Continuing with Luke and adding in “Prayer”

Julie Swannell

What with a visiting sixteen-month old grandson, and an adventure on the high seas of Moreton Bay, Luke did not have much of a look-in by me during September.  A reader suggested we continue on with Luke for September and another reader suggested we study the chapter on Prayer in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.  It seems appropriate that we do both, and see if we can find some connections between the two along the way.

While I’m told that Luke is the longest of all the Gospels, the chapter on Prayer is rather short at 17 pages.  It will be interesting to read the two in tandem.

The other morning I was pondering the word “Physician” which occurs six times in the Bible (twice in Luke’s gospel) and came across an interesting piece by a Victor Shepherd.  Readers may like to have a look at it at   http://www.victorshepherd.on.ca/Sermons/Luke.htm.  Writing in 2005, Mr. Shepherd, Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Tyndale, and Adjunct Prof. of Theology at University of Toronto, says:

“Luke's gospel is easily the warmest of the four.”

“Luke was a physician. He used a medical vocabulary instinctively. In the incident where the boy is said to be "thrown down" (English text) by his affliction, the Greek word Luke uses was the current medical term for convulsions. In the incident where the distraught father cries to Jesus, "Look upon my son!", the word Luke uses for "look upon" is the current medical term used of a physician seeing a patient. Like most physicians Luke was understandably defensive of the medical profession. When the menorrhagic woman approaches Jesus, Matthew and Mark tell us she had exhausted all her savings on physicians but was no better. Dr. Luke tells us the same story, but chooses to omit the part about costly medical treatment that has proved ineffective.”

“There are three emphases in Luke's mind and heart that receive more attention than anywhere else in the NT. The three emphases are
joy, the Holy Spirit, and prayer. All three are related; all three flow into and out of each other. In Luke's writings Jesus prays more, and Christians pray more, than in any other NT writings. Luke also says more about the Spirit, God's intimate, effectual work in and among Christian people. And Luke's writings throb with joy.”

 

When was Luke’s Gospel written?  Wikipedia suggests there are two differing viewpoints, that of traditional Christian scholarship which says it was written around 60AD and higher criticism which promotes the latter decades of the first century AD.

 

Wikipedia also tells us that the widely held view is that the author of Luke is also the author of the Acts of the Apostles and that they were perhaps originally a two-volume work.  Additionally, we read here that this Gospel lays “special emphasis on the activity of prayer, the Holy Spirit, women, and joyfulness”, that Luke “portrays Christianity as divine, respectable, law-abiding, and international”, and that the book may be divided into three sections: the period which includes John the Baptist; Jesus’ earthly mission; and church life after the resurrection.

 

Every sentence in this book is jam-packed with life, love, and spirit.  

 

Let’s have a look at some of the characters that set the scene and also a couple of the healings recorded. 

 

Herod the Great was a Roman “client” king of Judea (at the beginning of Luke, the Roman Emperor was Caesar Augustus and the governor of Syria was Quirinius– see chapter 2) and is known for his colossal building projects, like the expansion of the second temple at Jerusalem.  He lived from 73 or 74 BCE to 4 BCE, had many wives and a bunch of children.   I believe there will soon be a new movie called “Mary Mother of Christ” with Ben Kingsley taking the role of Herod.  Note that Herod the Great was succeeded by another Herod, so we are probably hearing about the second Herod in Luke’s Gospel.

 

 model of Herod's temple – photo by R. Cuadra

 

 

 

 

 

Zacharias, the priest, and his wife Elisabeth, provide a link to Jesus when we learn that Elisabeth is cousin to Mary, and that the cousins are both carrying very special babes, John (the Baptist) and Jesus.  Isn’t it lovely to read about the connection between the two mothers?  I love to read that “Mary arose...and went into the hill country with haste...and saluted Elisabeth”. I think she hurried because she really needed to discuss recent events with someone who would understand, and expectant mothers often share confidences with each other.  I also think Elisabeth was very spiritually minded and Mary’s special circumstances would not be understood by everyone.  She even says: “whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me”? Furthermore, Elisabeth was “well stricken in years” so perhaps she was like a favourite aunt, or even like a mother to Mary.

What a wondrous example of God’s presence and power when Zacharias and Elisabeth have a son even though Elizabeth is described as old, perhaps beyond child-bearing age.  And how joyous is Luke’s account of Zacharias regaining his ability to speak, once he confirms Elisabeth’s declaration that the name of their son will be John.  This couple – together and separately – express beautiful qualities such as devotion, attentiveness, intuitiveness, humility, hospitality and warm welcome, pure motivation, innocence, and youthfulness.

Next we meet Joseph, Mary’s betrothed husband.  What lovely qualities we find in Joseph, including trust, gentleness, expectancy, honour, fidelity, strength and listening.  Add this to Mary’s obvious calm, sense of pure holy purpose, receptivity and humility, and we can feel the beautiful preparation for the new babe.

Joseph travelled from the Galilean town of Nazareth to Bethlehem in Judah for the Roman census.  The pictures and captions that follow are from http://www.bibleplaces.com/nazareth.htm:

Nazareth: Aerial view from the north

Situated inside a bowl atop the Nazareth ridge north of the Jezreel valley, Nazareth was a relatively isolated village in the time of Jesus with a population less than two hundred.  Today Nazareth is home to more than 60,000 Israeli Arabs, and Upper Nazareth is home to thousands more Jewish residents.

View from the south

Very little is known about Nazareth from the ancient sources. Outside of the New Testament, Nazareth is never mentioned until the Byzantine period (4th c. AD). Archaeological excavations have confirmed that the city was only a small agricultural village during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

What a picture of joyfulness is given to the reader of Luke’s Gospel!  We have seen the child John greeted with such gratitude “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people” (Luke 1: 68).  And when the second babe arrives and is laid “in a manger” (Luke 2: 7) there is “great joy” (Luke 2: 10).  (Last year, in our family, we had two babies – cousins – arrive on the same day, and what a very happy effect that had on us all!)  

Simeon, who we are told is just and devout, holy and expectant of good, greets the child Jesus with reverence and affection and confirms Jesus’ special purpose, while Anna, a prophetess who, by some calculations, may be over 100 years old, expresses devotion to God, intuition and vision in

explaining to others  Jesus’ prophesied role.