Luke: Jesus Came for All

Spirituality Column #124
March 24, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

Luke: Jesus Came for All
By Bob Walters

My favorite passage of scripture has to be Luke 2:1-14, the Christmas story.

“And it came to pass … ” and “on Earth peace, good will toward men.” Beautiful.

The most elegantly written of the four Gospels, Luke’s name is not in the Gospel as its author, but unmistakable evidence exists that Luke and Acts were written by the same person. Both are addressed to Luke’s probably-Roman patron Theophilos, and Paul mentions his “dear friend Luke, the doctor” in Colossians 4:14 and “fellow worker” in Philemon 24.

Luke, a non-Jew, was perfectly positioned to tell the story of Jesus to the Gentiles. He was obviously trained in classical Greek culture, possessed a scholar’s sense of investigation and viewed Israel with an outsider’s perspective.

Tradition tells us that Luke was one of “the 72” Jesus sent out in Luke 10:1-24. We don’t know how Luke first came into the company of Jesus, but his carefully researched Gospel bears both great similarity to, and striking differences from, the other Synoptics.

Only Luke, in chapter 1, gives us information helping us figure out John the Baptist is a Levite. Only Luke reports Jesus being “in my Father’s house” teaching in the Temple at age 12 (Luke 2:49). Only Luke reports Jesus’ lineage back to Adam to include all mankind; Matthew stops at Abraham (Luke 3:23-38).

Luke is rich with stories of non-Jews who Jesus helped. The story of the Centurion’s sick servant in Luke 7:1-9 tells us that Jesus checks only faith, not our ID, when we cry out for help. The story of the bleeding woman in Luke 8:42-48 tells us that Jesus feels each one of us, individually.

Luke reports how Jesus raised the widow’s son in Luke 7:14, and brought back to life Jarius’s daughter in Luke 8:40-56.

Luke’s investigation produces rich, powerful and exclusive sections of parables (Luke 10:1 to 18:14, 19:1-28). Luke notes, as do all the Gospels, that at the Cross it was a Roman Centurion – a Gentile – who observed after Christ’s death: “Surely this was a righteous man,” i.e., the son of God.

It is Luke who tells the story of two men who encounter Jesus on the Road To Emmaus, giving us the name of just one man, Cleopas. Why?

Because, as my scholar friend Dr. George Bebawi reminds, according to St. Jerome and Origen of Alexandria, the other one was Luke himself.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) encourages fellow-Christians to re-read the Gospels during Lent. It’s amazing what you forget when it’s been a couple of years. Next week: John.