April 12, 2022: Day 78 – Luke 1-6

We begin reading through the Gospel of Luke.  There is an undercurrent among old scholarship that sees this Gospel written by a medical person and someone who is fairly educated.  That stance has been debated in the last few decades and most fall in the category of that is not necessarily the case.  The details that Luke includes which the other Gospels do not include are many.  One of them is the reference to rulers and leaders among the secular world which squarely places these verses within a time frame that we know took place historically.  And that is where we start.

We actually begin this Gospel with an explanation that all of this was written “so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught” to a certain Theophilus.  Theophilus means simply lover of God.  We start with the miraculous birth of John the Baptist who was a relative of Jesus.  We then transition in this very long chapter to the announcement of the birth of Jesus and then his actual birth.  It is in this second chapter, and only in this Gospel, where we read that he was placed in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

Only here do we find the shepherds and the angels.  Jesus is presented at the temple and we are introduced briefly to Anna and Simeon and their exclamations of joy at meeting the Messiah.  John the baptism baptizes and then is arrested.  Jesus’ genealogy goes back to Joseph.  Jesus is tempted in the wilderness to begin his ministry.  Jesus is almost killed in his hometown of Nazareth in one of his first lessons taught in the synagogue after he comes back from his time of preparation in the wilderness.  Not a great start for him.

I guess I would encourage you to focus on Luke 6:27-36 in this day and age of division.  Love your enemies.