Since COVID-19 gripped the world, the first responders such as paramedics, doctors, nurses, law enforcement officers and emergency department personnel have been hailed as heroes and heroines. Indeed, they are.
Last Tuesday, I also became somewhat of a first responder when I was called out to administer the Last Rites to a Catholic elderly gentleman at a nursing home. His name was Jack. We first met at the South Morang Leisure Centre and have been friends for about five years. Whenever we met at the pool, sitting in the spa next to each other, we discussed something related to the faith. Often, at the end of our conversations, jokingly but in a serious tone, Jack would tell me, "Father, you must be the priest who must give my Last Rites when I die."
Although I had never expected it to eventuate, it happened three weeks ago, when Jack had taken seriously ill and was admitted to the local private hospital. On admission, he had given my contact details as his next of kin and specifically stated that I should be contacted if he was to die. His medical condition had deteriorated, and I was approached by the hospital staff when they knew he was going to die.
In the last hour Jack had in this life, a doctor and I, assisted by a Personal Care Assistant, attended to him as first responders.
Yes, I know: Last Rites (officially called the Viaticum, the sacrament of the dying) is predominantly practiced in Catholicism. It involves a priest administering Holy Communion to a dying person. A layperson designated a Eucharist Minister can also offer the Viaticum.
I have administered the Last Rites many times in my ministry over the last 30 years, but it was pretty different this time. Usually, the Last Rites are given in a hospital or nursing home. In that case, the medical personnel are not present during the administration. If there are any, only family members are present.
In Jack's case, I witnessed something entirely different. The female doctor who had been called out for Jack stood by me and offered to read the Bible and help me administer Holy Communion. Amazingly, the doctor knew the Apostles Creed (recited after the Confession in the Rite), recited it with Jack, then said the Lord's Prayer, and assisted me in giving Jack Holy Communion.
While the Rite was being administered, I did not notice anything unusual. Still, soon after it was over and Jack had died, I realised how amazing it was for a doctor not only to be present and assist with the administration of the sacrament but to know the Rite by heart and be a genuine participant in administering the sacrament.
Before the end of this message, I will tell you how the doctor helped me administer the Rite.
I wanted to share this story with you because today is St. Luke's Day, and the church remembers St. Luke and acknowledges and gives thanks to God for all healthcare workers, doctors and surgeons.
So, today, I want to tell you about Luke and his witness to Jesus. Through his witness to Jesus, Luke singularly, among the other three gospel writers, not only presents Jesus as Lord (Luke 2:11), Christ (Luke 2:11), the Son of Man (Luke 19:10), Son of God (Luke 3:22; 9:35), Teacher, (Luke 10:25), Saviour (Luke 2:11; 19:10), the Prophet (Luke 7:16) but also as divine doctor and physician. Luke describes Jesus as the divine physician in the context of reporting Jesus, saying: “It is not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick” (Luke 5:31-32).
When discussing Luke, I also want to share the medical signature he left when telling us about Jesus in his gospel.
Although Luke is only mentioned by name three times in the Bible (Col. 4:14; Philemon 1:24; 2 Tim. 4:11), he is hinted at on several other occasions. He was a native of Antioch in Syria (today in south-central Turkey), and today, we might call him a Turk. Although a Gentile, he was a "God-fearer" who followed the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
How do we know that he was from Antioch in Syria? We know this because, in the Acts of the Apostles, he mentions this city several times and gives details of it and shows some "civic pride" (Acts 11:19-30; 13:1; 14:26-28; 15:22, 30-35; 18:22). Interestingly, when he wrote about the six deacons in Jerusalem who were waiting on tables, he mentioned them by name. But he adds extra information for Nicolas by identifying his countryman and saying he was from Antioch (Acts 6:5).
Luke is the author of the Gospel of Luke. Although he had not met Jesus in person, he tells us that everything he wrote in the gospel was what he had heard about the events in Jesus's life from other eyewitnesses (Luke 1:2). He is also the author of Acts of the Apostles.
In Acts, Luke also tells us something we may not necessarily have considered as Christians. Luke tells us that the followers of Jesus were first called "Christians" at Antioch (Acts 11:26). At that time, it was a derogatory nickname given to the followers of Jesus.
