Whose Empire?

Luke and his peculiar list of countries in the second chapter of Acts…. Luke, the author of the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, weaves through his writing some ideas and themes that are easy for us to miss in the 21st century. The funny thing is that they seem innocent, making the Christian movement appear like a harmless group of people wanting to love everyone. I say this is “funny” because they aren’t innocent; they’re dangerous. Not violently, of course, nor are they revolutionary in that obnoxious “take back the country/empire for Jesus” mentality. Instead, Luke sets up an ideological war with an Empire that announced “tidings of great joy” because they saw themselves as the ones to establish peace on Earth. And that’s just the beginning…