ReformationUCC.org

Luke and Me

After completing three articles on Luke inspired by reading Taylor Caldwell’s “Dear and Glorious Physician” historical novel about Luke, I turn now to sharing decades of memories with regard to the author of a Gospel and the Book of Acts.

I think I first read Luke and Acts during my sophomore year of High School. After God sovereignly drew me to Himself in November of 1971, His Holy Spirit put a hunger in me to read His holy written Word–the Bible. After trying unsuccessfully to start from the
beginning and reading all the way through the Bible (I bogged down in Leviticus and Numbers), I started reading (a couple times, I think) the “Good News for Modern Man” version (remember the simple pictures–the one of Jesus healing a blind man continues to be in an eye hospital in central Asia) of the New Testament and Psalms. So, I think I read Luke and Acts twice during that time.

Also during my High School years, I had an early morning Quiet Time, consisting of Bible reading and study along with prayer. While I used various study guides during those years, most of the time I read William Barclay’s commentaries in the “Daily Study Bible” series. The Scotsman Barclay combined classical scholarship with a fresh translation and helpful application. Whenever I see my surviving copies of Barclay’s commentaries, I have a very sentimental feeling and one of gratitude to God as well.

I’m sure I studied Luke and Acts in college, but I do not recall any specifics at this time.

While attending Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, I took a “Life and Times of Jesus” class–on the Gospels. One option for a paper was to answer the question, “If you could have only one Gospel, which one would it be and why?” The title of my paper was
“Luke Alone Remains.” I posited a nuclear holocaust having occurred (I was pretty naive about that, but work with me here) and a bishop writing a person who had found a surviving copy of the Gospel of Luke.

By the middle 80’s (I think) I had begun to ponder the possibility of writing two novels about Luke–one about his Gospel and one concerning Acts. When, a few years, I took up Caldwell’s novel I put it down after a hundred or so pages because I feared it might color my thoughts.

Having finished it today, I realize that I did not need to worry. While it is a wonderful book, I found in the final hundred or so pages a traditional perspective of one particular Christian faith community is presented. (The almost last paragraph of the novel has distinct similarities with J. R. R. Tolkien’s presentation of the Elven Queen Galadriel–you can see what Tolkein has to say about Galadriel and Mary in the book of his letters, compiled by his son Christopher). If I ever write my novels on these subjects, they will be based upon the biblical text and not legends or additions.

Having written the various posts on Luke–especially the one on Luke as author–I have a renewed respect for this Gentile physician author who loved His Lord and sought so faithfully to vividly and accurately portray Him and the birth of His Church!