From Advent through the first Tuesday of Easter, we will journey through the entire Gospel of Luke, and read through the “orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us.” Luke 1:1. This lesson begins with those passages in Isaiah 56-66 Christ fulfills and ends with the Ascension in Acts 1:11. The outline of our study is HERE. Advent 2024 begins Lectionary Year C, which is focused on Luke’s Gospel so that we will hear the same gospel on Sunday mornings. As background reading for this study, I will generally use The Gospel of Luke by Amy-Jill Levin and Ben Witherington, Luke for Everyone by N.T. Wright, along with other materials. No outside readings are required. This study is seventeen weeks.
(Advent, Epiphany, Lent 2025)
Isaiah 56-66 in Luke’s Gospel, pt.1
In Luke, Jesus begins his ministry by reading from Isaiah 61:1-2. Throughout his Gospel, Luke will use the themes of these prophecies found in the last section of Isaiah (Isaiah 56-66) to tell us who Jesus is.
Isaiah 56-66 in Luke’s Gospel, pt.2
Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise in Isaiah to bring all people into his restored holy city of the New Jerusalem.
The Gospel of Luke – An Overview
Next Tuesday, we will begin our walk through Luke’s Gospel starting with the introduction and nativity of John the Baptist in Luke 1 and ending with the Resurrection and Ascension in Luke 24 and Acts 1. All you will need during our journey is a Bible.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 1 – Prologue and John’s Parents
Luke is the only Gospel that gives us the background of John the Baptist. In the other gospels, we first meet John beside the Jordan River. Here, Luke begins with his parents, Zechariah, a priest, and his wife Elizabeth.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 1 – The Annunciation and Visitation
As we will see throughout Luke, the presence of Jesus will always change the focus of the story away from the powerful toward the ordinary.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 2 – The Nativity
Jesus wasn’t born in a barn and angels aren’t cute and cuddley. Luke is not a Hallmark movie.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 2 – The Presentation
Jesus is not “redeemed” and restored to his parents under the Law, but personally given over completely to God in the Temple and from now on belongs to him completely. – Pope Benedict XVI
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 3:1-22 – The Baptist
John the Baptist was “a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue; both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God; and so to come to baptism.” – Flavius Josephus
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 3:23-4:13 – The Temptations
Each of the three temptations is a type of temptation that all sons of Adam confront. Just as Jesus defeats the devil with the Spirit and the Scriptures, so we are called to do as well.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 4:14-5:11 – The Beginning of Ministry
The first story of Jesus’ ministry in each gospel sets the tone for that Gospel and answers the question of who the gospel writer sees Jesus as. For Luke, Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophets.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 5:12-6:16 – Jesus’ Increasing Authority
We see Jesus’s increasing authority in his forgiving sins, his declaration that he is the Son of Man, and in his declaring himself Lord of the Sabbath.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 6:17-49 – The Sermon on the Plain
We must love our neighbors, even those who are our enemies, and we cannot judge others by pointing out their sins when we still have sins of own. Rather, to be a follower of Jesus, we must always have an attitude of spiritual impoverishment borne of humility and contrition.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 7:1-23 – The Centurion and the Widow
In healing the Centurion’s slave and raising the widow’s son, Jesus is fulfilling the stories of Elisha and Elijah that he quoted in Nazareth.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 7:24-8:3 – The Women
In the readings this week we meet the sinful woman who loved Jesus and the Three Woman who follow Jesus.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 8:4-39 – The Tempest
Jesus knows that metaphorical storms will come upon the apostles and the church, and he wants his disciples (including us) to have a faith that trusts God to achieve his purpose even through disorder and apparent destruction.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 8:40-9:6 – The Commissioning
Jesus is the founder of the Kingdom of Heaven, but for the business to succeed, he needs others to share in the planning and responsibility of the venture. These are the Twelve.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 9:7-51 – The Training of the Twelve
In these readings we encounter Jesus’s disclosure to the Twelve as to the meaning of his identity as the Christ, and Jesus’s instructions to them as to what is required of his disciples.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 9:51-10:24 – The Seventy
In Luke 9, Jesus commissioned and trained the Twelve to carry on his work. Here, he expands his workforce by adding seventy additional apostles to proclaim the Kingdom of God.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 10:25-11:28 – The Lawyer’s Question
Jesus moved the lawyer’s inquiry, which sought to husband God’s grace in isolated security and purity, to one of extending God’s grace to the whole world. In other words, Jesus’ response to the lawyer’s testing shows just how far the mission that began with the Twelve and then the Seventy will extend.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 11:29-54 – Denunciation of the Pharisees
In their policing of social boundaries and correct conduct, the Pharisees’s iniquity was not hypocrisy but in placing themselves as overlords of others. Their iniquity was making themselves great and placing crosses on the backs of others.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 12 – Be Watchful, Not Anxious
In Jesus’s apocalyptic contest between God’s Kingdom and the powers of evil, Jesus teaches that he needs total loyalty from his followers and that his followers must completely reorder their priorities. Although Jesus just told his disciples not to be anxious, here he tells them they do need to be watchful and ready.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 13 – Whose Kingdom
The issue before us is whether to follow Jesus and his way of peace with a reliant faith in God’s Kingdom or to follow the way of the sword with a reliant faith in political change.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 14 – Banquets
Within this section, Luke brings together a series of banquet-themed stories. Within these stories, Jesus imparts his wisdom and teaching on the Kingdom of God.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 15 – Parables of the Lost
Each of these three parables has the same motif – something is lost, there is a search, the lost is found, the lost is restored, and there is a celebration. The protagonist in each parable is not the lost one but the finder.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 16:1-17:10 – Faithfulness in Wealth
We are merely trustees of any wealth that is given to us, and therefore, we are charged with using that wealth in the service of others.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 17:11-18:14 – Preparation
Jesus gives two parables – one on prayer and one on humility – to teach us how to prepare for the immediate present of the Kingdom of God.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 18:15-19:27 – Preparation, pt.2
Jesus continues to prepare us for the Kingdom by giving us a story on interdependence and a parable on the necessity of faithful reliance.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 19:28-48 – The Triumphal Entry
Luke clearly shows us that Jesus enters Jerusalem as a triumphant returning King.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 20 – Questions in the Temple
There are four questions and one parable that give us a preview of the remainder of the Gospel and of Jesus’s Death, Resurrection, and Exaltation.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 21 – The Little Apocalypse
The heart of the Little Apocalypse speaks to our interior preparation, regardless of the turmoil we see surrounding us in the world and despite even the threats of violence and persecution and natural disaster.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 22:1-38 – The Last Supper
In this last teaching, he does not give his disciples a list of theological principles to memorize, but he gives them an action to follow and a meal to share. Following after the teaching on the Apocalypse, the Last Supper is the dawn of the New Age.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 22:39-71 – The Passion, pt.1
In Luke’s story of Jesus’s pretrial detention, we see Jesus as the Lamb of God who has taken upon himself the sins of the world – our weakness of Peter, our violent depravity of the soldiers, and our perversion of justice of the Council.
The Gospel of Luke – Luke 22:39-23:56 – The Crucifixion
“The Wise Thief didst Thou make worthy of Paradise, in a single moment, O Lord. By the wood of thy Cross, illumine me as well, and save me.”