A Christian’s dying comfort: Only Luke is with me

Sermon for the Festival of St. Luke

2 Timothy 4:5-15  +  Luke 10:1-9

St. Paul was sitting in prison in Rome when he wrote his second letter to Pastor Timothy. It wasn’t the first time he had been imprisoned. It was at least the fourth time. He had been flogged and briefly imprisoned in the city of Philippi. He had been arrested in Jerusalem and imprisoned for about two years in Caesarea. From there he was taken prisoner on a perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea to Rome, where he was under house arrest for another two years before being released. Then, a few years later, Paul was imprisoned for the fourth and final time in Rome as Emperor Nero’s persecution against the Christians there broke out in full force as he had many of them arrested, beaten, tortured, and killed. This imprisonment would end in Paul’s beheading, and it was coming soon, as Paul wrote in today’s Epistle: For I am already being poured out as a drink-offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.

Only one man was with St. Paul during all four of those imprisonments. He’s the man whose festival we commemorate today: St. Luke.

Luke, like Mark, was not one of the twelve apostles. He was a Greek—a Gentile—whom Paul refers to as “the beloved physician.” He wrote the Gospel according to St. Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, the only two books in the Bible written by a Gentile, like you and I. He tells his own story in the book of Acts, but he’s very humble about it. We only know where he met St. Paul and where he traveled with him from his use of the first person pronoun: “we went here” or “we went there.” Those “we” sections begin in the city of Troas on Paul’s Second Missionary Journey, just as he was about to cross into Macedonia and Greece for the first time. It’s likely that Luke was converted to Christianity right there in Troas when he heard Paul preach, and he was so convinced that Jesus was the Christ—crucified for our sins, raised to life for our justification, reigning at God’s right hand, and coming again to bring His believers with Him to Paradise—that he left his life there in Troas and became Paul’s faithful travel companion. Sure enough, the first city they visited together was Philippi, where Paul was imprisoned for the first time, together with Silas. There was Luke, the beloved physician, ready to tend to Paul’s wounds after he was flogged and mistreated. There he was for the other three imprisonments, too. In fact, as you heard in today’s Epistle, in Paul’s final letter to Timothy, he wrote, “Only Luke is with me.”

“Only Luke is with me.” But what great comfort that gave to St. Paul as he was waiting to die! With the Lord’s help, and specifically with the help the Lord provided through Luke, Paul faced death, not with fear, not with anger, or bitterness, or hatred, but bravely, calmly, even expectantly, as we heard in today’s Epistle. He faced death as a man who was ready. He faced it as a man whose conscience was clear. He faced it as a man who was convinced that, as soon as his head fell from his shoulders, his soul would be with the Lord in glory.

Before he died, St. Paul shared some important last words with Pastor Timothy. First, he leaves behind an encouragement for those who would continue the ministry of Christ after he left. Second, he looks back on his ministry and his life as a Christian. And third, he looks forward to what awaits him and all who have “loved the Lord’s appearing.”

So first, Paul’s encouragement to Timothy and to all who would follow in Timothy’s steps in the office of the holy ministry. But as for you, be self-controlled in all things. Endure hardship. Do the work of a Gospel preacher. Fulfill your ministry.

“But as for you,” Paul writes. He’s contrasting what Timothy should be with what will happen to many people in times to come: For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up teachers for themselves; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. We’re certainly living in those times, aren’t we? “Sound doctrine? Right teaching? Why focus on such things? And who can know what the right doctrine is anyway? Just believe in Jesus however it seems best to you. It’s the relationship that matters, not the facts or the dogmas.”

St. Luke disagrees. Listen to how he began his Gospel: Since many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. According to Luke, certainty of the facts, certainty of the eyewitness account, certainty of the instruction of the original ministers of Christ is an essential part of Christianity. So Paul rightly urges Timothy not to be like those who believe whatever they want and then gather together teachers to say what they want to hear. Instead, be “self-controlled in all things,” Paul says. Have your wits about you. Don’t be gullible, but know the truth and hold onto it.

Of course, Luke’s own Gospel and the book of Acts would ground Timothy and all future Christians in that truth. From Luke’s Gospel, we learn so many things we wouldn’t otherwise know. The origins of John the Baptist and the glorious Song of Zacharias. The events surrounding the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, including the angel Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary, Mary’s Magnificat, the Gloria in Excelsis, and the Song of Simeon. More than any other Evangelist, we hear of Jesus’ saving interactions with Gentiles, how Christ had come to seek and to save what was lost. We learn of God’s love for sinners and of His fervent desire to bring them all to repentance and faith, as in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. From Luke’s Gospel, we learn the details of what happened on the road to Emmaus after Christ’s resurrection as those two disciples listened to the risen Christ explain how His death and resurrection fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies.

