Here are some key points about the parallels between the gospels' telling of this story: - The gospels are reporting on the same historical events, so there is natural overlap and similarity in the accounts. However, each author includes or emphasizes different details. - The inclusion of this story in all 4 gospels suggests it was an important event that all the evangelists wanted to convey. Its presence in all 4 points to its historicity. - Mark's account is often seen as the earliest and most basic. He focuses on the action and drama of the scene. - Matthew adds some context, expanding on the disciples' fear and Jesus' rebuke of their lack of faith.

1. Luke and the Miracles
of Jesus
Unit 11

2. Let’s work through the
introduction…
 Author?
 Audience?
 Place composed?
 Language?
 Date?
 Themes?

3. Initial Thoughts
θεόφιλος
 Introduction
 Why is Luke writing?
 Addressed to Theophilus
 Luke 1:3-4: “…κράτιστε Θεό φιλε, ἵνα ἐπιγνῷς περὶ
ὧν κατηχήθης λόγων τὴν ἀσφάλειαν.”
 Acts 1:1: “Τὸν μὲν πρῶτον λόγον ἐποιησάμην περὶ
πάντων, ὦ Θεό φιλε…”
 Luke-Acts
 Luke and Paul connection
 Luke the doctor?
 Universality of Luke’s message

4. Miracles
 “Love is shown more in actions than in words”
(Spiritual Exercises 20).
 Miracles today
 Science’s impact?
 Miracles back in Jesus’ day
 Divine elements
 Jesus proclaims the Kingdom and the effects of
the Kingdom not only through words, but also
through actions.

5. Understandings of Miracles
 Modern
 Ancient

6. Did Jesus really perform
miracles?
What are the three things that possibly
confirm that Jesus did?

7. Types of Miracles
 What are the four types?
 Examples of each?

8. Jesus’ Miracles
 Not overly medical nor overly gimmicky.
 Healings usually involve some sort of ______ contact.
 Why would Jesus make sure of this?
 Exorcisms carried out verbally.
“The healings and exorcisms were not simply remarkable
cures of physical disorders but the means by which
individual men and women received the kingdom,
brought to them in the person of Jesus, with the
consequence that their whole existence was transformed
and the reign of God became a reality of their lives.”
– J.R. Porter

9. How Did People Think About
Sickness?
 What is our attitude toward sickness?
 Jewish attitude toward sickness
 Alienation
 Social
 Political
 Religious
 Think back to our classes of people in Jesus’ Palestine

10. Why Does Jesus Perform
Miracles?
 To demonstrate the power of the Kingdom of
God.
But… why demonstrate the power in this way?
“Affection is  Symbolism of particular miracles
responsible for
nine-tenths of  Because making the unwell well is an act of
whatever solid love and justice.
and durable
happiness
 Acts that form/renew r_____________s.
there is in our
lives.”
- C.S. Lewis

11. Harrington, chapter 5
 17 healings, 6 exorcisms, 8 nature miracles
 Three qualities of a miracle (from JP Meier):
 Remember them?
 Nature miracles make extra sense to someone
who knows the HB.
 Examples?

12. Jairus’s Daughter
Luke 8:40-56
 Galilee (Capernaum)
 Elijah/Elisha – prophetic connections
 1 Kings 17:17-23; 2 Kings 4:18-36
 What is the symbolism in these
restorations of life?
 What are these restorations pointing
toward?

13. 1 Kings 17:17-23
17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned
the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and
finally stopped breathing.
18 She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me,
man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin
and kill my son?”
19 “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from
her arms, carried him to the upper room where he
was staying, and laid him on his bed.
20 Then he cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God,
have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am
staying with, by causing her son to die?”
21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times
and cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, let this
boy’s life return to him!”
22 The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life
returned to him, and he lived.
23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from
the room into the house. He gave him to his mother
and said, “Look, your son is alive!”

14. Woman with
Hemorrhages
Luke 8:42b-48
 Set within the Jairus story
 What’s a hemorrhage?
 Number 12 again
 What part of society is this woman from?
 What part of society was Jairus’s
daughter from?
 What does this say about the Kingdom?

15. “Legion”
Luke 8:26-39
 The Brick Testament
 NOT in Galilee
 Asked to leave at the end.
 Remember Lk 4:24: “Amen, I say to you, no
prophet is accepted in his own native place.”
 Sucks to be a prophet, no?
 Demoniac is literally on the fringes of society 
Where is he living?
 Why “Legion”?
 The former demoniac asks to stay with Jesus.
 Does this say anything about the Kingdom?

16. The Ten Lepers
Luke 17:11-19
 Implication that the returnee is the only
Samaritan.
 Remember the good Samaritan?
 What does this story say about the
Kingdom of God?

17. Centurion’s
Servant
Luke 7:1-10
 Capernaum
 The centurion is ethnically _______?
 First instance of healing in a Gentile household.
 Relationship between centurion and Jews.
 Helped build synagogue.
 Remember what the synagogue is for at this time.
 Centurion first sends Jews, then he sends
friends.
 Sense of worthiness
 The healing is NOT the center of the story.
 An Acts preview?

18. Widow of Nain
Luke 7:11-17
 Why does Jesus act?
 What emotion motivates him?
 Widow
 Only son
 Remember the anawim.
 Luke 7:18-23
18 John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them,
19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or
should we expect someone else?”
20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you
to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone
else?’”
21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil
spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.
22 So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you
have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who
have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the
good news is proclaimed to the poor.
23 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

19. Calming
the Storm
Luke 8:22-25

20. Table Fellowship
 What happens around your dinner table?
 People eat with like company, so the “pure” eat with _____?
 Luke 7:36-50
 Sinful woman washes feet.
 Luke 11:37-54
 What a dinner guest!
 Luke 14:1-24
 Again… What a dinner guest!
 Parable of the Wedding Banquet
 Luke 22:13-35
 The Road to Emmaus

21. This Table Fellowship Thing
Won’t Go Away
 Matthew 15:1-2, 10-11
1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law
came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,
2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the
elders? They don’t wash their hands before they
eat!”
10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen
and understand.
11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile
them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is
what defiles them.”
 Acts concerns – Peter and Cornelius, Acts 10-11; Paul in
Galatians 2:11-14
 Acts 15

22. Your task
 One sheet of paper with all three names.
 20 point HW
4. What is AIDS? What is HIV?
5. How do people with HIV/AIDS die?
6. What groups of people feel the effects of HIV/AIDS
most?
7. What two biblical convictions is Overberg trying to
correct?
8. What biblical condition does Overberg think is helpful
for understanding people with HIV/AIDS? Why?
9. What are the three responses that Overberg believes
we must have to the HIV/AIDS issue?

23. Gospels parallels
 Why do these stories look similar?
 What does it say that all the gospels include this
story?
 And that they’re fairly similar!
 What seems to be Mark’s particular take on the
events?
 What seems to be Matthew’s particular take on
the events?
 What seems to be Luke’s particular take on the
events?