LUKE Observant Healer
LUKE WAS A PHYSICIAN with a keen understanding of the human suffering associated with the birth defects, diseases, accidents, and wars common in his day. Often Paul’s traveling companion, Luke likely faced many of the hardships Paul faced. Following God’s calling on his life meant taking personal and professional risks, as well as experiencing suffering.
Since Luke often dealt with people’s sicknesses and frailties, he took note of Jesus’ compassion toward adults and children who were suffering and in pain. He no doubt marveled at the contrast between the temporary and partial extent to which he, a finite human being, could heal his patients and the lasting and complete healing that effortlessly flowed from Jesus’ simple touch or spoken word.
As he traveled with Paul, Luke witnessed the Holy Spirit working in the midst of the early church. He also saw something else: People who were turned away by society due to their illnesses, diseases, and disabilities. But Paul and the other apostles welcomed these people, responding to them with the same compassionate care, healing, and love that Jesus had displayed.
We must do what Jesus did, even if it means loving those society would rather ignore
Women, too, were discriminated against in Jewish society. Luke points to Jesus’ compassion for them more than any other Gospel writer. Mary, the mother of Jesus, described herself as the Lord’s willing servant (1:38); a sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet is forgiven (7:47-50); Mary Magdalene is identified as a supporter of Jesus’ ministry, along with other women who followed Jesus (8:1-3); and a woman “bent double for eighteen years” (13:11) receives Jesus’ healing touch (13:12-13). Thanks to Luke’s account, people with disabilities, women, and other marginalized individuals stood as a living refutation of the dominant culture’s assumptions that disability was a result of sin or weakness or divine disfavor.
Luke teaches us that as followers of Jesus we must do what he did, even if it means loving those whom society would rather ignore. Following Jesus may open us up to suffering and opposition. Ultimately, Luke reminds us that only Jesus can heal our deepest “disability”—our need for spiritual healing. Jesus is indeed our Great Physician.