Luke 1v1-4

So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives.

Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story's beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught.
Luke 1v1-4 (The Message)

Dear Theophilus, in the first volume of this book I wrote on everything that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he said good-bye to the apostles, the ones he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven.
Acts 1v1 (The Message)

The first text we reflectively walk through is Luke's prologue to his narrative of all the things that Jesus began to do and teach. In ancient texts, a lot like today, the authors try to clarify what they are seeking to accomplish through their writings through their introductory paragraph. We know that Luke wrote this gospel, as well as the book, the Acts of the Apostles. Luke-Acts is one story, one narrative about the work of God through Jesus and the local church - a work that began long ago and which will go on for a long time yet.

Since the Luke-Acts narrative is a story about the work of God - it's worth noting what the big picture is concerning this written account. Literally, gospel means good news. Narratively, according to Luke-Acts (and the rest of the Scriptures), the Gospel is:
The work of God to restore us
in the context of community to God and to others
for the good of others and the world.
(see Scot McKnight: Embracing Grace)

Luke acknowledges that many people before him had been passing on the stories of God and the teachings of Jesus - but he was going to write it all down so that Theophilus could regain some of his confidence in what he had been taught concerning the life and events of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is where so many of us can connect with Luke and Theophilus: we have our doubts about the reliability of the stories, we wonder about the realisticness of Jesus' teachings, and we wonder whether what we've been taught really matters. Luke's answer: Yes! The stories are trustworthy, the teachings are transformative, and all that God has done in the world with and through Jesus matters.

The brilliant story that Luke has revealed through his literary craft - a story rooted in historical veracity, eyewitness accounts, and oral traditions - has to do with the ongoing work of God to gather together a community of men and women in whom and through whom he wants to fix what is wrong in the world. God started with Adam and Eve, but their Fall has been an ongoing descent of humanity. God also began the restoration process with Adam and Eve, forgiving them, being reconciled to them, and using them still to bless the world. God's intent is to restore all humanity and this whole world - the heavens and the earth, and this is what his work has been about since the days of Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, John, Jesus, Peter, Paul and you.

About Luke: from his letter Acts, we find out that he was a physician attending to the apostle Paul. It's likely that Luke was of Jewish descent but probably a citizen of Greece or Asia Minor. He is obviously well-educated, a man of discipline and rigorous training with a scientific mind. His friend Theophilus is a man of some power and prestige who has become a follower of the Way - as many have done within the courts of Herod and Caesar. And like many, Theophilus has doubts, has trouble counting the cost, and needs his talented and credible friends like Luke to remind him of what is true. Luke was possibly a member of the churches in Ephesus, and possibly converted there through the ministry of either the apostle John or Paul himself.

Luke is not a eyewitness to the actual events of Jesus' life, but he is eyewitness to the lives of the disciples in the decades following the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Most eyewitnesses were still alive when Luke began his two-volume project, as well as many church communities located all over the Roman Empire. Luke must have had the means to travel throughout Palestine to collect the eyewitness accounts and see the geographic locations of the stories/teachings. Luke needed also to travel to track down some of the apostles who had travelled to the far edges of the empire: Thomas trekked to India, Peter to Rome, others went to Egypt, Persia, the southern steppes of Russia, and to the wilderness of Europe.

I'm sure that Luke was constantly reminded of the power of the gospel as he daily endured the dangers of travel in the ancient world to catch up with the disciples of Jesus who were energized by some Spirit to bring light and truth and grace and justice and mercy to the far corners of God's creation. Luke would arrive to some distant land to discover a community of followers who were seeking to further God's restoration to their families, friends, neighborhoods and livelihoods. Luke would arrive with news of what else God was doing in the world, which would only further boost the efforts of this brave community, and I'm sure boost the efforts of Luke to keep collecting the stories of God at work to restore his world to Himself and to one another for the good of each of us and our world.