St. Luke, Evangelist
Dear friends in Christ. Today we remember the holy Evangelist, the writer of the Third Gospel, St. Luke. Luke is a name that comes from Latin word for “light”; and so “Luke” means something like “belonging to or connected with light.” –How fitting for an evangelist writing of Christ, the Light of the world. Luke was a Gentile by birth and by profession he was a physician, as St. Paul calls him [Col.4.14]: the beloved physician. Also, in this same section St. Paul lists St. Luke among his Gentile helpers. The Church Fathers assume that Luke was a native of Antioch, St. Paul’s headquarters for his missionary work. As a Greek, Luke got a good education which can be seen in the good Greek style his Gospel account. Reading through his Gospel and the Book of Acts, which he also wrote, you can see that St. Luke is also an excellent historian. Reading through the Gospel, you can see Luke was a doctor since he was familiar with medical terms and practice and his accurate and detailed reports of cases of sickness.
We also can see reading through the book of Acts that St. Luke was also St. Paul’s fellow laborer and companion in some of his missionary journeys because during parts of the missionary journeys Luke says “we” went here or there; “we” did this or that. He was there with St. Paul and a witness of the events.We read in today’s epistle that Paul wrote from his Roman prison cell: Only Luke is with me.
St. Luke wrote his Gospel especially for Gentile Christians—and one in particular, a certain Theophilus, about whom we don’t know much except that he must have been a prominent man. St. Luke emphasizes in his Gospel that Jesus is the Savior of all people—Jew and Gentile. The old Italian poet Dante calls Luke “the writer of the gentleness of Christ.” From ancient days the symbol of St. Luke in the Church is the winged steer—a steer, a symbol of sacrifice because St. Luke again and again points to Jesus’ work of salvation and His sacrifice for the sins of the world.
1. Our text is the first few verses of St. Luke’s Gospel and the end of his Gospel. Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have 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.
Notice in particular that last phrase: so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. That’s why the Gospel of St. Luke! That’s why the Holy Spirit led St. Luke to carefully investigate[] everything from the beginning and to write an orderly account. Long story short: God wants us to be certain of our faith. He does not want you to be forever floundering and in doubt as to whether what you believe is true or not; He does not want you in doubt about your salvation. He wants you to have the certainty of faith. There is no virtue in doubting/ wringing your hand and saying, “Oh, I wish I knew if I was truly saved by Christ.” God does not want to “leave you hanging.” Instead, He wants to give you that glorious certainty that that faith which He created in/ gave to you is true: so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
We face so many enemies day in and day out that want to rob us of/ destroy our faith in Christ. The sinful world around us bombards us constantly placing thoughts in our minds and setting bad examples continually before our eyes. It tries to get us to question or doubt what God clearly says in His holy word: it tries to dismiss the notion that there really is a God—after all everything came via evolution, you don’t need an Almighty God; there’s really no absolutes, no right or wrong—what’s true or right for you may not be true/ right for me; all religions lead to the same god—salvation is not by Jesus and His saving work alone. None of us wants to look like/ be some sort of freak—not going along with the flow. If I am different in what I think and believe, maybe I’m the one who is wrong—is what the world around us wants us to think and so turn us away from the faith. How easy it is to doubt and then turn away from our holy Christian faith. How our faith needs certainty!
We have our old sinful self in us that is always trying to lead us into sin and then to dismiss that sin, making it seem not so bad—until we do it and then as soon as we sin, we have a relenting, accusing conscience that our sinful nature wants to use to drive us to despair, to doubt whether that sin is forgiven, to doubt whether we have a gracious God in Christ.
When we endure hardship and trial, our old sinful self rises up and tries to get us to doubt God and His good and gracious will toward us, to turn away from Him. We need the certainty of faith, that is, we need to have it that our faith is firmly grounded and not easily rocked. St. Luke’s co-worker, St. Paul, writes [Col. 2.6-7]: As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught... Notice, this grounding and making the faith certain is not just for newcomers to the faith/ recent converts but it is for all Christians; it is something that we as Christians are always striving to do—being rooted and built up in Christ and established in the faith; or, as St. Luke puts it: so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. What’s interesting is that the word translated the things you have been taught is the same word where we get our word "catechism" from. Theophilus was catechized and we too are catechized/taught the faith—but we forever need its certainty.
