Many people say that John is their favorite gospel.

Previously, Matthew has been my favorite gospel. With the Sermon on the Mount and so many thorough teachings about kingdom living, most preachers and teachers have a ball with Matthew.

But since October, my favorite gospel is Luke. Imagine that. Have I mentioned that we have a baby boy named Luke?

So who is Luke and why is Christmas such a big deal with him? Matthew wants to establish Jesus as King, the long-awaited Messiah. Written by a Jew for Jews, Matthew takes a very Jewish look at Christmas. Mark is silent about the Christmas story, and last week I suggested some reasons. Mostly, Mark wants us to meet Jesus, the Son of God, Son of Man as an unfolding mystery.

Luke has the most to say about Christmas. Why? What's the point of Mary, Elizabeth, Angels, shepherds, Simeon, Anna, no room at the Inn?

Who is Luke?

1. Luke is the historian/author of both Luke and Acts. Acts refers directly to Luke as volume 1 and Luke leads directly into Acts. Even among scholars who love to debunk the obvious, this point is a given.

    

2. Luke is "the beloved physician" that Paul refers to in Colossians. He's a companion of Paul on some of his missionary ventures.

    

3. Luke is the only gentile writer in the whole New Testament, and possibly the whole Bible. Since he doesn't announce, "By the way, I'm not a Jew," we have to draw clues from the text. What clues?

    

   1. In Col. 4, Paul lists his companions who (like himself) are "of the circumcision" [Jews]. Luke's name is notably excluded.

       

   2. Acts 1:19 (written by Luke) tells about the death and burial of Judas. He was buried at Aceldama, "which in their tongue means 'field of blood'." Note the reference to "their" tongue. Hebrew is not Luke's native tongue.

       

   3. Luke knows the rules of Greek grammar and syntax. In fact, he is considered to be the finest writer of the New Testament from a literary standpoint. Greek is obviously a first language for Luke. And while huge portions of Mark's gospel are also found in Luke's, and while Luke likely had Mark sitting in front as he wrote, Luke goes out of his way to correct Mark's grammar. While Mark was also learned and well-schooled, Greek was a second language. For those who enjoy languages, Mark specifically botches the Greek imperfect tense over and over. Luke doesn't.

       

   4. Luke also drops some Semitic (Hebrew) phrases and replaces them with words more familiar to Greeks. He replaces "rabbi" with "master" and "amen" with "truly". In once case, he even switches "Satan" to "devil".

   So we know that Luke is a gentile Christian.
   

4. Luke is a historian, a physician, a gentile, and he's the most prolific writer (in sheer volume) in the New Testament. Luke and Acts together add up to more words than all thirteen of Paul's letters.

So who is Luke writing to?

Theophilus.

Who is Theophilus?

Well, Theophilus might be a person - perhaps a recent convert to the faith. Luke is concerned for Theo to know Jesus and the particulars of Christianity, so he goes to great lengths to tell his friend through two marvelous stories recorded for all time.

Or, Theophilus is all of us. The name means "lover of God" or "loved by God." So Luke could have been using the name Theophilus as a literary device. "I've prepared this orderly account for you, most excellent "Lover of God." I tend to hold this view - that Luke is writing for every lover of God. While some friends would go to the trouble to research and write a gospel for another friend, I think Luke is doing it for more than one friend.

What is Luke's agenda?

1. To write an exact, authoritative account of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. He's an educated guy, a scientist, really. So he researches and interviews and insists on working with primary sources. He likely used Mark's gospel, and possibly Matthew's gospel, and certain other "gospel letters" that were circulating. It's conceivable that Luke even talked to Mary, who would have been 70ish at the time Luke was preparing this. Luke wants the facts. He tracks down rumors, interviews eyewitnesses. As a scientist, historian and a westerner, Luke wants to separate fact from fiction - the myth from the man. He uses dates. He pays attention to chronology. Luke wants to get it right.

   What else?
   

2. Luke wants to establish the humanity of Christ in a day when weirdo cults were starting to grow up, claiming that Jesus never really took human form. That doesn't mean Luke denies the deity of Christ. No, he is the one who declares the virgin birth, along with angel visitors and a host of miracles. But Luke ties Jesus physically to this planet by way of his mother, Mary, as if to say, "Yes, Jesus was seeded by the Spirit, but he was conceived in and born to a woman."

    

3. Any other agenda? Luke wanted to legitimize Christianity as a viable religion in a multi-religious culture that could be hostile to certain faiths that were perceived as a threat. Jews are critical of Christianity. Romans are wary of it. In Luke, Jesus is no threat to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, at his inquisition. Pilate even pleads for Jesus, "What crime has he committed?"

