Daily Bible Reading: Tobit 11-12 and Luke 23

Tobit 11 – Raphael and Tobias decide to go ahead of Sarah and the rest so as to greet Tobit and put the “gall” from the fish on his eyes so he will be cured. They do and of course both Tobit and his wife are overjoyed to see their son. Tobias applies the gall and Tobit’s sight is restored. They praise God and go off to the gates of Nineveh to greet Sarah.

Tobit 12 – Tobit tells Tobias they need to reward Azariah [Raphael] for all his help. Tobias thinks half of all they have is not too much. After all, not only did he help recover the money placed in trust, he also cured Sarah and Tobit. When they give their friend this reward he reveals to them that he is, in fact, Raphael, one of the seven angels who serve God. Apparently, the idea of angels came into Judaism from the Persians’ Zoroastrianism. Only three of the seven major angels are mentioned in the Bible – Gabriel, Michael and Raphael.  Raphael tells them to bless and praise God for all the blessings he bestows, to praise him publicly. Praising God and giving alms are what they should do, not hoard gold.

Luke 23 - They bring Jesus to Pilate and accuse him “of perverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor, and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king” (23:2). Pilate asks him if he is King of the Jews.  Jesus answers, “So you say” (23:3). Pilate finds nothing to charge him with. But they insist that he is nothing but trouble. Pilate asks if Jesus is a Galilean, and when he learns he is, he decides to ship the problem off to Herod, who happens to be in Jerusalem.  Herod is glad to see Jesus.  He had heard about him and been curious about him “for a long time” (23:7). He wants to see Jesus perform some sign.  Jesus does not speak with him. Herod’s soldiers mock him. Luke notes that that day Herod and Pilate, two men who had been enemies previously became friends. Herod sends him back to Pilate.

                 

Pilate wants to have Jesus flogged and released, but the people cry for his crucifixion.  Pilate argues a second time for Jesus’ release, but the crowds keep shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” (23:21) And yet a third time he asks, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death. . .” (23:22). “But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed” (23:23). Pilate give them the man they called for, “one who had been put in prison for insurrection and murder” (23:25).

                 

Simon of Cyrene is made to carry Jesus’ cross. Jesus tells the mourning women who follow him to weep for themselves and for their children, for “the days are surely coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us’; and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (23:29-31)

                 

There are two other criminals crucified at the place called Golgotha [the skull]. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (34). An NRSV note says that other ancient authorities lack this sentence. They cast lots to divide his clothes.  People mock him, saying he saved others, let him save himself.  There was an inscription—“this is the King of the Jews”—over him (23:38). One of the criminals next to him derides him, but the other confesses Jesus innocence.  Jesus tells him “today you will be with me in Paradise” (23:43).

About noon, the land becomes dark for three hours.  The curtain of the temple is torn in two and Jesus cries “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (23:46). The centurion here says, “Certainly this man was innocent.” He does not say he was the Son of God. All of Jesus’ acquaintances, women included, “stood at a distance, watching these things” (23:49).

Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, goes to Pilate and asks for the body of Jesus.  The women see where he is buried but it was the beginning of the Sabbath, so they rest.  

Daily Bible Reading: Tobit 9-10 and Luke 22

Tobit 9 – Tobias sends Azariah (Raphael) to Gabael, the cousin of his father with whom he long ago left the silver. He also lives in Media. Tobias wants him to come to the wedding feast that is planned. Azariah goes to Gabael, presents him with the receipt [Tobit’s half] and tells him about the marriage of Tobias and Sarah. The seals to the sacks of silver are “still intact” (9:7). They load the silver on the camels and the next morning set off for the feast together. When Gabael sees Tobias, he is overcome with joy. He looks so much like his father.

Tobit 10 – Back at home in Nineveh, Tobit waits anxiously for his son to return. But his mother, Anna, is really despairing. Raguel, Sarah’s father, has insisted that Tobias stay at their home for fourteen days of feasting, and Tobias knows his father and mother must be very worried about him.

When the fourteen days are over, Tobias and Sarah leave. Raguel, true to his promise, “gave Tobias half his wealth, menservants and maidservants, oxen and sheep, donkeys and camels, clothes and money and household things. And so he let them leave happily” (9:10-11). They leave with words of blessing and hopes of seeing them and the children they know they will have sometime again.

Luke 22 – Passover is near. The chief priests and scribes are still “looking for a way to put Jesus to death” (22:2). Satan enters into Judas; he arranges to betray Jesus for money. It is the day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed; Jesus sends Peter and John to prepare for their meal.

