Jesus Christ in Luke -Acts
At first blush it would seem as though Luke has little new to offer us beyond Matthew and Mark in his Christological portrait of Jesus. After all Luke beginning with his birth story of Jesus and throughout his gospel emphasizes Jesus’ descent from David just as Matthew does. Luke also emphasizes Jesus as a prophet following in the footsteps of John the Baptist just as Mark did. Moreover a significant amount of the overall narrative and teaching material that Luke contains is common to Matthew as well. So what then is the point of Luke and what does he contribute to our understanding of Jesus?
The answer is that he contributes a great deal. Not only does Luke develop themes present in Matthew and Mark in new and interesting ways, his gospel also contains a goodly amount of material on Jesus that is absent from the others. Luke contains many narrative details about Jesus’ life easy to miss on a cursory reading as well as some of the most famous parables of the Lord in the written Jesus tradition. In all, this content serves to convey many aspects of Jesus’ person and life that turn out on reflection to be very significant in our knowledge of our Lord and Messiah. This week we will explore some of these elements of Luke as well as his companion volume Acts.
Luke agrees with Matthew in many of the narrative details of Jesus’ birth. But the nativity stories of Matthew and Luke do turn out have some large and interesting differences. Matthew had chosen to celebrate Joseph as the real hero who received the dream messages of the angel, who received the Magi, who took Mary and the boy Jesus to Egypt and back again. Most of all, it was Joseph who supplied the necessary connection to the house of David that furnished Jesus with his messianic credentials. In Luke by contrast the real star of the show is Mary. It is Mary who through the angel Gabriel who receives the notice of Jesus’ birth and the prophetic role of the baby to be born. In that story the title for Jesus given by the angel “Son of God Most High” points beyond Jesus’ messianic identity to one conceived miraculously through God’s Holy Spirit and thus having an utterly unique relationship to God himself.
We saw that Matthew structured his treatment of John the Baptist to parallel the career of Jesus, in their preaching and in their fates. Luke places the pair in tandem as well but the parallel occurs entirely in the infancy account. Both boys are announced by Gabriel (1:14-20; 1:28-38) as miraculous births, and both boys are named by the announcing angel (1:13; 1:31). Around the time that the two boys met while in utero the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary (1:35) while He filled Elizabeth (1:41). Zechariah sings a prophetic canticle about John while Mary sings one about Jesus. After birth the two boys are both circumcised on the eighth day (1:59; 2:21), they are both marveled at by the people (1:63; 2:18), and they both grow and become strong (1:80; 2:40). There is indeed a literary diptych in Luke 1-3 with Jesus on one side and John on the other.
The answer is that he contributes a great deal. Not only does Luke develop themes present in Matthew and Mark in new and interesting ways, his gospel also contains a goodly amount of material on Jesus that is absent from the others. Luke contains many narrative details about Jesus’ life easy to miss on a cursory reading as well as some of the most famous parables of the Lord in the written Jesus tradition. In all, this content serves to convey many aspects of Jesus’ person and life that turn out on reflection to be very significant in our knowledge of our Lord and Messiah. This week we will explore some of these elements of Luke as well as his companion volume Acts.
Luke agrees with Matthew in many of the narrative details of Jesus’ birth. But the nativity stories of Matthew and Luke do turn out have some large and interesting differences. Matthew had chosen to celebrate Joseph as the real hero who received the dream messages of the angel, who received the Magi, who took Mary and the boy Jesus to Egypt and back again. Most of all, it was Joseph who supplied the necessary connection to the house of David that furnished Jesus with his messianic credentials. In Luke by contrast the real star of the show is Mary. It is Mary who through the angel Gabriel who receives the notice of Jesus’ birth and the prophetic role of the baby to be born. In that story the title for Jesus given by the angel “Son of God Most High” points beyond Jesus’ messianic identity to one conceived miraculously through God’s Holy Spirit and thus having an utterly unique relationship to God himself.
We saw that Matthew structured his treatment of John the Baptist to parallel the career of Jesus, in their preaching and in their fates. Luke places the pair in tandem as well but the parallel occurs entirely in the infancy account. Both boys are announced by Gabriel (1:14-20; 1:28-38) as miraculous births, and both boys are named by the announcing angel (1:13; 1:31). Around the time that the two boys met while in utero the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary (1:35) while He filled Elizabeth (1:41). Zechariah sings a prophetic canticle about John while Mary sings one about Jesus. After birth the two boys are both circumcised on the eighth day (1:59; 2:21), they are both marveled at by the people (1:63; 2:18), and they both grow and become strong (1:80; 2:40). There is indeed a literary diptych in Luke 1-3 with Jesus on one side and John on the other.
Begin this path: Jesus Christ in Luke -Acts
- Luke as the Gospel of Prayer
- Luke as Gospel of Repentance
- Luke and Jesus' Concern for the Proper and Improper Use of Material Possessions
- Jesus in Luke: The Master of Table Fellowship
- Jesus and the Holy Spirit
- Jesus as Uniter of Peoples
- Women in the Gospel of Luke
- Jesus Breaking down Taboos about Women
- Other Actions and Sayings of Jesus in Luke Breaking Down Barriers
- Other Additions to the Gospel by Luke emphasizing Inclusion in the Kingdom
- Jesus as Prophet in Luke
- Jesus as a Prophet Like Moses
- Luke and Geography: Jesus as Itinerant Prophet
- Jesus Christ in Acts
- Jesus and the Holy Spirit
- Conclusion
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