Sermon - Feast of St. Luke, 2020

 Our Epistle today is part of St. Paul’s final letter before his death. Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, a younger pastor in Ephesus, while Paul was imprisoned in Rome. The previous year Paul had been released from prison, but then famously Rome burned while Nero played the lyre, and the Christians were blamed for the flames and thus Paul was rearrested.

Paul then writes these words to Timothy while awaiting his execution. “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”

Paul, knowing that he would soon be beheaded, is still filled with great hope. It’s incredible, even though his head is going to be cut off, he talks about God giving him a crown of righteousness! Man may cut off his head, but God will give him a new head and crown it with righteousness! I hope that you and I would be willing to make Paul’s words and hope our own, that even when death threatens us, we would fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith. 

But even with such words of hope and courage on Paul’s lips, he longs for the companionship of other Christians; he’s lonely. He implores Timothy, “Do you best to come to me soon.” Most had already left him, “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me...Crescens has gone… Titus to Dalmatia.” But one stands out! “Luke alone is with me.” So today we remember St. Luke, the evangelist, who imitates Christ’s love by serving as a steadfast friend in time of loneliness.

Even though he wrote one of the Gospels, we know very little about St. Luke. His name is only mentioned three times in the Bible. St. Paul refers to him as the beloved physician, but that doesn’t mean he was of high nobility, in fact it’s probably the opposite. According to an early church father, Eusebius, Luke was born at Antioch in Syria (that’s a little ways north of Israel), thus Luke was a Gentile. 

Not only was he not an Israelite, but the fact that he was a physician makes it more likely that he was a slave in his younger years. (You must understand, it was common for masters to have a slave trained in medicine in order to have a family doctor.) Thus Paul was an upstanding Pharisee of the Jews and a Roman citizen by birth, while Luke was a gentile slave. The two could have hardly been more dissimilar in terms of worldly status, and yet, the two were dear friends on account of the Gospel and Luke remained steadfastly devoted to Paul, even when all others had deserted.

Now I suppose we may be tempted, in our hyper-individualistic Christian culture, to question why it matters that Luke stayed with Paul. Afterall, Paul has the Lord with him, right? If he’s got Jesus on his side, why would he need Luke or anyone else? 

It’s true that the Lord was with Paul when all others had deserted him, as he said: “The Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.” Just like Daniel was seemingly alone in the lion’s den, the Lord was with him. Just like when you or I may be seemingly alone, the Lord is with us to strengthen us. That is a comforting assurance in times of loneliness!

Nevertheless, that doesn’t negate the fact that God created us to be with other people. If God had meant us to be alone, He wouldn’t have put us in a world inhabited by billions of other humans. It’s not a coincidence that God sent out the seventy-two disciples two by two, with a companion by their side to help them after they were kicked out of yet another village. Even before sin it wasn’t good that Adam should be alone. Now especially after the fall into sin, now that the days are evil, it’s even more vital that we Christians would be together.

It’s evident that Luke understands the significance of being with others based upon the fact that he gives the most detailed account of the incarnation, the enfleshment of the God-Man, Jesus the Christ. On Christmas Eve, when the church prepares to celebrate the incarnation on Christmas Day, we read Luke’s nativity account. 

We hear the angel Gabriel say to Mary, “Greetings, O favored one! God is with you!” How is God with Mary, is it just some spiritual presence? No! The God-Man took on human flesh in the womb of the virgin Mary! God was literally with her in her womb for nine months, and then she and Joseph got to hold God in their arms and look Him in the face and shower Him with kisses! 

Throughout Luke’s Gospel account he tells stories of God being with His people in the flesh. Jesus raises a boy after He interrupts a funeral procession and touches the casket; He teaches Martha and Mary who sit at His feet; a repentant woman washes Jesus’ feet with her hair and tears; another woman touches Jesus’ garment and is healed; Jesus feeds thousands of people; Jesus stays at Zacchaeus’s house; He sheds tears at Lazarus’s tomb; He drives money changers out of the temple with a whip; He fed His apostles His body and blood; He is beaten, crucified, and buried; He walks with His disciples on the road to Emmaus and stays with them when it was evening; He enters into their house and eats with them after being risen.

God took on human flesh to be with His people, thus declaring that the body matters, flesh and blood interactions matter, being with one another face to face matters. When Aaron blessed the Israelites, or when a pastor blesses the congregation, he says “The Lord make His face to shine upon you.” The incarnation of Jesus, and the transfiguration when Jesus’ face shone, fulfill that blessing upon God’s people. When Christ returns on the last day, His face will shine upon you and God will be with you.

In the meantime, God instructs us to be with each other. Since our body is the temple of the Lord, and the image of God is being renewed in us Christians day by day, since Christ lives in us through the waters of baptism, joins His flesh and blood to ours in blessed communion, since we are one body with Christ as our head, therefore we are to be with one another in the flesh just as if Christ were there in the flesh with us.

When Luke alone is with Paul in his time of great distress, Luke is simply doing what Christians are meant to do with each other. The incarnation means that God is with us, that He died for us in the flesh, that He forgives our real fleshly sins, and promises to raise us up with Him in the flesh. The incarnation also means that we Christians are to be with each other and remain steadfast towards one another in the flesh.

We American Christians in our hyper-individualistic culture of “me and Jesus” need to repent of deserting one another in these dark evil hours. We need to relearn what it means to be with other christians, to strengthen them and be strengthened by them in this lonely fight. We ought to learn from St. Luke the Evangelist the courage required to remain steadfast in our friendship with one another. We also ought to learn from St. Paul the great value of having Christian friends with us who strengthen us.

So I thank my God for all of you who are with me in this fight, who stand by me and strengthen me, who don’t muzzle this ox as he treads out the grain. I also thank my God who promises to rescue us from every evil deed and bring us safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.