When they gather, Jesus says, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; . . . I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God” (22:16). He thanks God and shares bread and wine with his friends—his body and blood, which will be “poured out for you,” the “new covenant in my blood” (22:17-20). He tells them that the one who betrayed him is at the table. The “Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!” (22:22)

                 

Luke puts the dispute over who is going to be the greatest here; in Matthew and Mark, it takes place much earlier in Jesus’ ministry (Matt. 18:1 and Mark 9:33). Jesus’ admonition to them is that “the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves” (22:26). Jesus says, “you are those who have stood by me in my trial; and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (22:29-30). He tells Simon that Satan will “sift all of you like wheat,” but he will pray for them that their faith will not fail. He asks Simon to “strengthen your brothers” (22:32) once he “turns back.” And he predicts Peter’s denials of him. 

                 

He reminds them of when he sent them out with nothing, how they lacked for nothing.  But now they must go armed with purses, bags and swords.  They show him two swords they have and he replies, “it is enough” (22:38). They are not understanding him again, and I confess I am with the disciples in their confusion.

After dinner, he goes out as he usually did to the Mount of Olives; the disciples go with him.  He leaves them a little bit away from him and tells them to pray that they will not fail at the time of trial.  Then he goes and prays, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done” (22:42). An angel from heaven strengthens him. Then he prays even more earnestly and “his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground” (22:43-44). The Jerusalem Bible note says some ancient manuscripts do not have verses 43 and 44. When he concludes his anguished prayer, he comes to find his disciples all sleeping “because of grief,” (22:45) and he rebukes them mildly.

                 

Suddenly a crowd comes and Judas approaches Jesus to kiss him. Jesus says, “Judas, is it with a kiss that you are betraying the Son of Man?” (22:48) His disciples ask if they should strike out, and one of them cuts an ear off of the high priest’s slave.  Jesus rebukes them and heals the ear.  To the chief priests, officers of the Temple guard and elders, Jesus says “this is your hour to act, when the power of darkness rules” (22:53).

                 

They bring him to the high priest’s house with Peter following at a distance. They all go to a courtyard when there is a fire burning that people are huddling around, and a slave girl approaches Peter, saying that he “was with Jesus” (22:56). Peter denies that he knows Jesus. Twice more he is identified and twice more he denies knowing him; Jesus, who is also in the courtyard, “looked straight at Peter and Peter remembered that the Lord had said to him, ‘Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly” (22:61-62).

                 

The guards mock Jesus and beat him.  They tell him to prophesy, blindfolding him and telling him to tell them who is beating him.  The next morning, they take him to a council of elders, chief priests and scribes.  They ask him if he is the Messiah. He says, “If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I question you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God” (22:67-69). They ask him if he is saying he’s the Son of God? “He said to them, ‘You say that I am’” (22:70), and they take it as terrible blasphemy, a confession in fact. 

Daily Bible Reading: Tobit 7-8 and Luke 21

Tobit 7 – They go to Raguel’s home and are well-received. Raguel learns that Tobias is son of his kinsman, Tobit. Raguel responds warmly to Tobias’ appeal to marry his daughter, and he tells the whole story about the seven husbands. They are given in marriage and Sarah’s mother goes to prepare the place where they will come together.

Tobit 8 – Tobias does as he was instructed and burns the fish’s organs on the incense. This drives the demon to the “remotest parts of Egypt” where he is bound by Raphael “hand and foot”(8:3). Tobias then, joined by Sarah, offers prayer to God. He makes reference in his prayer to the story of Adam and Eve:

                                    It was you [O God] who created Adam,

                                    You who created Eve his wife

                                    To be his help and support;

                                    And from these two the human race was born.

            It was you who said,

                                    ‘It is no good that the man should be alone;

                                    let us make him a helpmate like himself’.

                                    And so I do not take my sister

                                    For any lustful motive;

                                    I do it in singleness of heart.

                                    Be kind enough to have pity on her and on me

                                    And bring us to old age together (8:6-7).

Meanwhile, Dad is not so sure Tobias will make it. He goes out and digs a grave – just in case. When a servant tells him that Tobias is fine, he goes out and fills in the grave before they wake in the morning. They celebrate the marriage for fourteen days thereafter. Raguel gives Tobias half of all his property. No specific reference is made to the silver Tobias came for, but perhaps it is included in “all the property.”

