Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Tuesday, September 3, 2013 Some concluding remarks about the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts We have also noticed that Luke is intent on portraying the believers in Jesus in the most favorable light to non-believing Jews. Believing Jewish people are portrayed by Luke as observant of the customs of Judaism – they are good, faithful Jews! They are doing nothing that is contrary to the customs of the OT and causing no offense to their non-believing Jewish neighbors. This portrayal of Jewish Christians as committed to the OT customs includes Paul. The Paul that Luke portrays is actually “zealous for the law” and does nothing to give offense. We have noticed how this portrayal of Paul by Luke does come into conflict with Paul’s own letters. Historically, this presents a challenge for Luke’s and Paul’s readers. We have noticed how Luke unveils for his readers a picture of the life of Jewish Christians that may seem strange to those of us living almost 2000 years later. Luke portrays the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem as living according to the customs of all Jews – one likely would have a difficult time determining just who is a Christian Jew and who is not by only observing their practices. Christian Jews living in Jerusalem continued to participate in all the regular practices of Judaism. This is a picture of Christianity that has been completely lost to us Christians today. We know a Christianity that has abandoned most Jewish practice and become a Gentile experience. We think that is the way it always has been and forget that we have another part of our story to reflect upon. We can thank Luke for preserving for us this glimpse of a forgotten past. It is important that we hear in Luke’s story that Jewish Christians did not stop being Jews after they came to believe in Jesus. Even Paul is always portrayed as a person who understood himself as a Jew. To the very end Paul does not think of himself in any other way. As we contemplate how Luke viewed the relationship between Judaism and Christianity it becomes clear that Luke would not have viewed them as two separate and distinct “religions” as we do today. Luke would have thought of Christianity as the true expression of Judaism, the fulfillment of the Jewish faith. Christianity was not a new religion. Jewish Christians were not understood to have “converted” from Judaism to Christianity. To be sure, Luke was very well aware of the debate within Judaism about Jesus, but for Luke it was in internal debate. What is the proper way to understand Judaism? Luke’s contention is that Jewish Christians were the true Jews. Luke was not willing to give up that understanding. This is important for Luke because Luke refuses to accept the thought that God had given up on his people. Luke refused to abandon Judaism. That is why Luke consistently portrays Paul as going to the Jews first – even at the very end of the story when Paul arrived in Rome. The struggle within Judaism must be maintained in Luke’s view.