The Gospel of Luke

Luke tells the story of Jesus from the Temple in Jerusalem, where an old priest is struck silent, to the Temple in Jerusalem, where the disciples stay "continually" blessing God (24:53). In between he shows the Saviour coming to the people nobody would have chosen: shepherds, widows, tax collectors, a woman with a bad name, a thief on a cross.

Only Luke has the Annunciation in full, the Magnificat, the shepherds, the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, Zacchaeus, the good thief and the road to Emmaus. Without this one book, the Church's Christmas and her picture of mercy would be far poorer.

He writes so that a believer may know that what he was taught is solid (1:4). Read slowly, it is the Gospel of mercy, of prayer, of the Holy Spirit and of joy.

An empire at peace, and a people under occupation. Luke sets his story firmly in world history. He names the emperor Augustus and the census (2:1), then Tiberius, Pontius Pilate and Herod (3:1). He wants the reader to see that these things did not happen "in a corner", in some private religious dream, but in a dated, public world (the phrase is Paul's, in Luke's own Acts 26:26).

The Jewish homeland. Judea was governed by Rome through a prefect; Galilee by Herod Antipas. Most people were poor country folk who carried heavy taxes. Tax collectors worked for the foreign power and were despised. Samaritans and Jews had a bitter, centuries-old quarrel, which is why a Samaritan hero in a parable would have startled the listeners.

The Temple and the faithful of Israel. Luke loves the Temple and the devout Jews who wait for God: Zechariah and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna, Mary and Joseph, who do all that the Law requires (2:22 to 24, 2:39). The Gospel opens in deep respect for God's first people. Jesus, his mother and his first disciples are all Jews, and nothing in this book may be used to teach contempt for the Jewish people (Nostra Aetate 4).

The Greek cities. Luke writes elegant Greek, and opens with a formal preface in the manner of the historians of his day (1:1 to 4). His readers seem to live in the wider Mediterranean, in mixed cities where rich and poor sat in the same house church. That may be why he speaks so often about money, about who is invited to the table, and about Jesus as Saviour of all peoples. If the common modern dating is right, Jerusalem has already fallen to Rome in the year 70, and he is writing for a Church that must now live out its faith day after day, in a long stretch of history.

The Church's tradition. The book does not name its author, but from the second century the Church has known it as Luke's. St Irenaeus, writing about 180, says that "Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him" (Against Heresies 3.1.1, translation in the Ante-Nicene Fathers). Tertullian defends this Gospel as having been kept in the Church from its first publication (Against Marcion 4.5); Origen and St Jerome receive it without any hint of doubt. Dei Verbum 18 says the Church has always and everywhere held that the four Gospels are of apostolic origin: what the Apostles preached, "apostolic men" later set down in writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Luke is such an apostolic man.

What the New Testament says of him. Paul names him three times: "the beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14), a fellow worker (Philemon 24), and the friend who stayed at the end: "Only Luke is with me" (2 Timothy 4:11). In Colossians he seems to be listed apart from those of Jewish birth (4:10 to 14), so many take him to be a Gentile, though this is an inference. In parts of Acts the story suddenly says "we" (16:10 to 17; 20:5 to 15; 21:1 to 18; 27:1 to 28:16), and tradition takes these as the author's own journeys with Paul.

What later tradition adds. Eusebius calls him a native of Antioch and a physician (Church History 3.4.6). An ancient prologue says he wrote in Greece and died full of the Holy Spirit at an advanced age; its versions differ on age and place. St Jerome says he was buried at Constantinople. Whether he died a martyr is disputed. That he painted Our Lady is a later legend, and that is why painters took him as their patron.

A scholarly note. Traditionally by Luke, the companion of Paul. Some scholars today think the author was a later Christian who knew the Pauline tradition, or they weigh the "we" passages differently; others defend the traditional name. On the date, many propose about 80 to 90, thinking that Luke's words on the fall of Jerusalem (19:43 to 44; 21:20 to 24) look back on the events of the year 70. Older Catholic writers placed it earlier, because Acts ends with Paul still a prisoner in Rome. Most scholars hold that Luke used Mark and a collection of sayings shared with Matthew, along with material found only here, and he himself says that he consulted those who went before him (1:1 to 3). None of these questions touches the faith. Whoever the human hand, the Church receives this book as inspired, with God as its author, teaching firmly and without error the truth God wanted written for our salvation (Dei Verbum 11). She firmly holds to its historical character, while recognising that the Evangelists selected and arranged what they handed on, always to tell us the honest truth about Jesus (Dei Verbum 19; CCC 126).

The great shape of the book is a journey. Everything moves up to Jerusalem, and in Acts everything moves out from it.

A textual note. Some ancient manuscripts lack the angel and the sweat like blood at the agony (22:43 to 44) and the prayer "Father, forgive them" (23:34), and some Bibles mark them. The Church proclaims them. She receives the sacred books "in their entirety, with all their parts" (Dei Verbum 11).

