The Gentiles Luke compiled his gospel as an historian through interviews with those who actually experienced the events. Throughout his account he emphasizes those events that prove God’s love is not limited to the Jews. At the very beginning of his gospel he quotes Simeon as saying that Jesus will be “a light to lighten the Gentiles” (Luke 2:32). Two chapters later Jesus has returned to Nazareth, his home town. In the synagogue he stands and reads from Isaiah. He then sits down and begins to comment on the reading. Although they initially are astonished at the gracious words coming from “Joseph’s son,” their attitude quickly changes when he says he is not going to do healing miracles there as he had done elsewhere. And to emphasize that God’s grace is not always directed to those who think they alone qualify for it, he reaches back to the experiences of Elijah and Elisha when a special blessing went to Gentiles. He says: “I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian” (Luke 4:25-27). The Sidonian woman was not a Jew; the Syrian Naaman was not a Jew. Were there not Jewish widows in the time of Elijah? Were there not Jewish lepers in the time of Elisha? Indeed there were, but they, for whatever reason, did not receive God’s grace. An indication of the heart condition of those who heard Jesus can be seen in the reaction described in verse 28: “All they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath.” They tried to kill him, but he passed through their midst and went elsewhere. As he had said in verse 24, “No prophet is accepted in his own country.” In Luke chapter 7 Jesus is at Capernaum. A centurion, a man responsible for 100 military men and thus not a Jew, had a beloved servant who was nigh unto death. He sent for Jesus, but specifies that he is not to trouble himself by actually coming to the house since he knows that just a word would be all that would be required to perform a miracle. Jesus hears this and says, “I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel” (Luke 7:9). Once again it is a Gentile who surpasses those who thought they were God’s special ones. At the end of his gospel, Luke records the words of the risen Lord who tells the disciples that the wonderful gospel message was something that was for all nations, not just the Jews: “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46,47).
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 05:14:06 +0000
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