The Gospel of Luke was designed to be the first part of a two-volume narrative, the second being The Acts of the Apostles. We call the author 'Luke' by tradition, though we don't really know who wrote this double work, except that he might have been a companion of Paul. Whoever he was, he brought to his task wonderful skills as a narrator. He knows that he is not the first to write about the life of Jesus (1:1-2), but he writes so well that his accounts linger long in the memory: the shepherds at Bethlehem, the Prodigal Son, the disciples on the road to Emmaus are just three of the many memorable stories we owe to Luke.
Luke's account of Jesus' birth sets the tone of the Gospel as a whole. God chooses to work in remarkable ways through the most unexpected people - an aged priest and his wife (Zechariah and Elizabeth) and a young unmarried girl in Galilee (Mary). Luke knows the larger political scene in which this story is played out, but he delights to find God working the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary. Who would expect the Saviour of the world to be recognised first by despised shepherds (there are no prestigious 'wise men' in Luke!)? Mary's song ('the Magnificat') sums up the theme: God's grace has brought the powerful down from their thrones and lifted up the lowly (1:52).
Jesus' ministry in Luke begins with a crucial sermon in Nazareth (4:16ff.). Here he claims the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy of 'good news to the poor' and then scandalises his hearers by suggesting that God's priority is the outsider, the unregarded, the ones we dismiss as 'not our sort'. From this point on Jesus continually surprises and amazes everyone with words and deeds of grace. He eats with sinners, welcomes women as disciples, takes a meal with the much-loathed Zacchaeus, touches the lepers clean and even tells a story about a Samaritan (a nation despised by Jews), whose love for a Jew outshone the priests! This boundary-breaking Jesus brings hope and forgiveness to all (even a thief on a cross!) and in his name the gospel will spread beyond Judaism to the non-Jewish (Gentile) world.
The extravagance of grace is well-exemplified in Luke's famous parables (he has 29 in all). The lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost (prodigal) son form a trio in chapter 15, demonstrating the limitless mercy of God. But grace is controversial. The older brother finds his father's generosity galling, and Jesus' message similarly meets opposition from many sides. In fact, he causes a crisis among those who consider themselves 'upright' and 'religious': they are shocked to find God is more interested in the outsider.
Indeed, as Mary predicted, Jesus turns a lot of things upside down. Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount (6.17ff.) is brutally plain: 'blessed are you poor' and 'woe to you rich'. Jesus has a lot to say in the Gospel about money, and most of it is very critical: money traps, blinds and hinders those who have it. There are several parables on this theme, unique to Luke, culminating in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (16.19ff.); for most of us that is not comfortable reading!
Conflict builds up throughout this Gospel until it climaxes in Jerusalem. Here Jesus receives the worst that the powers-that-be (both Pilate and Herod) can mete out: shame, isolation, pain and death. But the grace of God has one final surprise: the resurrection. Slowly the disciples begin to see everything (even the Bible) anew, and they recognise that they are called into the same dynamic of grace. The challenge of the commission calls Jesus' followers into an open future: to take up their cross daily (9:23) and to 'be merciful just as your Father is merciful' (6.36). It led them on a road that changed the world, and is issued just as strongly to us, their successors.
Luke's Gospel requires a health warning: 'Beware! This story could blow your mind!'
John Barclay
New Testament, University of Glasgow