The Final Word on Luke

Transcript

00:00:00:18 – 00:00:19:13
Clint Loveall
Hey, friends, thanks for being with us. We’re grateful to have you with us as we not really continue through the Book of Luke as we reflect on the book of Luke that we finished a couple of days ago and yesterday offered some thoughts today to kind of close that up. Just a note on the rest of the week.

00:00:19:13 – 00:00:42:34
Clint Loveall
We’ll take tomorrow off. Hope you can join us next week. We will take a look at some gospel texts as we walk through Holy Week and then the following week will be in the Book of Jonah. So look forward to that Jonah’s wonderful little book there. I would I would even say Michael, one of those books that people are convinced they know.

00:00:42:34 – 00:01:01:40
Clint Loveall
And often when they take the time to actually read through verse by verse, they find out maybe there were some parts of it that they didn’t get in the in the Sunday school version. So whether you know Jonah really well or maybe not. Hope you join us as we do that in a couple of weeks. Next week, we’ll be walking toward Easter together in the gospel text.

00:01:01:40 – 00:01:39:09
Clint Loveall
So. Today, though, some thoughts on Luke and maybe under the heading of, you know, what is unique about the Gospel of Luke. We’ve tried to say in this study that Luke has some themes that are very important. We’ve tried to call those out. Certainly that’s true. There is a significant list of things that are only true in Luke’s gospel, things like the dedication of many of your favorite Christmas details you might have gotten from Luke, the shepherds, the census, our one and only story of Jesus as a child at the temple.

00:01:39:09 – 00:02:33:43
Clint Loveall
Actually, another temple story following the birth of Jesus, his circumcision at the temple or his dedication. The story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, the Good Samaritan, the prodigal son, the story of the ten lepers, and the one man that’s grateful, and the ascension story all unique to Luke’s gospel and all, I think, point toward that. This idea that we’ve kind of pushed forward all the way through this study, that Luke has a very broad outlook of the Jesus story that he wants to tell a Jesus that is not just for the Jewish people, but for Gentiles, a a world wide story, a story that has a place for everybody the the poor, the struggling, the outcasts, the

00:02:33:43 – 00:03:00:25
Clint Loveall
women, the tax collector. So, you know, it’s interesting, Michael. I think that when you make a list of people of things people know, and if you ask them about parables, to ask them about some of these details, they may or may not know how many of them are exclusive to Luke. And I think that that makes Luke a really interesting, important contribution to the New Testament.

00:03:00:27 – 00:03:16:04
Michael Gewecke
You mention this, but just to extrapolate a little bit, I think you might be surprised if there was no Luke in the Bible. Your Christmas celebration is going to be radically different. It’s going to be extremely cut.

00:03:16:15 – 00:03:27:55
Clint Loveall
You don’t have peace on earth, goodwill to man, You don’t have shepherds, you don’t have a manger, right? You don’t have Bethlehem. Yeah, I mean, well, not not in any way, shape or form.

00:03:27:56 – 00:03:51:47
Michael Gewecke
The same the major stuff that you’re going to have in your children’s Christmas program is just missing. And by the way, I think that we might be surprised by that, Clint. We might well, we might be surprised by what Why is only in one book. But I would just encourage you for just a moment to think about what makes those parts of the Christmas story so relevant to Luke.

00:03:51:52 – 00:04:19:17
Michael Gewecke
Well, because of all of the the low and the outcast and the surprising characters within it, right. The shepherds in the field, we’re used to them, Clint, though. We’re used to that being in the Christmas story. But those are outlying characters. Those don’t make the literature of the day that the workers of the night shift are not the ones who get celebrated as really the recipients of any important information.

00:04:19:17 – 00:04:44:27
Michael Gewecke
And yet here the shepherds are and Mary and Joseph, we think of them as the natural parents of the Christ child. But friends, the gospel writers, go out of their way to make sure that we know how complicated of a situation this was for Joseph and really how Mary is powerless in the this social position that she’s put engaged to this man, but now pregnant with the son of God.

00:04:44:27 – 00:05:12:36
Michael Gewecke
She’s relying upon Joseph’s faith on his willingness to respond to God’s word. I know I’ve gone a long ways into that one story, but I think this exemplifies the reason why these stories are in Luke and why we celebrate them at Christmas, whether we’ve known so or not is because for Luke, they communicate these important narratives about the people who would otherwise be left out of the Kingdom of God and the people who would be looked over and the people who wouldn’t be given a voice.

00:05:12:36 – 00:05:33:34
Michael Gewecke
And yet, when Luke tells his story of Jesus, these are exactly the characters that Luke is going to lift out. And now we have them as central figures in our celebration, you know, this huge thing. And we might miss the the unique and important nature of what these stories were intended to tell by the writer.

