the role of the lukan parables in terms of the purpose of luke's gospel

superficial and fickle in their response, 148 are employed as a device to show initial
acceptance and final rejection (23:18-25). 149
A turning point occurs in Luke 9-13 where
Jesus carries many warnings in his teachings and parables (esp. 13:6-9).
The spiritual forces of evil that aim to frustrate God’s plan are evident throughout the
150
Gospel of Luke (4:1-13, 33-37; 8:26-39; 9:1; 10:18; 11:14-26; 22:3, 42, 53). In the
wilderness where Jesus was tested by the devil (4:1-13), he experiences the reality of
competing aims against God’s purpose. In the midst of the test, Jesus confirms that he, as Son
of God, would perform his mission in absolute allegiance to God without any compromise of
God’s redemptive purpose. 151
Jesus perceives and delineates his whole public ministry as
having been carried out in the midst of diabolic opposition. Jesus extends his ministry of
salvation, driving away demons who cried out ‘what have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of
the Most High God? I beseech you, do not torment me’ (4:33-37; 8:26-39). The presence of
the kingdom, Jesus says, is shown by the casting out of demons. “But if it is by the finger of
148. Tannehill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts: A Literary Interpretation, vol. 1, 158-66.
149. Tyson, “Jewish Public in Luke-Acts,” 574-83; idem, The Death of Jesus in Luke-Acts, 29-47.
150. See Susan R. Garrett, The Demise of the Devil: Magic and the Demonic in Luke’s Writings (Minneapolis:
Fortress, 1989), 37-99, after dealing with the struggle for Authority in Luke 4:1-13, 11:14-23 and 10:17-20,
focuses on the stories about Simon Magus (Acts 8:4-25), Bar Jesus (Acts 13:4-12), and the seven sons of Sceva
(Acts 19:8-20). She contends that these passages make a pivotal point primarily on (1) defending Jesus and
Christians against charges that they trafficked in magic, (2) showing Jesus' resurrection and exaltation as an
apocalyptic event that presents the devil’s demise and the ultimate triumph of God’s kingdom over that of Satan,
and (3) representing Christians who have been liberated from bondage to the devil. Moreover, Luke’s story, she
teaches, obviously showed those in need of encouragement that Jesus had conquered evil, the unlawfully
asserted dominion and authority, and which had long oppressed the peoples of the world. Furthermore, she says
that Christian experience also gives proof of the demise of the devil, although the final triumph remains in the
future. On the other hand, Todd Klutz, The Exorcism Stories in Luke-Acts: A Sociostylistic Reading (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2004), by means of a sociostylistic reading, analyzes four passages (Luke 4:33-37;
8:26-39; 9:37-43a; Acts 16:16-18). in his discussion of Luke 4:33-37, Klutz shows how this story deviates from
its own biblical intertexts, so as to stress the authority of Jesus' own divine power and authority. In Luke 8:26-39,
he argues that Jesus' mighty deed of exorcism stems from the same divine power that brought about salvation in
the past for the Israelites, as well as fulfills eschatological hopes. In the case of Luke 9:37-43a, the visionhealing
sequence has “a certain shamanic quality that goes back to Jesus himself and therefore gives at least a
vague sense of this tradition's ideological trajectory over time.” In Acts 16:16-18, Klutz notes the status of Jesus
and Paul within Luke's community, connecting the exorcist activities of Paul and those of Jesus. According to
him, the status of Jesus was probably more secure than that of Paul, yet, unless most, or even all of Luke's first
volume was utterly irrelevant to its original context of production, the honour of Jesus himself must also have
been under threat. Klutz has shown how an examination of these exorcism stories is indispensable to discerning
the christological and ecclesiological emphases of Luke. See also, Brawley, Luke-Acts and the Jews, 84-154;
Tyson, The Death of Jesus in Luke-Acts, 29-83; Jervell, Luke and the People of God, 41-74; Tiede, Prophecy
and History in Luke-Acts, 19-63, 97-125; Jon A. Weatherly, Jewish Responsibility for the Death of Jesus in
Luke-Acts (JSNTSup 106, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), 50-98, 225-242.
151. J.A. Fitzmyer, Luke the Theologian: Aspects of His Teaching (New York: Paulist, 1989), 151, 157, refers to
the programmatic nature of the temptation scene for the struggle between God’s saving purpose in Jesus and the
force of evil in the Gospel of Luke.
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