Reading the Gospel of Luke for God’s Mission
Nostalgia is a powerful tool in storytelling. Pop culture is full of it right now. Remember watching the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer for the first time? This exchange still gives me chills. “There are stories about what happened,” says Rey. “It’s true,” replies Han Solo. “All of it.” There’s something like this at work in the Gospel of Luke and the way it entices us into God’s mission in the world.
There are stories about what happened. They’re all true.
That one about old Abraham and Sarah who wait their entire lives before finally having a baby? It happens again with John and Elizabeth.
That one about how in the middle of one of the darkest times of Israel, Hannah finds herself miraculously pregnant and so she sings a song about how God turns everything upside-down? It happens again with Mary.
The ones about the prophets who miraculously provide food for widows and the ones where the prophets raise the dead? It happens again with Jesus and the disciples.
The stories happened. And they happen again and again.
Nostalgia hooks us because it takes a whole host of images and sounds and phrases we’ve heard a hundred times that push the buttons of all our emotions and then remixes those images into a new, fresh story. Luke does this all the time. He gives us stories about Jesus and each one is wrapped in familiar Old Testament pictures. Every scene echoes. Every sequence rhymes with the ancient story of Israel.
Luke is just one part of the Big Story
What’s your favorite epic story? Star Wars? Harry Potter? Lord of the Rings? For Luke, the Jesus story is one more installment in God’s epic story of good and evil, of the great rescue of humankind from Sin and Death.
For Luke, the Jesus story isn’t an isolated story. It’s rooted deep in the Old Testament, the story of Israel. When Mary and Zechariah both respond to God’s work in song in chapter 1, they each name God’s covenant to Abraham. The angel Gabriel tells Mary that her baby will have the throne of David.
Simeon is said to be “eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel.” And then hear the despondent disciple on the road to Emmaus: “We had hoped [Jesus] was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel.” In that same scene, Jesus then retells the Israel story in such a way that resurrection doesn’t make sense without it.
Likewise, we can’t read Luke without Acts. They are two halves of a whole. They’re like successive seasons of your favorite television show. The story of the church continues the story of Jesus. Not only does Luke rhyme with the Old Testament, Acts rhymes with Luke. Paul’s journey to Jerusalem at the end of Acts and his trial before the religious establishment mirrors Jesus’ own journey to the center of Israel’s story. Luke clearly lays out that what Jesus did, Jesus’ followers continue to do.
Because of this, we can say that our story today is the story of the church. And the story of the church is the story of Jesus. And the story of Jesus is the story of Israel. And the story of Israel is the story of the God who made the world and is redeeming it from sin and death.
The Holy Spirit is a primary character in Luke
No other Gospel writer talks about the Holy Spirit like Luke does. No other writer uses the phrase “filled with the Holy Spirit.” But it’s how Luke describes Zechariah and Mary. Matthew mentions the Holy Spirit twice, Mark once, John twice. But Luke? Seven times, and all but one of those in the opening chapters. For Luke, the Holy Spirit isn’t an afterthought but rather the essential foundation to the Jesus story.
In Luke, there is no more charismatic gift than mission. In his book Mighty in Word and Deed, James Shelton writes about what the Spirit does, “Power for mission catches the majority of Luke’s attention.”
Look in the poetry for clues for the meaning of Luke
In the books 1 & 2 Samuel there are three poems—strategically at the beginning, middle, and end—that provide clues to what to look for in the over-arching story. Luke does something very similar with the songs of Mary and Zechariah in chapter 1.
Mary’s song, in particular, involves the Great Reversal—the powerful are brought low while the powerless are lifted up. And so throughout the story, we see outcasts restored to community. We see the poor brought into God’s kingdom. We see the sick healed. Meanwhile, King Herod misses out. The Pharisees and other members of the religious establishment miss out. Everything is getting turned upside down.
Luke includes Jesus’ ministry manifesto
Why did Jesus come? According to Luke, it wasn’t to be a good teacher or a moral example. It wasn’t to take us all to heaven when we die. It wasn’t to found the church.
As Luke tells it, Jesus public ministry begins when he gets up in synagogue, and reads from Isaiah 61:
“The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, [there’s the Holy Spirit again]
for he has anointed me to bring Good News [i.e., gospel] to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.”
In Luke 4 we find Jesus’ manifesto. And it immediately provokes an antagonistic response.
Luke shows the disciples on mission
I grew up in a setting that celebrated Matthew 28:19–20 as the Great Commission. Whenever we talked about missionaries or mission trips, this was the go-to passage. But Luke offers an alternative vision of what a missional life can look like.
In Luke 10, Jesus sends out not only twelve, but 72 disciples (some manuscripts have 70). They are to proclaim the peace of God’s kingdom and heal the sick. They are to travel without baggage. They are to receive the hospitality of others. They are to walk into Empire space, with its Pax Romana, and subversively declare God’s shalom.
And if you’re the nostalgic type, you’ll remember the 70 elders at Sinai who experience the presence of God with Moses. You’ll remember the 70 elders who receive the Holy Spirit in the wilderness. You’ll remember in the days of King Hezekiah when he sent messengers to the very same region of Galilee inviting people to a new celebration of Passover. Luke provides an alternative imagination for what mission looks like.
The power of telling the right story
My favorite Jesus story is found in Luke 24. It’s right after the women have discovered the empty tomb and the plot is thick with mystery. Two unnamed disciples journey away from the action in Jerusalem to the neighboring village Emmaus. On the way, they’re interrupted by Jesus but they don’t recognize him.
In their profound disappointment, they relate the events of the Jesus story as they’ve experienced it. Things haven’t worked out as they planned. And the story says that the stranger in their midst goes back to Moses and the prophets and retells the story. It’s like they had all the right pieces but they had them in the wrong order. It’s such a human thing to do.
When they sit down to eat, that’s when they recognize Jesus. Jesus seems to be eating or at a meal in nearly every scene in Luke. It’s like his calling card. And so, that’s where they finally get it. At the table, which has so many implications for our practice of Eucharist.
(N.T. Wright masterfully articulates the despair and mystery and wonder of this scene in a couple of chapters of The Challenge of Jesus.)
The stories of Jesus are so good. Luke provides so many places for our imaginations to run wild, letting ourselves get lost in the wonder of these stories. Without them, we would lose so much about why Jesus came and how Jesus invites us to follow in mission.
These stories happened. And they still happen.
If you want to go deeper into the Gospel of Luke, be sure to check out:
Luke for Everyone by N.T. Wright
Mighty in Word and Deed: The Role of the Holy Spirit in Luke-Acts by James Shelton