00:05:33:34 – 00:06:13:19
Clint Loveall
Right. And we don’t know. There’s there’s no clear consensus among scholarship as to where Luke gets this material that isn’t in other gospels. But again, the parable of the prodigal son, a beloved parable, the parable of the Good Samaritan, arguably the best known of the parables. And these are unique to Luke the Magnificat Mary song, when she finds out that she’s going to have the Christ Child, we would be we would miss Luke terribly if if we didn’t have this gospel.

00:06:13:24 – 00:06:42:18
Clint Loveall
It it adds a great deal in shaping our understanding of Jesus. The material that Luke highlights for us says something specific, and it adds a richness to the overall picture as as each gospel does in its own way. But Luke gives us some stuff that I think people would would, you know, just desperately miss if it weren’t for that contribution.

00:06:42:18 – 00:07:15:34
Clint Loveall
And it’s surprising how much of some of those well, maybe it’s not surprising. We’ve said many times what a great writer Luke is. But having said that, maybe because of that, a lot of people’s favorite stories, it turns out, are probably somewhere in the Gospel of Luke. And I think that’s, you know, that’s a tribute to the way he writes the gospel, the way he tells the story, and to the information that he chose to highlight.

00:07:15:34 – 00:07:18:25
Clint Loveall
For those of us who would come afterwards.

00:07:18:30 – 00:07:43:53
Michael Gewecke
So, Clint, this is a little bit of a different comment per some of our normal studies, but we’re summarizing, we’re looking back on Luke. We’re not looking in a particular text. So this is a this is very firmly in sort of the way that I felt reading Luke I to be clear about that. But I think if you look at a list, I pulled up a list here of different things that are uniquely included in Luke.

00:07:43:53 – 00:08:03:39
Michael Gewecke
So you’ve got these parables, things that Clint has already mentioned. These are unique to Luke’s gospel telling here. And then if we keep going down teachings of Jesus that are unique to Luke and then you keep coming down, I won’t just point out like chapter 22 there you remember the study, the necessity of the person, this or that.

00:08:03:43 – 00:08:29:51
Michael Gewecke
That’s a really hard text talking about the one who had just talked not long ago about going out without anything at all and trusting God to lead you. Now Jesus says, time to take your sword. And then you got some of these narrative elements that are unique to the Book of Luke. And, you know, there’s some interpretive work being done here, whether it’s unique or not, or how much there needs to be different for it to be unique.

00:08:29:56 – 00:08:57:19
Michael Gewecke
I only show this to to make this case. Clint I think Luke is on one hand a sweet gospel. It’s a pleasant gospel. It’s a beautiful gospel. There are moments in it that are emotionally rapturous. I think there are stories like the Parable of the Good Samaritan, where there’s almost a kind of when you read it, there’s a jubilation in Jesus’s win because it’s not just a win for Jesus, it’s a win for humanity.

00:08:57:19 – 00:09:26:18
Michael Gewecke
It’s a win for this this kingdom that that turns everything upside down and makes it right. And over and over again. We’re overwhelmed by these characters whose lives are benefited by what Jesus is proclaiming this. This is really good news at its core. Then also, Clint, there’s no way around it. There are also some unbelievably hard readings and teachings in Luke that also simultaneously exist.

00:09:26:18 – 00:09:53:49
Michael Gewecke
I just remember the times I’ve cringed in the midst of this study because Luke found me, got me in the crosshairs, and got me right between the eyes and, you know, things like greed, things like judgmental ism, things like religious leaders seeking after their own power and privilege. There are lots of moments when Jesus turns to something like Jerusalem and offers woes both on his way and then actually on his way out, even towards his crucifixion.

00:09:53:49 – 00:10:24:52
Michael Gewecke
And at these points, he’s blistering about what will happen, about the judgment, about the destruction. There’s there’s this amazing reconciliation motion that is happening simultaneously with very, very difficult teachings about this struggle to come, about the destruction that is reality, about the brokenness of the world, of all of that is contained in this book. And if you were going to flatten Luke and say Luke is just about the powerless and just about you’re going to miss it, you’re going to miss that.

00:10:24:52 – 00:10:49:22
Michael Gewecke
There’s these dynamic tense of forces in Luke. They’re all happening and Luke’s included them. All we know on purpose is an excellent right, This is a non accident. And I think in my reading of Luke this time, I was struck by how you could be comforted in this book and also you can be greatly afflicted by this book, but both of those will happen if you read it closely.

00:10:49:22 – 00:10:51:54
Michael Gewecke
And I think that’s a striking feature of the book.

00:10:52:06 – 00:11:22:06
Clint Loveall
Yeah, and you know, it can get missed, Michael. But I checked did a little checking earlier in the week and Luke uses the word that gets translated joy 12 times in his gospel verses eight for John, three for Matthew and one for Mark. And so Luke has this significant thread of joy and and in some of the hard texts and some of the harsh texts that can get lost.