Luke was humble and did not want to call attention to himself or his family. Instead, he had wanted to point people to the person of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in His Church.
When he wrote his gospel and the book of Acts, he did not mention his name (Luke 1:1-2 & Acts 1:1), nor did he say about his brother. His brother was Titus, the person to whom St. Paul wrote one of his Epistles – the Epistle of Titus. Paul had Luke in mind when he wrote 2 Cor. 8:18, in which he spoke of "sending along with him (Titus) the brother whose fame in the things of the gospel has spread through all the churches."
Titus and Luke were brothers. St. Paul's statement, "The brother whose fame in the things of the gospel has spread through all the churches," is a tremendous witness to Luke's ministry in all the churches. Luke was an amazing disciple of Christ who was highly respected within the Christian community for his faithfulness to the cause of the Lord and the proclamation of his message.
Some think that Luke might have been the second unnamed disciple in the story about the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). This is very unlikely because Luke would have been converted to the faith at the time of some of the first Christians who took refuge in Antioch after the killing of Stephen (Acts 11:19-21). Or, he would have brought to the faith when Paul and Barnabus preached in Antioch (Acts 11:25-26; 13:1-3).
If there is the remotest chance of Luke being that unnamed disciple on the journey to Emmaus, we must think of it as Luke's modest and humble way of attributing his authorship to his gospel.
(Footnote: This is the case of Mark's Gospel. The mention of a young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, who had followed Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane and fled, leaving his garment behind, when the soldiers seized Jesus (Mark 14:51-52), New Testament scholars say, this young man who ran naked could possibly be Mark who left his signature to writing the Gospel).
Luke was a physician by profession. During Paul's first imprisonment in Rome, he wrote to the Colossians and identified Luke as "the beloved physician" (Col. 4:14). The Greek word Paul uses here is the word iatros, which means physician -- not "doctor" in the general sense of us titling anyone with a medical degree other than a doctoral degree. Suppose you are to read the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles in the Greek language; you will be amazed to see Luke's abundant use of medical terminology.
I want to share some examples with you.
To start with, Luke is the only gospel writer who recorded Jesus' statements about doctors: "Doctor, heal yourself!" (Luke 4:23), and "Those who are well have no need of a doctor, but those who are sick" (Luke 5:31).
My favourite reference to celebrating Luke as a physician is his statement in Luke 2:7: " And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn." While we may think of the "swaddling cloths" as comfy baby napkins in which we may wrap a newborn, the word Dr Luke uses for "swaddling cloths" is sparganomasin -- they are not comfy napkins or blankets but refers to long strips of fabric that were used in Jesus' time not only to wrap newly born babies needing extra care but also to dress wounds.
The manger mentioned was the wood or stone structure used to hold feed for livestock in the inn's animal shelter.
Dr Luke's use of the word sparganomasin has made me, now with some understanding of obstetrics, wonder whether Jesus, our Lord, was born before the due date because of the arduous conditions his mother had to endure of travelling on a donkey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, returning to Joseph's ancestral town for a census. We may not appreciate that this was a travel of about 70 to 90 miles (km 112 - 145). Although there is no mention of Mary travelling on a donkey, we assume it was the case because there was no way a pregnant woman could make that long journey on foot.
In Jesus' day, a donkey was the vehicle farmers and labourers used for transportation (Jesus, too, rode on a donkey to enter Jerusalem during the last few days of his earthly life Luke 19:28-40). I don't think it's a journey on a donkey's back any of our expectant mothers would dare to make today. Mary did and told Luke all about it to document and report so that we know.
In this account of Jesus' birth, Luke comes across as a specialist obstetrician of his day, reporting an emergency birth. If it was the case, the manger in which baby Jesus was laid (Luke 2:7) was not a comfy cot, but a post-natal incubator of his day. Because the birth story of Jesus is highly romanticised with its association with Christmas, we overlook these finer details surrounding his birth.
Having noted this very important note of Dr. Luke's account of our Lord's birth, let us look at a few other remarkable points for which we should give thanks to God for his servant, Dr. Luke.