• Salvation is for everyone. Luke traces the family line of Jesus not to Abraham only but to Adam (3:38). Simeon sees "a light for revelation to the Gentiles" (2:32), and at the end repentance is to be preached "to all nations" (24:47). Israel is not set aside in this: the same verse of Simeon calls the child the glory of "your people Israel".
• Mercy. Be merciful as the Father is merciful (6:36), Luke writes where another Evangelist has "perfect". Chapter 15 gathers the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. Benedict XVI calls the third "the famous parable of the merciful Father" and notes that only Luke gives it (Angelus, 16 September 2007). See also the sinful woman (7:36 to 50) and Zacchaeus (19:1 to 10).
• The poor, and the danger of riches. Mary sings that God fills the hungry (1:53). Jesus opens his ministry with good news to the poor (4:18), blesses them (6:20) and warns the rich (6:24). See the rich fool (12:16 to 21), the guest list (14:12 to 14), the rich man and Lazarus (16:19 to 31). Wealth itself is not condemned: Zacchaeus gives half of his possessions to the poor and makes good what he took (19:8), and the women who follow Jesus support him from their means (8:3). What is condemned is the closed heart. The Catechism sees Lazarus in the hungry of today (CCC 2463).
• Prayer. Jesus prays before each decisive moment: at his baptism (3:21), before choosing the Twelve (6:12), before Peter's confession (9:18), at the Transfiguration (9:28 to 29), on the Mount of Olives (22:41 to 44), on the Cross (23:34, 23:46). The Catechism says this directly (CCC 2600). Three parables on prayer come from him alone: the friend at midnight (11:5 to 8), the widow and the judge (18:1 to 8), the Pharisee and the tax collector (18:9 to 14) (CCC 2613).
• The Holy Spirit. The Spirit overshadows Mary (1:35), fills Elizabeth and Zechariah (1:41, 1:67), rests on Simeon (2:25), descends on Jesus (3:22), leads him (4:1, 4:14) and anoints him (4:18). The Father gives the Spirit to those who ask (11:13). Acts continues the story.
• Joy and "today". The Gospel is loud with joy (1:14, 1:47, 2:10, 10:21, 15:7, 24:52). Salvation comes now: "today" at Bethlehem (2:11), at Nazareth (4:21), in Zacchaeus' house (19:9), and on the Cross (23:43).
• Women in the story. Elizabeth, Mary, Anna, the widow of Nain, the sinful woman, Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Susanna (8:1 to 3), Martha and Mary (10:38 to 42), the bent woman (13:10 to 17), the women at the tomb, who are the first to carry the news (24:1 to 10).
• Following, every day. Only Luke adds "daily" to taking up the cross (9:23). A disciple is called to a long fidelity, in the ordinary stretch of time.
• Mary, the first believer. She hears the word and says yes (1:38). Elizabeth calls her "the mother of my Lord" (1:43) and blesses her faith (1:45). She treasures all these things in her heart (2:19, 2:51). She is there in the upper room with the Church at prayer (Acts 1:14). The Annunciation is told with the virgin conception made plain: Mary asks how this can be, and the answer is the power of the Holy Spirit (1:34 to 35; CCC 484 to 485). Luke speaks of Jesus' mother and "brothers" (8:19 to 21) and of her "firstborn" (2:7). The Church has always understood these passages as not referring to other children of the Virgin Mary; "brothers" follows an Old Testament way of speaking of close relations, and Jesus is Mary's only son (CCC 500 to 501).

A word on the Passion. Luke shows the crowd and leaders of that day calling for Jesus' death, and he also shows Jerusalem's women weeping, and the people beating their breasts (23:27, 23:48). The Church teaches that the personal sin of those involved is known to God alone, that responsibility cannot be laid on the Jews of Jerusalem as a whole, and still less on Jews of other times and places. Sinners, all of us, were the authors of Christ's sufferings (CCC 597 to 598; Nostra Aetate 4). Jesus himself prays for forgiveness on the Cross.

New Revised Standard Version, word for word.

The Saviour. Luke is the only one of the first three Evangelists to give Jesus this title, and he gives it on the first Christmas night (2:11). Matthew's Jesus teaches like a new Moses and Mark's walks quickly toward the Cross. Luke's Jesus goes looking for people.

The Lord, Son of the Most High. The gentleness must not hide the height. The child is "Son of God" from the Annunciation (1:32, 1:35). Luke often calls him simply "the Lord", the name that the Greek Bible uses for God, already in his telling of the ministry (7:13, 10:1, 22:61).

The prophet anointed with the Spirit. At Nazareth he reads Isaiah and says it is fulfilled today (4:16 to 21). He is rejected there, as he will be in Jerusalem, and he goes on to weep over the city he loves (19:41).

The guest at table. He eats with Levi and his friends (5:29), with Simon the Pharisee (7:36), with Martha and Mary, with Zacchaeus. Meal follows meal up to the Last Supper, and to Emmaus, where he is known "in the breaking of the bread" (24:35). Luke's Supper gives the command to repeat the action (22:19).

