My Obsession with Luke

Ah, Luke. My favorite Gospel. Or, at least it's one of my favorite Gospels. I love all of them.

Luke, however, resonates with me in a different way. I guess I've always been captivated by the author. The Book of Luke, and its sequel, Acts, are attributed to a doctor who accompanied Paul on some of his missionary journeys. The introduction to both Luke and Acts state that the author did extensive research, including interviews with eyewitnesses. His purpose was to write an orderly account so that Theophilus, whoever that might have been, might "know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed" (Luke 1:4).

Not much is known about Luke. He was probably Greek, well-educated, perhaps a former slave. It appears that he may have first met Paul in Syrian Antioch. After that, pretty much everything else is speculation.

Many years ago, I became fascinated with the idea of how and why Dr. Luke went about researching and writing this account of Jesus. As I studied it more closely, I learned that there are several wonderful sections that are unique to Luke: For example, the whole birth narrative, including the stories about Elizabeth, Zachariah and John as well as the annunciation of the birth to Mary, are only found in Luke. Mark has a little bit of birth narrative that dovetails with Luke's information.

Or, there are some 17 parables that are found only in Luke--The Prodigal Son, the Lost Coin, Lazarus and the Rich Man, etc.

One thought is that Luke used the works of Mark and Matthew but supplemented them with his own research. In particular, he may have had exclusive interviews with people who knew Jesus. There's another matter.  Maybe Luke wrote his books at the request of Theophilus. But somewhere I read a theory that Luke wrote the account of Jesus to be sort of a legal brief for Paul when he went to trial in Rome. I love that!

Fascination turned to obsession for me. And obsession turned into my unpublished novel. I took the idea of a friendship between Paul and Luke, the need to prepare an orderly account about Jesus, and the evidence that Luke did eyewitness interviews and fleshed out a tale. It's written in the first person, through Luke's eyes, and is organized around a journey from Antioch, on the missionary journeys, and then to Caesarea, where Paul was imprisoned. After that, the story follows Luke on his mission to research the life of Jesus as he travels through Galilee and Judea, finding and interviewing people who knew the Savior.

Further, I focused on those 17 parables and tried to imagine which people might have had a reason to remember Jesus telling them--the circumstances, events, or locations. For example, could it be that Mary and Martha of Bethany remembered the story of Lazarus and the rich man precisely because their brother was named Lazarus?

Both Luke and Acts consistently portray Roman centurions in a very positive light. Could it be that Luke talked to one who recognized Jesus as the Son of God?

How about those two people who were walking to Emmaus after the Resurrection? Any chance one of them was one of the women who followed Jesus and talked to Luke years later?

It's possible that Mary was still living while Luke did his research. Did he get the details about the visitation of the angel Gabriel from the one person who was there?

You get the idea. Pure speculation and imagination. Taking "poetic license" to the extreme, I was also able to make up stuff about Mary Magdalene. You see, I think she was one of Jesus' inner circle; certainly all four Gospels say that she of all people was the first to see the risen Christ. What a woman! What was her real story? What happened to her after Jesus ascended?

Well, I got the book all written way back in the mid-1990s. When I was in Seminary, every time I had a reason to do a research paper, I'd try to link it in to my study of Luke. Even my master's thesis, God-Fearers in the First Century, was all about the Gentiles who embraced Judaism, and in some cases, Christianity. In a class with the very learned Dr. Darrell Bock, who has written extensively on Luke, I first heard his opinion that Luke may have been a God-Fearer.

I have revised the book a time or two. In my creative writing class at DTS, I listened to my eminent professor Reg Grant's suggestions and adhered to some of them. It's a better book than it was before.

I never have come up with a great name for my novel. "Luke's Story" is the best I can come up with. Lame, but accurate.

I've tried to get it published a time or two, but that's always been an exercise in futility. I think it's pretty good, but the path to publication is long, dreary, difficult, and more time-consuming and frustrating than I've ever been able to stand.

"Publishing my novel" is on my bucket list. I guess I'd better start ramping up again. Any suggestions, kindly Reader?

In any event, I hope you can read Luke and Acts with the idea of the researcher behind the writing. Oh, and one more thing. Luke was probably a Greek, a Gentile, the only non-Jew to write a Gospel. He evidently became a believing Christian, and his accounts reverberate with the joy of salvation that Christ made available to all people.