When we read his gospel, it is remarkably interesting to note how he extended his "professional courtesy" to his fellow doctors. Here is an example from the story of a woman who has had a blood issue for twelve years. Take note of the difference between how Mark and Luke record the information.
Mark wrote, "Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many doctors. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse" (5:25-26).
Dr. Luke toned his account down in an almost clinical statement about the inability of the woman to get healed. He wrote: "Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on doctors and could not be healed by any" (8:43).
I hope you have noticed Dr Luke being courteous to his fellow doctors when reporting the woman's condition and how the doctors had not healed her. Mark's words: The woman "had suffered many things from many doctors. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse" are almost accusatory. Courteously, Luke only says that despite her having spent a lot of money, the doctors couldn’t heal her—he does not blame the doctors.
As a doctor in training, Luke's courtesy to his fellow doctors is particularly important to me on three fronts. There are three important things for all of us to note, too.
First, the condition the woman had is described as "a flow of blood for twelve years." From what could be gleaned from the text, it is likely to be a long-term vaginal hemorrhage condition, which could have been pointing to several underlying medical issues with her. The “twelve years” mentioned here seems to be the woman’s subjective account of her long-suffering from the condition or the exaggeration of her condition by the bystanders who knew her and considered her perpetually unclean ( See Leviticus 12 & 15:19-30).
In Jesus' day, when a woman had a discharge of blood when having menses, they were considered impure for seven days. So, you could imagine how poorly a woman with a condition of non-stop "flow of blood" would have been treated by the community in which she lived.
Most of the gynecological hemorrhaging conditions we know cannot go on for "twelve years"—it is too long. If not for anything else, anemia could have initiated other serious medical conditions that would shorten a person's life. However, doctors are expected to record the information a patient or the patient’s legal spokesperson provides when examining and taking down a patient's history. Luke does this here by mentioning the stated 12 years of her ailment as a doctor and historian.
When several underlying conditions cause a medical issue that cannot be established definitively, a practice called "differential diagnosis" is used.
In simple terms, "differential diagnosis" means a patient's chief complaint may lead to potentially different diagnoses. In medicine, when there are differential diagnoses, we are trained first to make a "problem list" and then work to narrow down the list through diagnostic tests to determine the most probable cause of the presenting condition. In many instances, the most probable cause may not be the actual cause. This is one of the reasons it is important to seek second and third opinions on conditions that are not conclusive in diagnosing.
Luke knew this even in his day and acknowledged that the doctors who had treated her could not heal her. Perhaps they had differential diagnoses, and despite many costly consultations, they couldn’t have arrived at a conclusive diagnosis and, therefore, could not heal her.
Second, following the idea of "differential diagnosis," with the knowledge of medicine we have today, you may be surprised to know that her condition could have been one among many possibilities. Here are some of those possibilities.
a) Menorrhagia: is the condition of abnormally heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding. It can happen because of hormonal imbalances (e.g., thyroid disorders) or adenomyosis, in which the tissue similar to the womb's inner lining grows outside the womb. It causes significant pain and heavy menstrual bleeding.
b) Endometrial Hyperplasia: is a condition in which the inner lining of the womb (endometrium) grows thicker than normal, usually because of excess female sex hormone Estrogen. When this happens, a woman can experience heavy vaginal bleeding.
c) Uterine Fibroids: a condition when noncancerous growths happen in the womb. They can cause heavy menstrual bleeding, prolonged periods, and sometimes bleeding between periods.
d) Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) -- which was discovered only in 1935. It is a common endocrine disorder affecting women of reproductive age, and it causes irregular menstrual cycles and can sometimes cause prolonged bleeding due to a lack of ovulation. Women with this condition often find it difficult to fall pregnant.
e) Pelvic Inflammatory Disease: an infection of the female reproductive organs. It can cause irregular vaginal bleeding and may lead to chronic pain and other complications.
f) Coagulation Disorders: Conditions that affect the blood’s ability to clot, mainly because of the deficiency of Vitamin K, and cause prolonged or excessive bleeding from any part of the body when injured.
g) Uterine, cervical, or ovarian cancers: any of these cancers can cause abnormal and prolonged vaginal hemorrhage. These conditions, however, would not go on for twelve years without succumbing the patient to death.
