Luke: The Gospel of Spirit, Prayer & Peripheries

Plaque with the Symbol of the Evangelist Luke -
Abbey of Saint Foy, Conques, France (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

As the introductions to the Gospel of Luke (1:1-4) and the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:1-5) make clear, Luke and Acts were written by the same author as an intentional two-part history of the early days of Christianity. The author of Luke-Acts – whom scholars usually call “Luke” for the sake of convenience – wrote about 30% of the New Testament, making Luke one of the most influential people in the history of Christianity. He envisions salvation history happening in three distinct ages:

1. The creation (Genesis 1:1 – 2:24) through the end of the Old Testament (Malachi 3:22-24)

2. The life of Jesus, from the conception of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5-25) through Jesus’ Ascension (Luke 24:50-53 and Acts 1:6-12)

3. The age of the Church, beginning with the first Christian Pentecost (Acts 2:1-41) and continuing to the present day

Scripture scholars are more confident in identifying the author of this gospel in accord with tradition than they are with the other three gospels, but they are by no means certain. In three distinct sections of the Acts of the Apostles, the author refers to Paul’s band of missionaries as “we” instead of in the third person. A person named Luke was an occasional companion of the Apostle Paul on his missionary journeys, mentioned in Philemon 24, Colossians 4:14, and 2 Timothy 4:11. In Colossians, Luke is identified as “one who heals,” so many believe he was a physician.

Luke is one of the three synoptic gospels, sharing much of the same structure, content, and phrasing as Mark and Matthew. According to the Two-source Hypothesis, Luke took 42% of the content for his gospel from Mark. Another 23% of Luke comes from “Q,” a hypothesized-but-never-found written collection of Jesus’ teachings that are found in both Matthew and Luke, as well as in the gnostic Gospel of Thomas, but not in Mark. Most of the other 35% of Luke is unique to his gospel… although he shares a few common elements with John that are not included in Matthew and Mark.

We presume that Luke was written 80-90 AD as he is clearly aware of the Gospel of Mark (c. 65-70) but seems unaware of the Gospel of Matthew (c. 80-90) or the Gospel of John (probably written after 90).

There are an abundance of topics and themes in the New Testament that are most fully realized in Luke-Acts. These include the Holy Spirit, Mary, justice for the poor, God’s mercy on sinners, prayer, the role of women, the inclusion of Gentiles, and history & geography.

The Baptism of the Lord

Except for the Last Supper discourse in the Gospel of John (John 14-16), most references to the Holy Spirit in the gospels come from Luke. Even before Jesus receives the Holy Spirit after his baptism (3:21-22), several people are filled with the Holy Spirit, including Mary (1:35), Elizabeth (1:41), Zechariah (1:67), and Simeon (2:25). The Holy Spirit drives Jesus into the desert (4:1). Jesus begins his public ministry by proclaiming “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (4:18, quoting Isaiah 61:1). As he dies, he commends his spirit into the Father’s hands (23:46). Jesus instructs the disciples to wait in Jerusalem to receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5-6), which they – presumably all of the 120 gathered after the Ascension – receive on the first Christian Pentecost (2:4). The expanding community of disciples do mighty deeds throughout Acts by being filled with the Holy Spirit and by invoking the name of Jesus. The Holy Spirit inspires people to experience joy (Luke 1:41-42), to utter proclamations (Acts 2:14), to perform miracles (Acts 3:1-10), to see visions (Acts 7:55), and to receive guidance (Acts 8:29). Luke does not indicate that everyone “filled with the Holy Spirit” is already a fully-formed disciple; sometimes, receiving the Holy Spirit is part of the conversion process. While the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ ushered in the age of the Church, it is the Holy Spirit that connects the disciples to one another and to Jesus. It is the Spirit that forms us into the Body of Christ.

