The evangelist St Luke is one up on Matthew, Mark and John - literally because he wrote not one but two books in the New Testament. His two volumes set forth the mission of Jesus starting with his acts in the flesh recorded in his Gospel and then continuing after his death and resurrection by the Holy Spirit through his apostles and disciples in his Acts of the Apostles. Luke’s two volumes make up about a third of the New Testament and are compelling reading.
They engage with the love, truth and empowerment of Jesus Christ presented by Doctor Luke, an affectionate title that builds from Colossians 4:14 where Paul describes his companion as 'Luke, the beloved physician'. Luke was neither apostle nor eye witness of the earthly life of Jesus but is famed both by his being companion to Paul and by association with the third Gospel and Acts. His close companionship with St. Paul is noted in the epistle chosen for his feast we just heard. There Paul mentions Demas deserting him, Crescens and Titus going off so that ‘only Luke is with me’ (2 Timothy 4).
Today’s Gospel from Luke Chapter 10 ends with Our Lord’s command to heal: ‘Cure those in the town who are sick, and say, ‘The kingdom of God is very near to you’. It is to Doctor Luke among all four Gospel writers we owe a clear statement that the good news of Jesus extends not just to mind and heart but to our bodies as well. The healing ministry then and now is part of the good news of Jesus as it breaks through bonds of sin, sickness, bondage, death and the devil to bring us more fully into what we were made to be in God's praise and service. Luke's story of Jesus chronicles not just physical healing but the healing from exclusion of lepers and the way Jesus includes social outcasts and ministers to women, counter to the culture of his day.
On this Feast of St Luke we welcome the power of God's word through his words into our varied situations. This day is an invitation to pick up a copy of Luke’s Gospel - here’s one - or find it in your Bible - and spend a morning reading it - and maybe another morning or afternoon reading his sequel the Acts of the Apostle. Such an exercise would refresh for you where Christian faith flows from and how it flows on and through us as we open our own lives to the Holy Spirit as the apostles did.
There is no word of God without power and it is power to heal. As with Simon's mother-in-law in Luke 4 healing for us can be into helpfulness. The paralytic lowered to Jesus through the ceiling in Luke 5 is a call to take trouble over healing prayer for sick friends. The good news of Christianity recorded by Doctor Luke in his inspired writings breathes joy and carries a forward momentum, the very mission of Jesus carried forward by the Holy Spirit bringing healing of body, mind and spirit so people say as they did in today’s Gospel: ‘The kingdom of God is very near to us’ (Luke 10:9)
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