I’ve heard that St. Luke’s Gospel is the favorite of women. I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s my favorite and I’m a woman. Men prefer St. John’s, so I’ve been told, which might be a little surprising, since St. John’s is called the “poetic” Gospel.
I never knew why I liked St. Luke’s best, but one minor bit of obscure history may help a little to explain it. The testimony of women is notably absent in the New Testament. That’s because the women’s testimony was never permitted – never deemed credible – in the Jewish society of Jesus’ time. It may be noted that Mary Magdalen’s testimony that Jesus was risen, that she had seen him and spoken with him, was disbelieved by the apostles, still in hiding, on that Easter morning.
Jewish men didn’t take seriously anything a woman might have to say. Even my beloved St. Joseph apparently required angelic confirmation of the cause of Mary’s pregnancy; her word was perhaps not enough.
St. Luke, however, was a Greek. And maybe because he was not a Jew like the other Gospel writers, he felt free to believe the testimony of a woman. Hence, we have the story of the Anunciation, the Nativity, the Visitation and St. John the Baptist’s birth; also, the Presentation and the Finding in the temple—all of which could only have come from Mary. None of this is to be found in the other Gospels. Were it not for a Greek’s willingness to take a woman at her word, we’d never know about Gabriel, we’d never know about the Incarnation of God’s Son..
I always feel a paternal influence from my beloved St. Joseph (also the name of my grandfather, Joseph Hunt, who died when I was three), but I have great affection for St. Luke, who would have had the courage to believe me, a woman.
One might also add Our Lord addressing the holy women on the Way of the Cross.
Among other passages unique to St. Luke: the parables of the Lost Coin, the Pharisee and the Publican, and the Good Samaritan; Christ forgiving his tormentors from the cross and his words to the good thief – all emphasizing God’s mercy.
As for “we’d never know about the Incarnation,” let us not forget the presence of Sacred Tradition, not to mention John 1:1-14, et. al.
Right, Steve. I think I always liked St. Luke’s Gospel most because it’s the most purely narrative, less emotional than St. John’s, less concerned with genealogy than St. Matthew’s (and legalism), and more comprehensive than St. Mark’s.