Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Luke [Book Review]

"Luke" is the forty-second book of the "Holy Bible," and it was written by Luke who was a doctor. It shows. Luke is a much better author than both Matthew and John Mark combined. His version of the story of Jesus was far more comprehensive and filled with nuance left out of the former two. I'll break down some things that stood out to me:

1. Luke starts off before the other guys did, and shows that both Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, were visited by the same angel. This whole thing was sparked at about the same time, and it was clear that there were preparations made for the coming of Christ.

2. The Christmas story is right here in "Luke." An interesting thing about reading it is that I remembered hearing this in the Peanuts Christmas Special. Too bad we don't have stuff like that in movies anymore.

3. There was a mentioning of a prophetess named Anna who was extremely old. She practically lived in the temple, and she was blessed to know that the Christ lived in her time before she died. Being able to hear the voice of God, that must have been an amazing thing to find out.

4. According to Luke, Jesus began preaching even as a child which seems to have been really confusing to their parents, I'm not sure why since they had actual visits by angels and such. Guess they forgot.

5. Very specifically during the baptism of Jesus, Luke points out that the Holy Spirit descends "in a bodily shape" but in the manner of a dove. Please stop depicting the Holy Spirit as a bird. "Luke" debunks that theory.

6. Matthew half-assed it. He only tracked Jesus' lineage back to Abraham. Luke gets the lineage all the way back to Adam which is far more significant. This brings him back further than just the Jews but all the way back to being a son of the actual God. Way to go, Luke!

7. In a previous blog, I mentioned that I wanted to be a fly on the wall when Jesus was talking to Moses and Elijah. Where Luke does not actually give the dialog said in these moments, he points out that they were discussing the fact that Jesus will die in Jerusalem. Good to know!

8. Jesus actually claims to have seen Satan falling "as lightning" from heaven. Whether this is an actual visible description of the event or a simile is unsure. The point, however, is that he saw it.

9. A woman randomly cries out that the mother of Jesus is blessed. Jesus rather refutes this though. Like... he doesn't even acknowledge what she said, but points out that those who hear the Word of God is blessed. Sorry, Mary.

10. Some weirdo asked Jesus to speak to his brother to convince him to divide his inheritance with him. What the heck? Jesus pretty much asks who made him a judge or divider over him. This is like asking a parent or someone else in authority to make things fair for them so they don't have to do the work.

11. It was pointed out by Jesus that just doing your basic duty and stopping there is not worth very much. We were not put in this world to do the bare minimum. We are expected to make the most out of ourselves.

12. There is a bit of nuance concerning the rapture. Jesus mentions that there will come a day where people will simply disappear. He brings up the story of Lot's wife who turned back and was lost shortly before this. In a very short sentence of warning, he says "Remember Lot's wife."

13. Jesus rebukes people who pray about being better than others. It's not, in the least, humble, and it's also rather egotistical.

14. Seems like the coming of the Lord will come with a bunch of crazy stuff happening in the heavens. Too bad everyone will be staring at their phones. The truth is though that it should be hard to miss. I just like making jokes.

15. Apparently Pilate and Herod became buddies over the ridicule of Jesus. That's weird. They hated each other before this happened. Even so, Pilate did not want to punish Jesus at all.

16. Even after seeing Jesus do all the things he did, the disciples apparently didn't believe anything. After seeing Jesus alive again, they didn't even believe it was him. Sadly, this is human nature.

"Luke" was so much better than what came before it. It's more recommended than the others for it's nuance and carefully worded detail. The guy was definitely a educated doctor; it shows. Read this one!

This blog was written on January 21, 2022.

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6 comments:

  1. It seems Luke was the one who minded every detail, assuming EVERYTHING was significant, whether he understood why or not. He did not want to leave anything out. Such attention to detail is what let us know things we otherwise would not, like the Christmas Story.

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    1. I love the Christmas story. It is so good to have all that information which was left out of the other gospels. Thank goodness for Luke!

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  2. I love that there is a variety of perspectives and styles in The Gospels, Luke's attention to detail shows his individual talents were not wasted. The man who asked Jesus to speak to his brother about his inheritance definitely represents the man who worships worldly things. Depictions of The Holy Spirit as a dove are shortsighted and sad that they didn't even listen to the context. The bare minimum isn't worth much indeed, "All that we do we should do with all our heart".

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    1. The dove stuff slays me. You want to believe that people aren't that dumb, but they are. This is proof that people cherry pick things out of these books and use them out of context.

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  3. We are here to demonstrate who we are. He wants to see what we come up with and how we use it to make things better. It would be shameful for us to give only some when He gave all.

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    1. He did and He didn't have to. If He didn't love His creation, He would have let us all fall to pieces.

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