St. Luke's House

Emblem: Ox
Color: Green
AKA: St. Luke’s 

Ox-like in its composition–strong, patient, grounded, thorough, ultimately immovable–Luke’s gospel emphasizes these same traits in Jesus himself and his message of good news for the lowly. In Luke’s gospel we see the humble God whose patience and irresistible strength work to pull from the pit what the world and its powers have tried to press down, to topple those who think they are strong and wise, and to clear the road of obstacles that would keep the poor and needy, those desperate for hope and for help—the orphan, the widow, the diseased, the outcast, and anyone able to see the desperate state of their own sinful heart—from reaching God. Luke is the historian, the doctor, the evangelist who bends his particular gifts of careful, workmanlike investigation, analysis, and detailed historical attention to the task of presenting to a Graeco-Roman audience, in particular, a God whose strength they would marvel at but whose humility and self sacrifice on behalf of the lowly would challenge everything they thought they knew about honor, power, and glory.  The bull or ox itself was a prized sacrifice in both Jewish and pagan contexts in the ancient world, and so the connotation of Christ as the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the world resonated strongly with Luke’s emphasis on the passion.