Luke's Story

by JERRY JENKINS

Luke shook his head.

  “So I assume you have more questions?”

  Again they climbed topside. They sat near the bow and Paul resumed his story. Luke was so enraptured by the account and its ramifications that he was startled when the injured seaman interrupted with apologies.

  “It’s really starting to vex me,” the young man said, holding out his hand. “I can barely stand the pain and must hold it aloft for any relief.”

  “Wait right here and I’ll get something that should help. Introduce yourself to my friend, Saul, er, Paul.”

  Luke hurried back to his quarters, where he mixed a potion he hoped would be effective. But when he returned, Paul was alone. Before he could even ask after the crew member, Paul said, “I prayed for him. I think he’ll be all right.”

  “But he needs this medicine.”

  “You’ll be able to determine that when you see him again. Now, shall I continue?”

  “Well, sure, but first, did you say you prayed for him? You think praying for a man with a deep wound that is turning is all he needs?”

  “It seemed all he needed. I did tell him about the Christ first, however.”

  “And how did he respond to that?”

  “He seemed interested. I kept it simple. I merely told him that God had sent His only son into the world, that He lived a sinless life so He could quass ay, now sitting on the right hand of God in heaven. I told him if he believed this, he could be saved from his sin, and that if he had faith he could also be healed of his wound.”

  Luke cocked his head. Paul had really lost all connection with reality. “And did he have this faith?”

  “Frankly, Luke, he appeared to.”

  “And so you healed him?”

  “I didn’t say that. I said I prayed with him and for him. He expressed faith in Jesus, and I expressed faith that God could heal him.”

  “You’ll forgive me if I add this tonic to his wound so that we might help God heal him, if necessary.”

  “Though I gather from your tone that you are making sport of what I have been telling you, I beg you to keep an open mind.”

  “Oh, of that you may be certain. And regardless of whether I accept all this, I am confident that you believe it, and that makes me want to hear the rest of it. But for right now, I must find my patient.”

  “You’ll probably find him resting comfortably. Which I also plan to do, if it’s all right with you. I’ll see you in the morning, unless you need me before that.”

  Luke and Paul ventured into the bowels of the ship, Paul heading to his room while Luke followed the sounds of snoring and groaning and peered into the communal sleeping quarters. An old crewmate in a cot near the door asked who he was looking for.

  “The wounded man,” Luke whispered.

  “That’s his bed,” the man said, pointing. “But he’s not there.”

  Luke moved into the room and someone else asked what he wanted. He pointed to the empty cot.

  “That boy’s on duty,” another said.

  “Oh, surely not,” Luke said. “He shouldn’t be working.”

  The man shrugged, so Luke headed up. He watched as a crew of six scampered about the masts, trimming the sails. “You there!” he called out, pointing at the young man. “You’re not to be working!”

  “Be right down,” the man said, securing a rigging.

  Soon he came clambering down a rope ladder and landed in front of the physician. He held up his injured hand. “Keeping it wrapped just to be safe.”

  “Let me see that,” Luke said. “How’s the pain?”

  “Gone!”

  Luke led the man to a bench along the side and set his lamp where it would illuminate the area. He pulled the man’s hand close and slowly unwrapped the bandage. Not only did he find no discoloration, but he also found no wound! Luke lifted the lamp to where the flame was just inches from a thin, pink scar.

  “What’s happened?” he said. “Tissnow he had experienced both. What other conclusion could he come to?

  He wanted to shout, to leap for joy, to tell someone. He raced again to Paul’s room, only to find the door open and Paul sitting on his cot. Luke gushed what had happened. “I need you to explain it all to me, and right now. What has happened to me?”

  “Do you believe?”

  “I do!”

  “Then you are saved! Praise God.”

  “Saved from what?”

  “Saved from your sin. Come, let’s go back up where we can sit.”

  They returned to the very bench where Luke had examined the healed man’s hand. “Listen to me now, Luke,” Paul said, “and let me make plain to you the gospel I told you about, which now you have received and in which you can stand, by which also, as I said, you are saved, unless you believed in vain.

  “What I shared with you was what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, and that He was seen by many, of whom most remain to the present, but some have died.

  “After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also on the road to Damascus, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labor more than they all, but I know it is not I, but the grace of God in me.

  “Now, I am telling you, Dr. Luke, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

  “I do! How could I not?”

  Paul smiled and held up a hand. “You see, it is with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’”

  “This is true for me as well as for you, Paul?”

  “Oh, yes! For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is available to all who call upon Him. One of the main reasons Barnabas sent for me is to see Gentiles added to the number of believers in Antioch, for I have been uniquely called to reach these. Again, as the Scriptures say, ‘Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

  “What will this mean for me, Paul? It seems my very life will change.”

  “From what you told me, it needs to and you want it to. Did you not say you were a victim of your own inner desires, that while you wanted to do good—and often do—you question your own motives?”

  “Yes, but I confess Stoicism has helped me some in that area. I believe in the brotherhood of man and want to do what will aid ="3">“And that is good! Not every ideal of Stoicism is without merit or counter to the will of God. But now you will do these things because you will want to prefer others over yourself. You will want to serve mankind as an expression of gratefulness to God for your salvation, not as a way to earn it.”

  “Like the young man who was healed, I want to tell everyone!”

  “And yet you have much to learn. As soon as you get back to Antioch, you must join the fellowship of believers, and begin listening to the readings of the accounts written by eyewitnesses of Jesus. Barnabas has copies of these, and we delight in hearing portions of them read every Sunday.”

  “What else happens at these meetings?”

