33 - Song of Luke

While Paul was confined in the fortress, the Gentiles he’d brought with him from the provinces wandered about the city like lost souls. Except for Luke, that is. Luke had come to Jerusalem with a definite purpose in mind, and he spent his time gathering and writing down everything he could learn from first-hand witnesses about the life, deeds, and sayings of Christ while he was on earth. He went about this business in his quiet, Gentile way, spending much time with the Christian group of James, who was still considered untouchable when it came to persecution of the saints.

Luke met with Matthew and wrote down all the material he’d gathered, either in notes or in memory. Matthew had exercised great care in setting down all the doctrines and parables he had heard from Christ.

Luke was also fortunate enough to come across a “family letter,” or genealogical table, which had been preserved and continued in the family of Christ for many generations. These “family letters” were the most precious possessions among Jews; more important even than economic or social standing when it came to arranging marriages. Christ’s family records went back to King David, and David’s lineage was universally known to go back through Boaz and Ruth to Judah and Jacob, the patriarch. Luke and Matthew both set down Christ’s ancestry, but Luke went further. He wanted to collect as many details as possible about the circumstances of Christ’s birth.

Matthew’s record of Christ’s birth was based on reports already in wide circulation among those who’d been close to him. These reports bore the characteristics common to the beginning of all great prophets, like Moses and Samuel, that the great one had always been dedicated to God “from his mother’s womb,” for example. But Matthew, like John Mark, was less concerned with these details than with Christ’s words and deeds. Following Jewish custom, they emphasized their teacher’s doctrines and acts, writing down his parables with the utmost accuracy.

Luke the Greek brought the longing for beauty he’d learned from his worship of the gods to his faith in Christ. What he longed for was the personal touch. He wanted to know more about the extraordinary woman to whom the Holy Spirit had appeared, announcing that she would bear a son in a supernatural fashion such as no other woman had ever experienced. Luke longed to penetrate the mystery of his creation. The information he got from Matthew was inadequate to meet that need.

Christ’s mother was dead, but fortunately her sister Susannah was still alive and living in the great house of Barnabas’ sister Mary. She was very old, and white as a dove, her body no longer seeming to be of flesh, but more like the delicate fiber of a plant, transparent and spiritual. She was confined to a couch swathed in white linen, waiting for the fulfillment of her heart’s desire, to be called to the lord’s side in heaven, and to join her own who were now with him. The women of the house tended her in awe, and listened closely to her stories, many of which had to do with her sister and the birth of Christ. Matthew had written down some of it, but not all, for he considered many details as having no importance. Not so with Luke.

So the Greek grammarian sat at the foot of Susannah’s couch, his soul filled with the longing for the beauty of the gods he’d abandoned, and put down every word she spoke on a scroll of papyrus. Susannah spoke, or rather whispered, in Aramaic. An interpreter translated into Greek, and Luke wrote diligently.

“I remember it all clearly, as if it were yesterday. We lived together, the whole family, in a single courtyard. My sister Mary was still at home. She helped in the vegetable garden and with the flock. She was already engaged to Joseph, the carpenter. And on that day my husband was working in his vineyard, and my mother was at the brook, washing our clothes. It was noon, and the sun was bright and hot. It was very quiet. I was outside when I saw my sister coming out of the house. Her face was white and she came toward me like a frightened deer, and fell down, trembling. I asked her what was wrong. And she answered that a wondrous thing had happened to her.

“‘I sat in the house at the loom,’ she said, ‘weaving my bridal dress. There was no sound except the loom, and I was thinking that if my first child were a son, I would dedicate him to the Lord, like Hannah. Suddenly I saw an angel standing in front of me. He said to me, “Greetings, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you. You are blessed among women.” I was so afraid I said nothing. Then he said something to me that I can’t tell any living person.’

“Well later, after the thing happened, we found out what the angel had told her, that she would conceive in her virginity and bear a son, and that the Lord would give him the throne of David.

“Then right around the time the child would be born, Joseph had to report to Bethlehem, his family’s home, for the census decreed by the government. They told me about it later. It was a bright night, and a dusting of snow had fallen. My sister and her husband were in the street, for there was no room for them in the inns, which were filled with strangers from all cities who were all there for the same reason.

“My sister began to feel her first pains that night, so her husband ran out and found a group of shepherds not far from the town, and they had him bring her and put her in a stall where they kept the newborn lambs. That was where she had her first child. She wrapped him snuggly in strips of cloth, and laid him in a trough, and her husband helped her. Everyone had abandoned them, but God helped them. He sent an angel, who stood before them and said, ‘Fear not, for I bring you news of joy to all people.’ And soon it was like the heavens opened above the stable where my sister lay with her little one, and legions of angels came down from heaven. There was great singing for the child, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill to men.”

At the foot of the couch, Luke was caught up in the vision of the opened heavens. He pictured a golden stream of angels pouring earthward. They held harps and stood in a circle around the newborn child. And the words of the old woman rang in his ears, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill to men.”

Luke could write no more. He sat motionless, his writing implement at his feet, and his eyes staring into the distance. Something was happening in his soul. Something was dying and something was being born. He heard the words of Paul ringing in his ears, “Christ has become the inheritor of the gods. The myth of Hellas is dead, and the myth of the lord has begun.”