List of Appendices
1.6. Research Ethical Clearance
2.3.6 The Gospel of Luke and Stigma
49 2.3.5 Luke and Salvation
Luke in his gospel laid much emphasis on the concept of salvation and it constitutes its main theme. Marshall (1970:94) argued that Luke’s interest is not so much in a theological idea as in the person of Jesus Christ. For Luke, Jesus is the saviour and he is the giver of salvation. Luke in his gospel brought connections between the healings performed by Jesus and the spiritual salvation which he brought to men (Luke 8:48, 17:19, 18:42). Conzelmann (1960:233) drew attention to the prominence in Luke of the idea of salvation history. Tuckett (1996:63) puts it that for Luke, Jesus’ healing brings the sinner into the kingdom of God as a present, not a future reality (Luke 19:9). Salvation according to Fitzmyer (1981:223) is often deliverance from sickness or sin and other social diseases. The universality of salvation is a major concern to Luke, the Christ event was to open the true Israel to all believers, both Jew and Gentiles. Howard Marshall (1970: 84) said it is clear that something like a consensus of opinion exists with reference to the theology of Luke expressed by the term “salvation history”. This school of thought is of the opinion that the writings of Luke present the Christian message in the form of history, one which enfolds both the ministry of Jesus and the activity of the early Church.
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social and political constraints experienced by Luke’s community. He focused on Luke’s attitudes to poverty and riches, and their place in the Christian life. Esler also attempts a social redaction analysis of the Jewish-Gentile table fellowship, essentially showing how the Jews of that period reacted to established socio-ethnic and religious communities in Luke. The fellowship of Jesus at the dining table with the marginalized could be viewed from a biblical-missiological perspective (Borg 1987:61). Esler (1987:120) also points to the predominance of table imagery and question in Luke-Acts, he opined that Luke makes a prima facie case for examining attitudes to table fellowship in relation to outcasts and thereby showing social margins and lines drawn by the society of his time.
The legitimating of table fellowship between Jews and Gentiles forms a vital arch in the symbolic universe which Luke created for his community. “The Lukan Jesus promises to alleviate the extreme physical deprivation suffered by the beggars, the blind, the lame, the imprisoned, and so forth, without however, ignoring the spiritual aspect of salvation.”
(Esler 1987:183). Draper (1996) in exploring diseases, healing, and social boundaries in the Luke’s Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (17:11-19) argued that the final form and location in the narrative belong to Luke’s redaction but the parable itself may represent Jesus’ attitude to the question of disease, stigma and healing.
Akintunde (2003) discussed “the attitude of Jesus to the anointing prostitute as a model for contemporary churches in the face of HIV and AIDS in Africa.” However, her arguments were from the point of view of women and gender inequalities. There are other significant studies about stigma, HIV and AIDS such as Beverley Haddad (2003),
“Choosing to remain silent: links between Gender and violence”, “Reflections on the church and HIV/AIDS: South Africa” (2005). There are also many works in the book edited by Musa W. Dube and Musinubi Kanyoro (2004), Grant Me Justice, which are mainly oriented towards the Bible, HIV and AIDS and gender. Ukachukwu Chris Manus (2006) discussed the plight of HIV and AIDS persons in West Africa from the contextual re-reading of Mark 1: 40 45. According to him, the healing of the leper by Jesus addresses itself to the West African condition where HIV and AIDS has become a disaster; his actions call the Church not to abandon the infected but to support succor and care for them morally, psychologically and financially. In this article Manus gave the interpretation of the human experience in the light of the re-interpretation of the action of Jesus. Malebogo Kgalemang of the University of Botswana (2004) provides important
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insights on “Deconstructing the HIV and AIDS stigma” using John Chapter 9. The blind man in the passage was the infected and the stigmatized. Goffman (1964), as quoted by Kgalemang, asserts that there are three types of stigma that a stigmatized person may fall into: via abominations of the body (physical deformities); blemishes of individual character perceived as weak will, domineering or unnatural passions; and tribal stigma of race, nation and religion. The work of Kgalemang presents the relationship between sin and suffering / disease; it also exposes a social rather than an individual myopia, and demonstrates that what a society creates is systematically related to what a society does not see. According to the author, the blind man finds compassion, healing, acceptance and love from Jesus Christ. He does not distance himself from the blind man. Kgalemang concludes on the note that Jesus welcomes the waifs of society, the so-called outcasts, regardless of whether or not they were branded as sinners, sick, lame and sex workers. He sees Jesus as the revelation of God’s glory in our broken world as one that does not exhibit any form of stigmatization. Joseph B. R. Gaie in “Ethics of breaking the stigma:
African, biblical and Theological perspectives” (2005) presented the African perspective using the Setswana concept of ‘motho’ (human being) and ‘botho’ (personhood) to show how a person is conceived and why stigmatization is morally wrong. Gaie also looked at the biblical and theological perspectives using the Johanine concepts as in John 3, 4, 8 and 15 as case studies.
Although the Church requires space to proclaim the good news, it must not be thought that its proclamation is a purely spiritual matter devoid of social and political implications for Luke. The good news for the poor, with which Luke replaces the good news of the kingdom, is a message of social liberation (Mealand, 1980, quoted by Draper, 1997). Luke portrays Jesus as fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1-2: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me: because the Lord hath anointed me to preach the good tidings unto the meek; He has sent me to bind the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn”. Luke’s Gospel heightens the elements of homelessness and propertylessness in Jesus and his disciples and shows a concern for the poor, women, sick, the marginalized and outcasts (Cassidy, 1978).
52 2.3.7. Healing Accounts in Luke’s Gospel
Various words are employed in the Bible for healing. In the Old Testament many words have been translated to healing; this includes shalom, (Isa.32:17) rapha, (Exodus 15:26) arad (Isa. 58:8), habash (Ezek 39:21, Hosea 6:1). All of which according to Adamo (2004:36) presuppose a state of good health and used for health which comes as a result of healing (Wilkinson 1980:587). The Old Testament occasionally uses the words salvation, deliverance and rescue for the restoration of health.
In the New testament, the Greek verb sozo ‘to save’, ‘to make whole’ as well as the noun soteria refers to material and temporal deliverance from danger, suffering, enemies sickness, and so on like the common meanings found in the Old Testament.
The verb therapeuo primarily signifies ‘to save’ as therapon refers to an attendant caring for the sick and may mean to treat, cure or heal. Another verb iaomai ‘to heal’ is used of physical treatment and figuratively to spiritual healing. Luke employs the word ‘heal’
fifteen times: Diasoso which means ‘to save thoroughly’ is translated ‘to heal’ in Luke 7:13. Theraperia which primarily denotes care or attention is used of medical service, health or healing (Luke 9:11). Another word employed by Luke – iasis refers to the process of reaching completion or full restoration and is used to describe acts of cures in days of His flesh (Luke 17:17-19). A related word is hugiano denoting ‘to be healthy’, ‘to be in good health’, ‘to be safe and sound’ (Luke 15:27)(Vine Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words Vol. I, II, III).
The Gospel of Luke contains healing materials not found in other gospel narratives and though this stories emphasis is placed on some of the underlying theological themes of Luke. Such healing materials not found in Mark or Q, scholars call
“L” material (Remus 1997:57). Jesus cured many diseases, plagues and evil spirits and had given sight to many who were blind (Luke 7:21); he heals a widow’s son (Luke 7:11- 17); a disabled woman who for eighteen years had been unable to stand straight (Luke 13:10-17); a man with dropsy (accumulation of fluid in the body)(Luke 14:1-6); healing of the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19), and the restoration of the ear of the priest’s slave (Luke 22: 50-51) In addition it was only Luke that recorded the women who were cured of evil spirits and infirmities (Luke 8:2-3).
The Church today is fulfilling essentially two of the three-fold ministry of Christ namely: preaching and teaching, the third one, healing, is largely neglected. Why?
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Perhaps the church believes it is a ministry that belongs to a different dispensation while preaching is the revelation of the mastery of God, and teaching being the exposure of ignorance, healing is the demonstration of the power of God. The power of God needs to be demonstrated in actions not only in words so that His authority will be firmly established in the world especially in the HIV and AIDS era.