If you already have Matthew and Mark, why would you need Luke?  Aren’t they all the same?

Nope.

Next question:  do you know these Gospels very well?  If not, AOK:  Keep reading!  If so – see if you can summarize the themes and emphases of Luke in one sentence (say, 50 words) in a way that both highlights what it’s about and shows what is distinctive about its portrayal of Jesus.

How’d that go for you?

Here’s what I would come up with as a first go (I’ve never tried this before!)

The Gospel of Luke portrays Jesus both as a Greco-Roman “divine man” – shown by his supernatural birth, astounding miracles, death, and exaltation – and as the final prophet sent by God to the Jewish people, who rejected him, fulfilling God’s plan for salvation to go to all the peoples of earth.

It would take volumes to fill out this brief summary (many such volumes have been written!  I’ll give suggestions for reading in a future post on Luke).  Here I will try expand the summary a bit by discussing some of the most important features of our Third Gospel.

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