Luke’s Distinctive Sunday Lectionary Profile

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Luke’s Distinctive Sunday Lectionary Profile

More perhaps than any feature, the assigning of a Synoptic Gospel to each year of its three-year cycle of readings—Matthew to Year A, Mark to Year B, and Luke to year C—stands out as the hallmark of the Sunday Lectionary. The First Sunday of Advent 2000 will mark the eleventh time [Advent 2018 marks the 15th time] since the Lectionary’s promulgation in 1969 that the liturgy turns to the readings for Year C, the year dedicated to Luke. Based on liturgical concerns, the Sunday Lectionary appropriates roughly 60% of each of the four Gospels over the three-year cycle of readings. What is Luke’s “Sunday Lectionary profile”? Which Lukan passages have been selected and where in the liturgical year have they been placed? A discussion of two intertwined factors—the relationship of Luke’s Gospel to the other two Synoptic Gospels, Matthew and Mark, and the shape of the liturgical year—will help answer this query.

The Distinctiveness of the Third Gospel

A side-by-side comparison reveals that the first three Gospels narrate remarkably similar accounts of Jesus’ career ranging from his baptism in the Jordan to the women’s discovery of the empty tomb on Easter morning. Mark is the shortest of the three, being slightly more than half the length of either Matthew or Luke. Nearly all of the episodes contained in Mark have parallels in Matthew, while 65% of Mark finds parallels in Luke. The material all three have in common is called the Triple Tradition. But Matthew and Luke, being much longer than Mark, contain material beyond what they share in common with Mark. A good portion of this additional, non-Markan material is shared by Matthew and Luke, material called the Double Tradition (or “Q”). Triple Tradition and Double Tradition material still does not account for all the episodes contained in Matthew and in Luke. The 25% or so left over in Matthew, that is, material with no parallels in either Mark or Luke, is simply called “M.” Similarly, the roughly 40% in Luke having no parallels either Matthew or Luke is dubbed “L” material.

What makes Luke’s Gospel distinctive? As a perusal of the episodes he shares in common with Mark and/or Matthew points out, Luke puts his own special stamp on the traditions relating the words and deeds of Jesus. In light of this, one can only surmise that Luke has left his imprint on “L” material as well, whatever the source of those stories might be. But beyond his editorial style, the very fact that Luke included so many unique stories—e.g., the annunciation and birth of John the Baptist, the annunciation and birth of Jesus, the parables of the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Rich Man and Lazarus; the disciples of Emmaus, etc.—significantly distinguishes his Gospel from the others. This special Lukan material appears in three sections of his Gospel: in the infancy narrative (chapters 1-2), in the “travel narrative” of Jesus’ journey from Galilee to Jerusalem (9:51-19:27), and in the narratives of the appearances of the risen Christ (24:13-53).

Luke’s Gospel in the Sunday Lectionary

The designers of the Lectionary strove to underscore as much as possible the distinctiveness of each evangelist. When it came to assigning passages from Luke, they gave such prominence to what is unique in the Third Gospel that nearly half of the 60% of Luke appearing in the Sunday Lectionary comes from his “L” material. This represents nearly 75% of all of Luke’s “L” material, which, as mentioned earlier, constitutes 40% of the entire Gospel. Luke’s “Sunday Lectionary profile” is in large part created by this heavy dose of “L” stories and episodes. Which “L” passages have been selected for inclusion in the Sunday Lectionary, and where have they been placed? Here, the second key factor comes into play, the shape of the liturgical year.

As it does for the Bible generally throughout its three-year cycle of readings, the Sunday Lectionary selects and distributes Lukan passages according to liturgical concerns. The liturgical year has two types of seasons, festal seasons (Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter) and ordinary time (the weeks between the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of Lent, and the weeks between the end of the Easter season and the following Advent), to which the Lectionary responds with different principles of reading selection. For the festal seasons, the Lectionary employs the principle of lectio selecta (selected readings), choosing biblical passages to articulate the main themes of the season or of the feast being celebrated. For the Sundays in Ordinary Time the Lectionary adapts the ancient principle of lectio continua in the form of semi-continuous reading: excerpts from a biblical book are read in sequence over a series of Sundays, all the while skipping over some episodes. As a result of these two principles of selection, not all of the Lukan passages in the Sunday Lectionary have been assigned to Year C—a number of passages appear in the festal seasons of Years A and B as well. The following inventory lists Luke’s “L” material the Lectionary has selected, first in the festal seasons and then in ordinary time.

“L” Material in the Festal Seasons

Advent-Christmas Cycle:

  • The Magnificat(excerpts only, as Responsorial Psalm: 1:47-48, 49-50, 53-54), Third Sunday of Advent, Year B
  • Annunciation to Mary (1:26-38), Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B
  • John’s preaching (3:1-6), Third Sunday of Advent, Year C
  • Mary visits Elizabeth (1:39-45), Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C
  • Birth of Jesus (2:1-16), Christmas at night, Years ABC
  • Visit of the Shepherds (2:15-20), Christmas at dawn, Years ABC; Feast of Mary, Mother of God (New Year’s Days), Years ABC
  • Purification of Mary, Prophets Simeon and Anna (2:22-40), Feast of the Holy Family, Year B
  • The twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple (2:41-52), Feast of the Holy Family, Year C

Lent-Easter Cycle:

  • Exhortation to repentance (13:1-9), Third Sunday of Lent, Year C
  • The Parable of the Prodigal Son (15:1-3, 11-32), Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C
  • The disciples of Emmaus (24:13-35), Third Sunday of Easter, Year B
  • Jesus’ appearance to the Eleven (24:35-48), Third Sunday of Easter, Year C

