+ Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist – October 18th, 2026 +
Isaiah 35:5-8; 2 Timothy 4:5-18; Luke 10:1-9
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church,
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the final chapter of C.S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair, the children – Eustace and Jill – have returned from the journey Aslan the lion sent them on. Having faced giants, traveled to an underground kingdom, defeated the witch, and rescued the prince, they return to the land of Narnia only to find their good friend, King Caspian, on top of the mountain of Aslan lying dead in a stream.
But the lion is there and he speaks: Son of Adam, Aslan said to Eustace. “Go into that thicket and pluck the thorn you will find there, and bring it to me.”
And he did. He brought the thorn, all 12 inches of it.
“Drive it into my paw, Son of Adam,” said Aslan.
“Must I?” Said Eustace.
“Yes,” said the lion.
So he drove the thorn into the Lion’s paw. And there came out a great drop of blood, redder than all the redness you have ever seen or imagined. And it splashed into the stream over the dead body of the king. And then the dead king began to be changed. By the lion’s wounds, Caspian was healed.
What Lewis paints in his imaginative stories, St. Luke the evangelist proclaims to us in the true story of the Gospel that bears his name, along with its sequel, the Book of Acts. For the ills of sin and death that plague us, St. Luke prescribes the life of Jesus, the Lion of Judah who conquers sin and death for you, the Lamb of God who is slain for you and sheds his blood for you, the Great Physician who heals you. For by his wounds, you are healed.
From the opening of his Gospel with the Christmas story, to the missionary journeys and imprisonment of Paul at the end of Acts, St. Luke gives you the ultimate physician’s referral: here is your redeemer, your rescuer, Jesus.
St. Luke, the beloved physician whom the church remembers today, gives us Jesus, the Great Physician of body and soul.
This was the same quest Jesus sent the 72 disciples out upon in Luke 10: To give the people Jesus. His words. His promises. His peace. His healing. To proclaim good news to the broken.
Whenever you enter a house, first say, Peace be to this house...Heal the sick and proclaim to them, The Kingdom of God has come near to you.
Early Christian tradition tells us that Luke was one of these 72 sent out; Jesus’ physician’s assistance sent out to make house calls; a mission of proclamation, restoration, and new creation.
Those 72 came bearing and proclaiming good news from the Great Physician himself. What the prophets – like Isaiah – foretold was being fulfilled at last in Jesus.
According to Luke’s historical report, the moment Jesus is born in Bethlehem, the sign on the stable door where Jesus is born reads: “The Doc is in”. The Healer of the nations is here at last. The King has come. And the hands of the King are the hands of a healer. Everything Isaiah prescribes of the Messiah, Jesus fulfills. He heals the blind. Opens the deaf ear. Makes the lame to walk.
Not only does Jesus the Great Physician speak peace, he is the peace of God in human flesh for you. By his wounds you are healed. And through his cross and grave he throws open the Kingdom of God wide open to you.
Now this news comes to us as a great surprise. We know our history. So does our Lord. He knows our charts better than us and the diagnosis isn’t good. In fact, it’s terminal, this disease we have. This poison and pestilence of sin and death so deep and metastasized that only the Great Physician can do something about it.
So St. Luke does what our general practitioners do. He refers you to the specialist. The Savior. The Great Physician of body and soul. And he takes one look at our history, one look at the xrays and lab reports. It’s not just that you’re dying. You’re dead. The plague is everywhere. I’m going to have to cut it out. Bleed it out.
So he does. Unexpectedly. Graciously. Mercifully. The Great Physician Jesus does what only he can do. He turns the scalpel on himself. Three of them to be precise. Jesus’ medical bag looks more like a torture chamber: nails, thorns, a spear, and a cross.
But these are the instruments of your salvation. By His wounds you are healed.
There we are on the table like Caspian in the river. Dead in our trespasses. And Jesus the Lion of Judah, the Lamb of God, the Great Physician, is slain in our place. Nails pounded into his paws. Blood spilled.
Blood that ransoms you. Redeems you. Rescues you. This is how Jesus your Great Physician heals you. Makes you holy. And makes you wholly his.
Here in his church, in his word and water and body and blood, here our Lord brings you into his holy house of healing.
It is as the Scriptures say, there is life in the blood. Jesus pours it out for you.
As the early church says, here in the blood of Jesus is the medicine of immortality.
As St. Luke records for us: peace be to this house. To you. For the Kingdom of God has come near to you. And by his wounds you are healed.
A Blessed Feast of St. Luke to each of you...in the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
