Dr. Luke's Knowledge

              In the Christmas season, we think of the baby born to Mary with Joseph, His Earthly foster father caring so lovingly for the infant and His mother. The Gospel writer Luke explains the details unlike any of the other three Gospels, those beloved verses so familiar to Christians and even non-Christians this time of year, the very ones the Charlie Brown characters recited in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” for so long, and still do, I suppose, when allowed.

              Where did Luke get those details? Matthew also tells of the Virgin Birth, that doctrine so essential to Christianity, but the birth story appears only in Luke’s lovely Gospel narrative. To people for whom Bible details are kind of merely suggestions, sources really don’t matter. But, to those of us who believe Mary gave birth to God’s Son by the immaculate conception, Luke’s knowledge of that fact, his details of the place of birth, of Mary and Joseph’s journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, are important elements to consider, to ponder.

              As is, how might he have learned these aspects of this beloved story?

              We cannot know for sure, of course, while we inhabit this planet. Someday we’ll know. And, truth be told, there are some people who tell us that to try to figure out parts of the Bible stories that are not in that Holy Book makes less the mystery or the holiness of it—that it is an error to do so. I believe they are wrong. At times as I consider those people in the situations described, I will find myself realizing a truth I have missed after a lifetime of Bible exposure; it is not anything I have done except be there in the Word. Our God is a very efficient God—He will no doubt say, “Well, finally there she is back again. Better hit her over the head with a realization since she spends so little time where she should. BAM!”

              How much do I miss by not just opening this Book a few minutes?

              But, I do not feel condemnation….. just the welcome of a loving Father. When my own son contacts me, I am so happy to spend time with him.

Like that.

              So, where might Luke have heard these stories of Mary and Joseph’s start of life together?

              Well, perhaps to know the beginning, we might look at the end, as I heard a minister suggest once.

              A couple of summers ago I saw the hill on which they crucified Jesus and two criminals beside him, there outside Jerusalem. Time and the elements have worn away much of that hill that made the skeleton face so powerfully clear; even fifty years ago, the skull showed itself more plainly in photographs of that area. As Jesus hung on the cross, the Gospel of John tells us that his beloved mother, along with her sister and Mary Magdalene, somehow watched, standing there as he hung dying. With them stood the Apostle John, the youngest disciple, the writer of the fourth Gospel.

          

    Jesus looked from his mother to John and said, “Woman, behold, your son!” He looked at John, “Behold, your mother!” And then, the Gospel tells us, “From that hour the disciple took her into his own household,” (see John 19:25b-27). Could it be that Dr. Luke, who begins his Gospel account telling Tehophilus, a friend? a relative?,  how carefully he investigated  the “things accomplished among us” had, as Mary lived with John, gone to John’s house and talked to Mary herself, hearing from her the story of that young girl visited by an angel, her subsequent visit to her cousin, Elisabeth, of an uncomfortable ride aboard a donkey to Bethlehem, giving birth in a stable and placing her baby in the feeding trough, of the worship of shepherds and the visitation of Wise Men, fleeing to Egypt, all that happened to raise the boy Jesus, those many events she “treasured in her heart,” still so clear in her memory, even after He died for the world's recompense and rose for the world's reconciliation?

              Maybe.

              Maybe not.

              But, I like to think of Dr. Luke sitting with Mary in John’s house hearing the stories, writing down detailed notes for the account he wanted to write, perhaps Mary being one of the eyewitness as he described his sources, so careful to get his account correct.

              Cynics scoff at Scripture, saying, "No proof!" or, "Oh, the copies of Gospels are too far from the original sources." That's not true, really; and recent archaeological findings in Israel show Old Testament stories true in ways thought to be previously impossible.  Scholars much smarter than I am can argue those facts and findings—and have.

              I just love to read the stories, then ponder them myself—what a good word, “ponder.”

              Perhaps Luke got his details from Mary; perhaps not.

              Wherever he learned those particulars, the Christmas season is a time to consider the young girl, heavy with her pregnancy, clutching the back of a gentle donkey, her fiancé trying to find a place to give her rest, finding room only with the animals (which might well have been my first choice), and the birth of God’s Son in humble beginnings. The wonder of that birth caused a split in the heavens and the angels, unable to contain themselves, sang praise to God's Son, the Logos, John calls Him, willing to make Himself so frail and vulnerable for . . . . us. The wonder of it pulled from the Heavenly inhabitants praise they could no longer shield from Earthly beings. God the Father, Himself, no doubt did not try to hold them back any longer, if He ever had. Praise for the marvel of the miracle rocked Heaven and Earth together for those glorious moments!

Maybe--years later--His mother shared her memories with a gentile doctor who politely asked, and who, then, shared them in the Gospel that, better than any other, tells the story in a timeline manner; first this happened, then this, then this..... What better source for those early, tumultuous, incredible years than Mary, Jesus' cherished mother, who treasured in her heart the memorable and mundane days of Her Son. And then, if Luke came calling, researching for truth about the history of Jesus, seeking for facts from those who knew Him best, perhaps she willingly and joyfully shared those memories with Luke--and with us.
Maybe.
 How much poorer we ourselves would be without the knowing.