The vital thing for Theophilus and for us is that we know who Jesus is and what He has done for us and our salvation. Anyone can claim anything but the “proof is in the pudding”; and with Jesus the proof is in the fact that He fulfilled all of the OT prophecies about the Savior—who He would be and what He would do. Everything the OT prophesied about the Savior of the world, we find accomplished in the NT in the Person and work of Jesus. And that’s why St. Luke wrote his Gospel— Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us; that’s why the Holy Spirit led St. Luke as well as Sts. Matthew, Mark and John to write their Gospels. These things have been fulfilled among us.
Christianity is not some philosophy that is just a series of thoughts or propositions that a person can adopt to make their life “fuller/ better.” Instead, Christianity is all about solid, concrete events of God coming into human history to rescue us from our greatest distress and sorrow—sin, death, devil and eternity in hell. That’s the Incarnation—true God becoming also true man in the womb of the virgin Mary; God becoming one of us to take our place under God’s holy Law and obey it for us—since we can’t because we’re sinners; and because we’re sinners Jesus took all our sins upon Himself to the cross where He paid the price for them, suffering God’s wrath over them and dying, and by this reconciling us sinners to the holy God, bringing us the forgiveness of sins. The Christian faith is certain because it is God’s work, His entering human history to be our Savior—and all of this from Jesus’ birth, to His teaching and miracles, to His suffering, death, resurrection and ascension is all observable as concrete historical acts.
That’s why the Gospels—like St. Luke, who says: the account of the things that have been fulfilled among us…were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you… Here is: trust but verified. Faith trusts in/ relies upon Christ but the facts, the events that faith is grounded upon are all reliable, observable facts. Christianity is not some “pie-in-the-sky” thinking but reality—the reality that the true God became also true man to be our Savior from sin, death, devil and hell.
It’s not even that Christ just appeared on the scene and made a new claim and demanded acceptance of it. Instead, from the very beginning of human history, as soon as the first people, Adam and Eve, sinned, God promised to enter human history to be its Savior. Throughout the OT in each generation, God repeated that promise and gave further details on it—until He finally came born of the virgin in Bethlehem. That’s exactly what Jesus says at the end of our text to His disciples: “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
2. Although St. Luke carefully investigated everything from the beginning, things that were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word and to write an orderly account, this is no way makes the Gospel accounts of our Lord’s life a mere “history lesson.” Instead, it was by the work and the impulse of the Holy Spirit that it seemed good also to St. Luke to write this Gospel. It was the Holy Spirit who guided St. Luke as he carefully investigated everything from the beginning, things that were handed down…by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word; and it was the Holy Spirit who gave St. Luke the words He wanted him to use, so that at the end of the day—just like the rest of the Bible—although written by a man, here St. Luke, the real author, “the Author behind the author,” is the Holy Spirit. That makes the Gospel of St. Luke—just like every book of the Bible—not just a human word but a divine word. This is important because precisely because Scripture is a divine word the Holy Spirit is at work in/through it.
When we think about the great mysteries the Gospel of Luke contains—such as the virgin birth, the great miracles of healings and feeding, the great teachings of the mercy and compassion of God, the suffering, death, resurrection, ascension of Jesus, the God-Man, who can understand it? Left to ourselves, our human reason does not/ cannot comprehend the Gospel. But guess what? It’s the word of God; the Holy Spirit is mightily at work in it to create faith in our hearts to believe it and to grow and deepen in that faith as we study and ponder the word. That the Holy Spirit is at work in the word, in the Gospel word, creating and furthering this understanding, this is a gift of the risen Christ. St. Luke records in our text: Then [Jesus] opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. Through the Holy Spirit working in the word, He, by God’s grace, works faith in us so that we believe that word and receive it and have the glorious certainty the word gives us of the forgiveness of sin. [Jesus] told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations… The reason why the Holy Spirit moved the prophets and apostles to write the Scriptures is to point us to our Savior from sin, death, devil and hell; to give us in the word the forgiveness of sin. The Holy Spirit had the Scriptures written down so that we may have as certain a foundation of doctrine: so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
Because all of Scripture—like St. Luke’s Gospel—is a divine word, the Holy Spirit is continually mightily at work in it not only bringing us to faith but also in that word giving us what Jesus brought about for us, what it promises—the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Through that same word, He works in you a thorough, real and deep knowledge and love of our Lord and faith in Him and His saving work. Through that word your faith has a firm, certain and solid foundation to stand firm against all attacks against it. Be faithful and diligent in the word. Praise be to God for His holy writers—the prophets, apostles and evangelists like St. Luke. INJ