Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 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, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. ~Luke 1:1-4
I started this blog almost two months ago after a three year hiatus from writing. I started it, but didn’t plan it. I miss the way I used to write: by walking through books of the Bible. So, I decided to start with Luke because Luke contains the majority of the Christmas story.
Anticipating that I would start with Zechariah, instead the very first sentence caught my attention: “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.”
“Many have undertaken” to write about the wonders of Jesus Christ. Many, but we only have four: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to read some of those “many?”
Luke was the first of the Gospels to be written. Luke wrote in AD 62, and Matthew and Mark came 23 years later in AD 85. (Years are approximate.) Already in AD 62, “many” had already written. Church history cautions us to be careful of resources outside of the biblical canon – the gnostics and such wrote several hundred years after Christ lived and therefore their writings were not considered canon, and even counted as dangerous. But Luke wrote long before then.
I had a professor in seminary remind us regularly that God left us with the canon He wanted us to have. There are multiple verses that indicate a plethora of people were writing about Jesus, but we have exactly what we were meant to have.
But still, wouldn’t it be cool to at least peek at what the “many” wrote?
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.
Luke was a medical doctor. We don’t know much else about him, but since Luke was writing to him, we can assume he was probably well educated. Luke also tells us that he felt the need to thoroughly research the events of Jesus before writing them down. Luke came to faith after the Resurrection and was a companion of Paul, so as an academic man, it makes sense that he would want to write an accurate account.
So that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
Certainty. In our world of social media and fake news, do we actually know what certainty is? Jesus is our Rock, our Truth, and our Certainty. He is about the only thing in this world that is truly unchanging. I am so thankful that Luke decided to follow the whisperings of the Holy Spirit and do his research so that we can know with certainty the events of our Lord.