The innocent one who forgives. On the Cross this Jesus is not silent toward others. He prays for those who crucify him (23:34), promises Paradise to a thief (23:43), and dies with a psalm of trust on his lips, calling God "Father" (23:46). A Roman officer declares him innocent (23:47).

The risen Lord who walks alongside. At Emmaus he joins two tired people going the wrong way, opens the Scriptures to them, and stays when they ask him to. He shows that all the Scriptures speak of him (24:27, 24:44 to 45).

The Catechism

• CCC 125 to 127: the Gospels are the heart of all the Scriptures; the three stages of their formation; the unique place of the fourfold Gospel.
• CCC 148: Mary embodies the obedience of faith, in the words of the Annunciation and Elizabeth's blessing. CCC 484 to 485, 494: the Annunciation and Mary's consent.
• CCC 545 to 546: Jesus invites sinners to the table and teaches in parables. CCC 1439: the Prodigal Son as the picture of conversion, with the merciful father at its centre.
• CCC 1021: the parable of Lazarus and the words to the good thief speak of the soul's destiny after death.
• CCC 1329, 1347: the breaking of the bread, and Emmaus as the same movement as the Mass: the Scriptures explained, then the bread broken.
• CCC 2600, 2613, 2619, 2759: the prayer of Jesus in Luke, the three parables on prayer, the Magnificat as the song both of the Mother of God and of the Church, and Luke's brief form of the Our Father with its five petitions.

Fathers and Popes

St Irenaeus (about 180), in substance: the four Gospels are like the four pillars of the Church; he sets Luke among them as the Gospel that begins with the priesthood of Zechariah, and likens it to the calf of sacrifice (Against Heresies 3.11.8). This is why the ox became Luke's emblem in Christian art.

St Ambrose, in his Exposition of Luke (about 390), in substance: every believer in some way conceives and gives birth to the Word of God. Benedict XVI recalls this in Verbum Domini 28, where he also calls the Magnificat a portrait of Mary's soul, entirely woven from threads of Holy Scripture.

Origen preached 39 homilies on Luke at Caesarea, which survive in St Jerome's Latin translation. St Ambrose drew on them.

Pope Benedict XVI recalled at the Angelus of 18 October 2009, the feast of St Luke, that Luke also wrote Acts to spread the Christian message to the ends of the known world. On 31 October 2010 he spoke of the special attention Luke gives to Jesus' mercy, in the story of Zacchaeus.

In the liturgy

Syro-Malankara. On the Sundays of Suboro, the season of annunciation that opens the year, the Sunday Gospels of the Sacred Lectionary come from Luke 1: the message to Zechariah (1:5 to 25), the Annunciation (1:26 to 38), the Visitation (1:39 to 56) and the birth of John (1:57 to 66). Luke returns in the Great Fast, for example the leper on Garbo Sunday (5:12 to 16) and the bent woman on K'piphtho Sunday (13:10 to 17), and in the Qyomtho season with Emmaus (24:13 to 35). The Ascension reads Luke 24:50 to 53.

Latin. Year C of the three-year Sunday cycle reads mostly from Luke; Benedict XVI notes this path through the Sundays in his Angelus of 14 February 2010. The Liturgy of the Hours prays three of Luke's songs each day: the Benedictus (1:68 to 79) in the morning, the Magnificat (1:46 to 55) in the evening, and the Nunc Dimittis (2:29 to 32) at night. The Hail Mary begins with the words of Gabriel and Elizabeth (1:28, 1:42), and the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary all come from Luke.

Syro-Malabar. The year opens with the Sundays of Annunciation, and in the lectionary of 2025 to 2026 their Gospels are from Luke: the promise to Zechariah (1:5 to 20), the Annunciation (1:26 to 38) and the birth of John (1:57 to 66). Luke 2:1 to 20 is read at Christmas. The Passion Friday Gospel in the 2026 to 2027 calendar comes from Luke (it begins at 22:63). The Evangelists are honoured together on the Third Friday of Denha. Readings differ between the first and second sets of the lectionary, so check the current calendar.

Read the whole Gospel in 24 days, a chapter a day, or use this plan of about two weeks. Before you begin, ask for the Holy Spirit, as Jesus tells us to (11:13). If you can, go on to Acts afterwards: it is the same story.

1. Days 1 to 2: chapters 1 to 2. Read slowly, with Mary. Pray the Magnificat.
2. Days 3 to 5: chapters 3 to 6. Mark what he says at Nazareth, and the Sermon on the Plain.
3. Days 6 to 7: chapters 7 to 9. Note who comes to him, and how he treats them.
4. Days 8 to 10: chapters 10 to 14. Note every mention of prayer and of money.
5. Day 11: chapter 15. Read it twice. Whose place are you in today: the younger son, the elder son?
6. Days 12 to 13: chapters 16 to 21.
7. Day 14: chapters 22 to 23, without hurrying.
8. Day 15: chapter 24. Walk to Emmaus. Then go to Mass or Qurbana, and notice the same two movements.