LUKE THE EVANGELIST
‘Only Luke is with me.’
There is a pathos in the words which those who are much alone, or who have suffered the loss of friends, will not fail to appreciate, and as we think of St. Luke thus comforting the prisoner at Rome, has he no lesson to teach us?
I. Surely he bids us each one remember the power of human sympathy.—Do not we know of some lonely ones in this sad, sad world whom our presence would cheer, whom we might help along in their spiritual life, whom we could make happy in the short time that remains to them here? Let us seek out those lonely ones, and we, too, shall know the blessedness of being able to cheer with our sympathy and companionship those who are so situated that they have to say, ‘only —— is with me.’
II. St. Luke has laid us all under a debt of gratitude for his beautiful record of our Lord’s life.
III. His gifts as a doctor were consecrated to the Lord’s service, and do not we know in our own experience how great a work can be done by the modern doctor who recognises that he is a steward of the Great Physician of the soul? The medical man can be, if he will, a very real missionary of the Gospel, and he can always do much to make easy the visits of the parish clergyman to the sick-room. It is a blessed thing to know that doctors and clergy are to-day acting together to a far greater extent than they have ever done before, and such unity of action cannot but conduce to the eternal comfort and happiness of the patient.
Illustrations
(1) ‘As an Evangelist St. Luke’s superior education is proved by the philological excellence of his writings (viz. the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, which are but two volumes of one work). His preface, in pure Greek, implies previous careful study of documentary and other evidence. He speaks of other attempts to write a Life of Christ, which were unsatisfactory. Though it is the same Gospel, it is narrated with peculiar independence, containing additional matter, more accuracy in preserving the chronological order of events, and complying with the requirements of history. He tested tradition with documentary records (e.g. 2 Timothy 1:5; 2 Timothy 2:2; 2 Timothy 3:1); by comparing the oral testimony of living witnesses (2 Timothy 1:2-3); and only when he had “perfect understanding of all things from the very first” ventured to compile a “Life of Christ” as a perfect man, restoring human nature and offering Himself a sacrifice for all mankind. To him we are indebted for the history of the birth and childhood of Jesus and the Baptist, for those liturgical hymns, and the scene in the synagogue at Nazareth (4.), which were probably communicated by the Virgin Mary.’
(2) ‘The Bishop of London, speaking at a public meeting, pointed out that there was an extraordinary longing on the part of sick persons for visits. As an instance of this he related the case of the wife of a clergyman who, at the prospect of a severe operation, lost all hope and faith and courage, and the great doctors of London were absolutely paralysed, because they dared not operate while the patient was in this state of utter collapse. By God’s help he, in the course of half an hour, was able to bring about such a change, that two days afterwards the patient walked from her room to the operating-table without a tremor, to the utter astonishment of her physicians. “What is it,” they asked, “that the Bishop of London has done to you?” “Something that it is beyond your power to do,” was the reply. The secret of that was that he, by Christ’s immediate healing power, had been able to bring about a reinvigoration of her central being, and by that means had restored her faith and hope and courage; she became herself again, a Christian woman who could look death in the face. In many a case it would be found that, by invigorating faith, hope, and courage in the sick, a great effect was produced upon the bodily system of the patient.’
ST.