Gospel of Luke

Gospel of Luke

The Gospel of Luke is written by Luke to the Gentile Christians who dispersed throughout the Roman Empire. Luke was written around 85 to 90 C.E. after the destruction of Jerusalem and the church's transformation into a primarily Gentile movement. Luke's Gospel talks about Jesus' career not only as history's most crucial event but also as the opening state of an indefinitely extended historical process that continues in the life of the church. Luke makes it clear that Jesus and his disciples, working under the Holy Spirit, are innocent of any crime against Rome and that their religion is a universal faith intended for all people.

Luke lays out, in two chapters, the parallel miraculous births of Jesus of Nazareth and the man who becomes his prophet, John the Baptist. The angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah, telling him that his wife Elizabeth is pregnant. Soon afterward, Gabriel appears to Elizabeth's relative, the Virgin Mary, who is betrothed to Joseph, telling her that she too is going to give birth to a child by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus goes to Capernaum, where he cures the servant of a Roman centurion and restores the son of a widow to life. When John the Baptist sends messengers to ask Jesus who he is, Jesus responds only by pointing out the many miracles he has worked. Jesus commends John the Baptist's ministry and laments the fact that his contemporaries have refused to listen to John and to Jesus himself. Jesus' travels continue as he preaches and works miracles. Jesus shows that he forgives even the most wretched of sinners. Among his miracles, he calms a storm, cures a man possessed by a demon and a woman with a hemorrhage, and revives the daughter of Jairus. Jesus sends the Twelve Apostles out to preach the Gospel and to cure illness.

Arriving in Jerusalem, Jesus foresees the destruction of the great city as a punishment for its failure to recognize him. Driving away the merchants, Jesus begins to preach in the temple and wins the allegiance of the common people. He refuses to justify his authority to the chief priests and elders who oppose him. On Sunday, the third day after Jesus' Friday crucifixion, some female followers of Jesus, including Mary Magdalene, go to his gravesite but find him gone. Angels appear and tell them that Jesus has been resurrected from the dead. Peter goes to check the grave himself, and