Paul also tells Timothy and all ministers to “endure hardship,” just as Paul had done so often in his ministry, most of which was recorded by Luke in the Book of Acts, how often Paul was rejected, ridiculed, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, imprisoned, and plotted against, and how he endured it patiently, trusting in the Lord Christ to work out His good plan through these sufferings. For that matter, we learn from Luke’s Gospel how the Lord Jesus Himself endured hardship and suffering, with details unique to his Gospel, like how, when Jesus was praying earnestly in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was in agony and He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground, who then prayed, Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done. If that’s what our Lord willingly endured for us, why would we shrink back from enduring it for Him?

Do the work of a Gospel preacher. Again, it was Luke who identified Christ as the prophesied preacher of the Gospel from the Old Testament when Jesus preached in the Nazareth synagogue, The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. And it was Luke who watched the Apostle Paul go from town to town, preaching, not his own wisdom, nor about worldly ideas or earthly goals or helping people with their earthly problems, but preaching the gospel from city to city, the same gospel that Luke summarized at the end of his Gospel: Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Fulfill your ministry, Paul writes to Timothy. And what better example of a faithful ministry was there than the ministry of Christ that Luke described in his Gospel, or the ministry of the seventy whom Christ sent out ahead of Him “as lambs among wolves,” which only Luke records, or the ministry of all the Apostles from the Day of Pentecost onward, the ministry of St. Peter and of the seven deacons, of Stephen, the first martyr, and of Paul’s own ministry, as Luke relates it all in the book of Acts. Christ’s visible, earthly ministry had come to an end, as had the ministry of the seventy. Paul’s ministry was about to come to an end, but Timothy’s would continue, and so would the ministry of all ministers after him, until the end of the world.

After encouraging Timothy in his ongoing ministry, Paul took a brief look back at his own: I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. Now, normally, when a Christian is nearing death, I don’t recommend looking back at your life too much. Neither at the bad, since it has been covered up by Christ’s blood and washed away through Baptism and faith; nor at the good, lest you be led astray to cling to it in your heart or to trust in your own good works as any reason at all why God should accept you or give you a place in heaven. But it’s OK to look back as Paul did on the fight you’ve fought to remain faithful to Christ, on the race you’ve finished, on the faith you’ve kept. Because the focus isn’t really on you, but on God the Father and His grace, how He provided for you along the way; on Christ, who died for you and purchased you with His blood; and on the Holy Spirit who has sustained you in the faith, through all sorts of temptations, and strengthened and preserved you to keep trusting in Christ and to keep living for Christ.

Finally, as St. Paul faces death, he looks forward, beyond the moment of his death to what awaits him afterward: Now there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who love his appearing. A crown awaits. A crown of righteousness to be award by the righteous judge. Luke records what Paul had preached in Athens about that Judge: Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead. Yes, God will judge everyone, and for those who don’t know Christ, that should make death a frightening thing, as it was for the rich man in Jesus’ parable whose soul was in torment in the flames of hell. But for those who know Christ as our Lord and Savior, the judgment is nothing to fear, but something to look forward to, as poor Lazarus found when he died, or as the thief on the cross found, who prayed, Lord Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. And Jesus replied, Today you will be with Me in Paradise. Today you will be with Me, on the very day you die, because God counted you righteous through faith in Christ.

But that’s not all there is to look forward to. Paul looks past even that, to “that day,” the day of the Lord’s appearing, which Luke also described in Acts chapter 1 as the angels told the disciples: Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven. In like manner, with one exception, as Luke writes in His Gospel: They will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. At that time, Luke writes, Look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.

No wonder the Apostle Paul could face death with such courage! Only Luke was with him in person, but he also had the certainty of the Word of Christ there with him. Why should he be afraid?

Why should you? There are tough times ahead for this world, and for Christians in particular. And whether death is coming for you soon or whether it’s coming in a few decades, it will come. But you have Luke with you, not in person, but in Holy Scripture, where you have learned the story of Christ, from His birth in Bethlehem, to His saving ministry, to His suffering and death, to His resurrection and ascension, to His promise on the Day of Pentecost of the remission of sins to all who repent and are baptized in His name. If you only had Luke with you, it would be more than enough. But you don’t have only Luke with you. You also have Matthew and Mark and John, and Peter and Paul and James and Jude. And Moses and all the Prophets. And behind them, the Holy Spirit who inspired their words, and the Father and the Son from whom the Spirit proceeds. We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. But enter it we will, through faith in Christ Jesus, who says, through St. Luke, Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Amen.