Monday, May 04, 2009

All Things Jesus Has Done

One of last week's Bible stories ended with John's statement that
And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:25)

And today's Bible story (Acts 1) begins with Luke telling Theophilus about the former account (the Gospel According to St Luke) that he made of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.

I find this fascinating. On the one hand, John says there's no way to write down everything Jesus did. And yet Luke says that what he recorded in the Gospel was ALL that Jesus began to do and teach. Some have mentioned that Luke says in Acts 1:1 that the word "began" is there, and that is definitely important. But I'm also thinking that there is a unity, a wholeness, a singleness-of-purpose, to which Luke is referring.

Luke DID record "all" that Jesus taught and did: the miracles/signs, the doctrine, the suffering and death and resurrection. And yet, as John notes, not every individual event could be recorded. That fact, however, does not detract from the truth that Luke recorded it all.

I think this says something about Jesus' work, as well as about the Scriptures.

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