Pieta - Michelangelo

Almost everything we know about Mary comes from Luke. Luke’s goal in presenting Mary is not to teach us anything about her for her own sake. Luke presents Mary as the model Christian, the first Christian. Her life of discipleship started before Jesus’ conception and continued after his Ascension. Jesus is born into the world only through Mary’s consent to participate in God’s plan. Mary and Joseph are the first humans commissioned by God to care for Christ’s body. By noting that Mary was present with the other disciples in Jerusalem after the Ascension (Acts 1:14), we realize that she probably followed Jesus on his 10-chapter journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, as related in Luke’s gospel. Mary was likely among the group of women present at the foot of the cross (explicitly stated in the Gospel of John, but only implied in the synoptic gospels). When Luke tells us that Mary “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” after the shepherds’ visit (2:19) and uses similar phrasing to describe her reaction to returning to Nazareth after finding him at age 12 in the Jerusalem temple (2:51), Luke indicates how we should all pray with the various experiences God places in our lives.

Magnificat - Mickey McGrath, OSFS

Luke is often called “The Gospel of Social Justice.” Over and over again, Luke-Acts presents radical ideas about how to fill every valley and lower every peak for those who are disadvantaged in Judean society (cf. Luke 3:5). Mary’s Magnificat includes bold verses about what her son’s expected birth means: “[God] has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty” (1:52-53). Jesus’ birth is first proclaimed by the angels to shepherds, considered the lowest of the low in Judean society (2:9-20). Jesus begins his public ministry by quoting God’s promise to Isaiah “to bring glad tidings to the poor” (4:16-21). He preaches his major sermon on a stretch of plain land, indicating the equality of all people, proclaiming “Blessed are you who are poor… but woe to you who are rich” (6:17-26). He urges the disciples to depend on God, not material things (12:16-34, 18:18-30, 21:1-4). Jesus sharply criticizes those who seek honor in public instead of remaining humble (11:37-54, 14:7-14, 16:14-16). Jesus inspires Zacchaeus the tax collector to repay four times over anything exhorted from anyone (19:1-10). Perhaps Jesus’ sharpest rebuke of the wealthy who disregard the poor comes in the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (16:19-31). In the Acts of the Apostles, the earliest Christians share everything in common (2:44-45; 4:32 – 5:11), although this radical equality breaks down, as deacons need to be appointed to assure that the Christian community provides equally to Greek and Jewish widows (6:1-7).

The Return of the Prodigal Son - Rembrandt van Rijn

Several of the passages unique to Luke’s gospel concern God’s abundant mercy on those who repent of their sins, most notably in chapter 15. God loves us, Jesus says, as much as a shepherd that leaves 99 sheep to find the lost one, as much as a woman who searches diligently for a lost coin when she has 9 others, even as much as a father who forgives one of his 2 sons after that son squanders half of the father’s estate. As Jesus declares, “I tell you, in just the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance” (15:7). In this context, the many miraculous healings in the gospels and in Acts can be understood as illustrations of God’s forgiveness (Luke 5:17-26, for example). One out of every five sentences in the Gospel of Luke features Jesus sharing a meal (5:27-32; 7:36-50; 9:10-17; 11:37-52; 14:1-24; 22:14-38; 24:28-32; 24:36-43), preparing to eat (10:38-42; 19:1-10), or talking about food (4:1-4; 5:33-39; 6:1-5; 10:1-9; 11:1-13; 15:11-32; 16:19-31). The shared table symbolizes many things in Luke, including God’s mercy.

Mary, the Apostles, and many other disciples on the first Christian Pentecost

Mary contemplates how her experiences are part of the will of God (2:19, 51). The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus while he is praying after being baptized (3:21-22). In Luke, Jesus goes off by himself for moments of prayer (5:15-16), especially before significant moments (6:12-13). Several of Jesus’ teachings unique to Luke focus on prayer (11:5-13; 18:1-14). On the cross, Jesus prays for those putting him to death (23:34). In the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples frequently gather in prayer, in times of uncertainty (Acts 1:14; 16:25-26), when facing persecution (4:24-31; 12:12; 22:17), and when selecting leaders and missionaries (1:24-25; 13:1-13; 14:23). Peter and Paul lead others in praying before performing miracles (9:40-42; 28:8-9).

