This Year’s Scriptures: The Gospel of Luke by Steve Mueller
In the three-year lectionary cycle, the Sunday Gospel readings for Year C are taken primarily from the gospel of Luke. Each of the gospels proclaims that the good news of our salvation (our right relationship with God) is best understood by attending closely to the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Their strategy was to invite readers to identify with Jesus and the disciples in the story, and follow Jesus as they did.
How Luke’s Gospel Came About
In the mid-eighties of the first century, Luke set about to adapt Mark’s gospel to the needs of his primarily Gentile community which was probably located in Antioch, the center of the Christian missionary effort to include the Gentiles. He wanted to show that what happened to Jesus was foreshadowed in the Old Testament and continued after Jesus’ death in the life of the Christian disciples. Luke tells the story of our salvation in two volumes, his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.
Luke’s Portrait of Jesus the Prophet
Luke’s very engaging portrait of Jesus focuses on his activity as a healing-saving prophet. Born “a Savior” (2:11), he comes “to seek and to save what is lost” (19:10). The ambiguity of the same Greek word for save/heal allows Luke to stress that our bodily and spiritual health are interconnected. When Jesus tells those He cures, “Go, your faith has saved you,” this could also mean “your faith has healed you” (7:50, 8:48, 17:19, 18:42).
Jesus the Healing Prophet
Jesus’ ministry of healing is God’s salvation and so breaks across all our humanly created boundaries. Like a magnet, Jesus draws the poor, the outcasts, the sick, women, and foreigners to himself for healing. Through his powerful parables about the lost coin, the lost son and the lost sheep (15:1-32), Jesus challenges us to reach out beyond our narrow and comfortable borders to seek and save the lost.
Luke characterizes Jesus as a prophet, “mighty in word and deed” (24:19, see also 4:24, 7:16, 7:39) whose job description (4:16-30, 7:22-23) is from the prophet Isaiah. As a spokesperson for God, his prophetic message is an invitation to see the world from God’s perspective rather than from a human viewpoint.
Jesus the Prophet of Justice
Perhaps because Luke portrays Jesus as a prophet, he shows Jesus taking up the prophetic cause for social justice. At the start of his ministry, Jesus associates his work with that of the spirit-filled prophet Isaiah (Luke 4:16-30). In his ministry he will reach out to the poor, the blind, the downtrodden, prisoners and those who need to experience God’s reversal of the human value system.
In the beatitudes and woes (6:20-26) Jesus describes God’s values and God’s ways. Quite unexpectedly, God’s blessing is not bestowed on the rich but on the poor, the hungry, the sorrowing, the hated, the persecuted and the rejected.
Concern for the Poor
Luke’s special concern for the poor is revealed in the many sayings and stories of Jesus that deal with the issues of rich and poor. When borrowing from Mark, Luke usually intensifies Mark’s emphasis on the rich and poor. He also introduces many new passages that mention the poor that are not found in the other gospels-Mary’s Magnificat (1:39-54), Jesus’ sermon at Nazareth (4:16-30), the Good Samaritan who uses his wealth to help another (10:29-37), the great supper (14:16-24), the rich fool (12:16-21), the rich man and Lazarus (16:19-26), and Zacchaeus (19:1-10)-who represents the right response of a wealthy person to Jesus’ presence and preaching.
Jesus the Suffering Prophet
Jesus advocacy for justice inevitable led to a confrontation with the Jewish authorities who conspired with the Roman occupation force to bring about his murder. Luke understands this suffering as an essential part of the prophet’s role (13:33-34). In his version of Christ’s passion, Luke portrays Jesus as an innocent martyr. Pilate (23:4,14,22), Herod (23:15) and the centurion at the foot of the cross all declare Him innocent (23:47). Jesus dies as he lived—forgiving his persecutors and saving a good thief.
Mary, Luke’s Model Disciple
For Luke, Mary stands out as a model of genuine discipleship. Like the prophets of old, she is characterized as a person who responds wholeheartedly to God’s call. Her “Let it be” starts God’s work both in her body and in her life to bring forth Jesus (1:26-38). She keeps all these things in her heart and ponders them (2:19). In the ministry of Jesus, she is identified as one who “hears the word and acts on it” (8:21). After the resurrection she is found praying in the community of disciples as they await the Pentecostal empowerment of the Holy Spirit for their mission (Acts 1:14).
Luke highlights his way of discipleship more clearly in the Acts of the Apostles. The risen Christ reveals to the disciples that the Kingdom will come through their Spirit-filled witness (1:8) to the ends of the earth. They will witness with their words and with their lives. Being a Christian demands fearless witness and a shattering of the borders between Jew and Gentile to build a new community in Christ.
Christian Discipleship: Following Jesus on the Journey to God
More than any other gospel writer, Luke structures his gospel life of Jesus according to the pattern of a journey. The journey structure is a familiar one for understanding our human lives. It is a natural way to pull together our experience of changes in space—going from the starting point through a transition to a new place—and time—from the past where we have lived, through the present where we live now and toward the future where we hope to live.
The familiar “from-through-to” pattern of a journey describes Jesus’ gospel life. He comes from God to become human in Mary’s womb. He moves back toward God through a life of service dedicated to establishing God’s kingdom community in Galilee. He confronts opposition and is killed in Jerusalem. He is rewarded by God with new life and finally returns to God to continue the relationship begun here on earth. And he invites each of us to follow or imitate this journey with him. This journey of Christ is also the pattern that each Christian must follow. His journey is our journey too.
Steve Mueller is the author of the five books in the Catechist's Guide to Reading the Bible Series.