What's LUKE about?

Summary

The first gospel to be written was Mark, about twenty years after Jesus' earthly life. Luke wrote his about twenty years after Mark, and he had a copy of Mark's gospel which he used when writing his. Luke adds stories to Mark's gospel and adds new areas of interest and implications of Jesus' life.

A Global perspective

Luke's gospel has two new, and very important areas of interest that particularly relate to us today.

The first is that Luke had a world-view like ours—he was cosmopolitan in that he was used to major cities and had a global understanding of the world and of history. Luke's second perspective was how deeply Christians would need to organize their community so as to carry out God's love for every single person.

Luke feels at home with educated people who travel the world, and he wants to convince them of why Jesus is so important, even though Jesus was not educated, and probably never travelled much more than a hundred miles in his entire life. Even though Luke is a Jew, like many educated Jews he speaks Greek and is aware of international politics. So how does he convince educated Romans to take Jesus seriously?

Luke starts off his two-volume book by listing his scholarly credentials—he has done his research and will lay out the facts in a clear organized way with exact dates so anyone can check what he has written. Just as he attributes the events of Jesus' birth to the actions of a Roman emperor, so Luke concludes the story of how the Christian community reached its greatest extent in the capital of the empire under another emperor. He includes stories of Roman citizens having conversations with Jesus, and is clear that the Roman military governor respected Jesus and didn't want to execute him. When there is a Jewish ceremony that wouldn't be familiar to a Roman, Luke explains it.

In his second book Luke continues the story of how God was working internationally to bring about good things for the world. Luke describes how the power of God, which Luke calls “Holy Spirit” led Christians from Judea all the way through Turkey and finally to the capital of the Roman empire. A journey like that required the use of all-weather Roman roads as well as sophisticated sea-faring, both of which relied on Roman engineering technologies. If an educated person such as Luke, as well as a variety of Roman people and authorities took Jesus and Christianity seriously, then it's clear the reader, who is an educated Roman, should take Jesus seriously, too. As you read Luke, watch for this global perspective to arise in the way Luke tells stories and in the incidents he decides to add to Mark's gospel.

Notice also, that being written about sixty years after the life of Jesus, early Christians in Luke's time are becoming aware that they will have to follow Jesus without having Jesus present. Luke's solution to that problem is that Jesus will remain present to them in the form of Holy Spirit. Luke introduces this idea that Holy Spirit directs everything in Jesus' life and in the life of the Christian community—the Spirit “overshadows” Mary at Jesus' conception, appears at Jesus' baptism, after the resurrection Jesus tells the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit and Luke describes in detail how the Spirit descended on the apostles at Pentecost and then directs their telling of the Good News around the world.

A Justice perspective

Luke's second perspective is that Jesus initiated a unique attitude toward poor people and people with bad reputations. Luke has a series of stories about people who are failures. One can think of stories like the prodigal son who runs through half his father's savings on prostitutes and is welcomed home with open arms. Or there is the story of the Samaritan, a race despised by Jews, who turns out to be more generous than the best Jewish leaders. And there are any number of stories about Jesus partying with failures and traitors. Luke is clear that one of the attractions of Jesus is that he was putting into effect a whole new compassionate and just society. As you read Luke, watch for how often he includes these sorts of stories.

How Luke is important for us

Luke seems to be arguing that from a global educated perspective, Jesus began a new and highly desirable society in which all are given respect and dignity. That's a vision for the world which is essential in our time if we are to avoid using modern economic and military power for disastrous outcomes.