1.- Christian tradition, from Irenaeus (about 140 – 202), ascribes to Luke the evangel that has his name: “Luke, Paul´s follower, also wrote down in a book the evangel that Paul has preached” (gainst the heresies, 3,1,1). So, if Paul is the apostle of the gentiles (Ga 2,9), the Luke’s evangel may be named the gentiles evangel.
2.- Born in Antioch of Syria or settled there, Luke is a gentile (Col 4,11), a gentile who becomes a disciple. He collaborates with Paul, who names him dear doctor (4,14). When Paul writes the second letter to Timothy, Luke is the only one with him (2 Tim 4,11). And in the letter to Philemon, Luke and Mark appear like Paul´s collaborators (Phil 24). In order to take the collection to Jerusalem, Paul sends Titus with the brother who has gained the esteem of the churches in the work of the Gospel (2 Co 8,18). Paul writes the second letter to the Corinthians from Macedonia at the end of the year 55. So Luke evangel, already known in all the churches, is previous. The utilization of the first person of the plural (we) in the Acts (16,10-17; 20,5-15; 21,1-18; 27, 1-44; 28, 1-16) means that the author (Luke) accompanies Paul. In an especial way, the Pauline communities receive Luke´s evangel, that, at the end, is Paul´s evangel: my Gospel (Rom 16,25; 2 Tim 2,8), the Gospel that I proclaim between the gentiles (Ga 2,2). Paul´s trips reveal his Gospel trajectory
3.- The addressees of the evangel are of Greek or gentile mentality, especially members of the Pauline communities. The tradition mentions Achaia (Greece) like the place where it was written. Luke explains Jewish habits (Lk 22,1.7) and avoids the identification between gentiles and sinners, which appear in other evangels (Lk 6,32-35; Mt 5,47; 18,17), A stage of the salvation history ends with Jesus (Israel´s time) and other opens (gentiles time). Luke´s evangel reflects the experience of a gentile who becomes a disciple.
4.- In the prologue, Luke delivers precious indications over his evangel´s formation process: “Many people have already related the events that have taken place among us, writing down what we were told by the first witnesses who became ministers of the Word. Yet after I myself had carefully gone over the whole story from the beginning, it seemed good to me to write and orderly account for you, Theophilus, so that your Excellency may know the truth of all you have been taught” (Lk 1,1-4).
5.- Luke´s evangel presents Jesus´ sentences or words (the so named document Q, common source to Mathew and Luke) and assumes a large part of Mark´s evangel, which general scheme is like follows: Jesus activity in Galilee and Jerusalem, standing out the way up to Jerusalem, which occupies almost half of the evangel (from 9,51 on). From Jerusalem the Gospel will extend to all nations. In the evangel of the infancy Luke reflects what Mary kept in her heart (Lk 2,51); later on comes Jesus´ preparation for the mission: John´s preaching, baptism and the baptism of Jesus (1,1-4,13); afterwards, Jesus activity in Galilee (4,14-9,50) and the way up to Jerusalem (9,51-19,28); Finally, Jesus activity in Jerusalem, final time, paschal mystery (19,29;24,53)
6.- But, what is what distinguishes the gentiles’ evangel? In first place, we can mention the universal scope of the Good News. Christ belongs and is for everybody. His roots reach all the humanity (3,23-38). The communities that receive Luke´s evangel celebrate with joy God´s salvation that also reaches the gentiles.
7.- In the synagogue of Nazaret Jesus manifests what is essential to his mission. They handed him the book of Isaiah the prophet and, unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed (Lk 4,18-19). In Jesus mission the action of the spirit is present. God´s spirit is the gift characteristic of the messianic time. Jesus appears like a prophet (7,16), mighty in word and deed (24,19), anointed by God´s spirit, God´s finger (11,20).
8.- The salvation of God is for today. It is not necessary to wait any more: Today these prophetic words come true even like you listen (Lk 4,21), says Jesus in Nazaret´s synagogue. The today of the salvation is a characteristic of the evangel of Luke: Today a Saviour has been born to you (2,11), You are my Son, the Beloved One, you are my Chosen One (3,22), what wonderful things we have seen today (5,26), I drive out demonstration heal today and tomorrow (13,32), salvation has come to this house today (19,9), truly, you will be with me today in paradise (23,43).
hoy de la salvación es una característica del evangelio de Lucas: os ha nacido hoy un salvador (2,11), tú eres mi hijo, yo te he engendrado hoy (3,22), hoy hemos visto cosas increíbles (5,26), realizo curaciones hoy y mañana (13,32), hoy ha llegado la salvación a esta casa (19,9), hoy estarás conmigo en el paraíso (23,43).
9.- Jesús announces the signals that liberate: the blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life and the poor are given good news (Lk 7,18-35). Where there is oppression, there is Word of liberation. A crowd of poor, subjugated by the powerful and the rich, embraces Jesus announcement like good news: Fortunate are you who are poor, the kingdom of God is yours (6,20) On the contrary, Unhappy are you who have wealth for you have been comforted now (6,24). Luke manifests an especial attention to the poor, oppressed, sick, marginal, foreigners, publicans, sinners.
10.- God´s mercy is a part of the good news of the evangel: Your sins are forgiven, says Jesus to the paralytic after his initial conversion (5,20). Jesus shelters publicans and sinners: The doctor is not for the healthy; it is the sick who need him (5,31). Three parables put out God´s love: the lost sheep, the lost drachma and the lost son (15,1-32)
11.- Jesus invites his disciples to love their enemies: Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend when there is nothing to expect in return; then will your reward be great and you will be the children of the Most High, who is kind towards the ungrateful and the wicked (Lk 6,35). The disciples must be compassionate and merciful (6,36-38).
12.- The discussion about the fast (common to Mark and Mathew) is especially assumed by the gentile who becomes disciple. The traditional religiosity strikes against the Gospel new experience: No one tears a piece from a new coat to put it on an old one; no one puts new wine into old wineskins (Lk 5,33-39).
13.- Luke collects Peter´s confession in this manner: Jesus is the Christ of God (Lk 9,20), the anointed by God, the hoped king. He enters into Jerusalem like the incoming king: Blessed is he who comes like king in the name of the Lord (19,38). But, really, the king is rejected, he is crucified. A poster is placed over the cross: This is the King of the Jews (23,38).
14.- The conversion to the Gospel is manifested in the love to the neighbour. The parable of the samaritan (Lk 10,29-37) puts out that anybody can accomplish the Gospel, perhaps without full consciousness. Love to the neighbour is expressed in the communication of belongings. Zaccheus, tax collector and wealthy man, receives Jesus with joy and, delivering half of his wealth, gives a signal that money is not his god. The salvation reaches his home (19,1-10). The parable of the unjust money (16,1-13) and that of Lazarus and the rich man (16.19-31) mean a strong social conscience: You cannot give yourself both to God and to Money (16,13). The passage of the rich youngster (18,18-27) manifests the importance of the commandments referred to the neighbour: Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honour your father and your mother. It is also important to share the belongings. This reveals how difficult is for a rich man to enter into the
15.- When Jesus was praying alone, the disciples tell him: Lord, teach us to pray, just like John taught his disciples (Lk 11,1). Luke and Mathew versions of the Our Father are slightly different (Lk 11,2-4; Mt 6,9,13). Jesus does not give a fix repetition formula, but a way to pray in God´s spirit. The parables of the inopportune friend and of the father and the son (Lk 11,5-13) invite to pray with insistence and confidence: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and you will be opened… Even you evil people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more then will the Father in Heaven give holy spirit to those who ask him! The parable of the Pharisee and the publican (18,9-19) invites to pray with humility.
