Summary: Bible - Book of Luke

The GIST

The Gospel according to Luke is the third of the four Gospels and the longest, and it contains many of the best-loved passages in the New Testament. The shepherds at the manger are here, and the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, Zacchaeus in his tree, the thief on the cross and the walk to Emmaus. It tells the whole story of Jesus, from the announcement of his birth to his being taken up into heaven, and it is only the first half of a larger work. The same author wrote the Acts of the Apostles, and together the two volumes make up more than a quarter of the New Testament.

Luke is the only evangelist who explains what he is doing. In a formal preface addressed to a patron, "most excellent Theophilus," he says that many have already written accounts, that he has investigated everything carefully from the beginning, and that he means to set it out in order so that his reader may be certain of what he has been taught. Tradition identifies the author as Luke, a doctor and companion of the apostle Paul. The text itself does not name him, and most scholars date the book to around AD 80 to 90. He writes in polished Greek for an educated audience, and his sympathies are plain on every page: for the poor, for foreigners and for people with bad reputations.

What It Says

Two births (chapters 1 and 2). Luke opens with paired stories. An angel tells an elderly priest that his wife will bear a son, who will be John the Baptist. The same angel tells a young woman in Nazareth named Mary that she will bear a son to be called Jesus. Mary's song of praise begins, "My soul doth magnify the Lord." The birth itself is told with great simplicity. A census brings Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, and she "laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn." The first to hear are shepherds in the fields: "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." The child is presented in the Temple, and the section ends with the one story the Gospels tell of his boyhood, when at twelve he stays behind in the Temple among the teachers.

Preparation (chapters 3 and 4). John preaches and baptizes; Jesus is baptized and the Spirit descends on him. Luke gives a genealogy that runs back past Abraham to Adam. Then come forty days of testing in the wilderness.

Galilee (chapters 4 to 9). Jesus begins in the synagogue of his home town, reading from the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." It is the program for everything that follows. When he adds that prophets of old were sent to foreigners, admiration turns to fury, and he remarks, "No prophet is accepted in his own country." He heals, casts out spirits and calls disciples, among them the fisherman Simon Peter and a tax collector named Levi. He chooses twelve. His great sermon here is delivered on level ground and is blunter than Matthew's version: "Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God," followed by matching woes on the rich. Its heart is a command: "Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you." He raises a widow's only son at Nain, lets a woman known as a sinner wash his feet with her tears in a Pharisee's house, stills a storm, feeds five thousand, and is confessed by Peter as the Christ. On a mountain he is transfigured.

The road to Jerusalem (chapters 9 to 19). At 9:51 the book turns: "he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem." The next ten chapters are a long journey, and most of what is found only in Luke is gathered here. A lawyer asks, "And who is my neighbour?" and Jesus answers with the story of a man beaten by robbers and left on the road. A priest and a Levite pass by. "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him." The command that closes it is, "Go, and do thou likewise." In the next scene two sisters receive him; Martha is busy serving, and Mary sits listening, and Jesus says that "Mary hath chosen that good part."

There are parables about prayer and about money: the rich fool who builds bigger barns, the dishonest steward, the rich man and the beggar Lazarus at his gate whose places are reversed after death. Chapter 15 holds three stories of things lost and found, told in answer to those who complain that Jesus eats with sinners. A shepherd finds his sheep and calls his neighbors: "Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost." A woman finds her coin. And "A certain man had two sons." The younger takes his inheritance, wastes it and comes home rehearsing a confession, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee." His father runs to meet him. The older brother, who never left, refuses to come in to the feast, and the story ends with the father pleading with him: "this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found."

The same reversal appears in the parable of two men at prayer, where the one who goes home right with God is the tax collector who can only say, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Ten lepers are healed and the one who returns to give thanks is a Samaritan. And at Jericho a rich tax collector too short to see over the crowd climbs a tree, and hears, "Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house." Luke gives the moral in Jesus's own words: "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

Jerusalem (chapters 19 to 21). As the city comes into view, Jesus "beheld the city, and wept over it." He drives out the traders from the Temple, teaches there daily, debates with the authorities and speaks of the destruction to come.

The Passion (chapters 22 and 23). At the last supper he gives the bread with the words, "This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me." He prays on the Mount of Olives, is arrested, denied by Peter, and brought before the council, before Pilate and, in Luke alone, before Herod. Luke's account of the crucifixion is marked by mercy. Jesus prays for his executioners, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." One of the two criminals crucified with him asks to be remembered, and is told, "To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." His last words are a prayer of trust: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."

Easter (chapter 24). The women who come to the tomb are asked, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" That same day two disciples walking to a village called Emmaus are joined by a stranger who explains the scriptures to them. They do not know him until he breaks bread at their table, and then he is gone. "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way?" they say. Jesus appears to the gathered disciples, eats with them, opens their minds to understand the scriptures, and tells them to wait in the city for power from on high. Then he leads them out as far as Bethany, and "while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." The sequel, Acts, begins from that point.

Why It Matters

Luke gave Christianity much of its imagination. The angels, the shepherds and the manger of the Christmas story are his. So are parables whose names have become everyday expressions, the Good Samaritan and the prodigal son among them. Luke and Acts together provided the framework of the church's calendar and the outline into which later generations fitted the story of Jesus.

His emphases are distinctive. Scholars speak of his salvation history in three ages: the time of the Law and the Prophets, which ends with John the Baptist; the time of Jesus; and the time of the church, which begins when the risen Christ is taken up. The Holy Spirit is more prominent than in the other Gospels. And the gospel is for everyone. Jesus and his first followers are Jews, as Luke stresses, but the story presses outward toward the nations.

On authorship, the tradition that the writer was Paul's companion Luke goes back at least to Irenaeus in the second century. Most scholars accept that the author of Luke and Acts had travelled with Paul, though the point is debated. It is widely agreed that he used the Gospel of Mark as his outline, following it closely and improving its style, and that he had other sources for the large body of teaching Mark lacks. His preface speaks of accounts handed down by eyewitnesses.

Who Should Read It

Read Luke if you want the most complete and most humane telling of the life of Jesus. It is the natural Gospel for readers who love stories, for anyone concerned with poverty and wealth, and for those who feel themselves on the outside of religion looking in, since its hero is forever sitting down to eat with exactly such people. Follow it with Acts, as its author intended.