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The Center of Time
After the infancy narratives, the evangelist Luke begins in chapter 3 to describe Jesus’public ministry. From this point on, he follows the same narrative sequence as Mark and Matthew. These three evangelists are called the Synoptic Gospels because they can be read almost side by side. If they were published in parallel columns, we could easily follow the story of all three at a glance. Of course, not everything is identical; some details are added, others are moved, and some are retouched. This is part of the editorial work each evangelist does.
Luke, in particular, has produced much material that tradition has contributed and reorganized according to his theological criteria. That’s why he included two very long chapters of sources he discovered through his research—what he learned from the Judeo-Christian community in Jerusalem—and published those texts, inevitably reworked. These were accounts from eyewitnesses of Jesus’ childhood that captured important moments of announcement, remembrance, and the foundation of the Christian faith. In chapter 3, Luke begins as a Hellenistic historian by situating Jesus’ public manifestation within a historical context.
The ancients didn’t have a fixed way of numbering years; they couldn’t assign specific numbers to years as we do today, but they always referred to significant leaders. Therefore, Luke specifies that the word of God reached John, son of Zacharias, in the desert at an exact moment: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.” This is the most precise reference we find in all the gospel texts. Based on his historical reconstruction, Luke dates the start of John the Baptist’s ministry, which occurred immediately after Jesus’s, to the fifteenth year of Emperor Tiberius. Using our calendar, this corresponds roughly to the year 28 or 29 A.D.
He continues his presentation on the historical situation by saying:
When Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was the tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip was the tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was thetetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John.
It is a typical Semitic expression. In Greek, it isn’t beautiful, but it conveys the idea of an important event. The word of God becomes real; it enters the life of John, son of Zechariah, who lived in the desert. As the son of a priest, he should have stayed in the temple, studied in the priestly school there, and at the age of thirty, begun his priestly service.
Instead, that child, as Luke already mentioned in the infancy narratives, grew up in the desert regions and appeared in Israel in his thirties. Rather than serving in a Levitical manner in the temple, John presents himself in the spirit of Elijah, dressed as Elijah, at the same place where Elijah was taken to heaven, as stated in 2 Kings chapter 2. On the Jordanian bank, across the Jordan, John the Baptist positions himself outside the land of Israel and welcomes pilgrims heading straight to Jerusalem or returning from it; they must cross the Jordan at the designated ford. To these people, John announces the imminent arrival of the Messiah.
Like Mark and Matthew, Luke also quotes Isaiah 40 to explain what happened to John the Baptist: “A voice proclaims: In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” The ancient prophet of the exile announced the coming of the Lord, who would clear the way for the return through the wilderness from Babylon to Jerusalem, the way back to his homeland. John the Baptist reinterprets this passage, seeing himself as the voice crying out in the desert to prepare the way of the Lord.
Mark and Matthew stop at this quote from Isaiah, but Luke continues and cites two other verses: “Every valley shall be lifted, every mountain and hill made low; the rugged land shall be a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” Luke follows the tradition of citing these verses from Isaiah but extends the quote because he is focused on reaching the verse that mentions God’s salvation. To prepare the way for the Lord, it is necessary to level the earth, come down from the heights, and fill the valleys.
These symbolic images reflect a shift in our attitudes toward receiving the Lord. Still, the core evangelical message remains that ‘all flesh,’ as the Hebrew text of Isaiah and the Greek quote from Luke state, will see God’s salvation. In Greek, a rare word is used; it is not the common term ‘sotería,’ which usually means ‘salvation’. Instead, the neutral form ‘τὸ σωτήριον’ = ‘to sotérion’ is employed. In English, the translation follows the original Greek: ‘all flesh.’ This is an important variation in the Greek text. We can interpret this to mean that every living being will experience the work of salvation carried out by God. Luke finds this word especially significant because it indicates broad inclusion. It is a technical term used by scholars to signify a literary phenomenon that encompasses a text. The unusual word at the beginning and end of the work provides a thematic framework.
This phrase is repeated at the end of the Book of Acts. We know that Luke wrote both the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Here, we hear the story of Jesus, accompanied by theannouncement: “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” When we reach the end of the Acts of the Apostles, we find Saint Paul in Rome, many years later, telling the Jews of the capital: “Let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen” (Acts 28:28).
All of Luke’s work centers on the concept of salvation. Here, it is announced, and at the end of Acts it is demonstrated to have taken place. Jesus is the focus of everything. The theology of Saint Luke begins with the idea that Jesus is the focal point of time.
