Into the Deep Water, to the Other Side: Discipleship in Luke’s Lake Stories

TL;DRAbstract

This study uses a narrative approach to consider Luke’s lake stories (Luke 5:1-11 and 8:22-39) as parallel accounts. It is argued that through the use of shared vocabulary, themes, and narrative structuring, Luke displays the journey upon the lake as a unique setting in which Jesus calls Simon and his companions to “put out into the deep water,” and then to journey with him “to the other side of the lake.” Luke’s structuring of these stories is persuasive and artful. Through his choice of vocabulary and the use of devices such as inclusio and the careful placement of direct speech, he narrates Jesus gathering and forming his disciples. Liminality is used in order to clarify the nature of the lake stories as formative discipleship journeys on the lake of Genesaret. On the lake the Lukan Jesus acts as guide or spiritual director, as he seeks to gather and then form a community of disciples who will join him in his jubilee mission (Luke 4:18-19). 
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