In Theophilus' shoes

“He then led them out of the city over to Bethany. Raising his hands he blessed them, and while blessing them, took his leave, being carried up to heaven.”

“And they were on their knees, worshiping him. They returned to Jerusalem bursting with joy. They spent all their time in the Temple praising God. Yes.” Luke 24:50-53, The Message

…

“Now that their minds are open, he leads them out to Bethany and pronounces one last berakah. While it is still ringing in their ears, they notice that Jesus is ascending, being “carried up.” He is going away but he is not going away. With the coming of the Spirit, he will be closer, more present, than any of them would have imagined. He will be as close as their new understanding of the Word. That blessing – those final words – were, in a sense, the first words they had ever truly heard. Luke: The Gospel of Amazement by Michael Card, p. 266

The man knows how to tell a story

Thirteen months ago today I began a devotional study of The Gospel of Luke. I didn't do it for a sermon series (although I did get a couple of messages out of it). I didn't do it because I was planning to teach a class on it (although I certainly would be in a better position to do that today than I was a little over a year ago.) I did it because I was hungry to read the Jesus-story again. In 2010 I had spent the year in Matthew. The following year I had only planned to meditate on the Abraham-story before returning to, say, Mark's gospel but ended up parking myself among the Patriarchs for the rest of 2011. But last January I was eager to learn of Jesus again so this time I turned to Luke's version (see "This book will change your life.") This morning, I finally came to the end of it – well, at least the first part of the greater Jesus story that concludes at 24:53. What took me so long?

A good read

For starters, I clearly didn't read my Bible for devotional purposes every day. Oh, I referenced it for my work regularly enough – teachings and sermons and the like - but opening it and musing on a passage simply to let Him speak to me, not as much. And secondly, as part of my devotional reading I also read it in The Message version (my NIV Bible remains the book I use the most both personally and professionally) and then referenced four different commentaries regularly along the way:

1. The NIV Study Bible that I have downloaded to my office computer.
2. The Message of Luke (The Bible Speaks Today) by Michael Wilcock
3. Luke: The Gospel of Amazement (Biblical Imagination Series) by Michael Card
4. Luke (The NIV Application Commentary) by Darrell L. Bock

He helped me see things

So on the days I would engage the Scriptures in this manner this is what I would do: I would open up my Bible, open up the Word file for 2012, read the passage and then stream-of-consciousness-like meditate upon what I had just read. I would reflect upon things that struck me about the text, about reactions of the different characters to Jesus or how he was speaking to me. Again, these weren't necessarily for publication (however, some – including this post today – did end up getting posted after some editorial work.) Following my usual paragraph-long reflection, I would open up The Message version of the same text on BibleGateway.com and cut and post it into my Word file. Frequently, just reading it another version would generate some more thoughts on the passage. Then I would open up the NIV Study Bible and clip and post that into my file (primarily because the print is so small in the software I use). Following reflecting on the notations by the unnamed editor, I would in turn read Wilcock's, Card's and Bock's assessment about the same text. If I read a quote that I liked, I would mark it with a yellow stickie note and return to it later to copy into my Word file. So, it became a fairly lengthy exercise but it was for me (not for anyone else) and I enjoyed the pedestrian pace that this routine forced me to take. (My “Meditations in the Word” file for 2012 is 386 pages long and the file I have begun for 2013 that covers just Luke 22:31-24:53 is 50 pages long!) And how I appreciated their insight – I like Wilcock's ability to see the great themes unfolding in Luke's gospel, Card's skill as a writer to take me into a moment and Bock's extensive knowledge of language and all things syntax. So, yeah, it took a while to get to the end of it.

I try and put myself - as Luke intends, I think – into Theophilus' place. I received the gospel by post by someone who makes the claim that upon reading the story (or in my case, re-reading it) I can “know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what [I have been] taught. Luke 1:4 Msg. “Read this, dude, and take it to heart. 'Cause it's true.” And now having read the story, recorded over 400 pages of thoughts and quotations that may never see the light of day again, now what? Other than eagerly wanting to read the sequel what has this re-reading of Luke's version of the Jesus-story done in me?

It's either this image or lots of a rapper named Theophilus

If I follow Card's lead, I know what is supposed to happen: I am to be full of awe at everything I have read. A story that begins in the temple where a priest is so amazed by the things he is told that he cannot utter the expected blessing ends in the same place with a group of disciples eager to share the blessing of all that they have seen and heard. I also am to be full of expectation for the promised “dunamis” so that I may share the things I have gleaned by this meditation on Jesus. And both of these emotions tonight are present in me – I have a fresh awe of Him and a new desire to share what I have learned through my association with Him. Last week alone I must have shared and/or preached from Luke 23-24 half a dozen times in different settings – in PV 1 at the Justice Center, at our Annual Celebration and at the worship gatherings again at the JC on Sunday. But more importantly, reading his story again provokes in me a greater desire to know him better and continue to follow him just as if I were part of that group he blessed outside of Bethany as he ascended into heaven. So at the end of my reading of Luke is a prayer that he would clothe me again with power so like them I may be fearless in my witness of the risen Savior.

It's good enough reason to pick up Luke Part 2 that begins in Acts 1.

With keen insight...Luke ends his first volume where he began it: God's people praising him in his temple. For 'the temple' means...the place where God meets man. The Gospel began there, at the heart of the old Jewish faith, for if in those days God and man were ever to come together, that was the place where the meeting would be – in the religion of the ancient Israelites: 'to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises' [Rom 9:4]. What has been achieved in the course of the gospel story is that a new way has been opened by which man and God can be reunited. There is a new temple. So it is in the temple that Luke not only begins but also ends his Gospel (24:53); the important thing now, however, is not the old building, which is doomed to destruction, but the community of Jesus' people gathered there. Henceforth it is they who 'are God's temple', and among them God is to be met with. For them, and for them alone, life is a meaningful thing, God's word is a living reality, and the proclamation of the good news is a consuming passion. They know the Savior, and they want the world to know him too. (The Message of Luke by Michael Wilcock, pp. 214-15)