00:11:22:06 – 00:11:44:52
Clint Loveall
But you think about this and it kind of brackets it. If you remember the Angels show up to the shepherds and say, We have good news of a great joy. And then the second to last book, the I’m sorry, the second to last verse in the book says and they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

00:11:44:52 – 00:12:08:24
Clint Loveall
So the narrative of Jesus, the birth of Jesus and the ascension of Jesus are both bracketed with joy. And then six other times Luke is going to have characters who rejoice and the word joy comes up. And so I don’t know that it gives you that feeling when you read because there are the peaks and valleys in it.

00:12:08:29 – 00:12:30:43
Clint Loveall
But Luke is committed to the idea that the presence and work and Person of Jesus Christ ushers joy into believers and into the world. And so I want to give him due for that, because I think it’s one of the themes that may be subtle, but when you run the numbers, it’s clearly there.

00:12:30:48 – 00:12:52:39
Michael Gewecke
Well, I think you would have a hard time arguing that Luke is not a master teacher of evangelism. I mean, this book clearly shows us what happens when lives encounter the resurrected power of Jesus Christ, even though that comes at the very end of the book. It’s that kingdom power he’s proclaiming that is already at work in the world.

00:12:52:39 – 00:13:37:51
Michael Gewecke
And when lives encounter that the Son of God and they’re transformed. These people become evangelists, they become tellers of that story. They go into regions where they had not been heard, and they’re the first ones there to share the good news that they have received. Luke It may not play out like a training manual, but if you understand that each one of these people’s stories mirrors our story as we encounter the power of the risen Christ, then you begin to understand very quickly and this becomes explicit once you get into acts, which is the second part of this book, you begin to discover that the way that Jesus lived and impacted those that he encounter,

00:13:37:51 – 00:13:58:39
Michael Gewecke
that is the way that the disciples with the power of the spirit conferred upon them at Pentecost. They are the ones who go out and then it’s that force alive network in them, which continues to bring about that renewal, that kingdom, that that in small measure, each one of these disciples has a part to play in witnessing to the good news.

00:13:58:39 – 00:14:32:27
Michael Gewecke
And that’s what evangelism is. It’s sharing the thing that you’ve been a witness to. And that’s, you know, seen lots of twists and turns throughout history. But but Luke, at its core, I think, codifies for us the way that Christians have always practically lived. That is, once you have an encounter with Jesus Christ, something changes and then you’re sent out, you’re you’re moved away from that formative moment into a life in which you now bring it, you bear it, you share it, and it becomes a part of who you are, becomes a part of your character.

00:14:32:27 – 00:14:39:34
Michael Gewecke
And each one of these stories along the way becomes a mini lesson as to what that looks like in our personal lives.

00:14:39:39 – 00:15:09:41
Clint Loveall
And I think one of the great examples of that is, again, a story that only Luke includes devoting a significant part of the crucifixion or resurrection Easter narrative to it, that the disciples were on walking to a mass. And you know that that text has been so foundational for an understanding of what it means that Jesus lived again, was resurrected, was raised from the dead, you know.

00:15:09:41 – 00:15:34:09
Clint Loveall
So for that alone, we’re grateful to Luke, and there are dozens of other things. So we hope that there’s been something if you’ve been with us, the whole study again, thank you. However long you’ve it’s been that you’ve joined us, hope there’s something in it that’s helpful as we’ve tried to listen to Luke and listen in Luke, for what we could learn about Jesus through his words and his insights.

00:15:34:13 – 00:16:01:51
Clint Loveall
We hope that it’s been helpful at some level in your own walk of faith as always, if you have questions or thoughts, please feel free to share them with us. We’d love to try and respond the best we can. A reminder we will not be tomorrow. I will be back Monday as we take a look at various passages in the Gospels that lead us to Easter, with next week being Holy Week and then the following week we will start the book of Jonah.

00:16:01:51 – 00:16:04:16
Clint Loveall
So I hope you can join us for all of that.

00:16:04:21 – 00:16:37:48
Michael Gewecke
While also express my own know the personal gratitude in that just like Clint said, and want to just note kind of a crazy thing, we didn’t plan it this way, but this will be our last video in the series of Luke as we transition to these things that Clint is just sharing that will make it 120 videos. And so everyone who has joined us for the 120 and there are those of you who have not missed a single one, I cannot communicate the gratitude for that time that you’ve spent, that that’s a significant investment in the things of faith.

00:16:37:48 – 00:16:48:46
Michael Gewecke
We don’t take it lightly. We hope that we might continue the journey with you and that you might continue to feel that it benefits you in your own life of discipleship. So thank you. We will see you next week.

00:16:48:57 – 00:16:49:40
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.