Luke 21 – Jesus compares the religious offerings of the rich and the poor and praises the poor widow who offers just two small copper coins; “poor as she is, [she] gave all she had to live on” (21:4).

As for the rich ornamentation in the Temple, Jesus reminds them that the Temple will soon be a pile of rubble.  They ask him when this will occur, and Jesus turns his teaching to the destruction of the “last days.” Do not believe those who come and say the time is near.  Do not follow them.  Do not be afraid when you hear of wars for the end will not follow immediately (21:9). First, there will be persecutions “because of my name” (21:12). It will give you a chance to testify to the gospel. “I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict” (21:15). Parents and friends will betray you “but not a hair of your head will perish.  By your endurance you will gain your souls” (21:19).

                 

When Jerusalem in surrounded by armies, you must flee to the mountains.  There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars.  “Then the Son of Man will appear, coming in a cloud with great power and glory” (21:27). The time of your redemption will be near. Jesus likens these mysterious happenings with the simple signs of summer that we can read from just looking at a fig tree when its leaves begin to appear in spring. “in the same way, when you see these things happening, you will know that the Kingdom of God is about to come” (21:29-31). This generation “will not pass away until all things have taken place” (21:32). Be alert, therefore, at all times, praying that you may have strength to endure to the end. Jesus spent all day teaching things like this in the Temple. Then at night he would go back out to the Mt. of Olives. 

Daily Bible Reading: Tobit 5-6 and Luke 20

Tobit 5 – Tobias answers that he will go and try to get the silver his father left in Media some twenty years earlier, but he wonders how he will get the money since the man to whom it was given does not know him. Tobit says that he “set his signature to a note which I cut in two, so that each could keep half of it. I took one piece, and put the other with the silver” (5:3). CLEVER!

Tobias needs to get someone who knows how to get to Media; so he does. He finds the angel Raphael (without knowing he is an angel). He brings him in to meet his father and when he does Tobit bewails his blindness. The angel tells him he will be healed. Tobit asks him what tribe he is from and the angel tells him he is Azariah, son of one of Tobit’s relatives. Tobit tells Azariah/Gabriel that he will pay him to guide his son. They prepare to leave. Tobias’ mother cries, but Tobit tells her not to worry.

Tobit 6 – They leave and spend the first night by the Tigris River. A big fish leaps from the water and tries to take off Tobias’ foot, but the angel gets Tobias to catch it and take its innards for medicines and eat some of it. When he asks, the angel tell Tobias that the heart and liver of the fish, if burned in the presence of someone afflicted by a demon or evil spirit will cause the evil spirit to flee. And the gall can be used to anoint a person’s eyes if they have a film on them. Clearly this fish will be used to help both Sarah and Tobit – they suffer from both of these things.

                 

They arrive near Ecbatana and go to the home of Raguel. The angel tells Tobias that Raguel has a daughter who is very sensible and pretty. And Raphael tells Tobias that he has a right to marry her because she is from the same tribe, and that the marriage will be arranged that very night. Tobias has heard the stories about her having been married to seven husbands who all died because of some demon who kills them. Tobias is advised to burn the heart and liver on some incense when he goes to consummate the marriage. “Do not be afraid, for she was set apart for you before the world was made” (6:18). Tobias is very drawn to her. He “fell so deeply in love with her that he could no longer call his heart his own” (6:18).

Luke 20 – By what authority is Jesus teaching.  He knows they are simply trying to trap him, so he turns the question around and asks about where John the Baptist’s authority came from.  They won’t answer that because they fear the crowd’s love of John and faith in his prophetic identity.

Jesus tells the parable of the vineyard owner who sends servants to collect his share of the produce, and how they are always insulted or injured - they are never killed in the Lucan version. You can compare Matthew 21:33 and Mark 12:1. Finally the vineyard owner sends his beloved son; but this inspires only a conspiracy to kill him and take the property.  What will the owner do? “He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to other” (20:16).

He [the owner’s son] is the stone the builders rejected. “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls” (20:8). Again, the analogy is meant to show the DANGER people expose themselves to when they do not recognize the importance of this son.

                 

As part of the plan to trap Jesus, the teachers of the Law ask him if it is lawful for them to pay taxes to the emperor or not.  He takes a coin and shows them the head and inscription on it—that it is the emperor’s. “Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s” (20:25).

