The best guess is that St. Luke wrote the gospel with his name around the year 85AD, fifty or so years after the death of Jesus. There have been two generations of Christians, people living the gospel, and their experience doubtless shaped how St. Luke told the story. For example, St. Mark has as the initial proclaimation of Jesus “The kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:14) which St. Luke amends to have the discples say, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.’ The proclamation of the nearness of the kingdom caused some of the early Christians to expect a divine intervention in history, that the Romans would be overcome, the oppressed would be set free, the nation would be restored. St. Luke wanted his readers (us!) to understand that the coming kingdom is not an event external to us but for us. We are called to embody the kingdom in the way that we live — with compassion, forgiveness, generosity. Instead of the kingdom as something external, in the world, the presence of the kingdom for us is what radiates out to change the world. As we change into kingdom people, the world changes.
