New Testament 101: Luke

This week we move on to the Gospel of Luke.

Did you know that Luke mentions God’s Spirit more than any of the other New Testament writers?  For example, the power of the Spirit was with John the Baptist from the time he was born (1: 15).  And, the Angel promised Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come down to you….so your child will be called the holy Son of God” (1:35).  Also, Jesus followed the Spirit (4: 1, 14, 18: 10, 21) and taught that the Spirit is God’s greatest gift (11: 13).

Luke stresses how important prayer was to Jesus.  He prayed often – after being baptized (3: 21), before choosing the disciples (6: 12), before asking his disciples who they thought he was (9: 18) and before giving up his life on the cross (23: 34: and 46).  We learn from Luke three stories Jesus used to teach about prayer (11: 5-9, 18: 1-8 and 9: 14).

An important party of Luke’s story is the way in which he shows the concern of Jesus for the poor- the good news is preached to them (4: 18, 7:22) – they receive God’s blessings (6:20) and they are invited to the great feast (14: 13, 21).  Also, if you remember, Jesus commanded his disciples to sell what they had and give to the poor (12: 33).

In order to make sure readers would understand that Jesus was raised physically from death, the writer of Luke reports that the risen Jesus ate a piece of fish (24: 42, 43).  There could be no mistake that the risen Jesus was not a ghost.  His being raised from the dead was real and not the figment of someone’s imagination.

The writer of Luke also wrote another book – The Acts of the Apostles.  This was to show what happened to Jesus’ followers after he was raised from the dead and taken up into heaven.  No other Gospel has a second volume that continues the story.

Luke closes the first book he wrote by telling that Jesus returned to heaven.  But right before Jesus leaves, he tells his disciples:

“The Scriptures say that the Messiah must suffer, then three days later he will rise from the death.  They also say that all people of every nation must be told in my name to turn to God, in order to be forgiven.  So, beginning in Jerusalem, you must tell everything that has happened.  (Luke 24: 46-48).

Next week we move on to my “favourite” – the Gospel of John.

Beryl