16.- Luke puts out the presence of the woman: Mary, who shelters the Word and delivers it to us (Lk 1,38); Elizabeth, who is living the fecundity of the sterile (1,36); Ann, the prophesise (2,36); Naim´s widow, who recuperates his resurrected son (7,12); the forgiven sinner (7,37); the women who accompany Jesus and share his mission (8,2); the bleeding woman whose sickness is healed (8,43); Jairus´ daughter who comes back to life (8,42); Mart and Mary (10, 38-42); the bent woman (13, 10-17); the widow who shares all she has (21,2); the women who compassionate him in the way to the Golgotha (23,28); the women who follow him up to his tomb (23,55); the women who announce the resurrection, Mary Magdalene, Mary of Saint Jacques and the rest (24,9).
17.- The strong social conscience does not forget, like often happens, Jesus position about the marriage. It is not possible to say it in a most brief way: The man who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and the man who marries a woman divorced by her husband also commits adultery (Lk 16-18). It neither avoids to announce that the dead resurrect, that they are like angels, that they are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection, that God is not a God of the dead, but of the living, since for him all are alive (20, 36-38).
18.- Jesus shares his mission with the twelve: He chose twelve of them, and he also named them apostles (Lk 6,13). He also shares his mission with others: After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two other disciples and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place, where he himself was to go (10,1). The disciples announce that the kingdom of God is near (10,9), their names are written down in the heavens (10,20), they are fortunate because their eyes see what many prophets and kings would have liked to see but did not (10,23-24), they are the little flock to whom the Father was pleased to give the kingdom (12,32), have persevered with Jesus in his tests and they are called to sit down on the thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel (22,28-30).
19.- The going up to Jerusalem is an essential part of Jesus mission. Jerusalem rejects his message. Jesus cries for the city: If only today you knew the ways of peace! But now your eyes are held from seeing. Yet days will come upon you when your enemies will surround you with barricades and shut you in and press on you from every side. And they will dash you to the ground and your children with you, and leave not a stone within you, for you did not recognize the time and the visitation of your God (Lk 19,41-44). The going up to Jerusalem means the denouncement of the temple: My house shall be a house of prayer, but for you have turned it into a den of robbers (19,46).
20.- Jerusalem is a monster city that swallows the prophets (Lk 13,34). It is a living symbol for this generation, an evil generation that asks for a sign but no sign will be given to them except the sign of Jonah. Like Jonah became a sign for the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be a sign for this generation (11,29-32). The Pharisees and scribes have an especial responsibility: A curse is on you, Pharisees… you are like tombstones of the dead which can hardly be seen; people don´t notice tem and make themselves unclean by stepping on them… A curse is also on you, teachers of the Law, for you prepare unbearable burdens and load them on the people, while you yourselves don´t move a finger to help them… The Wisdom of God also said: I will send you prophets and apostles and this people will kill and persecute some of them… but the present generation will have to answer for the blood of all the prophets (11, 44-51).
21.- After Jesus process and death, the women receive the message of the resurrection: Why look for the living among the dead? (Lk 24,5). The resurrected is not a ghost. The disciples are late in recognizing him. They recognize him by means of the signs. The resurrection is a transcendent event, but has its palpability. The walkers of Emmaus discover that the Lord walks with them, eat and drink with them (24,13-32), he is in the history´s heart. Conversion and forgiveness of sins is announced in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem: Look, I will send you what my Father promised. So remain in the city until you are invested with power from above (24,49). In Luke´s evangel, resurrection and ascension happen the same day, the first day of the week (24,1). They are two aspects of Jesus paschal mystery. Psalm 110 is fully accomplished: Sit at my right until I put your enemies under your feet (20,42).
* Dialogue: What is the greatest impact for the gentile who becomes a disciple?
- Good News is for all men
- Salvation is for today
- The social conscience of the Gospel: good news for the poor
- The signals that liberate
- The good news of forgiveness in the name of God
- Love to the neighbour
- The presence of the woman
- The denouncement of the temple
- The testimony due to Christ
- The experience of the walkers of Emmaus.