                 

Sadducees, who doubt the idea of bodily resurrection, challenge him with a story of the childless woman and her seven husbands.  They ask whose wife she will be when the “resurrection of the dead” happens. Jesus says they will not be as they were in this life; they will be like angels.  He argues that Moses himself taught that the dead are raised, for he speaks about the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob; but God is God of the living, not the dead.

                 

And how can the Messiah be a son of David, for in the psalms it says “the Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand. . .” (20:41-44). If David calls him Lord, he cannot be his son.  Jesus appears here to be trying to tell people that the concept of the Messiah they have is not accurate—he will not be a Davidic heir but something more.  The Messiah David was looking toward would have been his Lord too, not his son or heir.

                 

Jesus warns people against the hypocritical testimony of the scribes—that they love to have all the accoutrements of holiness and importance but not the real substance of righteousness.

Daily Bible Reading: Tobit 3-4 and Luke 19

Tobit 3 – There follows a lovely ode on his unworthiness and desire for God’s forgiveness – here is some of it:

                                       You are just, O Lord,

                                       And just are all your works,

                                       All your ways are grace and truth,

                                       And you are the Judge of the world.

                                       Therefore, Lord,

                                       Remember me, look on me,

                                       Do not punish me for my sins

                                       Or for my heedless faults

                                       Or for those of my fathers

                                       . . . we have neither kept you commandments

                                       nor walked in truth before you;

                                       so now, do with me as you will;

                                       be pleased to take my life from me;

                                       I desire to be delivered from earth

                                       And to become earth again.

                                       For death is better for me than life (3:2-6).

Toward the end, he seems to fall back into a sadness over being insulted – I am not sure if this has to do with the reproaches he suffers from the wider community for being such a staunch defender of the dignity of his people or because his wife insulted him by accusing him of lacking charity in relation to her.

                 

Next the story of Sarah, daughter of Raguel, the man in Media [now Iran] with whom Tobit once left a stash of silver when he was conducting business for Shalmaneser V. She is presented as a kind of parallel to Tobit. Sarah is reproached by one of her father’s maids because she’s been been harsh with them and because she has a demon in her – Asmodeus, who has made her infertile and dangerous to marry. She’s been married seven times, and all the husbands have died before consummating the marriage. Her maid denigrates her, and she is tempted to hang herself, but she doesn’t (for her father’s sake). She complains here in a tone very similar to Tobit’s. She prays to God that He might take her rather than leave her to hear these reproaches.

                 

God hears the prayers of them both and sends his man, the angel Raphael, “to heal both of them: Tobit, by removing the white films from his eyes, so that he might see God’s light with his eyes; and Sarah, . . .by giving her in marriage to [Tobit’s son] Tobias . . . and by setting her free from the wicked demon Asmodeus.” (3:16)

Tobit 4 – Tobit then remembers the silver he left with Gabael and decides he should talk to his son Tobias about it. He calls Tobias and tells him how he should deal with things in the event of his (Tobit’s) death. He tells him to take care of his mother and to bury her next to him when she dies.

He tells him to “be faithful to the Lord all your days. Never entertain the will to sin or to transgress his laws. Do good works all the days of your life, . . . for if you act in truthfulness, you will be successful in all your actions” (4:5-6). “Never turn you face from any poor man and God will never turn his from you. Measure your alms by what you have; if you have much, give more; if you have little, give less, but do not be mean in giving alms” (4:7-8).

Avoid “all loose conduct” (4:12), and when you marry, do not marry outside the tribe (4:12).

“Do not keep back until next day the wages of those who work for you; pay them at once” (4:14). “Be careful, my child; in all you do, well-disciplined in all your behavior. Do to no one what you would not want done to you” (4:15). And then, at the end, he also tells him about the ten talents of silver he left in trust with Gabael in Media.

Luke 19 – In Jericho, a man named Zacchaeus, a tax collector, tries to see Jesus.  He is short and has to climb a tree to see him.  When Jesus sees him, he tells him to come down, for he “must stay at [his] house today” (19:5). Again, Jesus is criticized again for hanging around with sinners.  Zacchaeus, however, is a man ready to change.  He promises he will give half of his possessions to the poor and pay back anyone he may have defrauded.  Jesus praises him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham” (19:9).

This is another Lucan doublet—the first one is the story of his disciple Levi at 5:29.  It is hard to tell if Luke planned to include these doublets (for emphasis) or just did because he was selecting stories from several sources and put in stories that had the same point even if there were small differences in them in his sources. 

They are nearing Jerusalem, and his disciples think the “kingdom of God” is going to “appear” when they get there.  So Jesus tells them another parable – the parable of the gold coins or talents:  A nobleman nobody likes goes to a distant country “to get royal power for himself and then return” (19:12).  He gives each of his ten servants some money and tells them “See what you can earn with this while I am gone” (19:13).  The people this man has authority over cannot stand him, and they send a message to the effect that they really do not want him to be made a king (19:14). The man does get the title of king, however, and when he comes back he asks each of the servants what they did with the money he gave them while he was gone. As they tell him, he rewards them with “cities” to rule if they had a good return on their investment.  But the one who feared him and did nothing but stash the money away is punished.  The nobleman/king takes the money from him and gives it to the one who made the most. Then to punish all those who hated him and did not want him to rule over them, he orders them brought in and “slaughter[ed] . . .in my presence” (19:27).

Here is another place where the Lucan “edge” gets a little hard to take.  He more than any other gospel writer has these places; and he also depicts God – by analogy - in his parable in a puzzling way—here as a hated ruler; in the parable of the widow (18:1-8) as the unresponsive, lazy judge; in his teachings about the “day of the Lord” as the thief breaking into the house at night (12:39). Is he using such analogies because he thinks these mean people are the only kind of people we worry about enough to ponder deeply? He does want us to THINK THINGS THROUGH more than we usually do. I know he is trying to tell us that we need to work as hard on our spiritual “resources” with as much passion and commitment as worldly people – people who love power and money above all – work on multiplying their resources, but I do find the parable style a little off-putting – I confess I do. I think it is important to remember that this moment in Jesus’ life is a time of GREAT ANXIETY AND CRISIS.

They arrive at the Mount of Olives.  Jesus sends two of his disciples to get a colt for him to ride.  As he enters the city, people spread their cloaks, and his disciples praise God with a loud voice “for all the deeds of power that they has seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!’” (19:38) The Pharisees object, but Jesus says, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out” (19:40).

Jesus weeps over the fate of the city and delivers a prophecy: “If you . . .had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!  But now they are hidden from your eyes.  Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side.  They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God” (19:41-44). This has to be a reference to the assault of the Romans and their destruction of the Temple. The tone of it also puts into relief the harsh tone and import of much of Luke’s gospel—and the tears Jesus sheds reflect the underlying sorrow in which the anger is rooted. 

The psychology of the moment—the man Jesus coming into the city with royal power and looking for his faithful people to bring him evidence of righteousness (fruit worthy to be praised) is reflected in the series of passages in both Mark and Luke.  In Mark you have the entry (11:8) followed by Jesus encounter with the fig tree and his displeasure with the commercialization of the Temple. Surrounding Jesus’ moment of hoped-for reception are passages that reflect the doubts and acts of unfaithfulness - the vineyard owner sending his son instead of servants, leaders questioning his authority, etc. In Luke you have the returning lord that the citizens are conspiring to reject, the failure of men to make a return on the blessings this same ruler has given them and a direct reference to the opportunity for salvation rejected by the people of Jerusalem. This is the climax moment of Luke.

Jesus drives out the merchants from the Temple, and begins several days of teaching there.  But the leaders of the community are out to kill him.

Daily Bible Reading: Tobit 1-2 and Luke 18

Tobit is not in the Protestant Bible; it is part of what is called the “apocrypha.” My Jerusalem Bible introduction to the books says they were “only recognized by the Church after a certain hesitancy in the patristic period” but they have been “read and quoted from early days and appear in the official canonical lists in the West from the time of the Roman Synod of 382 and, in the East, from 682” (601). All three “belong to the same type of literature”; they all deal with history and geography with a “good deal of freedom” (602). 

They are clearly NOT being used as “historical” texts themselves. For example, Tobit tells his story as if he could personally have lived at three very different times in Israel’s history. He tells of being a young man when the kingdom was divided at Solomon’s death in 922 BC and how he continued to travel to Jerusalem to bring offerings. Then he is part of the diaspora of the northern kingdom and is taken to Nineveh. In chapter 4 he is deported with the tribe of Naphtali in 734 BC and his son does not die until after the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC – so it “covers” about three hundred years of history. The original semitic text of the story is no long extant. A “few Hebrew and Aramaic Fragments of the book have been recently discovered near the Dead Sea” but the text Jerome used in putting the Latin Vulgate Bible together is no longer with us. “The Book of Tobit was written among the Jews of the Dispersion, possibly in Egypt, between the 4^th and 5^th centuries B.C.” (603).

