Videos from Fr Claudio Doglio
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The Programmatic Discourse
When Jesus began his ministry, he was about thirty years old. He was, as was commonly believed, the son of Joseph. Given his literary and mixed training, Luke is the most precise evangelist when it comes to historical details. He dates the start of Jesus’ ministry to the fifteenth year of Emperor Tiberius and adds an important detail known only to him: Jesus was about thirty years old. Using ‘about’ does not indicate an exact age. We often treat it as a fixed date, and by combining John’s accounts of the three Passovers during Jesus’ public ministry, we generally conclude that his ministry lasted three years. If he started at 30, he died at 33.
We should be cautious about fixing these numbers too rigidly when defining this reality, as the texts offer more general indications. Jesus was in his early thirties when he began his ministry and was known as ‘ben Yosef’ — son of Joseph. Luke notes that Jesus was believed to be the son of Joseph. He also noted in the infancy narratives that, in contrast, the conception of Jesus occurred in an extraordinary way, as a divine intervention of the Spirit of God. However, Joseph provided Jesus with a human genealogy. From a legal standpoint, Jesus belongs to Joseph’s family; Joseph considers him a son and adopts him in accordance with all legal terms.
At this point in chapter 3, the evangelist Luke traces the ascending genealogy of Jesus. Meanwhile, Matthew, at the start of his gospel, presents a descending genealogy from Abraham to Jesus. Luke does the opposite: he begins with Jesus and traces back to Adam. The names do not match perfectly between Matthew and Luke; they come from two different traditions, and the correspondence is imperfect. However, this detailed distinction does not matter much; the goal is to show how Jesus is connected to a real human family, with parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, tracing back to David, then to Abraham, and ultimately to Adam. Luke describes this genealogy simply using a genitive: son of Joseph, of Levi, of Matat, and so on, until reaching son of Adam, son of God. These two points are important. ‘Adam’ in Hebrew simply means human, so ‘son of Adam’ means man, while ‘Son of God’ highlights the new and extraordinary nature of Jesus.
The revelation at the Jordan marks the start of his ministry, immediately after Jesus’s first action. It isn’t Jesus’s action but the Spirit’s. Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert. The Spirit leads Jesus into the desert, where he must decide how to act.
Knowing he has the messianic task does not mean understanding how to do the job. This period in the desert was, for Jesus, a preparatory moment when he thoughtfully faced the project of his ministry and chose a way of being and working based on the Word of God. The narration of the temptations in Luke closely resembles that of Matthew; that is, it comes from a specific tradition of Jesus’ sayings that modern scholars call the “Q” source. “Q” has nothing to do with Qumran. It is simply the initial of the German word “Quelle,” meaning source, beginning. It is a hypothesis about the history of tradition that is reliably supported in the literary field. It includes texts found only in Matthew and Luke and absent in Mark. This indicates that both Matthew and Luke independently drew from the same literary source.
This hypothetical source is marked with the letter “Q,” which simply signifies the source from which Matthew and Luke derive their texts. The narrative of the temptations is one suchtext. It is a didactic narrative that teaches the disciples how to make correct choices. There are three instances in which the devil offers suggestions and proposes diabolical ideas.
Note that Luke reverses the order of the second and third events. He places the temptation in the Jerusalem temple last. He does this intentionally because Luke always ends with Jerusalem; it is the focal point, the goal toward which everything points. Even in the infancy narratives, after Jesus’ birth, there is a trip to the Jerusalem temple for the presentation. At age 12, there is another journey to Jerusalem. The infancy narratives conclude in Jerusalem.
Thus, in the gospel story, Jesus’ journey culminates in Jerusalem, where the Paschal mystery is accomplished. In Acts of the Apostles, everything begins in Jerusalem; the path of the Word extends from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Even in this small editorial detail, we see that Luke employs intelligent and consistent criteria.
The temptations are suggestions of diabolical methods: feeding people for free to gain favor, using power and wealth to dominate, or reaching the top of everything—arriving by flying over the temple of Jerusalem or by throwing himself off the cliff and asking the angels to support him to demonstrate his divinity. In other words, to impress with extraordinary effects. He could do these things, but they are devilish suggestions. Jesus chooses according to the Word of God: “One does not live by bread alone”; “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” And “Him alone shall you serve.” Jesus overcomes temptation by referring to the Word of God.
It means that Jesus meditated on the Word of God during this retreat. He reread the Scriptures of Israel and reevaluated them in light of God’s style; he sought to adopt the same manner. He made a good choice. The devil abandoned him but returned at the appointed time. Those initial temptations are over, but Luke mentions another moment, a kairos, a favorable opportunity the devil will not let slip; it is the moment of the cross. There, the final temptation will occur: “If you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross.”
Luke recounts the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with some differences from the other synoptic Gospels, Mark and Matthew. He anticipates returning to his hometown of Nazareth to show how Jesus began his ministry in the synagogue by reading and commenting on the Scriptures, as Saint Paul did during his evangelizations. When Paul visited a city through the Jewish synagogue, he began with Scripture to proclaim the coming of the Messiah and Jesus, as foretold in the Scriptures. So, Luke, who often traveled with Paul to the synagogues, illustrates how Jesus also began in the synagogue by reading, commenting on, and explaining that the Scriptures are fulfilled in Him.