It is the title of a famous work by the German scholar Hans Conzelmann, the first to adopt the ‘redactional history’ method and apply it precisely to the Gospel of Luke. Christ is the center of time, but to imagine him as the center, one must consider a before and an after. The before is easy; it is the Old Testament. The after is the history of the Church. Luke has the idea that after Christ comes the history of the Church. He writes the Acts of the Apostles to continue the story of the Word of God.
For Luke, Christ is the focal point to which all Old Testament history is directed and from which all Church history begins. There was a story that preceded Jesus, and there will be a story that continues His work. He is the center and remains so as our Savior. This rare Greek word ‘σωτήριον’ (sotérion) also appears in the infancy narratives, when Simeon, in the temple, takes the baby Jesus in his arms and thanks God that his eyes have seen the salvation wrought by God. That particular child is salvation.
Jesus presents himself as the Savior, the one who works for God’s salvation. This is a major theme in Luke’s work. I’ll try to clarify the idea of salvation a bit, because it’s not just about being freed from a problem or avoiding a difficulty. In chapter 17, only Luke tells the story of Jesus healing ten lepers, and only one comes back to give thanks. He was a Samaritan, and Jesus notes with surprise and some bitterness: “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?’(And then he says to the healed Samaritan) “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” (Lk 17:17-19) We could say that ten were healed, but only one was truly saved.
Jesus does not save people from leprosy directly; he heals to demonstrate his power to save them. Only one of the ten who were healed was truly saved because he understood what Jesus did. He returned to thank Jesus, glorify God, and recognize that Jesus is God’s ultimate act of salvation. Healing is a deep reality that touches the person’s core. It represents salvation and deliverance from sin, evil, isolation, and separation from God.
Let us remember that Luke is a disciple of Paul and has listened to the apostle’s preaching for many years. He has learned from Paul about the themes of justification and salvation, which the Lord offers if, on man’s part, there is faith, acceptance, and willingness. The salvation Jesus brings is freedom from sin.
There is another exciting episode, exclusive to the third evangelist, in chapter 13, in which the healing of a woman who is bent over is described. Imagine this person suffering from a deforming disease, bent double, with her face necessarily facing the ground. This poor woman in the corner of the synagogue asks for nothing. She does not intervene. Jesus sees her, calls her, and says, “‘Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.’ He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.”
Try to imagine all of humanity behind that single woman. That bent woman is like society, bowed by sin and tilted toward the ground, while Jesus makes her look up at the sky. We are held back by sin. Our nature is wounded by evil that bends us and pulls us down to earth. The leader of the synagogue does not dare to oppose Jesus, but he throws a jab at the people, saying, “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath day.” That poor woman didn’t come to be healed; it was Jesus’s initiative. He boldly responds to the synagogue leader: “Hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the manger and lead it out for watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years, should she not be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”
This is how Jesus understands the Sabbath. It is not about avoiding forbidden work on this day but about fulfilling creation and freeing the creature; she is a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has kept bound. This is the work of salvation that Jesus carries out. Everyone can see this salvation; everyone can find and experience it. John the Baptist, on the banks of the Jordan, has only begun this work; he announced the imminent arrival of the Savior. Luke continues the usual story that the other evangelists also share. He adds the moral examples the Baptist gives to different groups: the crowds, tax collectors, and soldiers. He urges everyone to do their duty well.
Amid the crowd gathered for John’s baptism, Jesus also appeared, but Luke omits the baptism episode. If we read carefully, the evangelist doesn’t describe Jesus’ immersion in the Jordan but focuses on what happened afterward: “After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened.”
Luke states that the opening of heaven, meaning the revelation of God the Father about the Son Jesus, occurs after the people are baptized and Jesus himself is immersed. The event nearly disappears; the text does not describe Jesus’ arrival, John’s gesture that engages him, or Jesus emerging from the water. It simply assumes it has already happened. He emphasizesJesus’ solidarity with sinners: Jesus goes into the waters, making himself like others by entering into death, accepting solidarity in sin and death with all humanity, a prisoner of Satan bound by sin. After this, the heavens open, the Holy Spirit descends upon him bodily like a dove, and a voice from heaven says, “You are my beloved Son; I am well pleased with you.”
The Father’s word is directed to the Son: “You are my Son.” At that moment, the evangelist states that Jesus is mature, fully aware of his divine nature and messianic mission. Heaven opens, the Father confirms, and the Son accepts. This is the messianic endowment. From this point, the work of the Savior begins.