The Gospel Series
The Outcast’s Gospel: Everyone Finds a Place at the Table in Luke
The Outsider Writing In
Christianity often feels like a crowd of insiders.
Outcasts felt welcome around Jesus. They flocked to Him.
But many churches on Sunday morning don’t feel so welcoming to outcasts today. When an outsider enters church today, they feel even more on the outside than they did before — shunned, excluded, shown in a hundred different ways that you aren’t one of us.
There’s an author of the Bible who knows what this felt like.
Luke wasn’t a Jew. Every other New Testament author was a Jew, born and raised among the people of God.
But Luke was a Gentile — and a slave. He was trained as a physician, which today signifies money and privilege. But in the Roman Empire, physicians were often slaves whose masters paid to have them trained in the medical arts.
Somewhere along the way, this Gentile slave-doctor encountered the people of Jesus. Eventually he wrote a Gospel, recording Jesus’ life for those like him.
We’ll dance through the evidence that Luke is indeed the author — but first, let’s address why we care.
