In many ways, Luke is the one of the four Evangelists whose thought processes are most easy for us to understand nowadays. He's concerned with some very modern questions: how far can the claims of Jesus be backed up by historical realities? What truly happened, and how does this shape our picture of Jesus?
The biggest question, for him, is the Resurrection. He makes it clear that it was not easy for people to accept; there were lots of objections, and many different theories about what really happened. A major reason for writing Luke/Acts was to demonstrate that the Resurrection stands the test of history; there have been `many infallible proofs' (Acts 1:3).
This means that eyewitnesses are very, very important. None of the other Evangelists places so much emphasis on the role of the Twelve - who had been Jesus' companions from the very first, and so were especially qualified to speak with authority about him.
 Christ in the house of Mary and Martha
Luke is concerned about the impact of all this theological stuff upon ordinary, everyday lives. So he writes a more `human' Gospel than any of the others; women and children feature much more; there is a repeated emphasis upon the poor and the outcasts of society; the disciples are much more understandable, and not so dim as they appear to be in Mark; Jesus tells more down-to-earth stories; the actual reaction of people to Jesus' teaching and miracles is much more frequently noted; there are groupings of incidents (e.g. in chapter 5 and chapter 8) which try to show the effect Jesus had upon particular human lives in particular settings. Again and again, the message is: `This isn't just theory or philosophy. It really happened - with concrete results.'
How does Luke compare with other historians? Click here.
Was Luke wrong about Jesus' birthdate? Click here.
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A website to help you study the
Gospel of Luke, one of the key documents of the Christian faith