Listing the above should help us to appreciate how much this woman had suffered for a significant period from any one of the above conditions.
Third, while many of the above conditions were not known during Luke's time as we know them today, isn't it amazing that the power of the Lord that she evoked through her deep faith (which led her to touch the hem of his garment) recognised the exact condition she suffered from and gave her immediate healing?
(A Footnote: the "hem" the woman touched in Jesus' garment is not the border of a garment we think of, made by folding back an edge and sewing it down. The woman touched the Tzitzit (plural, tzitzit) -- they are the tassels attached to the corners of a tallit, a traditional Jewish prayer shawl, Jesus was wearing. The biblical commandment of wearing tzitzit is found in Numbers 15:37-41, where God instructs the Israelites to wear fringes on the corners of their garments as a reminder of the commandments. The tzitzit represented the 613 commandments (mitzvot) in the Torah).
It is interesting to think about where Luke got his medical training. Although it cannot be said with certainty, I believe Luke was trained at Hippocrates' School of Medicine on the Island of Kos. I say this because, in Acts 21:1, Luke mentions a day's stopover in Kos when he went on a mission trip with Paul. I wonder whether he dropped by the college to greet his professors and say "G'day" to his classmates practising on the island.
Whatever the case, Luke was certainly a student at a medical college in the tradition of Hippocrates. The prestigious Greek Medical Colleges of Luke's time had different philosophies about medical practice.
Hippocrates (460-370 BC, the father of Western medicine) diverged from the traditional Greek view of sickness and disease. In his day, a person was considered sick because the gods were angry at the individual. So, the solution to the problem was to offer sacrifices to the offended deity. But Hippocrates brought medicine into the realm of science. He diagnosed the patient with ailments and diseases by observing the patient's body and enquiring about the patient's lifestyle.
Hippocrates also looked for natural remedies for people's sickness. On the island of Kos, there was a white willow tree. Hippocrates observed that the bark and leaves from this tree cause the pain in a patient to diminish or cease. Only recently did scientists analyse the bark from Willow trees and discovered that the active ingredient is what is found in Aspirin. Hippocrates was 2,300 years ahead of Aspirin, which we buy in our pharmacies today!
Medicine was also considered an art in the Greek world but not so much a science. Luke's day had at least two schools of thought concerning medicine and healthcare. The first school of thought had been championed by Plato (427 – 347 BC). In this philosophy, the doctor made medical and healthcare decisions to advance the good of society. Thus, their primary job was to protect the welfare of the state. But if a person was incapable of living in the established round and order of life, he did not think it worthwhile to treat him, since such a fellow is of no use either to himself or to the state" (from Plato's Republic 407D).
This fact can be further demonstrated if we pay attention to the reporting of healing stories in John's Gospel, where healing is given a significant philosophic emphasis, unlike Luke. John's healing stories aim to impress upon us that true healing is not just physical but involves a deeper spiritual awakening, which is a Platonic thought that prioritises the pursuit of higher knowledge and truth. The healing at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-15) and the healing of the blind man (John 9:1-12) are good examples of this fact.
The Hippocratic school of thought on healthcare was patient-centred and emphasised the doctor-patient relationship. It was patient-oriented and not state-oriented. It was also focused on a person's actual physical and mental healing, not so much philosophic in that sense. As a student doctor, having taken the oath of Hippocrates, it is somewhat exhilarating to note that Luke has been faithful to that oath when reporting the cases of the sick who presented themselves to Jesus for healing.
The oath of ethics requires new physicians to swear by several healing gods to uphold specific ethical standards. As a God-fearing gentile, Luke would have sworn by the God of Abraham to uphold the ethical standards in the good practice of medicine.
When reading Luke's accounts of Jesus' medical miracles of healing, it is easy to recognise how the key tenets of the oath -- autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice -- have been highlighted. Here are the examples to demonstrate it.