    

4. Finally, Luke clearly establishes the global call of Christ and the cross-cultural relevance of the gospel message. Why? Obviously, Luke is a gentile. So the genealogy ties Jesus to Adam, not Abraham [Father of humanity, not the father of Israel]. There are several cross-cultural encounters in Luke, where Jesus talks and ministers to non-Jews. When Jesus heals the lepers in Luke 17, it's the Samaritan, "a foreigner?" who comes back to give thanks. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the superstar, again, is a Samaritan. In Luke 9, when the disciples want to call down fire from heaven on the heretical Samaritans, Jesus scolds them. In Luke 10, Jesus scolds two cities, Korazin and Bethsaida, for their hardheadedness. He says, "If this had happened in Tyre or Sidon (foreign cities) they would have repented long ago." Then, in the birth story, Simeon says about baby Jesus, "a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel." Quoting Isaiah 42:6.

All of this to say that Luke's agenda is to highlight, not fabricate, the international nature of the gospel message.

Okay, a few more things peculiar to Luke.

1. The place of women. Luke mentions women 42 times, way more than the other gospels. Women are healed, which any physician would likely note and record. Women financed Jesus' ministry (8:13). Women were at the cross and didn't run scared. Women prepared the body. Women found the empty tomb. Women own the early chapters (Elizabeth and Mary). A female prophetess, Anna, is one of the stars at Jesus' dedication. Women are everywhere. Luke could certainly be a woman's favorite gospel.

    

2. Prayer in the life of Christ. Luke shows Jesus praying all the time - at his baptism, in solitary places, at the selection of the 12, before the transfiguration, in the garden of Gethsemane, at the sending of the 70, before Peter's denial; 2 prayerful utterances from the cross. Luke makes a lot of Jesus' prayer life.

    

3. Focus on the poor. Mary refers to herself as a poor but blessed woman. Jesus quotes Isaiah in his hometown and says he's come to bring good news to the poor. His parables and beatitudes show God's heart for the poor and his deep concern for the rich. Jesus, in Luke, has a lot to say about stewardship or riches.

    

4. The parables. Luke loves Jesus' parables. Seventeen of them are found only in Luke, and of those, the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son are two of the best loves moral tales in the history of the world.

    

5. People. So many stories about people, and by name. Zechariah. Elizabeth. Simeon. Anna. Zacheus. Others. Like the best historians, Luke personalizes the stories of Christ's life and love. And, of course, he's been scrambling for facts that others would generalize.

    

6. The miraculous. Even though Luke is a historian and physician, and set on finding facts, he is so profoundly impacted by the miracles. Luke declares the Virgin birth. Luke tells us about the angelic visitors. Healings, healings and more healings. And Luke gives a great deal more detail to the resurrection than Mark.

With that, Luke emphasizes the Holy Spirit. The Spirit fills Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon. The Holy Spirit comes on Jesus at his baptism. To Luke, the Holy Spirit is at work, there are angels and other realms, and Jesus is a miracle worker. After checking all the facts, interviewing witnesses and generally hashing and rehashing the life of Jesus, I believe in miracles, says Luke.

So where am I in the gospel of Luke?

1. As for the miracles, I've had some really weird and wonderful ones. I've had miracles that were so obviously supernatural, but have left me confused about "why this, and not a child's brain tumor or the like." It's almost as if God wants me to be a total believer, so he's sprinkled my life with the miraculous - not so much for the miracle itself as for the stubborn faith that is the better outcome. I don't know why some of you haven't seen miracles and I don't believe there's a formula or trick to tapping in. I just know that God is real, God loves us, and according to His sovereign perspective, he proves it with miracles when He deems it appropriate. The rest of the time we're left with the ordinary, which is really nothing less than a miracle worth repeating over and over again.

    

2. As for the international scope of the gospel, I'm a blessed recipient - an adopted child, as it were. Like Luke, the only adopted gospel writer, I've been saved into the family of God because Jesus is "a light of revelation to the gentiles, as well as the glory of Israel." I have great respect for Israel as God's chosen messengers and witnesses of the One True God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I believe that Abraham's covenant makes it clear - I will bless you and your descendants to be a blessing to the whole world. This is realized through Jesus, and as a Swedish-Anglo American living with a Swedish-Anglo American wife and three children with a host of ethnic influences, I'm just grateful that in Christ there is no east nor west, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but that in Christ all are one.

    

3. Like Jesus in Luke's gospel, I love to tell stories. Writing parables is my favorite avocation, and I appreciate how well Jesus, especially in Luke, can tell a story.

    

4. I also love people. People matter. People thrill me and intrigue me and I wish I could know all of your names.

    

5. Mostly, though, I'm right at the beginning. My name is Theophilus - lover of god. Oh, God is so good…we have a relationship.

    

6. Or else I'm that one leper who came back…

Where are you in this story?

So much of this sermon is just trivia. You can get it in any nine dollar commentary at a Christian bookstore. Whoopee. But this last question is just so huge and it's the better part of the message. Where are you? After doing your own search for fact or fiction; after interviewing people of faith; after prayer and critical reading and wading in this stuff for a while, where are you?