This article was posted on the Mukhtalita blog. You can find the original post here.
Luke often parallels people together in pairs. Some people have spoken of this as Luke’s rule of two and described it as a characteristic feature of Luke’s Gospel.
Our Lebanese friend Huda has two brothers and one other sister. She said, ‘One day me and my kids were sitting in the kitchen and they said to me, Mama, our cousins have all those great toys and we don’t. And they asked me, Why is it like this, Mama? You know, kids often look at differences and they try to understand the reasons for them. So I wanted to teach them. So I gave them two examples to help them understand these differences and what they mean.’
She carried on, ‘I told them, imagine that one man loves his children and has lots of money. And there is another man who loves his children so much too, but he doesn’t have that lots of money. The one with lots of money gives big toys to his kids, and the other man gives them smaller gifts. But, they both love their kids the same!’
I said, “Wow, that’s a good story to teach them about it!”
Huda replied, “But, I had to do it many times. Once wasn’t enough to help them to understand. I keep telling them different examples like that to help them understand it well.”
Luke often tells two stories together in pairs to teach us. This is one of the ways in which Luke’s wisdom as an editor of the stories he received becomes clear, and his skills as a wise teacher!
When Luke’s Gospel parallels two stories, it does so to teach us to think about the world around us. It parallels things that happen on earth and things that happen in heaven; the old world and the new world; judgment with salvation; the rich with the poor and the crowds with the 12.
For example, he narrates an example in which the Lord Jesus Christ is an unfaithful servant and a faithful servant whom his master appoints over all his servants (12: 35-48).
Sometimes the honorable Gospel of Luke tells two stories where both agree to express the same idea, such as a man planting mustard seeds in his garden and a woman mixing leaven with dough, both of which represent the kingdom of God (13: 18-21).
The honorable Gospel of Luke sometimes tells two stories that develop one another. For example, the Lord Christ first sent the twelve disciples and then sent a second time “72 others”. A Greek account of Genesis 10 listed that there were 72 peoples in the world. The twelve seem to represent the twelve tribes of Israel and the other 72 represent all the peoples of the earth, and so it seems that he preaches God’s inclusion of all the peoples of the earth in his plan to bless them all.
Sometimes Luke tells two stories rather than one of similarities and differences.
This is similar to how Hoda teaches her children with an example of parents where one is rich and one is poor (difference) but both (same) love their children.
This is similar to the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying but has very different meanings of what makes them righteous.
The Gospel of Luke parallels a story about a man and a story about a woman together several times, for example:
Simon & Anna (2:25-35/36-38)
A widow in Sarfand & Naaman the Syrian (4:25-26/27)
Jairus’ daughter & a widow’s son (7:11-17/8:40-56)
The teacher of the law & Martha (10:25-37 / 38-42),
A man searches for his lost sheep & a woman searches for her lost coin (15:3-7/8-10),
Men sleeping & women grinding (17:34/35),
The women & Peter at the tomb (24: 1-11 / 12).
