A frequent theme in the Gospel of Luke is bringing about new ideas, or perspectives on the people in the bible, and the persona and mission of Jesus. Luke begins his gospel with a woman playing a lead role in the birth narrative. This idea was introduced in Matthew chapter 1, but played a much larger role in the gospel of Luke. Luke, who is the author of Luke and Acts seems to have biased opinions of who Jesus was, and his role and what his ministry was all about. Ironically, Luke was not around when Jesus was, and there is not evidence of that in any of his writings. However, all throughout the gospel, readers will find distinct Lukan material. When reading the gospel of Luke, a reader will find a Luke who constructs a Jesus whose mission centers on the most vulnerable segments of society.
Luke 13:10-17
This is a story where Jesus heals a crippled woman. She has been crippled for 18 years the New Testament bible says, and he sees that she has had a crippled spirit for 18 years. He went over and healed her, and she stood up straight giving praises to God. However, Jesus rebukes the people in the synagogue and tells them that they are hypocrites for not following the Hebrew bible law. This story not only rebukes the people in the synagogue but lifts of the role of women. In this story the crippled women was the only mention of people who were worshipping God. This was contrary to the time and day of Jesus, where women aren’t so mentioned as much in the new testament, and don’t play a prominent role. In other books of the bible, authors write, “wives submit to your husbands,”(Eph. 5:22 & Col. 3:18) and in 2 Timothy 2:12, the author writes for women to not even speak in church. However, Luke gives a very contrary and Lukan idea to the text.
Luke 14:13-15;16-24 (Mt. 22:1-14)
This is a story in Luke where Jesus is eating at a Pharisees house and Jesus sees a man suffering outside. Jesus decides to go outside and heal the man, and comes back in and asks the Pharisees if it was lawful for him to heal the suffering man on the Sabbath? But Jesus was being carefully watch so they stayed completely quiet when he(Jesus), began to talk. Jesus tells a parable about where to sit when eating at a dinner, and speaks the famous verse “ For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Lk. 14:11) Then in the 11 verses Jesus really begins to dive into the meat of the passage. Luke draws on writings of Q by explaining that if you truly want to be holy, then don’t assume you’re being Godly by just inviting over all your friends and family, but the true godly ones are the people who invite over the poor, and homeless. Luke puts that in there because he’s calling out all the Pharisees who feel they are doing people honor and favors, but essentially they are just trading favors with family. Giving in a godly manner is someone who gives, and knows they wont receive anything back, that’s why all over the gospels authors repeat the saying of Jesus to give to the poor, because when you give to the poor, you’re not expecting to get anything back. Luke is essentially getting at the point that if you want to give, and be godly, don’t invite all your friends, real followers of Jesus go out and grab the cripple, blind, and lame to have over for a feast. The original people that were invited to the feast could possibly resemble the Jews. However, In Matthew 22:1-14 Jesus gives a very similar parable elaborating on the possible 2nd coming. This is the heart of both Luke 14 and Matthew 22. The slaves could be seen as followers of Jesus, and the people who did not come could be seen as the non elect, or non followers of Jesus. The people who did not come the king burned down their cities. This could resemble the forth coming destruction of Jerusalem. However, this passage ends with the verse, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” Could allude to the non-elect, or people who turned their back on Christ. These passages again lift up the image of the poor, and put down the image of Pharisees. Luke seems to really separate himself from other gospel writers.
Luke 18:1-8
This is a story of a persistent widow who seems very vulnerable, and who seeks justice from a judge who does not have the fear of God in him. The judge shows no partiality to male of female in the story which is a Lukan theme. (Lk. 18:2) The widow in this story could possibly represent the followers of Jesus. I see it in the way Luke started out this parable by stating in verse 1 “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” This verse sets the tone for the rest of the parable, explaining that if the just Judge(God), who was mentioned in verse 7, gives people who are in prayer everything that they want, they wont pray as much. So this parable exalts the women who is some-what of a bother to the unjust judge because she shows disciples of Jesus that they need to be constant in watchfulness of Christ, and also to be in prayer. Again, Luke lifts up the role of a woman, elaborating on disciples need for prayer and perseverance.
In these four stories and all throughout the gospel of Luke we see parables of Jesus where Luke exalts the role of women, lame, & weak, and makes them resemble followers of Jesus. I think that Jesus includes these stories to bring to light social inequality. This may have been a political movement by Luke. Luke may have been calling out political leaders and by doing so, he lifts up the lower and weaker class.