Scripture Study

Once again Luke's Gospel challenges us to deepen our commitment to the care of the poor. Care of the poor and the outcast is a key element of Luke's version of Christian discipleship. Amos reminds us that lack of concern for others will not be unnoticed by God. In the second reading Paul encourages Timothy to be faithful to his calling as a Christian leader. In what ways are we complacent with our own discipleship? Who is the "Lazarus" in my life whose plight I don't even notice?

NOTES on First Reading:

* 6:1 Only the first part of the verse is used in the reading. Although Amos preached in the northern kingdom known as Israel, after its separation from the southern kingdom called Judah, he uses the term, "Zion," which refers to Jerusalem. The prophets frequently held on to the ancient vision of a united kingdom and did not restrict their words to one or the other of the two kingdoms.

* 6:4-6 "The complacent in Zion ... the overconfident ... of Samaria" refers to the proud and self-interested rulers of Judah and Israel. The real evil here was not the self-indulgence so much as the refusal to notice or care about what was happening to Israel (Joseph of vs. 6).

* 6:7 The idle rich having been the first to receive from Israel's bounty will be the first to experience the exile.

 

NOTES on Second Reading:

* 6:11-16 The true church leader will be very different from the false teacher. Timothy's position demands total dedication to God and faultless witness to Christ. Man of God is a title applied to Moses and the prophets (Deut 33:1; 1 Sam 2:27; 1 Kings 12:22; 13:1; etc.).

* 6:12 The good fight refers to Paul's own life as an example (2 Tim 4:7) While some hold that the "good profession" refers to a profession at ordination it is more likely to refer to the profession of faith at baptism.

* 6:13 The testimony of Jesus refers to His conduct when facing His passion and death as an example of fidelity.

* 6:14 The commandment here refers not to a specific commandment but to the entire Divine mandate given to Timothy.

* 6:15-16 This section ends with a doxology in praise of God that is a sort of parallel to the one found in 1:17. It stresses both God's transcendence and His superiority to all earthly powers.

NOTES on Gospel Reading:

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus once again presents Luke's concern with Jesus' attitude toward the rich and the poor. This is really an example story that asks, "Will the five brothers and the hearers or readers of the story follow the example of the rich man or will they heed the teaching of Jesus and of the Old Testament about the care of the needy like Lazarus and thus become true children of Abraham"?

* 16:19-31 The parable operates on two different levels. The first part of the story (vs 16-23) is a reversal story where the reversal of the fates of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:22-23) illustrates the teachings of Jesus in Luke's "Sermon on the Plain" (Luke 6:20-21,24-25).

* 16:19-20 Although the oldest Greek manuscript of Luke, from about A.D. 175-225, records the name of the rich man as an abbreviated form of "Nineveh," there is very little textual support in other manuscripts for that name or any name at all in the original reading. The name, "Dives," which has long been found in Catholic popular tradition is derived from the Latin Vulgate's translation for "rich man." (v. 19 "...homo quidam erat dives et induebatur purpura et bysso et epulabatur cotidie splendide...") In the story the rich man is not named. This itself is a reversal for the poor were the nameless ones while the rich were well known.

* 16:22 Here again the roles are reversed in that the poor man died and is carried by angels to the "bosom of Abraham" while the rich man simply died and was buried. "Bosom of Abraham" refers to the choice position when one reclines with Abraham at the Messianic banquet (See 13:28-29 and John 13:22).

* 16:23 The netherworld or the underworld, was a term for the place of the dead (Acts 2:27,31) which is here contrasted with a primitive view of heaven.

* 16: 27 The reference to Abraham as father draws on a Lucan theme that mere words or even blood does not make a person a child of Abraham and a member of the reconstituted Israel.

* 16:29 This verse and verse 31 would seem to indicate that the rich man's treatment of Lazarus was a violation of the Old Testament as well as of the teachings of Jesus.

* 16:30-31 Here Luke foreshadows the rejection of the call to repentance displayed by many even after Jesus' resurrection.