From ‘Notes on the Formation of the Gospels’,
by John Wijngaards; published in Background to the Gospels
(Bangalore & Ann Arbor 1981) and Together in My Name (London
1991).
The Gospel of Luke was written to stimulate a deeper commitment to
Christ and a more active participation in the community. People must not think
that preaching the Kingdom of God was only entrusted to the twelve apostles and
their successors. To refute such a misunderstanding Luke narrates that, after
sending the twelve, Jesus sent another seventy disciples, two by two. Does it
not tie in with the journey of the two disciples who were walking to
Emmaus?
Luke is here thinking of all Christians, men and women, who go out to
serve the community as teachers, catechists, deacons and deaconesses, prophets
and prophetesses, healers, organisers, carers of the young, of the old and the
sick. All of them are witnesses to Jesus.
“People will arrest you and hand you over to synagogues and
prisons. You will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s
sake. That will be an opportunity for you to bear witness” (Luke
21,12-13)
“It is written in Scripture that the Christ should suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of
sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You will be witnesses of all these things!” (Luke 24,46-48)
“You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in the whole of
Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth!’’ (Acts 1,8; see
also Acts 2,32; 3.15; 5,32; 10,39; 13,31)
Luke’s Gospel gives us a vision of men and women walking into the
world in all directions to bring the love and peace which Jesus preached.
“He sent them on ahead of himself, two by two, into every town and village
which he was about to visit” (Luke 10,1-20).
Connection with the theme of ‘travelling’
Jesus did make a final journey to Jerusalem. But in Luke’s Gospel
it has also become a narrative device. Luke enlarges the journey and makes it
the setting for many traditions which actually happened on other occasions (see
Luke's Journey to Jerusalem).
Why did Luke stress the journey? The image of ‘travelling’ was
in itself important for Luke. He saw our Christian life as a journey with
Jesus, a living with him through suffering to glory. That is why the Gospel
ends with the beautiful account of the two disciples who walk on their way to
Emmaus. Jesus is with them all the time, explaining Scripture to them so that
they understand what God is doing in their lives. Luke tells us through this
that the Risen Jesus is with us in the people he gives us as companions on the
road.
But there is more to the theme of travelling. It also denotes commitment
to the apostolate.
