LENT WITH LUKE

I want to invite you to read an almost 2,000 year old writer and doctor…Luke. I am going to spend 40 days, taking a break on Sundays, to read through the Gospel of Luke. I will be posting comments along the way. My comments will try to help us keep the big picture, point out things along the way that you might find interesting, and most importantly I pray your reading of the text will draw you closer to God.

I think Luke is writing to us. Why do I say he is writing to us? For most of us in the Western World, our emotional and spiritual deficits dwarf our material needs. Please know I recognize some reading this are facing real difficulties. Yet our “first world” situation is very different than others. It is the emotional—the spiritual—parts of our lives where the deficit is deep. The people Luke was writing to, were in a similar plight.

He senses our human predicament. Perhaps as a doctor he saw the brokenness of humanity. Clearly for Luke, Jesus is at the center of his Good News. However as Luke tells us all that he has learned, we will sense two distinct perspectives. It is as if Luke is writing with two “focal lengths”—one far and long, the other closer in. Luke sees and shares our common humanity. In Jesus he finds more than a medical solution, he finds Him who will save the world. We learn this big picture message while we are involved in the lives of people in a very “close in” way. Jesus is not just for Israel, he is for the rest of the world. He is not just for men, but for women. Not just for rich, but for poor. He comes to cripples and mutes and prostitutes. Luke delights in giving us a galaxy of portraits of real people. The point: healing is available to anyone who seeks the Savior.

It is “healing and saving” that Luke is concerned with. He is a doctor. When looking at Greek versus English, it is common to point out that the Greek language will have more word forms than English for a certain idea. However in Greek there is one word, sózó, which means “healing/saving.”  Sózó has to do duty to both ideas and Luke uses its forms more than any other evangelist.

Perhaps the older Greek language has more wisdom than its modern successor. Perhaps it has a sense of the truer nature of humans—that to save a person, and to heal them, is what full and complete restoration is about. So one word, with its double-meaning, gives the true image. Those who translate the Greek into English have to make a choice as to which English word they will use. Luke had no dilemma. For to him, this Divine Healer is the Savior of the World.

I pray you might decide to spend some time this Lent with Luke.

*The Bible Speaks Today: The Message of Luke by Michael Wilcox was referenced in developing this post.