Luke, the Gentile Doctor, and the Jewish Family He Wanted Us to Know

Why Luke Gives Details the Other Gospels Don't

The Torah portion Tazria(-Metzora) connects directly to one of the most overlooked texts in the New Testament.

This is how the text in Parashat Tazria starts out:

And Luke 2:21-24 tells us this:

Why is Luke the only one of the four Gospels that gives us such details about the birth and the circumcision of baby Yeshua? I think it is specifically because Luke is a medical doctor and also a non-Jewish disciple of Yeshua and Paul — he wanted us to know that Yeshua was a legitimate boy born to Jews who observed the commandments of the Torah to the letter. Jewish writers like Matthew and John assumed that every other Jew would know these things. Luke, who is a Gentile, gives you the details from the Torah and quotes from the passage in Leviticus 12, because he has in mind that non-Jews are going to be reading his Gospel.

Joseph Was a Mason — Not Rich, Not Poor

Joseph and Mary brought two turtle doves to the Temple in Jerusalem. This tells us something precise about their financial situation. More wealthy people would bring a sheep or a goat. The lower middle class & poor would bring two turtle doves or two pigeons.

Joseph was a mason — it doesn't say whether he was a mason of stone or a mason of wood, a carpenter or a stonemason. Mary was a housewife. She didn't live far from her mother and father who lived in Sepphoris, the capital city of the Galilee — about four miles away from Nazareth. Nazareth was kind of a suburb of Sepphoris. Joseph and Mary were not wealthy, and they were most likely not dirt poor. They were blue-collar workers, lower middle class.

The historical churches — the Catholics in Rome, the Orthodox in Constantinople, and the Protestants from Germany, France, England, Holland, and now from the USA — have allowed their history to take them far from Jerusalem, and far from the King of the Jews. By staying far from the roots they have allowed much wild grass to grow around them and hide the Son that gives life. When you don't have a natural Son you have to produce one that is made of wood, gold, silver, or plastic and keep him nailed to the cross. The real Yeshua, the Son of David, the Messiah and the Son of God Himself, is already from a long, long time ago not on the cross. Yeshua is on the right hand of God running the affairs of His Kingdom and waiting for you and for me to accept Him not only as the crucified One, but as our King of Kings.

You Cannot Love Yeshua and Hate the Seed of Abraham

People seem to forget these verses and the fact that Yeshua is a Jew. You can't love Yeshua and hate the seed of Abraham, from whom the Messiah came, to whom the Messiah was promised, and whom the Messiah will ultimately save. Yeshua is the one seed that actually stands for all the seed of Abraham, the people of Israel, the Jewish nation. He is our representative who fulfilled the task that was given to the nation to be a light for all the nations and all the families of the Earth to receive the blessing of Abraham. However, Christians need to remember that receiving the blessing promised by God to Abraham is conditional on being a blessing to the seed of Abraham — the nation of Israel.

"Tazria" means to sow a seed. The term seed or sower appears 22 times in the New Covenant — 15 times in the Gospels and seven times in the epistles. What is special about sowing seed? The final product is much more valuable than the seed itself. No one sows seed in order to get the same benefit as the seed sown. And the word "seed" in the Bible is mostly used to speak about people — not plants. The seed planted in the ground has brought and will bring the harvest of God's choice from among all the nations, and they will say: