Does Jesus Smash the Hierarchy?: a look at social hierarchy and gospel engagement in Luke's gospel

by Joshua D. Jones

Taking a more formal style from his popular discipleship book, 'Elijah Men Eat Meat', this is Joshua's first academic book, based on postgraduate work done for Middlesex University through London School of Theology. Hierarchy is a phenomenon that exists throughout creation. Among humans, it is a dynamic that lies at the root of many discussions about justice, competence, equality, success, and fairness. At times, these discussions enter into the church and impact what we think about communal life, mission, and our discipleship as Christians. We aim to examine what the gospel of Luke, and particularly material unique to Luke, might say that would inform such discussions and how that might impact our behaviour in regards to social hierarchy. At first, we will discuss why we have chosen Luke’s material to be the subject of our investigation. From there, we will move on to examining social hierarchy in a broad sense and clarify our use of the term conceptually. After that, we will give a broad outline of the various hierarchies that existed at the time of Luke’s writing and which would have been relevant to his immediate audience and our understanding of the passages that we will examine.From there we will begin our examination of the five passages from Luke. We will be relying on a historical-grammatical hermeneutic for our interpretations as well as reading them in the context of a Theological Interpretation of Scripture (TIS) based on historic readings of the passages from different eras of church history. The first passage in question will be the Magnificat and Benedictus in Luke’s introductory chapter. From there we will look at Jesus’ sermon in Nazareth. We will then look at Luke’s beatitude sermon on the plain. After that, we will look at Jesus’ parable of Dives and Lazarus. In the last pericope, we will look at the brief exchange that Jesus had with the brother seeking monetary justice.Then we will then end by articulating our conclusion and responding to two anticipated objections.

116 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 24, 2019

About the author

Pastor of Therfield Chapel, Cambridge, England.
Blogs at Sanitys-Cove.com. Author of Elijah Men Eat Meat