Deeper Reflection
LUKE IS A HISTORIAN. LUKE’S CONTRIBUTION CAME AFTER diligent research. His sources were eyewitnesses with first-hand knowledge of Jesus’ life and ministry. Luke’s Gospel was historically grounded, accurate and purposeful. If not for Luke, we’ll not have the Christmas story of Jesus’ birth ¹³ . If not for Luke, we’ll not have some of the stories that augment the Christmas story, and for that matter, the beginning and growth of the early church in Acts. ¹⁴ Luke was also a theologian. He wanted to teach the recipients of his Gospel about God and the ways of God through Christ. He was interested in confirming Theophilus in his faith.Luke can be said to use history to inform his theology. There are distinct emphases: the themes of prayer, salvation and God’s special interest in the marginalised people in first-century Jewish Palestine (e.g., the sick, tax-collectors, women and children). Luke also emphasises the work of the Holy Spirit more than the other Synoptic Gospel writers. ¹⁵ This has two important applicational implications: (1) We can trust the Bible as historically reliable; and (2) We can share our story. Luke has a story of Jesus and the church (in Acts). If there’s a central theme in Luke-Acts, it might be “salvation”. Luke-Acts is the story of the “Saviour” (Lk 1:69; 2:11; Acts 5:31; 13:23), the story of those who are being saved (e.g., Lk 19:1-10; Acts 2:47), and traces how salvation extends from Israel to the ends of the earth (Lk 1:77; 2:30; Acts 1:8; 13:47). What’s your story? Are you purposefully sharing your redemptive story and how it weaves into the story of Jesus this Christmas?

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¹³ Only Matthew, besides Luke, has several verses describing the birth of Jesus; cf. Matthew 1:18-25 ¹⁴ It is almost universally recognised that Luke wrote Acts as a sequel to his Gospel; cf. Luke 1:3 with Acts1:1. ¹⁵ The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke form the Synoptic Gospels