Luke 17:5-10   ¹ He said to his disciples, “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur. ² It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. ³ Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. ⁴ And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him.”

[The Sunday gospel reading begins here] ⁵ And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” ⁶ The Lord replied, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to (this) mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. ⁷ “Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’? ⁸ Would he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished’? ⁹ Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded? ¹⁰ So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’”

Context  Throughout the previous chapter (Luke 16), Jesus has addressed the Pharisees and scribes (scholars of the law) with beginning and ending parables: the dishonest steward and the rich man and Lazarus – each begins with a statement, “There was a rich man.” The clear target were the lovers of money, i.e., those whose love of riches prevented them from truly beings lovers of God. Although the parable are aimed at the Pharisees the lesson continues a theme of 12:1 “Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees.”  The disciples are reminded of the characteristics of true discipleship and well as the pitfalls along the way.

In addition, looking ahead to Luke 17:11: “As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem…” it is clear that Luke will return to a travel motif to tell the narrative. It is as though v.11 marks a new subsection within the longer travel narrative (9:51-19:48).  Joel Green holds that 17:1-10 marks the end of lengthy question that began in 13:10, namely, “who will participate in the kingdom of God?” (Green, Luke, 611). If this is true, then clearly there two characteristics emphasized are faith and service.

In Luke 17 the audience for the lesson is the disciples (v.1). Luke draws together four sayings:

• a warning against causing others to stumble (vv.1-2; with parallels in Matthew 18:6-7 and Mark 9:42),
• a challenge to be forgiving (vv.4-5; with parallel in Matthew 18:15),
• a call to the exercise of faith (vv.5-10; vv.5-6 are paralleled in Matthew 17:20. Luke 17:7-10 are unique to Luke), and
• a reminder of the duties of discipleship (vv.11-19; next Sunday’s gospel)

They seem to be disparate sayings, almost as thought thrown together, lacking a thematic coherence.  But in the broader question of “who will participate in the kingdom of God?” the coherence may be as simple as “don’t be like the Pharisees” especially in their lack of regard of the “little ones” (v.2).

Luke 17:1 Things that cause sin: skandala, a cause of offense or stumbling. The word group is sued to translate the Hebrew próskomma, meaning both “trap” and “stumbling block” or, “cause of ruin” either with idols in view or offenses against the law. As a ground of divine punishment skándalon can then denote an occasion of sinning or a temptation to sin.

will inevitably occur: Matthew asserts that it is necessary that sin occurs. Luke notes only that sin is impossible to avoid.

woe to the person: this is the 11^th woe spoken by Jesus in Luke’s gospel, but the first directed towards the disciples.

Luke 17:2 were put around his neck:  The Greek phrase, perikeitai peri ton trachêlon, does not refer to tying one end of a rope a person’s neck and the other end of the rope to a large mill grinding stone. Rather it literally means to insert the person’s head into the hole at the center of the stone – some of which were three to four feet in diameter.

to cause … to sin: skandalízō. See note on 17:1. Skandalízō is from the same word group

Luke 17:3 Be on your guard: the translation takes Luke 17:3a as the conclusion to the saying on scandal in Luke 17:1–2. It is not impossible that it should be taken as the beginning of the saying on forgiveness in Luke 17:3b–4.

rebuke: epitimáō In the OT it is applied especially to God’s rebuke (cf. Job 26:11; 2 Sam. 22:16; Pss. 106:9; 119:21). In a limited way it is also used for human rebuke (Gen. 37:10; Ruth 2:16), but human reproof is often held to be presumptuous, and only judicial, pastoral, or fraternal rebuke is commended.  In Luke epitimáō has an interesting pattern. Prior to this text, it is always Jesus who rebukes: demons or evil spirits (4:35, 41; 9:42); a fever (4:39); the wind and waters (8:24); and his disciples (9:21, 55). After this text, it is always people rebuking others — and usually being wrong about it: the disciples rebuke those bringing children to Jesus (18:15); the disciples rebuke the blind man yelling after Jesus (18:39); the Pharisees want Jesus to rebuke his yelling disciples (19:39); and the criminal on the cross rebukes the other one (23:40)

if he repents: metanoēsē to change one’s way of life as the result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness.