Luke is the story of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. It tells of his origin, life, teachings, ministry and miracles. It tells of his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to heaven. Consequently, Luke may be the most informative book in the Bible.
The Luke Series is a set of narrations based on the Bible’s book of Luke. Luke said that in writing his book that he investigated everything before writing Luke. His investigation included examining written materials and talking to eyewitnesses. This series is meant to imitate some of the stories Luke might have heard, as well as explore their meaning and importance. This series is true to the Bible, but fills in story lines based on history, geography, and imagination. Think of this series as being similar to a movie based on the book of Luke.
This series presumes that the author of Luke is Luke, a doctor who was a good friend and companion of Paul. That presumption sets the stage for Luke being able to correctly assess the veracity of the birth accounts of both John the Baptist and Jesus, and to understand their importance, both physically and spiritually. Don’t you imagine Luke, a doctor, was hesitant to write about miracles? But he believed in them to the point that he started his book with two miracle stories that could only be considered unlikely, if not outlandish.
Luke writes about the Last Supper, as well as Jesus’ arrest, trial crucifixion, death, and burial in only two chapters. He writes about those events in rather terse language and doesn’t provide many details; you can read the two chapters in less than ten minutes. You will have to read the accounts in the other Gospels to get a much fuller description of what happened in those twenty-four hours.
Without giving exact chronological timing, Luke issues a forewarning of Jesus’ death by telling of Judas’ agreement to betray Jesus to the Jewish leaders. Luke does not make it clear whether the betrayal happened because Satan entered into Judas or because of the payment of money, or both.
Luke only briefly describes the Last Supper and some of Jesus’ conversations. You have to read the account in John to have an appreciation of the momentous events that happened at that time.
Peter was likely one of Luke’s information sources for what happened the night of Jesus’ arrest. Perhaps that is why Luke includes Jesus’ prophecy about Peter’s denial of Jesus and the later fulfillment of that prophecy. However, Luke does not identify Peter as the one who cut off Malchus’ ear, as John did.
Throughout history, Pilate has been either vilified or exonerated of his actions that resulted in the crucifixion of Jesus. He was no doubt a violent man, but was he evil or just doing his job as a Roman official? The Jewish leaders knew they could possibly end Pilate’s career by causing a big enough riot, so his desire both to keep his position and to do a good job were sufficient to cause him to end the life of Jesus.
It is tempting to think of the crucifixion of Jesus as a special event. In fact, crucifixion was a common capital punishment of the Romans, Persians, Carthaginians, and other cultures, often used to punish political or religious agitators, pirates and slaves. As an example, in the aftermath of the slave rebellion led by Spartacus, about 11,000 rebelling slaves were crucified by the Roman Generals Crassus and Pompey.
Luke – Troy Powell Theophilus – Michael Page Mary – Chana Keefer John the Baptist – Sam Austin Satan – Christian Heep James – Andy Axewell Matthew – James Hansen Prince Right Hand Man – Ben Hall Centurion – Werner Richmond Mary Magdalene – Trisha Zarate James the Apostle – Lynn Andrews John the Apostle – John Ferguson Pharisee – M. Serrano Martha – Monica Peña Crippled Woman – Patty Pell Gardener – Adam Cope Judas Iscariot – Grey Acuña Lazarus (The Beggar) – Jeff Swearingen Tenth Leper – Eduardo Vildasol Young Ruler – Matthew Allen Holmes Zacchaeus – Chad Cline Andrew – Oscar Seung Peter – Francis Fuselier Pilate – Matthew Roy
