes it clear that in 18:13 the Pharisee asks nothing of God. The tax collector
boasts nothing before God. The tax collector’s prayer echoes the opening words of Psalm 51: “Have
mercy on me, oh God.” The crucial addition to the words of Psalm 51, however, is the tax collector’s
self-designation: “a sinner.” Nothing more is reported of the tax collector’s prayer. It is complete as it
stands, and nothing more needs to be said of his character.
The parable leaves it to the reader to consider the contrast between the two characters. It is not
merely a study in contrasts but ends up with a dramatic call to examine one’s own conscience.
Instinctively readers despise the Pharisee, who is seen as despising all other human beings. But
wonder if the parable invites us to see how in the very act of judging the Pharisee, we ourselves are
exemplifying the attitude we despise in him. From this position, there is no smugness of superiority
toward any other; all are seen as brothers and sisters of the same gracious God.
Luke’s parables on prayer are a veritable examination of conscience, for they require the reader to
ponder how the behaviors of the various characters impinge on the reader. What remains constant
throughout is that God is always open to hear prayer. Further, prayer requires work and effort on the part
of the believer; it requires persistence and excludes presumption.
1. Which one of the parables on prayer do you find most helpful for your own prayer life?
3. Are there times when you are like the Pharisee as well as the tax collector in the parable?
Day Five
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affliction or because they bear the stigma of public sinner. Also, often Jesus’ healings include tactility, the
physical touching of the one to be healed.
Personal reflection question: What are the forces in your life that stunt your growth toward God?
Personal reflection question: When has the faith of others strengthened your faith?
Personal reflection question: When have you reached out to God and felt God reached back to you?
1. Who are your friends who have helped you gain access to Jesus’ healing?
2. What are some of your own paralyses for which you need Jesus’ healing touch?
Day Six
Personal reflection question: Do I risk exposure of my own weaknesses and in so doing discover God?
Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman and a Man with Dropsy on the Sabbath
Read Luke 13:10-17; 14: 1-6
The woman bent over for eighteen years stands up straight at Jesus’ touch and begins to praise
God. The beautiful moment of restoration, the leader of the synagogue can see only as an offense against
the Sabbath (v.14). Jesus does not conceal his scorn. How hypocritical, that religious leaders do not
hesitate to work for the benefit of their animals on the Sabbath (v. 15) will not will not allow Jesus to free
this human being, a member of God’s people ( “daughter of Abraham”), from the power of Satan on the
Sabbath . (The ancient perception was that physical illnesses are attributable to demonic forces without
any suggestion of moral failing on the part of the sufferer.).
What the Sabbath is all about for Jesus is the enhancement of obedience to God’s will, not simply
resting and refraining from work. The compassion of Jesus for suffering humanity (“eighteen long
years”), his outrage at the limited sense of God projected by the complaint, rings through the whole story.
The rejoicing crowd (v.17), in contrast to the discomfiture of the leaders, illustrates once more the divided
response to Jesus’ public ministry.
In the story of Jesus healing a man with dropsy (the swollen condition now medically identified as
edema) happens within the context of a meal and on the Sabbath. Jesus once again reclaims the Sabbath
as an occasion for healing and the fullness of life.
Personal reflection question: When have attitudes in my life caused me to block the healing presence of
Jesus?
Personal reflection question: For whom or for what do you need to praise and thank God?
Personal reflection question: To whom or what have you been blind? What do you need to ask Jesus to
help you see?
3. Of the various healing stories of Jesus presented in this chapter which one is your favorite and
why?
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Small Group Call to Prayer
(Place an open Bible on a table in the room with a lighted candle next to it.)
Leader: My friends let us pause as we prepare to hear the Word of God proclaimed in the Gospel. [Lead
all in the Sign of the Cross] + In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
All: Amen.
Closing Prayer
Leader: We thank you God for this time spent together experiencing your revelation through the Gospel.
All: May we continue to be informed and formed by your word in Sacred Scripture.
Nolan, Albert. Jesus Before Christianity (Revised Edition). Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 2001.
Senior, Donald. Jesus: A Gospel Portrait. (Revised Edition) New York: Paulist Press, 1992.
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