But Luke above all shows Jesus as an itinerant prophet—a depiction that undergirds the fascinating geographical structure to Luke. As Jesus goes about preaching, healing, and extending table fellowship to the poor and the outcast, the plot turns around his movement toward Jerusalem. This is revealed with some drama as Luke tells us, “he set his face toward Jerusalem (9:51).” Afterward, the narrative reminds us some seventeen times that he is “on his way.” The journey is of immense prophetic importance both because Jesus must die a prophet’s death there (13:33), but also because of his mysterious “exodus” which he must accomplish in Jerusalem (9:31; many translate this “departure”). This “exodus” seems to be both his resurrection and ascension on the one hand, but also the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which affects the new exodus promised by OT prophets like Isaiah (see e.g. 40:7; 44:3). This is Luke’s famous “travel narrative,” a feature much discussed by contemporary interpreters. Small wonder that as the narrative progresses from Galilee to converge and climax in Jerusalem in Luke, the narrative moves in Acts in the opposite direction from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:10). The Church, under the power of the Holy Spirit, is fulfilling the exodus of Jesus begun in Luke’s Gospel!

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