Next to the Gospel of John, the Gospel of Luke probably resonates more deeply in the hearts of its readers than either of the other two Gospels. The reason is not difficult to find. Here is what some of those who have studied the Gospel of Luke most deeply have to say.
It would not be far wrong to say that the third gospel is the best life of Christ every written. . . .
First and foremost, Luke's gospel is an exceedingly careful bit of work. His Greek is notably good. . . . his work is the product of the most careful research. His opportunities were ample and his sources must have been good. As the trusted companion of Paul he must have known all the great figures of the Church, and we may be sure that he made them tell their story to him.
Luke is the easiest of all the gospels to read. He was writing . . for people very like ourselves.
Luke's gospel is specially the gospel of prayer. At all the great moments of His life, Luke shows us Jesus at prayer. . . . To Luke the unclosed door of prayer was one of the most precious doors in all the world.
In the gospel of Luke the phrase praising God occurs oftener than in all the rest of the New Testament put together. . . . There is a radiance in Luke's gospel which is a lovely thing, as if the sheen of heaven had touched the things of earth.
William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1956), xiii-xvi.
Luke has cast his net wide, and produced a gospel the most voluminous and varied, the most vibrant and sympathetic, the most beautiful and sweetly reasonable of all that we possess.
William Manson, The Gospel of Luke (MNTC; 1937), xxvii.
The great thought Luke is expressing is surely that God is working out His purpose. . . . This divine purpose Luke sees as intimately bound up with the love and mercy of God. A feature of this Gospel is the way God's love is portrayed in a variety of ways and among a variety of people. . . . This is not an occasional theme, but one which runs through the whole writing. As A. H. McNeile put it, whereas in Matthew the keynote may be said to be royalty, and in Mark power, in Luke it is love. It is perhaps this that gives the Third Gospel its peculiar attractiveness. The writer is obvioulsy a man of culture, with an appreciation of the beautiful, and he certainly could write well. But it is not any or all of these that accounts for the beauty of this writing. Rather it is the way the love of God shines through in parable and saying and story of Jesus.
Luke's theme is a grand one and he treats it at some lenght. His Gospel is the longest of the four, and when Acts is added he has written more of the New Testament than any other single writer. Clearly a study of his writings is important for the student of the New Testament.
Leon Morris, The Gospel According to St. Luke (TNTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 13-14.
The idyllic charm, homely earnestness, simplicity and purity, and the deep, devotional spirit characterising the stories concerning the birth of John and that of Jesus, are unsurpassed. These stories as well as others in the Gospel of Luke have indeed done more than anything else in the world to inspire painters and other artists to create masterpieces of art. The statement in the tradition of later centuries that Luke was a painter and that he painted Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is probably incorrect. But none the less [sic] Luke may with justice and par excellence be styled the "painter in words". His description of the various personalities in the Gospel is so simply realistic and at the same time so sublime that throughout the centuries it has set to work tens of thousands of artists.
Norval Geldenhuys, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1951), 36.
©Alberith, 2017