The Plot of Luke's Story of Jesus

Abstract

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE is a narrative 1 that tells the story of Jesus. Like other narratives, it has a plot with a recognizable beginning, middle, and end. 2 As with the other canonical Gospels, the plot of Luke revolves around conflict. At the human level, the primary conflict is between Jesus and Israel and especially between Jesus and the religious authorities. Within Luke's gospel-story itself, the resolution of Jesus' conflict with the authorities comes at the end, in the events surrounding the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. 3 The place where this conflict reaches its culmination, however, is in the episode of Jesus on the cross. In what follows, I should like to sketch the plot of Luke's gospel-story so as to suggest how and with what result Jesus' conflict with the authorities reaches its resolution in the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus and its culmination in the cross.Interpretation 369

The Common Emotional Plot of the Four Gospels

“…It then rises through the Transfiguration to the events of Palm Sunday, after which it falls again to its lowest point -that of the crucifixion -rising one final time in the telling of the resurrection. If one were to focus on the issue of conflict as crucial to plot, as Kingsbury (1994) suggests, they would conclude that the two points of greatest conflict in the plot were to be found at the two points of greatest unpleasantness -namely in the middle of the Pre-Judean ministry and during Jesus' trial and crucifixion. It is at the first of these low points that we see the religious authorities (Scribes and Pharisees) beginning to vigorously question Jesus' ministry, and at the second that we find a report of their seeming success in eliminating Jesus.…”

“…At about the same time, academics from different seminaries began expressing an interest in the plot of Biblical narratives such as the gospels. Kingsbury (1994) wrote about the primary conflict in Luke's gospel and Matera addressed the plot of Matthew's. Matera (1987, p. 235-236) defined plot as a sequence of events, some of which were crucial and causal with respect to the action described and its outcomes, and others incidental.…”