Luke 12 Footnotes

12:22-34 Was Jesus recommending a passive and unthinking approach to life and the future? Absolutely not. He used dramatic rhetoric to highlight the inconsistency of claiming faith in God while remaining anxious about daily needs. Jesus’s advice to sell one’s possessions and give to the poor (v. 33) fits into this context. It is not an absolute command but an illustration of the kind of faith that trusts God more than worldly security. For more on worldly security, see note on Mk 10:21.

12:37 That Jesus used parables with slaves does not imply that he endorsed slavery. The parables drew on everyday facts of life in the Greco-Roman world and were not intended as social commentary. Jesus’s teaching focused extensively on justice and human dignity, as noted in the Sermon on the Plain.