Luke was a student of history and an observer of His times. There are two major recorded documents of Luke – the gospel named after him and the book of the Acts of the Apostles.
In Luke he writes, “I have carefully investigated everything from the beginning…and decided to write an orderly account…so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught” (Acts 1:1-4). In Acts he writes, “After his (Jesus’) suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive” (1:3).
Luke makes very clear from his writings that the events surrounding Jesus of Nazareth are not a matter of private faith but public record. He has carefully researched their validity. There is no effort to embellish, conceal or misrepresent what has taken place for the sake of another agenda. The life of Jesus is open for all to examine it, and all to draw their conclusions from it.
Clearly Luke does this as an insider. He was not one of the twelve, nor an eye witness to the life of Jesus or His resurrection. He appears to have come to faith through the ministry of Paul and became a fellow worker (Philemon 24). Acts reveals he journeyed with Paul at times, beginning from Troas (Acts 20:5).
Luke’s contribution endures today. His writings form a key part of our New Testament. They form a solid historical foundation for our knowledge of Jesus and the life of the early church. Because of Luke we understand how the church spread from Jerusalem to Rome, the hurdles it faced, and the grace of God that enabled men and women of all backgrounds to come.
As people who gather as the church of St Luke, he has much to teach us. Our faith is not private or secret, it is a matter of public record. Our effort is to be an open and transparent community of people who seek to love and follow this Jesus of Nazareth that Luke bears historic witness to. That we, too, share in a mission in our own community, one in which there are often many hurdles, that men and women today might see and embrace the life and reality of Christ.
Over the coming weeks we move through events that reflect our corporate life together which can seem mundane – annual reports and meeting, budgeting and election of office bearers and the like. Yet these are vital parts of us living the testimony today, even as Luke did in his day. May we see how God is calling us to serve our ‘public faith’, available to all, and see that these mundane matters of our daily life together actually help shape how effective we are.