1) Autonomy - If we read carefully the stories of the paralyzed man (Luke 5:17-26), the blind man at Jericho (Luke 18:35-43), the woman with a hemorrhage (Luke 8:43-48) and the the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19), we can see how Dr Luke highlights the autonomy of these sick individuals by portraying them as active participants in them getting healed. He highlights that their faith, determination, and actions initiated the healing and wholeness they sought.
2) Beneficence—Luke carefully emphasizes Jesus’ healing miracles as acts of empathy, compassion and care. St. Paul witnesses this when he describes his personal physician as a "beloved doctor" (Colossians 4:14).
3) Non-Maleficence -- Luke's reporting of the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) is an excellent example of the ethos of non-maleficence. In the story, he highlights the well-being of the patients and the moral duty of a doctor to care for their patients with empathy and compassion despite the patient's otherness in every respect a society would define and judge their status,
4) Justice -- justice for all is a key theme in Luke's gospel. In Luke 4:18-19 we have him reporting the story of Jesus reading from the scroll of Isaiah, proclaiming good news to the poor and healing the brokenhearted. There, Luke is keen to point out that justice includes addressing the systemic issues that lead to suffering and people's illnesses. Only Luke gives us this story and frames Jesus' mission statement of his ministry: "proclaiming good news to the poor and healing the brokenhearted."
James Smith, a classical scholar and yachtsman, has suggested that Luke was once a ship doctor because he was versed in nautical matters and described them in the appropriate language of a seaman. Luke used detailed nautical terms when he recorded the voyage to Rome in Acts 27-28.
Following are a few examples of Luke using words typical of doctors of his time.
The story of the man suffering from dropsy (Luke 14:1-4). In this story, Luke uses the word hudropikos, which is not found anywhere else in the Bible. This word is found frequently in the medical literature of his time, especially in the writings of Hippocrates. Hudropikos means "a surplus of fluid in the body tissues." This is the condition we call edema today.
Edema is a condition that can affect any part of the body. It is the swelling in affected areas (legs, feet, ankles, hands, or face) due to fluid accumulation. We may not realise that the protruded belly of a patient with liver disease could indicate abdominal edema because of ascites, where fluid accumulates in the abdomen cavity. Medical conditions such as liver disease caused by hepatitis, alcohol abuse, heart failure, kidney disease, pancreatitis, and certain cancers affecting the abdominal organs can lead to ascites. If left untreated, abdominal ascites can lead to Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis (SBP), which may develop into Sepsis if the infection spreads to the bloodstream, causing systemic infection that may be fatal.
I mentioned all these conditions Hudropikos (edema) can give rise to help you understand the many serious medical conditions the Lord intervened in healing. When we read the stories of Jesus healing sick people, we often gloss over the medical condition and emphasize the act of healing itself.
Then, we have the case of Luke describing the woman with infirmity (Luke 13:11-13).
And just then, there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over. The word Luke used for "bent over" (suntethrammene) is a Greek word that refers to a "bent together" physical condition, most probably the bent of the spinal cord or the vertebrae.
Paying attention to what I said about Luke being a product of the scientific Hippocratic school of medicine, make sure to note that he is mentioning "a woman with a spirit"; it is only a diligent history taking note on his part.
Today, we diagnose spinal deformities of three main types. First, lordosis, which means "bent backward;" second, scoliosis, which means an abnormal lateral curvature of the spine; and kyphosis, which means "hunched."
The women mentioned here would have had one of these three conditions quite pronounced after suffering from it for eighteen years.
These conditions are not caused by "spirits" or "gods" but by conditions such as poor posture, sedentary lifestyle, lack of physical activity, degenerative conditions where the discs between vertebrae wear down with age, osteoporosis, injury or trauma, surgery on the spine, muscular dystrophy (conditions that affect muscle strength at the back), cerebral palsy, spinal infections and inflammatory conditions and obesity.
As a physician trained in the tradition of the Hippocratic school of medicine, he knew whether the woman's condition was congenital or lifestyle-related.