Tobit 1 – Tobit introduces himself. He says he is the grandson of Deborah and a man from Israel in the north. He says “when I still was at home in the country of Israel, the whole tribe of Naphtali my ancestor broke away from the House of David and from Jerusalem” (1:4). But while most of the House of Naphtali “offered sacrifice to the calf that Jeroboam. . . had made at Dan. . . I was quite alone in making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, fulfilling the law that binds all Israel perpetually” (1:6).

Tobit is not just fulfilling the Law outwardly. He claims he has “walked in paths of truth and in good works all the days of my life” (1:3). In the days when his tribe was taken into exile to Nineveh, he says God made him prosper among the Assyrians as well. He was put in charge of buying goods and supplies for Shalmaneser (r.727-722 BC). “Until  his death I used to travel to Media, where I transacted business on his behalf” (1:16). “I had often given alms to the brothers of my race; I gave my bread to the hungry and clothes to the naked” (1:17). On one of these trips to Media, transacting business for the emperor, he deposited “sacks of silver worth ten talents” with a man named Gabael.

Under the reign of Shalmaneser’s grandson, Sennacherib (r. 705-681 BC), many of Tobit’s countrymen from Israel were killed. When he saw them Tobit “stole their bodies to bury them; Sennacherib looked for them and could not find them” (1:18), soon Tobit was hunted, his property was seized and he was left with only his wife Anna and his son Tobias.

Forty days after this confiscation, however, Sennacherib’s own children killed him and fled. Another son, Esarhadden (r. 681-669 BC), took over and put Tobit’s nephew, Ahikar, in charge of administrative tasks. This opened the way for Tobit’s return to Nineveh.

Tobit 2 – Back at home, he prepares to celebrate Pentecost (Feast of Weeks) and sends Tobias out to find a poor compatriot to invite; but Tobias comes back with a report that one of their countrymen has been killed and lies in the street strangled. Tobit goes out and retrieves the body, prepares it in his home for burial and then goes about celebrating the meal. At sunset, he buries the body. People are amazed that he continues to do these things that have gotten him into trouble.

He sleeps outside one hot night and bird droppings fall onto his eyes, leaving a white film that eventually make him blind. Then it tells of an interchange with his wife, where he accuses her of lying to him and she says to him, “Where are your acts of charity?” This story resonates because here is a situation where Tobit, known for his acts of courage and charity in the community, fails to act with charity at home. He is a good man but he is blind to the need for a faithful spirit in his relations to his wife – at least temporarily.

Luke 18 – A parable about “their need to pray always and not to lose heart” (18:1). An unresponsive judge is petitioned by a widow who looks to him for justice.  He is finally moved to do his job by her persistent nagging. How much more will God grant justice to those who cry to him. But will the Son of Man find people with faith when he comes?

                 

Jesus addresses those who think they are better than others.  Two men went up to the temple—one said “I thank you I am not like other people” (the bad people); the other prays “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (18:3).  That man is justified.  All “who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted” (18:14). What pleases God is not formal piety, especially when it leads to self-righteousness, but a spirit bowed by a sense of the great mercy of God and a sense of the great need we have of God’s love and forgiveness.

The disciples try to keep people from foisting children on him for his blessing.  But he tells them not to stop them “for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs” (18:16).

                 

A “ruler” asks Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (18:18) Why do you call me good, Jesus asks.  Only God is good.  Then he goes through the usual commands and ends by saying, “sell all that you won and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow” (18:22). Unlike the Lucan doublet of this at 10:25, just before the parable of the good Samaritan, this one does go back to the form of Mark 10:17. Here, though, the man Jesus meets is a ruler, and he instructs the man not just to unburden himself of his possessions, but to sell them to give the money to the poor. “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” (18:24) But it is not impossible with God’s help.  Peter reminds Jesus of all they have given up to follow him, and he reassures them.

                 

Jesus takes them aside and gives them the last warning of the suffering that he will have to endure when they get to Jerusalem. “But they understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what he said was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said” (18:34).

                 

Near Jericho, they encounter a blind man begging by the side of the road (Bartimaeus in Mark).  He cries after Jesus and calls him “Son of David.” Members of Jesus’ entourage tell him to be quiet, “but he shouted even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’” (18:39) This is an example of the kind of persistence Jesus encourages in parable such as the one about the widow and the judge or the neighbor who refuses to get up when you call on him. Jesus does heal the blind man.