When Did we See You Naked?. Группа авторов

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СКАЧАТЬ Raymond Brown notes, Luke portrays Jesus as ‘more reverential … and avoids making him seem emotional, harsh or weak’.31 Elsewhere, Brown adds, ‘The resistance to portraying [Luke’s] Jesus as suffering during the passion befits a Hellenistic resistance to portraying emotions.’32 Luke’s Jesus is not the target of physical violence or verbal abuse as in Mark. This is evident in the trial scenes and their aftermath. In Mark, physical and sexual violence enacted against Jesus follow his religious and political trials. In Luke, this is either toned down or absent altogether.

      The violence associated with Jesus’ trial by the council of Jerusalem’s religious leaders occurs in both Mark (Mark 14.65) and Luke (Luke 22.63–65) (Figure 2). In Luke it comes before the council, which allows for the auditor’s focus to fall on the main Christological titles of the trial. Jesus is the Christ (Luke 22.67), the Son of Man (Luke 22.69a), and the Son of God (Luke 22.70) who exercises God’s authority (Luke 22.69b). With Mark, the violence perpetrated against Jesus concludes a more prolonged and dramatic trial. Noteworthy is Luke’s redaction of Mark’s scene in which Jesus is maltreated:

Mark 14.65	Luke 22.63–65
Some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, and to strike him, saying to him, ‘Prophesy!’ The guards also took him over and beat him.	Now the men who were holding Jesus began to mock him and beat him; they also blindfolded him and kept asking him, ‘Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?’ They kept heaping many other insults on him.

      Figure 2. Jesus’ mockery at his religious trial

In Mark’s scene, Jesus is spat upon, struck while blindfolded and beaten a second time by the guards. Luke also has Jesus derided, but he is held, mocked and beaten only once. Though Jesus is blindfolded and beaten, Luke does not use Mark’s more aggressive expression for ‘striking’. Jesus is not struck – even though he is asked who struck him. With this derisory, repetitive questioning, as those holding him ‘keep asking him’, Luke explicates and underscores the prophetic nature of Jesus. It is a Christological theme in his Gospel.33 In Luke the mention of Jesus’ beating occurs only at the beginning of the scene. There is no other violent action. Physical violence from Mark’s scene is replaced with verbal abuse in Luke, as ‘they kept heaping many other insults on him’ (Luke 22.65). Verbal abuse continues into the next two scenes (Luke 23.1–24), but they are otherwise devoid of physical violence.

      When Luke switches to Jesus’ civic trial before Pilate (Luke 23.1–5), the same emphasis from Mark – Jesus’ royal status – is again the focus, though with the added accusation of his capacity to pervert the nation and refusal to pay taxes to Caesar (Luke 23.2). In other words, Jesus is a royal pretender and a threat to the Roman Empire. What is clear is Pilate’s declaration of Jesus’ innocence (Luke 23.4), which he twice repeats (Luke 23.14–15, 22) after the intervening trial before Herod. This second trial before Pilate (Luke 23.6–16) places Jesus in the presence of Herod, who had longed to see Jesus having heard so much about him.

Herod unsuccessfully questions Jesus as the religious leaders further accuse him ‘vehemently’ (Luke 24.10b). There is one final action that Herod performs after he and his soldiers mock Jesus with contempt (Luke 23.11): he places a luminescent, shining or resplendent (lampros) garment around Jesus.34 For Luke’s audience, its symbolism is unmistakable. Jesus reveals and reflects the radiance of God before Rome’s authoritative figure. The garment echoes Jesus’ dazzlingly radiant raiment on the mountain as he becomes transfigured (Luke 9.29). His authoritative presence as God’s revealer remains even in the face of mockery from Rome’s emblematic authority. Moreover, this luminous garment remains on Jesus throughout the rest of Luke’s passion narrative. It is never taken off and accompanies him to the cross and grave. As Jesus is handed back to Pilate (Luke 23.13–23) and finally over for crucifixion (Luke 23.24–25), Luke completely omits any ironic royal investiture and mock coronation ritual as seen in Mark. Luke’s Jesus is above such physical violence and abuse. His status demands better treatment.

      Luke’s description of a less violent and abusive treatment of Jesus continues as the Gospel moves towards the moment of his crucifixion and death. He journeys to the place of execution accompanied by a great multitude, the women of Jerusalem and two criminals to be executed with him (Luke 24.26–33). Luke converts Mark’s scene of Jesus’ misunderstanding, ultimate loneliness and abandonment at the moment of death into one that displays forgiveness and prayerful communion with God. His death becomes an example of prayer: he utters the words, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit’ as he dies (Luke 23.46). In keeping with Luke’s portrait of Jesus’ regal and honoured status, the luminous garment placed earlier around him by Herod is not removed. Jesus does not die naked as in Mark but covered. A synoptic comparison (Figure 3) between the two Gospels at the mention of what the guards do about Jesus’ garments at the point of his crucifixion bears this out:

Mark 15.22–24	Luke 23.33–34
And they brought him to the place of Golgotha which means place of a skull, and they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, he did not take it. And they crucified him and, dividing his clothes, they cast lots for them to decide what each should take.	And when they came to the place which is called ‘Skull’ There they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’. They cast lots to divide his garments.

      Figure 3. The Division of Jesus’ Clothing

      The way that Mark describes the division of Jesus’ garments and the lot-casting for them by the guards presumes that the clothing is no longer on Jesus. They are described as having divided his clothing already. He is naked, as would have been the custom in the Roman execution method.

      Luke, on the other hand, has the guards cast lots in order to divide Jesus’ garments. There is no indication that Jesus is without them or that he is naked. At this moment of the Gospel’s highpoint, Luke synthesizes a Christological portrait of Jesus forgiving his executioners, promising Paradise to a repentant thief, prayerfully offering himself into the hands of God and preserving his dignity in death. The luminous garment from Herod remains. Luke literally covers up Mark’s naked Jesus.

      Conclusion

Luke’s Jesus is an authoritative preacher whose ultimately incontestable words place him within the Greek philosophical tradition of wisdom. The Gospel’s portrait intends to appeal to those of elite social status within the Lucan household. This results in a radical modification of Mark’s portrait of an abused, misunderstood and lonely figure. Luke’s Jesus is a more exalted figure appealing to the gentle and refined sensibilities of the Gospel’s primary – though not exclusive – audience.35 He welcomes the most fragile creatures of human society, the brephos. In Luke’s Gospel, the disciples’ response to those who bring them to Jesus is toned down from Mark. Unlike in Mark, the disciples in Luke understand Jesus’ instruction about having the attitude of the child in order to welcome the kingdom. Further, Luke moderates the verbal and physical violence done to Jesus in Mark’s Gospel. Any depiction of the sexual abuse of Luke’s dignified and majestic figure is inappropriate and ‘covered up’.

      Luke’s redacted Christology has softened, if not removed, the figure of an abused, lonely and misunderstood Jesus from the contemplative gaze of the Gospel’s audience. Luke clothes Mark’s naked Jesus with a luminous garment given to him by СКАЧАТЬ