(By way of a footnote, note: 1) In Acts 3:1-10 Luke mentions of a man congenitally lame who was healed by Peter in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 2) among many other reasons, such as oligohydramnios (low amniotic fluid in the womb), multiple pregnancies (twins, triplets, etc.) that limit the the space in the womb for the development of limbs, and congenital Infections, chromosomal abnormalities and maternal health – affected by certain medications, substance abuse, malnutrition and exposure to toxins – can affect the development of bones, muscles, and nerves of the unborn baby, leading to limb deformities and mobility issues in life).
Luke mentioned the woman being affected by a "spirit" as part of his faithful notation of history taking (the onset and duration of their illness, relevant personal and family medical history), which all physicians of the Hippocratic school were expected to do as a holistic approach to treating medical conditions. They were trained to gain a thorough understanding of patients' medical history, lifestyle, and environmental factors.
When Jesus saw the woman, Luke says, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. The word Luke uses for "set free" is an ancient Greek medical term for relaxing tendons and membranes and for taking off bandages.
Furthermore, you will notice that Luke carefully records the patient's history: "eighteen years." He diagnoses the condition and describes her physical state further in these words: "She was quite unable to stand up straight." These notations assist a medically trained good diagnostician in putting down the woman's condition related not to an influencing spirit but to easily diagnosable spinal cord conditions I had just mentioned. What is not entirely clear in this instance is whether the woman's curvature of the spine for 18 years was congenital or lifestyle-related.
From a medical standpoint, these possible medical diagnoses not only make the woman's condition actual (which could go on for 18 years, depending on her age) but also the Lord's healing of her condition beyond any scientific argument real.
Then, Luke states several stages in the recovery process: 1) relaxing the contracted chest muscles. This itself would not have been sufficient to give the woman an erect posture because of the stiffening of the muscles through so many years; 2) he describes the removal of the curvature.
As a doctor in training, I have read and noted the steps Luke recorded for healing this woman and have wondered whether the Lord's healing was instant or took place over a period of time.
Medically, the stages Dr Luke records that assisted the woman's healing cannot happen in a flash if they were caused by lifestyle-related issues such as obesity due to an unhealthy diet that causes insulin resistance and type-2 and type-3 Diabetes. (many medical scientists and researchers name Alzheimer's disease type-3 diabetes)
Today, I do not have time to elaborate on this. Still, please note that the Lord's healing of all chronic medical conditions can and will happen only through us committing to lifestyle changes as demanded by the Lord as prerequisites for the healing on our part. (There are over 100 chronic medical conditions that the Lord can heal only if we initiate the lifestyle changes required).
For example, while the Lord will intervene and save someone from dying prematurely from a heart attack or stroke, but would undoubtedly expect a lifestyle change related to the issues that caused the stroke or the heart attack in the first place (e.g. smoking, unhealthy eating habits and so on).
Although a lifestyle change is not directly mentioned in any of Luke's accounts of Jesus healing the sick, the ethic of a changed lifestyle for the better is strongly implied in those who met Jesus or/and were called by Jesus to be a disciple (see Luke 5:27-32; 18:18-23; 19:1-10).
Next, we discussed the case history of the woman with the blood issue (Luke 8:43, 44) in detail. There, we noted how Luke carefully noted the duration of her illness ("twelve years") as reported. In the account of the story, he uses the word este for "stanched." The word este is the precise medical term used for the stoppage of bodily discharges. The entire story is described in medical terms, in contrast to the descriptions in the gospels of Matthew and Mark.
The story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) is one more example of Luke's medical description. As you would immediately recognise, the treatment of the Samaritan who came to assist the injured man reveals Luke's knowledge of the first-aid treatment of his day. He says that "he (the Samaritan) went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine." (v.34).
Luke's gospel is filled with sympathy for the suffering. He had a keen understanding of frailties and knew the relationship between sicknesses, mental distress, and anxiety.
Now, I want to share some other remarkable features of Luke's Gospel.
Luke focuses on the poor and oppressed, encouraging tenderness and compassion for the less fortunate. The beatitude "Blessed are the poor" is only used in the gospel of Luke instead of "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3).
Only Luke tells us the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man and the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Luke also highlights the importance of taking the gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles. In his gospel, we hear Jesus praising the faith of Gentiles, such as the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian (Lk.4:25-27). We also hear the story of the one grateful leper, a Samaritan (Lk.17:11-19).
Unlike in other Jewish writings, women are important in Luke's gospel. Luke writes about the women who accompanied Jesus, such as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, Martha, and Mary, and "many other women who used their own resources to help Jesus and his disciples" (Luke 8:1). I am pretty sure that Luke came to know these women because, primarily, Mother Mary had known them personally and told him about them appreciatively as her personal friends or fellow women who supported Jesus and his ministry.
Luke also writes about the birth of Christ from Mary's point of view. Luke gives Mary a very important place in his gospel. In fact, I believe it is because of Luke and his reporting of her in his gospel that Mother Mary has risen to such adoration and veneration in the church as the mother of our Lord and has come to hold the title Theokotos, the "God-Bearer" or the "Mother of God." Dr Luke is the only gospel writer who faithfully records the recalling of Mary's account, which says that the Angel of God, Gabriel, emphatically told her, "Listen: you will conceive in your womb and will have a son, and you shall call his name Jesus" (Luke 1:31).
Only Luke has gifted us the accounts of Mary's Annunciation, her visit to Elizabeth, the Magnificat, the Presentation, and Jesus's remaining in Jerusalem. In Luke's gospel, we learn the words spoken by the angel to Mary at the Annunciation, "Hail Mary, full of grace" (Luke 1:28), and Elizabeth's words to Mary, "Blessed are you and blessed is the fruit of your womb (Luke 1:42)."
There is no doubt that Luke heard these stories from Mary firsthand. A theologian or biblical scholar must only listen to a mother speak and reminisce about her child's conception, pregnancy, and birth for a moment to make sense of the human story of a remarkable and wonderous birth. This is precisely what we have in chapters 1 and 2 of Luke's gospel.
The fraternal friendship between Mother Mary and Luke may have given rise to an oral tradition passed down through generations which is held within the Eastern Orthodox Church. This tradition says that Luke was not only a physician and historian, but a painter as well and he had painted the images of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.
While there is no mention in the New Testament that Luke was an artist, a reader of his Gospel in Greek cannot but appreciate how Luke masterfully employs the language to express his deep understanding of the human predicament, our humanity, the depth of human experiences, and the noble virtues of love, compassion, justice and courage, which are the qualities that can also be found enshrined in visual art. In Luke's narrative style and vivid imagery found in the gospel and the Acts of the Apostles strongly suggest his wanting for a representation of a visual history of Jesus' life and the history of the early church. For these reasons, Eastern Orthodox Church honours Luke as the originator of Christian art -- Christian iconography, in particular.
If I were a painter, I would have not missed the opportunity to paint the portrait of a super Mom and her baby through the medium of art and register my adoration of them in a way more than mere words could express. Wouldn't you?
In Acts 1:14, Luke mentions that Mary and Jesus' brothers were gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem after Jesus' ascension. While Luke would have not possibly be present at this gathering, upon hearing that Mother Mary and Jesus' brothers were present at this meeting, as a historian, Luke would not have missed making contact with with Mother Mary and Jesus' brothers sometime later to gather information about Jesus' life and ministry. I say this with some certainty because, out of the four gospel writers, only Luke describes Jesus' humanity as it would have been known best by the closest of his family.
For example, would it not be a mother who knows the depths of a son's emotions and human experiences better than anyone else? There's evidence in the gospels that Mother Mary was very close to Jesus during his public ministry and his final days and hours and supported him as any mother would do (Luke 8:19-21; 23:49). Throughout Jesus' ministry and the challenges he faced, she would have experienced "a sword piercing her heart" as foretold by Simeon (Luke 2:34-35) and noticed the sorrow and anguish her son endured, which only Luke carefully records (Luke 19:41, 22:44). Luke also reports a moment of Jesus' life when he was joyful (Luke 10:21).
At this point, I must also mention Luke's medical description of the depth of anxiety and suffering Jesus endured in the Garden of Gethsemane. Only Luke says "And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:44). Obviously, this information is from an eyewitness Luke has noted. He mentions it because he is describing a medical condition Jesus experienced. Today, we call this condition hematohidrosis (blood sweat) -- a condition people can manifest under acute extreme emotional stress, such as extreme fear or anxiety. (Vascular disorders, some infections and physical trauma can also cause hematohidrosis.
