to all those cities whither Jesus
himself would come, is suggestive of this broader purpose of Luke. The
good Samaritan (10:25-37) is Christ's illustration of a true neighbor
and in some way also intends to show the nature of Christ's work which
was to be without nationality. Of the ten lepers healed (17:11-19)
only one, a Samaritan, returned to render him praise, thus showing how
others than the Jews would not only be blessed by him but would do
worthy service for him. The Perean ministry, across the Jordan (9:51-
18:4, probably 9:51-19:28). is a ministry to the Gentiles and shows
how large a place Luke would give the Gentiles in the work and
blessings of Jesus.

6. It Is a Gospel for the Greeks. If Matthew wrote for Jews and Mark
for Romans, it is but natural that some one should write in such a way
as to appeal, specially, to the Greeks as the other representative
race. And, such the Christian writers of the first centuries thought
to be Luke's purpose. The Greek was the representative of reason and
humanity and felt that his mission was to perfect humanity. "The full
grown Greek would be a perfect world man", able to meet all men on the
common plane of the race. All the Greek gods were, therefore, images
of some form of perfect humanity. The Hindu might worship an emblem of
physical force, the Roman deify the Emperor and the Egyptian any and
all forms of life, but the Greek adored man with his thought and
beauty and speech, and, in this, had most nearly approached the true
conception of God. The Jew would value men as the descendants of
Abraham; the Roman according as they wielded empires, but the Greek on
the basis of man as such.

The gospel for the Greek must, therefore, present the perfect man, and
so Luke wrote about the Divine Man as the Savior of all men. Christ
touched man at every point and is interested in him as man whether low
and vile or high and noble. By his life he shows the folly of sin and
the beauty of holiness. He brings God near enough to meet the longings
of the Greek soul and thereby furnish him a pattern and brother suited
for all ages and all people. The deeds of Jesus are kept to the
background while much is made of the songs of others and the
discourses of Jesus as they were calculated to appeal to the cultured
Greek. If the Greek thinks he has a mission to humanity, Luke opens a
mission ground enough for the present and offers him an immortality
which will satisfy in the future.

7.