He exemplifies this with the quote from Isaiah 61, a remarkable text that recalls the prophet’s calling and becomes a sort of messianic mission for Jesus: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me,” said the ancient prophet, “because he has anointed me.” This is true for Jesus, who received the Spirit, was consecrated in the Jordan, and was sent by God to: “Bring glad tidings to the poor.” The gospel, the good news that God saves, is the liberation of prisoners that Jesus proclaims: to free the oppressed and to declare the Lord’s year of favor. That was the aim of the ancient prophet: the jubilee, the holy year of redemption, the redemption of prisoners, and the cancellation of debt. Jesus announces this year of grace, a year pleasing to the Lord, an extraordinary opportunity for liberation.
The people of Nazareth are amazed by his biblical knowledge and want to take advantage of this prophet; they recognize, with awe, that their fellow citizen has great prophetic ability; he knows the Scriptures and speaks for God. They wish to benefit from the fact that he is one of them, but Jesus quickly dispels their hopes with two blunt quotes: “There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah… It was none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the Land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet, yet no one was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” “No prophet is accepted in his native place.” This means he does not do favors for those in his hometown; he does not seek votes or popularity. If he is truly a prophet, he is open, and that is exactly what Jesus declares his mission to be: a universal opening of salvation.
Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum, where his ministry primarily took place. According to Mark, everything starts in Capernaum. Note that Luke has preempted the Nazareth scene to provide a broader view of Jesus’s ministry. He also made a significant shift: he delayed calling the disciples. In Mark’s early account, Jesus first returned to Galilee before calling the disciples to follow him.
Instead, Luke reconstructs the event more historically, focusing on the moments that likely preceded the disciples’ call. If Jesus had called the disciples without being recognized or lacking credibility, he probably wouldn’t have achieved much. If a stranger approaches you while you’re working, telling you to drop everything and follow him, it would be unwise to believe him. You need to meet that person firsthand; you have to believe it’s worth it, that he has good reasons for you to choose to follow him, leaving everything else behind.
And it is precisely this reasoning that Luke must have followed. That’s why he narrates the calling of the disciples in chapter 5, after first presenting Jesus’ ministry in Nazareth as a foundational opening speech. Then Luke describes several miraculous events in Capernaum: the healing of the possessed man in the synagogue, the recovery of Simon’s mother-in-law, many other healings, and the crowd following him. At this point, Luke portrays the episode of the call of the first disciples.
Jesus was already in Simon’s house, having healed his mother-in-law. Simon, the fisherman, saw Jesus at work and heard him speak. That day on the beach of Capernaum, there were so many people that Jesus asked for Simon’s boat to keep the crowd from pressing too close. Sitting in the boat not far from shore, Jesus taught the group gathered on the beach.
After the sermon, he suggests to the fisherman Simon that they resume fishing. Simon reacts with desperation. Simon says, “Master, we have worked all night and caught nothing, but I will lower the nets at your command.” Luke depicts the disciples’ calling as a miraculous event. This so-called ‘miracle fishing’ is the setting in which Simon’s vocation unfolds. Jesus is no stranger to him, yet he remains somewhat of a stranger; Jesus asks for the boat, and Peter willingly lends it. Then Jesus gives Peter practical advice: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon, an experienced fisherman, knows he hasn’t caught anything all night. He understands that there are fewer fish in broad daylight, but he trusts Jesus despite his expertise. As a fisherman, he chooses to go against his instincts and obey Jesus’ word: “But at your command, I will lower the nets.”
Casting the nets at the word of Jesus becomes a powerful symbolic gesture and a declaration of what the Church will do: “Put out into the deep water.” Do not stay ashore, but face the great outdoors, the large crowds, the new peoples… the universal proclamation of the Gospel and the courage to build networks and proclaim the Gospel, even when it seems like a waste of time, even among people who appear unrecoverable.
Having done so, Simon realizes he has caught many fish he cannot bring ashore. He beckons the partners in the other boat to come help him. With great effort, they do; after getting the nets laden with fish to shore, Simon falls at the feet of Jesus and says: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” He reacts with a typically Jewish mentality; he recognizes that Jesus is a saint, the saint of God, and he acknowledges himself as a sinner and, therefore, asks Jesus to step aside, to keep his distance, ‘Get away, stay away; I am a sinner; you are a saint.’ Jesus, on the other hand, turns the perspective upside down and says: ‘NO… come closer, come closer precisely because you are a sinner.’ I came to save those who are like you, and it is closeness that allows you to be saved. If you leave behind what your life represents and follow me, I will change your life and make you a fisher of men.
It’s not just a superficial change; it’s a complete transformation. If we think about it, the fish angler takes fish to kill them, whereas the people angler saves lives at sea and, therefore, rescues those shipwrecked, bringing them back alive. Fisher of men is a reversal of the death-giver for its commercial interests. Simon becomes a giver of life, a collaborator with Jesus in the salvation of the world.
It marks the beginning of the great work of evangelization, starting in that small area of Galilee and reaching the ends of the earth. Luke understands this well because he is one of those saved fish caught in the nets of evangelizers. He found life and eagerly shared his experience with others.