Intro to Luke

46 He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead the third day, 47 and repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Luke 24:46-47 

While in seminary, I recall one of my writing assignments requiring me to identify and defend a specific portrait of Jesus in each of the Gospels. That is, when examining each of the Gospels, in what way did the authors present Jesus to its reader(s). Similar to the other gospel writings, Luke writes on the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus and provides us with the most information of Jesus’ birth and childhood. But more distinctly, Luke presented Jesus as the compassionate Savior. While the other Gospels do show how Jesus is the Savior, Luke seems to have a more focused interest in presenting Jesus in this light than the other gospel writers do.

The author of Luke is the same author of Acts and this book is the first of a two-volume series written for Theophilus, Acts being the second book. Little is known about Luke, aside from him being a physician and having been instrumental in Paul’s ministry (Col 4:14; 2 Tim 4:11). Possibly, Luke as a physician was influenced by his profession to present Jesus in a more compassionate light, as healer and sympathetic to the poor, widows, and outcasts of Israel and society. It also may have been the reason for why he was meticulous in writing an “orderly account” of the things being taught of Jesus (Luke 1:3). On this point, we see that Luke’s understanding of the sovereignty of God is completely consistent with the whole of Scripture. When writing about Jesus’ suffering and death, Luke referred repeatedly to this event as a “must”, as seen in Luke 9:22, which affirmed his trust and belief in God’s control over all things.

In reflecting on the portrait of Jesus mentioned earlier, Luke is also the only Gospel writer to include the account of when Jesus reads in the synagogue this passage from Isaiah 61:1-2 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). This text really sets the scene for the majority of Jesus’ ministry recorded by Luke in showing how Jesus really did come to proclaim the good news to the poor. And not just to the poor, but how Jesus’ ministry was not limited to just Jews, but was for the Gentiles and Samaritans, for women and children, tax collectors and outcasts.

This is the good news of the Gospel. Jesus did not avoid the outcasts or were disgusted by them. Instead, he sought out those who needed to hear the good news of the kingdom of God, regardless of status, position, or influence in society. In the same way, we ought to be like our compassionate savior and reach out to the lowly. We should be marked with a love for all, because all of humanity is in desperate need to hear the good news of the Gospel; we are all spiritually poor and needy, outside of the kingdom of God.

Grace and Peace,
Alex Galvez

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