Luke 1 from a Physicians perspective pt. 1

Luke 1:1-4

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled[a] among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

Ok, so I am not a physician. Luke was. Luke was Paul's physician. He was not actually a disciple. I know that may spoil some of your deeply held philosophical beliefs. Or it may not. Either way, I started reading this book in the bible again and wanted to try and put myself into his shoes.

As the adage goes, "Walk a mile in their shoes..."

When I reread this, my favorite book in the bible, I started reading it after a self-imposed drought of spirituality. I know, I know, I should have, could have, if I had only... But I admit, I got busy. I imagine if God were talking to me directly right now, he'd say "You are only hurting yourself." Anyway, going back to Luke.

Question Everything

So reading the first couple verses, I noted an imposing theme. "Question it." However, many in my age group, and even younger by 6 or 8 years take this with the wrong context. You see in verse 1-2, Luke points out "Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word." He is saying here that there is a lot of talk, a lot of books, a lot of probably diverging talk about who Jesus is and what exactly happened. Imagine if you had heard a story from many people; all adding their own little twist, or their own perspective. I'd imagine that the stories would be so varying that the story and the truth would be hard to discern. This is where questioning comes into play. Questioning everything, in fact, is more of an offensive maneuver in Luke's arsenal. He would have had to question everything because everything would be different. So he took his keen, analytical, problem solving mind (Much like mine, so this is easy to imagine...) to task. He investigated the story. In fact, he writes that he "carefully" investigated. He put MORE effort and MORE energy into this investigation because of its importance in his culture, and in world history. He probably looked all over for key witnesses, and in the end, he landed with one person that would know much more than anyone else. Mary, the mother of Jesus. Later we see he has key data from a source of the account of Jesus' birth that none of the other synoptic (synced) gospels could have hoped to produce. It would have either been from Mary, Elizabeth, or Zechariah (Elizabeth's husband), or Joseph. We know, based on history that Joseph died sometime after Jesus was born. We also know that Elizabeth and Zechariah were "aged." So my educated guess is that it was Mary.
Luke goes back and forth looking for witnesses, ends up interviewing Mary, at least for the beginning, and he begins getting details from the source. Here's where I digress from straight biblical history and roll in with my stepping on toes. Or from preaching to meddling, if you prefer. I have seen way too many "Millennials" taking the stance of "Question everything" and in the process throw the baby out with the bath water. (Side note: history records that this idiom came about because early bathing habits would be oldest male to youngest in the same water source. So by the end of the bath, the water was probably filthy. When you would throw the bath water out, you had to be careful that the baby was not still in it.) They question faith, God, Jesus' sacrifice, and even their own moral values. Everything becomes gray area and nothing is right or wrong. Luke clearly points out that while the need for questioning is there, we have to go to the source, get the information, then stop questioning that information . We cannot continue to be morally relative in a country that, despite its moral foundations, has strayed to legalized murder and drug use. Go to the source, Jesus Christ, and gain understanding. Then you can "test and see" that God is in fact as good as he says he is. As Luke puts it in verse 4 " so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught." Jesus is the certainty you need, He's free to access.

We stand on the shoulders of giants

The next major thought that stands out to me in this set of scriptures is that many, many, many, many, many, many have gone before us. (Just in case that wasn't enough many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many.)
So many people have gone before us and in our haste to do our own thing, or experience life, we walk away from those that were there before us. We push our parents, pastors, mentors, and any and all adults away citing "They don't know me, they haven't gone through what I am going through." Do you really believe you are the only person that has experienced this? In fact, the bible says that Jesus "was tempted in every way, as we were, yet without sin," Jesus at the very least knows what we go through. But, the so many I mentioned before have actually gone through what we are going through. Many of them were successful in defeating it. Many of them know what you can try to do to get through your pain. Many of them have experience even greater things than we can imagine. Many have had problems that we can learn from. Instead of pushing them away, we should be seeking them out. We should be earnestly learning from them.

The findings are inconclusive

In the end, the findings are inconclusive. The bible is an old book. The book itself is not important, but the contents, the history, the words are of utmost importance. We must learn, grow, allow God's words to us, through these authors, change us. We must allow the words all at once to compel us to good works and good relationships that God has been preparing for us. We must choose to encounter God and grow up beyond our funk. We cannot, we must not, turn away our elders. The bible says that when the fathers and sons return to relationship, that there is revival. It seems hard, but the first step is willingness, and the second step is asking for help. If you can, we can, they can, be humble enough to ask for and give help in turn, then I believe the Church will enter a new realm of revival.

SELAH