  “We sing songs and psalms of praise to God. We pray for one another’s needs. And someone teaches. Barnabas has been handling that for some time now, and I will enjoy helping.”

  “So if I come to the house meetings, you and Barnabas will be my teachers?”

  “Yes, but where you live, Barnabas tells me this is more than a home meeting now. There are so many believers in Antioch that several of the small groups have joined together and now meet on the grounds of a believer who owns the stables not far from the Orontes.”

  “I know the area. Are they safe meeting there, so many?”

  “I have urged
them to be circumspect, but there will probably be little hiding the fact of a crowd that large every Sunday. Yet we will not be scared off. For now Rome allows the Jews to practice their faith, along with all the other various religions, as long as they do not threaten the Empire. Until they begin to fear that we are revolutionaries or seek to overthrow the government, which is—of course—not our aim, we should enjoy the privileges the others enjoy. But you know me, Luke. No one will stop me from doing what I believe is right, regardless. No one said this would be safe or easy. We already have a host of martyrs to the new faith, and if I am to become one also, so be it.”

  PART FOUR

  THE SCRIBE

  TWENTY

  Before Paul disembarked at Joppa to find passage back to Antioch, he prayed with Luke and encouraged him, urging him to pray frequently and plan his schedule so he could join the believers when he returned home. “The scholar in you will want to study all the written materials that have come from the new faith,” Paul said. “When we can lend you scrolls, we will, but most of your exposure to these will come from your meeting with the brethren in Antioch. Barnabas traveled with many of the original disciples and often repeats their accounts orally. We all grow from these.”

  “I have never so longed to be home,” Luke said. “I will see you the first Sunday I am back.”

  “When do you get in?”

  “Next Friday, but I am already planning to tr="1em">“To talk with your former master.”

  “And current patron. He may abandon me over this.”

  “God will become your patron, Luke.”

  “Someone may need to. Not only is there no income from the clinic, but it also costs us unless we have sponsors. And Theophilus is by far our majority benefactor. Another might be tempted to keep this news from him, but I want him to know what’s happened to me.”

  “Of course you do, and if he values you as much as you say, he shiv>

  Paul said, “I want to speak to you today about the fact that those among you who have become believers in Jesus have also become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may become one with Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. Like me, many of you were raised to study and love and live the law, but no more.

  “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

  “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin produced in me all manner of evil desire. The very commandment against what I was doing, which was meant to bring life, I found to bring death.

  “Has then what was meant for good—the law that made me aware of my sin—become death to me? Certainly not! But sin was producing death in me. The law showed me where I fell short, because I am carnal, sold under sin.

  “Have you ever had the experience that you do not understand why you are doing what you are doing, because you know full well that it is wrong? That battle still rages in me. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

  “Now, hear me, I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

  “From this I can only conclude that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

  TWENTY-ONE

  Luke had to wonder how long Theophilus’s patience would last. He was a rich, successful man used to being served, getting his own way, and as kind as he was, he was not in the habit of having to wait—for anything. And as much as Luke wanted to get him together with Paul, dozens of others had already crowded around him and Barnabas.

  They counseled some, prayed with others, and seemed to have all the time in the world for each. Luke could tell Theophilus was eager, but to his credit, he did not force the issue.

  As they drew nearer to Paul, Luke heard a woman ask if he would baptize her. The evangelist turned to Barnabas. “Where do you conduct your baptisms?”

  “In the Orontes when weather perI am not certain I know what to think of that.”

  “It must at least make you curious, for here you are.”

  “Here I am.”

  “No doubt you are a Stoic.”

  Theophilus nodded and seemed to stare with wonder at Paul, who, despite his education and background, spoke with his mouth full. “It’s an interesting philosophy,” Paul added, “which, as you know, Luke and I studied at university. Yet for all its good intentions and noble efforts, it results in the very dichotomy I spoke of this morning.”

  Theophilus shoved his plate aside and leaned forward, raising a palm. “If I may say, I found that most compelling. It was as if you knew me and my inner struggles. We Stoics pride ourselves in trying to serve mankind, but I wonder if any have really conquered their own selfish ambition. I am advancing in age, and yet I seem farther from that goal every day.”

  Paul wiped his mouth, then stood suddenly when Barnabas arrived. They embraced and Paul urged him to eat. As Barnabas looked on silently, Paul turned his attention back to Theophilus. “I venture to say, this may sound foreign to your ears, but hear me out. Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. My aim here is not to criticize Stoicism but to tell you why it falls short of what you long for. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

  “The carnal mind is at enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So, then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God, let alone their deepest inner desires for self-improvement. You follow?”

  “Somewhat,” Theophilus said. “But my intentions are pure. I have never even believed in God, let alone meant to be at enmity with him.”

  “Oh, I don’t mpal soon developed an obsession that nearly overwhelmed him. As more and more Greeks and Gentiles were added to the church’s ranks, he found himself fascinated by people’s personal stories. During his few spare minutes, which largely came only on Sundays before and afte in the second Psalm:

  You are My Son,

  Today I have begotten You.

  And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus:

  I will give you the sure mercies of David.

  Therefore He also says in another Psalm:

  You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.

  “‘For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, died and was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption, but He whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

  “‘Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the Prophets come upon you:

  Behold, you despisers,

  Marvel and perish!

  For I work a work in your days,

  A work which you will by no means believe,

  Though one were to declare it to you.

  “Now, Luke,
when the Jews left the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath, and many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed us, so we persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

  “On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. Contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things I preached. So Barnabas and I grew bold and said, ‘It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us: