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N e w T e s t a m e n t G u i d e
LUKE
By ANTONIO FUENTES
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 3
 March 1994 
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LUKE a Syrian from Antioch,
was the inspired author of the third Gospel. A physician by profession,
a man of culture with perfect Greek, he was a disciple of Paul and
was an early Gentile convert, from about the year 40. He accompanied
Paul on his second journey (49-53) from Troas to Philippi (Acts 16:10-37),
remaining there for some years, until he again joined Paul toward
the end of his third journey (53-58). He stayed with the apostle when
he was imprisoned in Caesarea; he was with him on his adventurous
trip from Caesarea to Rome and during his first Roman captivity (Col.
4:14, Phil. 1:24).
We can be sure that Luke wrote his Gospel after the
Aramaic original of Matthew and definitely after Mark [for the view
that Luke wrote before Mark, but was published later, see Bernard
Orchard's essay in this issue--editor], but it is not
so easy to establish the precise date.
According to the Pontifical Biblical Commission (June 26, 1912) it
must have been written before the destruction of Jerusalem in the
year 70. Since it was written before Acts, and since Acts finishes
with a description of Paul's ministry toward the end of his first
captivity in Rome (the year 63), this Gospel can be dated at the latest
at the end of 62 or the beginning of 63. The same Commission confirmed
the inspiration and canonicity of the third Gospel and its authenticity.
As regards some particular points: It also said that it was not "lawful
to doubt the inspiration and authenticity of Luke's narrative of Christ's
infancy (Luke 1 and 2) or of the appearance of the angel to comfort
him, or the fact that he sweated blood (Luke 22:43-44), nor are there
solid reasons to indicate--as some early heresies, supported by
certain modern critics, try to make out--that these narratives
do not belong to the authentic Gospel of Luke."
Luke was not an eyewitness of our Lord's life. Therefore,
when he refers in his introduction to the sources he has used, he
includes those "who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and
ministers of the word" (1:2), among the most outstanding of whom
was the Blessed Virgin Mary. It must have been she who provided most
of the information Luke gives in the first chapters of his Gospel.
Luke liked to get order and chronology right--not just to satisfy
his own or anyone else's curiosity, but to pass on to others precisely
what the Lord wanted him to write, that is, "the truth concerning
the things of which you have been informed"(1:4), the true history
of our salvation. That is what his Gospel contains--and the same
is true<:f> of Acts; although these two books are independent
they do form a perfect doctrinal and literary unity.
With reference to his literary style we can notice (Jerome,
for example, points it out) that Luke has a much better grammatical
grasp of the Greek language than any of the other Evangelists. Conscious
that he is addressing people with a Gentile background, he usually
avoids expressions which they might find jarring, and whenever possible
he uses Greek equivalents for Aramaic terms. This is one reason why
he is silent on some subjects which might have sounded indelicate
to his readers.
Luke stresses certain specific aspects of doctrine. He begins by emphasizing
the continuity of the work of salvation begun by God in the Old Testament
and brought to fulfilment in the New. He does this by recording
a series of very revealing facts: (1) the announcement by the archangel
Gabriel, about the birth of John the Baptist (1:5ff), to Zechariah,
a priest officiating in the Temple at the time of sacrifice prescribed
by the Old Law. The names of the protagonists in this scene are particularly
significant: Zechariah (= Yahweh has remembered), Elizabeth (= God
has sworn), John (= Yahweh is merciful); (2) John's future role as
precursor of the Lord, a mission foretold by the prophet Malachi (Mal.
3:1) and now presented as an accomplished fact (1:16-17); (3) the
announcement by the same angel, Gabriel, of the virginal conception
by Mary, who is full of grace. She will conceive the Savior himself,
by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is directly linked to the conception
of the Baptist, his precursor (1:36).
All these events speak of continuity; they link past
with present, promise with fulfillment. The promised Messiah, who
for centuries had filled the hopes of the patriarchs and prophets
and of all the Jewish people, is he who is now entering human history
to bring salvation.
It is not surprising that the Virgin Mary should rejoice in God her
Savior (1:47) after being greeted by her cousin Elizabeth, or that
the angels should tell the shepherds "of a great joy which is
to come to all the people, for to you is born this day a Savior, who
is Christ the Lord" (2:11), or that Simeon in his old age should
bless God when, seeing Jesus coming into the Temple, he recognized
him as the Messiah. There was no need for him to live any longer "for
mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou has prepared in the presence
of all the people" (2:30). Jesus came to save all men, Gentiles
and Jews, rich and poor, healthy and sick.
It had been prophesied (Is. 61:12) that the Messiah
would redeem his people from every kind of affliction. Jesus actually
said that this prophecy found its fulfillment in him (Luke 4:21).
He came to redeem man from sin, to free him from slavery to the devil
and from eternal death. Although he did rid many people of their physical
illnesses and on occasion relieved the hunger of huge crowds, he did
not seek to suppress pain or illness. God's plan is that these should
have a clearly redemptive purpose; this is why the poor and the sick
are his favorites, and we should see them as a reflection of Jesus
himself.
Luke stresses the universal character of salvation. Salvation starts
in Jerusalem, the center of all Jesus' activity. Luke starts his Gospel
there, and there he concludes it. The infancy narrative finishes with
the scene in the Temple in which our Lord, still an adolescent, talks
to the teachers of the Law and leaves them amazed at the wisdom of
his answers (Luke 2:46-47). For Luke Jesus' public life is a continuous
progress toward Jerusalem. It is significant that the Last Supper
takes place in the Holy City. This is a particularly important point
in Jesus' life; he performs the miracle of transubstantiation, turning
bread and wine into his body and blood so that he is really, truly,
and substantially present in the Eucharist. He does this as a form
of sacrifice to God and then of nourishment for men.
The institution of the Eucharist anticipates, through the consecration
of the bread and wine, what Jesus was going to carry out a little
later in his sacrifice on Calvary--just as the Mass is a sacramental
renewal of the sacrifice of the cross. In both cases the victim sacrificed
and the priest offering the sacrifice are one and the same, Jesus
Christ. It is in Jerusalem also that Jesus completes the mission which
brought him among us, by obediently surrendering himself to the cross,
through which we have been freed from our sins. After the Ascension,
the disciples themselves "returned to Jerusalem with great joy"
(24:52).
Luke leaves over to his second book--the Acts of the Apostles--the
account of the spread of the Church. There he stresses how the Church
expanded outward from Jerusalem, spreading throughout
the known world and reaching Rome, where the blood of Peter and Paul
and many other Christian martyrs constitutes the seed of the Church.
In this way is fulfilled what Isaiah prophesied in the seventh century
before Christ: "Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word
of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Is. 2:3).
Luke sees this prophecy of salvation as fulfilled in
Christ. The long period of waiting for the Messiah has come to an
end. Now that Christ has brought salvation, the Christian must imitate
him and follow in his footsteps. Jesus insists that no one can be
his disciple unless he denies himself and takes up his cross daily
(9:23). This is not easy, for good will is not enough; a person needs
the help of grace and must cooperate with grace. Because we can easily
grow tired, Luke speaks of the endurance and perseverance involved
(21:19) or, what amounts to the same thing, the need for fortitude
so as to be detached from anything which could separate us from God
(18:29).
In making this effort to imitate the Master, Christians
need virtues such as justice, temperance, chastity, charity. These,
Luke tells us, are obtained firstly by prayer and then by sacrifice
and mercy (6:27-38), by doing the work of each day in the presence
of God. Every Christian, therefore, must strive (unless his vocation
takes him away from the world) to combine action and contemplation
and not to make the mistake of counterposing these two aspects of
life (cf. the dialogue between Jesus and Martha, Luke 10:41-42). Every
kind of honest work helps us maintain continuous conversation with
God. As Msgr. Escriva noted, we can serve him "in and from
the ordinary, material, and secular activities of human life. He waits
for us every day, in the laboratory, in the operating theater, in
the army barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the
workshop, in the fields, in the home, and in the immense panorama
of work.'
Luke introduces us to our best ally in this effort to imitate Christ--Mary,
the Mother of God. She is the holiest of all creatures,
"full of grace" (1:28), sensitive, tender, resolute, strong.
Her love for us is so strong that we find it easy to go to her with
the love and abandonment of a child. Her faith and self-surrender
are so complete that everything our Lady asks for in prayer, as on
that day at Cana, Jesus grants her.
This is how Pope John Paul II put it: "Mary is always at the
very center of our prayer. She is the first to pray. And she is omnipotentia
supplex all powerful in her prayer.
This was the case in Nazareth, when she conversed with Gabriel. We
find her there, deep in prayer. In the depth of her prayer she speaks
to God the Father. In the depth of her prayer the eternal Word becomes
her Son. In the depth of her prayer the Holy Spirit comes down upon
her, and she brings this same deep spirit of prayer from Nazareth
to the Cenacle at Pentecost, where all the apostles join her in united,
devout and constant prayer."
Although the New Testament does not give us information
about the birth and childhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Christian
tradition has passed on some details which tells us more about her--for
example, that she was the daughter of Joachim and Anne and that from
childhood had been dedicated to the service of the Lord in his Temple
until the time of her betrothal to Joseph. Starting at the Annunciation,
Matthew and Luke give us the revealed teaching about Jesus' virginal
conception and miraculous birth which were an object of the faith
of the early Christian community. It is in Mary that the Immanuel
prophecy was fulfilled: "The Lord himself will give you a sign.
Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his
name Immanuel" (Is. 7:14).
The Second Vatican Council begins its exposition of
doctrine on Mary by saying that "the Virgin Mary, who at the
message of the angel received the Word of God in her heart and in
her body and gave Life to the world, is acknowledged and honored as
being truly the Mother of God and of the Redeemer. . . . She is endowed
with the high office and dignity of the Mother of the Son of God,
and therefore she is also the beloved daughter of the Father and the
temple of the Holy Spirit" (Lumen Gentium 53).
The privileged place which Mary holds in Christian devotion
and its liturgical expression led to her having a very special place
in sacred art. Representations of her are to be found in the Roman
catacombs, but it is not until the period between 400 and 900 that
she comes into full view in Byzantine art. Devotion to her was further
expressed in this way in the Gothic period--first as the Virgin
of Sorrows, then as our Lady of Mercy. At the beginning of the seventeenth
century the image of the Immaculate Conception, drawn from the book
of <:f>Revelation, comes into its own. These are but
a few of the many advocations of our Lady which arise at different
times and in different places as expressions of the love and veneration
Christians have for her.
Antonio Fuentes teaches Scripture at the University
of Navarre in Spain .
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