Jesus' day physicians representing the Hippocrates school described such medical conditions in narrative form exactly the way Luke does through observational accounts rather than using a standardised medical terminology that we have today.
To note Luke's mention of Jesus' humanity, I must also add that he tells us about Jesus' humble birth and beginnings as witnessed by a mother (Luke 1:26-56 & 2:1-52). Emphatically, Luke says: "Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19).
Further, Luke presents our Lord himself as a man of prayer. When he wrote his gospel, he recorded several instances of Jesus praying or talking about prayer.
Eight instances are unique to his gospel and not found in the other three. Jesus prayed at his baptism (3:21), at the Transfiguration (9:28-29); before choosing His apostles (6:12); for His enemies on the cross (23:34, "Father, forgive them"); for His disciples to learn the lesson on prayer (11:1); and talked about prayer in the parable of the persistent friend (11:5-10); as well as two other parables on prayer (18:1-14): the widow and the unjust judge, as well as the Pharisee and tax collector when they were in the Temple praying.
Luke, too, was a man of prayer. He did it, and he wrote about it. While in Rome, Paul had daily prayer meetings in a rented apartment. These meetings included those who were ministering with him and to him (Col. 1:1; 4: 7-14). Dr. Luke was present at these prayer meetings.
Dr Luke was an excellent doctor and a remarkable servant of God. Dr Luke was loyal to his friend St Paul. Luke stuck close to Paul in his darkest hour when everybody else had left him for another task, or even deserted him completely: "Only Luke is with me" (2 Timothy 4:11).
Luke was probably at the beheading of Paul (AD 67), perhaps at a distance. More than likely, it was the good doctor who buried the body of his friend, co-worker, and fellow traveler on the road of life.
Church tradition says that after Paul's death, Dr. Luke ministered in central Greece, particularly in Thebes of Boiotia.
It is said that a mob arrested Dr Luke in Thebes at the age of 84, flayed him alive and crucified him on an olive tree, which some say is still there today.
Now, let's go to the story of the doctor who assisted me in administering Last Rites to Jack.
Before I left the Nursing Home, I thanked the doctor for being there for Jack and especially for assisting me with the Rite. When I appreciated her participation, she disclosed to me that she is a member of the organisation called Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia (CMDFA)
To my great delight, I learned from her that such an organisation exists and that many hundreds of Christian doctors and dentists are members of this organisation in Australia and other parts of the world (https://cmda.org/) with about 13,000 members. I was deeply moved to learn that this organisation is a "fellowship of doctors and dentists and associated healthcare professionals who take membership of CMDFA to be part of making a stand as followers of Christ in healthcare" who "believe in the Revelation of the One true God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and the Gospel of redemption and regeneration through the incarnation, the death, and the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ."
They "believe in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit until Christ returns finally to fulfil all things in Himself as it is given to us in the Bible, which is the divinely appointed authority for faith and life."
The motto of the CMDFA, which they call their heartbeat, is "Following Christ, integrating faith and practice". Their vision is "To be transformed by Christ and transforming healthcare" (This information about the CMDFA is taken from their website: http://www.cmdfa.org.au/about-us/who-we-are
Isn't it wonderful that we have doctors, dentists, and associated healthcare professionals who imitate Saint Luke, serve God, and witness to the gospel of Jesus? (I have joined the CMDFA since becoming a medical student).
So, today, as we remember Saint Dr Luke, let us thank and pray for all doctors in the service of humanity and thank God for Jesus, our greatest divine physician. Amen
Let us pray:
Almighty God, you inspired Luke, the physician, to proclaim the love and healing power of your Son; give your Church grace through his teaching to strengthen the afflicted, heal the desolate
and bind up the broken-hearted through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Jesus, the crucified,
let not our feet take us from suffering to the other side of the road;
keep us, with Luke, helpers, healers and bearers of hope. Hear this prayer for your name’s sake. Amen
