Luke

Overview

Luke is the longest Gospel and the most carefully researched. He says so at the start: he traced everything from the first, having talked with eyewitnesses, so that Theophilus might know the certainty of what he had been taught.

It is also the most tender. Luke gives most of the room to the people others overlooked — shepherds, a widow, a Samaritan, a tax collector up a tree, a thief on a cross — and to women, who fund the ministry and are the first at the tomb.

Background

Luke is the only Gentile author in the New Testament and the only Gospel writer with a sequel: Acts picks up exactly where this book stops. Together they are more than a quarter of the New Testament.

A doctor by trade, he traveled with Paul — the "we" passages in Acts are his — which put him in Judea long enough to interview those who had been there. The birth accounts read like they came from Mary herself.

Key themes

• Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, and the lost are often the last people expected.
• Prayer: Jesus prays at every turning point, and teaches His disciples to keep asking.
• The Holy Spirit is at work from the first chapter onward.
• Wealth is dangerous and generosity is freeing — a theme Luke returns to again and again.
• Joy and praise break out all through the book, starting with songs in the first two chapters.

Outline

1. Two birthsChapters 1–2

   Gabriel, Mary’s song, shepherds and angels, Simeon and Anna, and a boy in the temple.

2. BeginningsChapters 3–4

   John’s preaching, the baptism, the genealogy back to Adam, and Nazareth’s rejection.

3. Ministry in GalileeChapters 5–9

   Calling disciples, healings, the sermon on the plain, and Peter’s confession.

4. The long road to JerusalemChapters 9–19

   Ten chapters found mostly here alone: the good Samaritan, the prodigal son, and much more.

5. JerusalemChapters 19–21

   The entry with tears over the city, the temple, and teaching in its courts.

6. The crossChapters 22–23

   The last supper, Gethsemane, the trials, and a thief promised paradise.

7. RisenChapter 24

   The empty tomb, the road to Emmaus, and the ascension at Bethany.

Key passages

• Luke 1:46-55 Mary’s song — my soul doth magnify the Lord.
• Luke 2:10-11 Good tidings of great joy: unto you is born this day a Saviour.
• Luke 4:18-19 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, read aloud in Nazareth.
• Luke 10:30-37 The good Samaritan.
• Luke 15:11-32 The prodigal son, and a father who runs.
• Luke 19:10 The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
• Luke 23:34 Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
• Luke 24:27 Beginning at Moses, He expounded all the scriptures concerning Himself.

Christ in Luke

Luke traces the genealogy past Abraham to Adam, because this Savior is for the whole race, not one nation. He is the Son of man who eats with sinners, weeps over a city, and carries a cross out of it. On the Emmaus road He opens the Old Testament and shows two discouraged disciples that it was about Him all along.

Reading it

• Read 15 as one chapter with three parables and one point — heaven’s joy over what was lost.
• Mark the prayers of Jesus as you go; Luke records more of them than anyone.
• Read Luke and Acts back to back sometime; they were written as one work.