Description
Contents
Lesson 1
The Song Before the Birth
Scripture: Luke 1:46-55 (NRSVUE)
Key Theme—Before Jesus is born, before he says a word, Luke gives the theme of the Gospel to a young woman from a village in an occupied province. Mary sings about thrones brought down, the lowly lifted up, the hungry filled, and the rich sent away empty, and she sings it in the past tense. This song is the first thing Luke tells us about what God is doing in Christ.
Lesson 2
The Year of the Lord’s Favor
Scripture: Luke 4:16-30 (NRSVUE)
Key Theme—Jesus stands up in his hometown synagogue, reads from Isaiah about good news for the poor and release for prisoners, and announces that the text is being fulfilled while they listen. It is his own statement of what he came to do. The sermon that follows, about God’s help going to outsiders, nearly gets him thrown off a cliff.
Lesson 3
The Weightier Matters
Scripture: Matthew 23:23-28 (NRSVUE)
Key Theme—Jesus says the scribes and Pharisees tithe their garden herbs with great care and neglect justice, mercy, and faith. He does not tell them to stop tithing. He tells them their proportions are wrong. The passage is aimed at religious people who are exact about small things and careless about people, which makes it a passage about us.
Lesson 4
Who Is My Neighbor?
Scripture: Luke 10:25-37 (NRSVUE)
Key Theme—A lawyer asks a question designed to establish where his obligation ends, and Jesus answers with a story that removes the boundary. The mercy in the parable is practical, expensive, and carried through past the emergency. By the end Jesus has changed the question from who counts as my neighbor to who acted like one.
Lesson 5
Grant Me Justice
Scripture: Luke 18:1-8 (NRSVUE)
Key Theme—A widow keeps appearing before a judge who has no interest in her case, and she wears him down until he rules in her favor. Jesus tells the story so his disciples will pray and not lose heart. God is not being compared to the judge but contrasted with him, and the closing question turns the parable back on the people listening.
Lesson 6
The Least of These
Scripture: Matthew 25:31-46 (NRSVUE)
Key Theme—In the last teaching before his arrest, Jesus describes a judgment of the nations decided by six ordinary actions: food, drink, welcome, clothing, care in sickness, and a visit in prison. Neither group saw what they were doing. Jesus identifies himself with those in need so completely that what was done to them was done to him.