“L” Material in Ordinary Time, Year C:

The Ministry in Galilee:

  • Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth (4:21-30), Fourth Sunday
  • The great catch of fish (5:1-11), Fifth Sunday
  • Woes (added to the beatitudes; 6:24-26), Sixth Sunday
  • The widow of Nain (7:11-17), Tenth Sunday
  • A woman anoints Jesus’ feet; women accompany Jesus (7:36-8:3), Eleventh Sunday

The Travel Narrative:

  • Jesus passes through Samaria (9:51-56), Thirteenth Sunday
  • The Parable of the Good Samaritan (10:30-37), Fifteenth Sunday
  • Martha and Mary (10:38-42), Sixteenth Sunday
  • The Parable of the Friend at Midnight (11:5-8), Seventeenth Sunday
  • The Parable of the Rich Fool (12:13-21), Eighteenth Sunday
  • Jesus’ teaching on the faithful servant (12:32-48), Nineteenth Sunday
  • Jesus’ teaching on places at table (14:1, 7-14), Twenty-second Sunday
  • The Parable of the Prodigal Son (15:11-32), Twenty-fourth Sunday
  • The Parable of the Unjust Steward (16:1-13), Twenty-fifth Sunday
  • The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (16:19-31), Twenty-sixth Sunday
  • Jesus heals ten lepers (17:11-19), Twenty-eighth Sunday
  • The Parable of the Unjust Judge (18:1-8), Twenty-ninth Sunday
  • The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (18:9-14), Thirtieth Sunday
  • Zacchaeus (19:1-10), Thirty-first Sunday

 Boundless Graciousness

The above repertoire shows that the Sunday Lectionary makes every effort to incorporate as much of the distinctive Lukan material as possible within the constraints of the liturgically determined three-year cycle of readings. What particular facet of the Good News does this “L” material offer? As a whole, Luke’s special material sketches the portrait of a God of inexhaustible and overwhelming graciousness. Faced with humankind’s profound neediness, God manifests a beneficence that knows no bounds: the creator of all and sovereign over all deigns to liberate an undeserving world enslaved by the powers of sin and death. While this divine graciousness finds incomparable expression in the death and resurrection of Jesus, his every word and deed radiate it as well. For example, he extends God’s beneficence to the poor and the marginalized. To the bereft widow of Nain, doomed to loneliness and poverty through the loss of what remained of family and of financial support, Jesus restores her deceased son.  He saves ten lepers from the despairing and ostracized existence to which their slowly corrupting bodies condemned them.

In the stories and episodes concerning riches, status, and authority, Jesus encourages his hearers and followers both to receive God’s beneficences humbly and to share them graciously. Riches are a blessing if they serve to liberate, not enslave, oneself and others. In the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, there is no mention that the rich man obtained his wealth immorally. Jesus faults him, however, for not having used his riches for the benefit of others, epitomized in the story by Lazarus pining at the rich man’s gate. So also with the rich fool who proposed to build bigger barns to house his plentiful harvest as a security for his future—that very night his soul was required of him. On the other hand, Zacchaeus, graced by Jesus’ visit, responds by giving half of his goods to the poor.

Social status and authority are all too often obstacles to salvation and wholeness. “Sit in the lowest place” at the marriage feast rather than seek the places of honor, Jesus teaches. Honor is bestowed as a grace, not grasped as a right. The good Samaritan, without status or authority, comes to the aid of the man beaten by robbers, freely giving of his not inconsiderable means—beast of burden, oil, wine, money, and especially his time. The unjust judge, having little regard for God or fellow human beings, nevertheless is importuned into vindicating the widow demanding righteousness. Authority is a blessing to be exercised not for one’s self-aggrandizement but for the benefit of the lowly and the powerless.

The seemingly undeserving are also the object of God’s graciousness, as the Parable of the Prodigal Son illustrates. The father’s open-armed welcome of his wayward son is the very graciousness Jesus extends to the sinful woman who crashes the dinner party at Simon the Pharisee’s house. Her extravagant gestures—wetting Jesus’ feet with her tears, anointing them with fragrant oil, and wiping them with her hair—shames Simon’s failure at offering even the minimal hospitality and elicits from Jesus forgiveness of her sins.

Those who have been graced are to be gracious in return. Failure to do so risks incurring the curses Luke adds to his version of the beatitudes: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets” (NRSV).

Conclusion

Admittedly, the “L” material found in the Sunday Lectionary, since it represents but half of the 60% of Luke distributed over the three-year cycle of readings, offers a sketch of only the “distinctive” facet of Luke’s Sunday Lectionary profile. Even Luke’s full Sunday profile, drawn from all the Lukan excerpts in the Lectionary, would still present but a piecemeal picture of the Third Gospel, for the Lectionary, by nature pericopic and doxological, selects and assigns passages for the purposes of worship. The Lectionary does not intend to be a course in scripture; it rather presupposes familiarity with the scriptures. Perhaps Luke’s “distinctive” Sunday Lectionary profile will provide the incentive for exploring Luke’s Gospel in its entirety. Be that as it may, the Lectionary has done a great service in apportioning such a gracious selection of Luke’s most memorable and cherished stories. If the purpose of the Sunday eucharistic liturgy is to shape and mold believers into the paschal mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection, urging them to live out this transformation in the daily fidelity of discipleship, then Luke’s “L” stories cannot but be a source of blessing for all who hear them proclaimed.

By Fr. Normand Bonneau, OMI

Published in “The Bible Today” (2000) vol. 38, pp. 337-342