Luke: the Saviour who seeks the lost

Luke is a Gospel written by Luke the physician as an orderly account from eyewitnesses. It tells how Jesus, the Saviour born in the town of David, came to the poor, to sinners and to all who were lost, and it is the first volume of a story that goes on in Acts.

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Return of the Prodigal Son, c. 1668 · Source

About the book

Luke and Acts are two volumes written by one author to a man named Theophilus; Acts opens, "In my first book, O Theophilus" (Acts 1:1). Neither names its author, but the church has received them from the start as the work of Luke, Paul's companion. Around 180 Irenaeus wrote that Luke, Paul's companion, set down in a book the gospel Paul preached Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.1.1, and the Muratorian Fragment, an early list of New Testament books usually dated to the late second century, names Luke the physician as its author The Muratorian Fragment. Paul calls him "Luke, the beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14) and writes, "Only Luke is with me" (2 Timothy 4:11). In some passages of Acts the author says ‘we’, travelling with Paul (Acts 16:10).

Luke had not followed Jesus from the beginning. He tells how he wrote:

Therefore, having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
Luke 1:3-4

Traditionally the book is dated to the early 60s, since Acts, written after it, ends about 62 with Paul under guard in Rome. Most scholars think Luke drew on Mark and on a collection of Jesus' sayings that he shared with Matthew, and Luke himself says that "many have undertaken to compose an account" before him (Luke 1:1). So they place the book after Mark, and many hear the events of AD 70 in the words "when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies" (Luke 21:20), dating it to the 80s. Many other scholars, among them evangelicals, who stress the authority of Scripture and the telling of the gospel, keep the 60s: Acts ends without telling of Paul's death or Jerusalem's fall, and there is no need to read Jesus' warning of that fall as written after the event.

Its events fall in the era the map under the Jesus tab calls Jesus (c. 4 BC–AD 30). Writing for Gentile readers, Luke sets the story within world history, in the days of "Caesar Augustus" (Luke 2:1) and of Pilate the governor (Luke 3:1).

How it unfolds

Beneath tall trees by the roadside, the Samaritan lifts the wounded man in his arms onto the back of his donkey. — Domenico Fetti, The Good Samaritan, c. 1618 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) · Source

The middle ten chapters follow the road Jesus took when he "resolutely set out for Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51), and many parables and stories found in no other Gospel lie along it.

Chapters	What happens
1–2	The births of John the Baptist and of Jesus; his childhood
3:1–9:50	In Galilee: the first sermon at Nazareth (4), teaching and miracles
9:51–19:27	The road to Jerusalem: the good Samaritan (10), the lost and found (15), Zacchaeus (19)
19:28–24:53	In Jerusalem: the passion and the cross, the resurrection, Emmaus, the ascension

Key passages

Jesus begins his work in the synagogue of his home town, Nazareth, reading from Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Luke 4:18-19

Then he says, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21). Just so, Luke's Jesus goes to the poor and the sick, to the women who travelled with him and served (Luke 8:1-3), to Samaritans (Luke 10:33), to tax collectors and sinners. This is also the Gospel of the Holy Spirit and of prayer. As Jesus prays, the Spirit comes down on him (Luke 3:21-22); he prays at every turning point, and he teaches that the Father will give "the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him" (Luke 11:13).

In chapter 15, to those who grumble that he welcomes sinners (Luke 15:2), Jesus tells the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. The son comes home:

So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
Luke 15:20

Chrysostom, the fourth-century preacher, notes that the father "did not wait to receive the words of his confession, but anticipates his supplication" Chrysostom. The story of Zacchaeus sums the book up in one line: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10).

The book and Christ

In a field at night an angel with a golden halo appears and points upward, while shepherds in sheepskins crouch on the ground or look up in astonishment. — Jules Bastien-Lepage, The Annunciation to the Shepherds, 1875 (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne) · Source

The angel told the shepherds, "Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!" (Luke 2:11). Born in Bethlehem, David's town, he is the king promised to David and, as Simeon sang, "a light for revelation to the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32). Luke keeps coming back to that ‘today’. "Today salvation has come to this house" (Luke 19:9), Jesus says at Zacchaeus's door, and on the cross he tells the repentant criminal, "today you will be with Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43).

The words this course takes as its key are Luke's. On the road to Emmaus the risen Jesus explained, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, "what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself" (Luke 24:27), and the two disciples said, "Were not our hearts burning within us" (Luke 24:32). That is why this course asks of every Old Testament book how it leads to Christ.

Reading it

A chapter a day takes twenty-four days; begin with Luke 1. Watch for the word today and for Jesus at prayer, and read the three parables of chapter 15 as one story. Next comes John, but you may also go straight on to Acts, the same author's second volume.

Practice

Practice 1 of 6
In Luke 1:1-4, how does Luke say he wrote his Gospel?
Practice 2 of 6
How are Luke and Acts related?
Practice 3 of 6
Which three parables does Jesus tell in Luke 15?
Practice 4 of 6
At Zacchaeus's house Jesus says, "For the Son of Man came…" How does the sentence end?
Practice 5 of 6
What news did the angel bring the shepherds?
Practice 6 of 6
What is true of the date of Luke?

Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.

Source

Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 3.1.1 — c. 180. How Matthew, Mark, Luke and John came to write the Gospels (John at Ephesus).
The early church, The Muratorian Fragment — An early list of New Testament books, usually dated to the late second century (some date it to the fourth); found in Milan and published by Muratori in 1740.

Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds and classic commentary. Each book's author and date are given as the church has received them, and scholars who see them otherwise are presented fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.