Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
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We have seen already how the different narratives of Jesus's life have slightly different emphases. Matthew focused on Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies and archetypes. Mark was a fast paced chronicle of Jesus as the tragic but vindicated King of Israel. Now we come to Luke's account, and fortunately, we are given a clear thesis at the very beginning: Luke is writing to give us certainty. Certainty about the events and teachings of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.
Why would his audience need certainty? Some skeptics have assumed that Luke wrote many years after the life of Jesus, thinking that his audience must have been uncertain because they were far removed from the events. But we know from Matthew and Mark that even those who were present at those events couldn't believe their eyes! So, what really causes this uncertainty in the hearts of those who hear about Jesus? This sounds like a good time to discuss epistemology.
epis·te·mol·o·gy\i-ˌpis-tə-ˈmä-lə-jē\
noun: the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity
The grounds, limits, and validity of knowledge. How do we know what we know? There have been people asking this question throughout history.
In the modern world knowledge has been violently severed into two forms: objective and subjective. Before the Enlightenment, truth was a unity and its source was ultimately the God who gave us the capacity for knowledge. Then, the Enlightenment and its philosophical descendants proclaimed that the existence of deity could not be empirically proven, and therefore had no validity. But when Neitzche declared that "God is dead," most people inherently understood that real meaning and purpose in life no longer had any objective basis. So, man faced the chasm of objectively proven meaninglessness and took a leap of faith by willfully claiming that man had meaning anyway! This was the thesis of the existentialists, and unfortunately many Christians bought it, because they too had given up on objective truth-claims. The miracles of Jesus, including the resurrection, had to be redefined as essentially symbolic - full of powerful meaning but ultimately not rooted in objective truth. It did not take many years for this remaining shred of subjective meaning to be itself discarded by a generation who knew it amounted to groundless wishful thinking.
And so, here we are in the modern world, where truth is only what can be empirically verified, and faith is at best relegated to the category of subjective wishful thinking.
But Luke claims to provide certainty. He will labor in the next 24 chapters to provide an orderly, thoroughly researched, eyewitness account of the miraculous life of this 1st century Palestinian prophet. There is ample evidence, inside and outside the Bible, that these events were recorded accurately and copied faithfully by generations of Christians throughout early church history. But I'd like to spend the remaining space demonstrating that the Bible defines truth as both objective and subjective, and in fact does not see any contradiction between the two.
Objective Truth. Three passages come to mind. In order, these speak to the objective basis of God's Word, the historicity of the physical resurrection of the Jesus, and the offer of objective assurance of salvation in Christ:
1. And if you say in your heart, 'How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?'— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:21, 22 ESV)
2. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:12-19 ESV)
3. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13 ESV)
Subjective Truth. But God's truth is more comprehensive than mere empirical proofs. Scripture emphatically asserts that Truth is both propositional and personal. In fact, Truth is a Person:
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." (John 14:6, 7 ESV)
Jesus is the Truth. By saying this, Jesus claims that epistemic validity does not lie solely in empirically ascertained knowledge. There is an equally valid kind of knowledge that is personal and relational at its core. Reason and revelation are both valid and should be respected equally because they both find their source in God.
The Gospel of Luke will go on to boldly lay claim to both our minds and our hearts, for truly God has called us to love him with both, as whole people submitting our whole lives to his good Lordship. May we find strength and comfort in this uncertain world from the certainty of the gospel and the God who is both the source and embodiment of Truth. Amen.
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