Among the narratives which tell portions of Jesus’s life, the readers find a number of parables.
Of these parables ten are specifically unique to the gospel of Luke, all of which point to a character in need. Beginning with the Good Samaritan, one of the best known parables, Jesus tells the story of a man who is beaten and left for dead. Two men walked along the road where the man’s body had been left, they noticed him and continued walking, a little time after, a Samaritan found the man and took care of him. Jesus follows the story by asking, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” (Luke 10:36). Just prior to this Jesus had told an expert of the law that he was correct in stating that “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” is what it requires to inherit eternal life. Jesus’s parable points to the proper representation of who a neighbor is. The Samaritan serves the one who is weak, he sacrifices his time and money to tend to the man who was beaten and downcast. Furthermore, Jesus tells the parable of the friend at midnight who responds one’s needs similar to the way God responds to our needs (Luke 11:5-13). Jesus’s parables continue with the parable of the lost coin, He describes a scene where a woman has lost a coin within her home, she grabs a lamp to crawl on the dirt floor of her home in search …show more content…
of her coin and when she finds it she celebrates. “‘In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents’” (Luke 15:10). Jesus is making the point that there is much celebrating over those who have been lost and but are later found. He continues to make this point as he follows with the highly popular story of the prodigal son.
As the travel narrative advances in Luke, the author continues to include parables told by Jesus, which direct the reader’s attention to the poor and marginalized.
Possibly one of the obvious examples of this comes from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Found in Luke 16, Jesus tells the story of a rich man who every day walks past a begging Lazarus to a spread of food on his table. When the rich man dies, he goes to hell and begs Abraham to let Lazarus come and relieve him of his agony. Abraham responds reminding him of the abundance he had in life and did not share with Lazarus. This story further points to the audience’s duty to care for the poor and that those who are rich have a responsibility to those in need. Lastly, Jesus tells the story of the rich fool who stores up his possessions for himself so that he might be able to relax and not worry about life. However, God’s response to this is “‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20-21). In total there are ten parables specific to Luke which point to the
impoverished.
As the author of Luke includes these stories that the other gospel writers have chosen to leave out he is making an extremely calculated decision to convey an idea to his audience. All of these examples include an individual in need or an individual who is wealthy and selfishly hoards his wealth. The author essentially makes the point that it is not possible to fully follow God and ignore the needs of the poor and marginalized. These narratives intentionally contrast the rich and the poor in both how they live their lives and in the results they receive from it, those who are wealthy and ignore the needs of the poor later pay for their disobedience. The author of Luke shows the audience through the inclusion of these stories that a true disciple of Jesus would behave like Jesus and the way He responds to the poor, therefore as followers of Jesus the readers should respond with care for the poor.