Introduction
A sower went out to sow his seed; and
as he sowed, some fell on the path, and was trampled on, and the birds
of the air ate it up.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
The final editors of the New Testament separated the Gospel According
to Luke and Acts of the Apostles, which were originally written
by the same author in a single two-volume work. The Gospel of Luke
is the unit’s first half and narrates the birth, ministry, death,
and resurrection of Jesus. The second half, which contains Acts
of the Apostles, is one of the first works to chronicle church history,
tracing events from the resurrection of Jesus to the time when the
apostle Paul is traveling and proclaiming the Gospel “with all boldness
and without hindrance” (Acts 28:31). Luke’s Gospel features an introductory
prologue typical of a historian in antiquity. He writes, “I too,
decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very
first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,
so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which
you have been instructed” (1:3–4). Luke’s orderly account relies
on eyewitnesses of Jesus and the earliest disciples, though he could
not have been an eyewitness himself. The Gospel of Luke dates from
between 75 and 85 a.d., around the same time
as Matthew. The author relies most likely on the Gospel of Mark
and other stories circulating orally during his lifetime. Luke’s
Greek is the polished work of a gifted literary artist, indicating
that Luke was a cultivated, well-educated man.
Summary
After his introduction, Luke lays out, in two chapters,
the parallel miraculous births of Jesus of Nazareth and the man
who becomes his prophet, John the Baptist. The angel Gabriel appears
to Zechariah, telling him that his wife Elizabeth, formerly barren,
is pregnant. Soon afterward, Gabriel appears to Elizabeth’s relative,
the virgin Mary, who is betrothed to Joseph, telling her that she
too is going to give birth to a child by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Mary visits Elizabeth, and Elizabeth prophesies that Mary will be
“the mother of my Lord” (1:43).
Mary, rejoicing, utters the prayer now known as the Magnificat:
“My soul magnifies the Lord” (1:46). John
is born, and his father, Zechariah—who had been struck mute for
the duration of the pregnancy as a punishment for his lack of belief
in Gabriel’s prophecy—utters a prayer, the Benedictus: “Blessed
be the Lord, God of Israel . . .” (1:68).
Mary and Joseph travel from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem
to partake in a census, and there, in a manger, Jesus is born. When
Jesus is presented at the temple, where all firstborn males are
brought, two Jewish prophets, Simeon and Anna, recognize the sanctity
of the child. As yet, however, nobody realizes his true significance.
When Mary finds the adolescent Jesus sitting in the temple among
the sages, she does not understand his remark, “Why were you searching
for me? Did you not know I must be in my Father’s house?” (2:49).
Jesus grows to maturity and is baptized in the desert
of Judea by John the Baptist, who has begun his advocacy of baptismal
repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and prophesies the advent
of Jesus. John, however, is soon imprisoned by Herod Antipas, the
ruler of the northern Galilee region. After Jesus’s baptism, Luke
gives Jesus’s genealogy, stretching back to the first man, Adam,
who is said to be “son of God” (3:38).
We are told of Satan unsuccessfully testing Jesus for forty days
in the wilderness. Returning from the wilderness, Jesus begins his
ministry. He is rejected in his hometown of Nazareth and takes to
wandering throughout Galilee, where he works many miracles, including
the exorcism of a demoniac and many other cures. He works a miracle
enabling Simon Peter, a fisherman, to catch many fish, and thereby
attracts Simon Peter, as well as James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
as his first apostles. Later, these three apostles are joined by
nine others. In this first stage of his ministry, Jesus also begins
to encounter opposition from the Pharisees, who question his adherence
to traditional Jewish laws governing Sabbath observance, fasting,
and consorting with sinners. Despite this opposition, his fame grows,
and he attracts a great crowd to whom he delivers a shorter version
of Matthew’s great Sermon on the Mount, telling his followers to
“love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (6:27).
Jesus goes to Capernaum, where he cures the servant of
a Roman centurion and restores the son of a widow to life. When
John the Baptist, imprisoned, sends messengers to ask Jesus who
he is, Jesus responds only by pointing out the many miracles he
has worked. Jesus commends John the Baptist’s ministry and laments
the fact that his contemporaries have refused to listen to John
and to Jesus himself. Jesus’s travels continue as he preaches and
works miracles. Accepting the ministrations of a wicked woman, Jesus
shows that he forgives even the most wretched of sinners. He explains
in a parable that the seed of the word of God will only sprout in
noble and generous hearts, and that the true family of Jesus is
not his mother and siblings, but those who hear the word of God.
Among his miracles, he calms a storm; cures a man possessed by a
demon, and a woman with a hemorrhage; and revives the daughter of
Jairus. Jesus sends the Twelve Apostles out to preach the Gospel
and to cure illness. On their return, Jesus is swarmed by people
eager to hear his preaching. He works the miracle of the loaves
and fish for them, multiplying scant food to feed 5,000 people.
When he questions the faith of his apostles, asking, “Who do you
say that I am?”, Peter replies, “The Messiah of God” (9:20).
Immediately after this event, Jesus gives the first of his three
prophecies of the Passion, during which he predicts that he will
be executed and resurrected. A set of brief spiritual messages ensues:
following Christ means a total abnegation of the self; the kingdom
of God is imminent; and humility is crucial, as “the least among
all of you is the greatest” (9:48).
Jesus begins to travel toward Jerusalem. His journey is
punctuated by a number of brief episodes. He appoints seventy missionaries
to spread his word among all the nations, reminds a lawyer that love
toward God and one’s neighbors is the most important virtue, and
explains that all those who act kindly, regardless of whether they
are Jew or Gentile, are neighbors. He tells his disciples how they
should pray, teaching them the Lord’s Prayer and telling them that
any sincere request will be granted by God. Jesus says, “Ask, and
it will be given you” (11:9).
He cautions extensively against ostentation and against the accumulation
of wealth. Responding to attacks from the Pharisees, he accuses
them of hypocrisy, for caring more about the letter of the law than
about “justice and the love of God” (11:42).
Perhaps anticipating further attacks by disbelievers, he tells his
followers to be bold in asserting the Gospel’s truth, and to be
prepared for the unexpected final judgment. He works his way toward
Jerusalem, delivering parables and lessons whose morals center around
faith in God: the importance of repentance; the virtues of humility
and kindness; the dangers of riches; the reward of total renunciation
of the worldly in favor of the divine; and the ruin that will come
to those who fail to listen to God’s word.
Arriving in Jerusalem, Jesus foresees the destruction
of the great city as a punishment for its failure to recognize him.
Driving away the merchants, Jesus begins to preach in the temple
and wins the allegiance of the common people. He refuses to justify
his authority to the chief priests and elders who oppose him. Chastising
them, he compares them to wicked tenants, who will be evicted and
punished by the Lord, the true owner of the temple. The Jewish leaders attempt
to entrap Jesus verbally, but he subverts them while asserting the
importance of obedience to secular authority and belief in the resurrection
of the dead. Jesus prophesies that the mighty temple will be destroyed
and speaks of the great torment that will accompany the Apocalypse,
preceding the End of Days and the return of the Son of man, one
of Christ’s titles.
