Sermon Archive

"Only Luke", 2 Timothy 4:5-11

Date: October 18, 2009, St. Luke, Evangelist
Author: The Rev. Dr. James D. Kegel

GLORY TO THE FATHER AND TO THE SON AND TO THE HOLY SPIRIT, AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING IS NOW AND WILL BE FOREVER. AMEN.
            I spent much of the summer of 1964 in the waiting room of St. Luke’s Hospital in Fargo, North Dakota. My mother had gone into a diabetic coma right at the end of my seventh grade year and for three days she was not able to come out of it. We did not know if she would live or die, my dad and me. I was an only child and I had worried about my mother and prayed that she would live all through my childhood and now I really prayed hard that she wouldn’t die. She pulled through but not without some severe damage. We also, eventually, found out what had put her into this life-threatening situation—she was going to have a baby, my brother, almost fourteen years younger than me.
            Those were days when children we only allowed in the rooms of the patient during certain hours. The rest of the time I sat out in the waiting room and I remember it well. There was a large painting across an entire wall by one of the best regional artists, Cyrus Running, of Christ the healer with St. Luke, the beloved physician in the painting. The hospital was a Protestant hospital founded at the beginning of the twentieth century by local churches including one of which I was later the pastor, St. Mark’s. It was fitting that Christ was at the center of the painting because it clearly said that healing comes from God. Christ came to heal and help and save. And St. Luke, as a physician, represented all those who believed and testified and worked in Christ’s name to bring health and salvation. That painting meant a lot to me as I sat there—that summer I read, Gone with the Wind—the length was perfect to pass away long hours sitting at the hospital, put together jigsaw puzzles, learned to like stuffed green peppers in the hospital cafeteria and spent a fair amount of time in the chapel. God did not let me down; I learned that that summer when I was thirteen years old.
            What do we know about Luke? Paul mentions him in Colossians and Philemon and again in our text from Second Timothy. He is a co-worker with Paul. We do not know where he trained as a physician or why he happened to put medicine aside to work as an evangelist. We think of doctors today as quite wealthy but in the ancient world he may have been a slave sent by his masters to study medicine. Luke is often mentioned along Aristarchus and Demas and John Mark—in our text he is the only one remaining with the Apostle Paul as he nears the end of his life. Paul is likens his situation to that of being poured out as a libation. Paul has fought the good fight, run the race and like the athletes of ancient Greece will receive a victor’s crown. Paul’s will not be oak or laurel or olive but a heavenly crown of righteousness—and the good news is that the crown is offered to all those who have longed for the appearing of the Lord. If we think about the words of Paul, we sense an old man, lonely and in some ways disappointed: “At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength.” We do not know if everyone deserted Paul. Demas was in love with the world and went to Thessalonica. It does not sound as if he were on a mission trip! Titus was a missionary in Dalmatia, Cresca had gone to Galatia and Mark was doing ministry. Tychicus was sent by Paul to Ephesus. Luke was still with Paul, a faithful friend until the end.
            St. Luke—what else do we know about him? Eusebius the church historian says he was born in Antioch in Syria. He may have been Greek and not circumcised—in Colossians, Paul lists those of the circumcision who were working with him, Aristarchus, Mark the cousin of Barnabas, Jesus Justus, but Luke is listed separately. What we can say about Luke is deduced from a two volume work that provides us insight into both the life of Jesus and how the power of Jesus entered the Gentile world. Luke wrote the Gospel that bears his name and the second volume which is Acts of the Apostles. He wrote both volumes to a friend, Theophilus or perhaps to all who love God—that is what the name means. Luke was well-educated and used good Greek. He was especially sensitive to Gentiles, to women, to those who were outcast. His long-association with Paul really gives us a Pauline Gospel. As Luke says in the introduction to today’s Gospel, “Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events which have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account.” Luke was an historian, a researcher, one who wanted to put the stories of Jesus in good order, but he was not an eyewitness. The events in the Gospel were told in many different versions, and Luke carefully weighed the oral traditions and the written accounts.
            What can we learn from Luke’s writing? He recognizes the importance of women—his parables are often parallel stories about a man and then a woman. He emphasizes the conception and birth of Jesus the Messiah and gives us the beloved songs of the Magnificat, Benedictus and Nunc Dimmittis—“My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirits rejoices in God my Savior,” “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them, He has raised up a might Savior for us,” “Now let your servant depart in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation.” Luke is very concerned about the outcast. His is the Gospel for the poor and of social justice and includes six miracles and eighteen parables not found in the other Gospels. Typically Lukan is the parable about Lazarus and the rich man who ignored him. Luke’s Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor” instead of “Blessed are the poor in spirit” in his Beatitudes. Only Luke’s Gospel suggest Jesus’ agenda from before his birth when Mary praises God “who has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” Luke also emphasizes God’s grace and mercy. Only in Luke do we find the parable of the Prodigal Son and the Waiting Father. Only in Luke do we hear the story of the forgiven woman disrupting the feast by washing Jesus’ feet with her tears. Throughout Luke’s Gospel, Jesus takes the side of the sinner who wants to return to God’s mercy. We may say about St. Luke that he respected women, loved the poor, welcomed those excluded and saw the hope of God’s mercy for everyone.
            There are other traditions that he lived to eighty-four years and was buried in Greece that he was a painter of icons of Mary and Jesus including one that I saw last summer at St. Mark’s Syrian Church in Jerusalem. There is really no evidence that he ever painted. His remains are most likely in Padua, Italy with a rib bone being given back to the Bishop of Greece just a few years ago. He is represented in symbol by an ox or calf because they are symbols of sacrifice, the sacrifice that Jesus made for the sins of the whole world and to which the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts testify.
            “Only Luke” is what Paul wrote to his young friend Timothy, “Only Luke is with me” as he stayed in the Roman prison awaiting his execution. Luke was faithful and trustworthy. He was loyal to his friend and mentor and was diligent in writing a Gospel and a mission history that gave glory to God. He had set aside his medical training for something more glorious, not just to ease pain and extend human life, but to proclaim Jesus the source of salvation and eternal life. We give thanks that Luke recognized that Jesus’ story included Gentiles—he is the light to enlighten the Gentiles as well as the glory of his people Israel, that Luke wrote down parables and stories that included the story of women at the center of the Gospel—history that is also herstory, that the poor are welcomed—only in Luke do we read that Jesus began his ministry by reading the Isaiah scroll in his synagogue, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” and then Jesus said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled.” Only Luke carried on the story from Ascension to Pentecost to the Gospel going out from Jerusalem to Judaea and Samaria and the ends of the earth.
            I went back to St. Luke’s Hospital again when I was a first year pastor and my mother was dying. God had given her twelve more years and a second son. I was disappointed when I went back. The painting of Christ and St. Luke, the physician, had been removed. Now there was a wall of money with the largest donors getting the biggest names. The hospital had a new name—a make-up new name, Meritcare. I suppose Christ the source of health and healing was no longer accepted by everyone, people had forgotten that St. Luke was a physician or no longer cared but learned very well that donor recognition is the foundation for continued donor donation. The name was gone and the painting put in storage at best and no longer would boys worried about their mothers find solace in the painting of Jesus.  We can still be inspired by the witness of St. Luke, a man faithful to his mentor, accurate in rendering his historical account, concerned above all with God’s mercy to sinners and excluded. We can read the good news he wrote so longer ago and make it good news in our lives today. We can still believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Savior, the source of health and healing and fullness of life.

Amen.

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