The Raising of the Cross (left panel) - Master of the Starck Triptych

A remarkable number of women appear in Luke and Acts. Besides Mary of Nazareth, Luke’s gospel includes Elizabeth (1:5-66), Anna (2:36-38), Simon’s mother-in-law (4:38-39), the widow of Nain (7:11-17), the woman who washes Jesus’ feet (7:36-50), Mary of Magdala (8:2; 24:10), Joanna (8:3; 24:10), Susanna (8:3), Martha and Mary (10:38-42), the woman bent over double (13:10-17), the poor widow (21:1-4), unnamed Galilean women traveling with Jesus (8:2-3; 23:27-31, 49, 55-56; 24:1-11), and Mary the mother of James (24:10). In Acts, there’s Mary of Nazareth and other women among the disciples after the Ascension (1:14) and presumably on Pentecost, Sapphira (5:1-11), Tabitha (9:36-40), Rhoda (12:13-16), Mary the mother of John Mark (12:12-17), Lydia (16:11-15, 40), the Philippian slave girl (16:16-18), Damaris (17:34), Priscilla (18:1-4, 24-28), and Bernice (25:13 – 26:32). Luke deliberately places men and women together as witnesses: Zechariah and Mary (1:5-38) and Simeon and Anna (2:25-38) most obviously, but also Simon the Pharisee and the unnamed woman (7:36-50), a woman and a man cured on different sabbath days (13:10-17; 14:1-6), Jesus’ analogies of God as a man who loses a sheep and as a woman who loses a coin (15:4-10), Jesus’ contrast of a persistent widow with a corrupt judge (18:1-8), and Jesus’ male apostles abandoning him while his female disciples accompany him to the cross. Perhaps the unnamed disciple traveling to Emmaus (24:13-35) is a woman! The majority of women prominent in Luke-Acts are devoted disciples, but Luke sometimes presents the paired women as having smaller roles than the men they accompany (Anna in Luke 2:25-38; Bernice in Acts 25:13 – 26:32). Luke does not appear to present Martha’s bluntness (10:38-42) or the widow’s persistence (18:1-8) as attractive qualities. The witness of women is not always accepted by men (Luke 24:9-11, Acts 12:14-16). It is unclear whether Luke is deliberately giving these women secondary roles, or if he is unconsciously carrying forward his cultural biases.

The Good Samaritan - Jacob Jordaens

No gospel story condemns prejudice as forcefully as the Parable of the Good Samaritan (10:29-37). Because of the popularity of this parable, it can be hard for us to remember that in the times of Jesus and Luke, Samaritans were enemies of Jews. When a scholar of the Law asks Jesus who exactly is included in God’s commandment to love one’s neighbor as oneself (10:25-29), Jesus challenges him – and all of us – to expand the concept of “neighbor” to include people outside of our religious community.* In addition, Luke tells of Jesus cleansing ten lepers, and only the Samaritan among them returning to thank Jesus (17:11-19).

*See the section at the bottom of the page regarding a passage from the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus may not initially appear to be welcoming to a Gentile.

Joseph and Mary travel to Bethlehem for the census of Caesar Augustus - artist unknown

Luke highlights how the mission of Jesus Christ meshes with the great sweep of history and geography. He places the birth of Jesus in the middle of Caesar Augustus’ worldwide census (2:1-3) and the preaching of John the Baptist in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar (3:1-2). Luke also identifies names and locations when introducing Zechariah (1:5) and Mary (1:26-27). In Acts, Paul interacts with the historical figures Gallio, proconsul of Achaia (18:12-16), and King Agrippa (Acts 25:13 – 26:32). Unlike the other gospels, Luke deliberately begins and ends his gospel in Jerusalem. He organizes the Acts of the Apostles around geography, with the disciples starting their ministry in Jerusalem (chapters 2-7), then expanding to Judea and Samaria (chapter 8-12), spreading through Asia Minor and Greece (chapters 13-20), and eventually reaching Rome (28:11-31), as Jesus had foretold (chapter 1).