If folklore did not inform believers that St. Luke was a physician, the faithful might well conclude that the author of the Third Gospel was a social studies teacher. History and especially geography are vitally important to St. Luke, even if he has to depart from his fellow Evangelists in presenting the story of Jesus' life. It is St. Luke who carefully pinpoints the birth of Jesus by citing the ruling elite of the day and it is the same St. Luke who zeroes in on St. John the Baptist's entrance into public life by a similar recitation of imperial and provincial leaders.
Remember also that while Sts. Matthew and Mark place the ascension of Jesus in far northern Galilee, St. Luke carefully has Jesus travel only two miles from Jerusalem to the nearby village of Bethany for his triumphant return to the Father. And now, in the Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent, St. Luke alters the succession of the triple temptations of Jesus from the version found in St. Matthew so that the final temptation on the parapet of Jerusalem's temple will leave Jesus clearly within the neighborhood of the holy city. For St. Luke, Jerusalem is clearly the city of destiny. For St. Luke, the Gospel author, all roads lead to Jerusalem, just as for St. Luke, the author of Acts, all roads will lead to Rome.
St. Luke's life of Jesus, as all will recall, commences with the visitation of the angel Gabriel to Mary in Nazareth, today a large city in the northern province of Galilee. From then on everything heads south to the capital city, the holy city, the city in which Christ will accomplish all his purposes: passion, death, resurrection, and, for St. Luke, his ascension as well. In that same southern city, the results of Christ's redemptive act will bear fruit in the glorious Pentecost event when the same Spirit who conceived Jesus, who led him into the desert for his temptations, and who guided his every step of public life, will burst forth in the church's first effort at evangelization. After the first Pentecost in Jerusalem, the Spirit will lead the church, with the same determination and resolve, toward its own destiny in Rome. The assurance with which Jesus accomplished his journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem will be the same assurance by which the church will accomplish its pilgrimage from Jerusalem to Rome. The same Spirit assures the destiny of Christ and the destiny of his early church.
And, of course, the really good news is that the Spirit that led Jesus from his conception in the womb of Mary through his baptism at the hands of John and his temptations in the desert as well as along his inexorable journey toward Jerusalem is the same Holy Spirit that guides the church now through the sacraments and the Scriptures, through the teaching authority of prelates, through the dedication of religious and through the charisms of the laity. Jesus enjoyed triumphs and endured setbacks on his path to the holy city. The early church experienced victories and overcame hurdles on its course to the eternal city. But both Christ and the church achieved their goal through the direction of the Spirit. The modern church happily has the same resource.
The key to Christ's victory in the desert and his long range success on Easter Sunday was his unyielding faith in the fatherhood of God. Jesus refused the opportunity to make bread from stones because he believed his Father had a more nurturing plan. Jesus turned down the easy victory that would have put all nations at his feet believing that allegiance to his Father outranked all practical considerations. Jesus dismissed the temple stunt that would have proven God's providence toward him never doubting God's solicitude for a moment. Faith in God's fatherhood and a real appreciation of his own sonship, the conviction that he was the apple of his Father's eye, saw Christ through these triple challenges and through the ultimate challenge of the cross itself. Jesus clearly knew what it meant to be the Son of God, to trust unconditionally in God's plan, to hope unwaveringly in God's promises, to cling unapologetically to God's benevolent will.
St. Luke, the geography teacher, brought God's plans for Jesus and the church literally down to earth. The path from Nazareth to Jerusalem resulted in victory and the road from Jerusalem to Rome led to success. The Holy Spirit offers the modern church the same prospect.
(This column originally appeared in The Providence Visitor)
