The Gospel of Luke is one of the three Synoptic Gospels, generally thought to be written towards the end of the first century when the message of Jesus and the early Church had extended beyond the boundaries of Palestine. It is the Gospel of the outsider, thought to be written by a Greek — Luke, a travelling companion of Paul — and the first part of a two-volume work which starts with the announcement of the births of John the Baptist and Jesus in the Gospel and ends with Paul preaching openly in Rome in Acts of the Apostles. Thus, the writer has a long perspective covering several decades in the two volumes of theological history and sees all that he reports to be a crucial stage in salvation history as God works out his purposes among his chosen people of Israel and the Gentiles.
Luke himself remains in the background, apart from some passing third-person plural allusions (the ‘we’ passages in Acts), but his influence permeates the whole Gospel. As a Greek, possibly a doctor, and conceivably with high-ranking contacts, he addresses those who had been on the margins of Judaism — those Greeks who loved all that Judaism had to offer, but who were forced to remain outside looking in, entering the Court of the Gentiles in the Jerusalem Temple, but unable to offer a sacrifice or participate in worship. As far as Luke’s Gospel is concerned, however, the Gospel of Jesus offers them a lifeline. Gentiles are not excluded from the fellowship of the early Church; neither are tax collectors, women, lepers, Samaritans or the socially despised. The kingdom of God is for the lost and for those who had found themselves wanting in the eyes of Judaism.
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