The Gospel Of Luke: Book Summary for Kids

Imagine God decided to send His Son to Earth, not as a powerful king with an army, but as a normal looking baby born to a young woman named Mary in a tiny town. The whole book of Luke is basically the true story of who that baby grew up to be, what He did, what He taught, why people hated Him, and what happened when they killed Him and then what happened three days later.

Luke starts with two miracle babies: John (who would grow up to be John the Baptist and prepare people for Jesus) and Jesus Himself. When Jesus is born, Angels show up, shepherds get the news first, and wise old people in the temple recognize that this little baby is the Savior everyone had been waiting for hundreds of years.

When Jesus grows up (around age 30), He gets baptized, the sky opens , God says “This is my beloved Son,” and then Jesus goes into the desert for 40 days and beats the devil in a temptation contest by quoting Scripture every time.

After that He starts traveling around teaching and healing people, especially the ones nobody else liked: poor people, sick people, tax collectors (who were basically traitors), women who had bad reputations, foreigners, lepers. He keeps saying the kingdom of God is for everybody, not just the super religious people who think they’re better than everyone else.

Jesus tells a lot of great stories (parables) to explain how God really thinks:

• A shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to find the one that got lost and throws a party when he finds it.
• A father who runs to hug his runaway son and throws the biggest welcome home party ever, even though the son wasted all his money.
• A hated outsider (a Samaritan) who stops to help a bleeding man when the “good” religious people walk right past him.
• A poor widow who gives her last two coins to God, and Jesus says that was worth more than all the rich people’s big donations.

Jesus also shows He has total power: He calms storms, casts out demons, heals people just by speaking or touching them, even raises a couple of people from the dead. But He keeps saying the Son of Man (that’s what He calls Himself) has to suffer, be rejected, be killed, and rise on the third day. He says it over and over, but almost nobody really gets it until later.

Finally He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey while people shout “Hosanna!” (like a ticker tape parade). But a few days later the same crowds shout “Crucify him!” The religious leaders and Roman governor sentence Him to death even though He never did anything wrong. They nail Him to a cross between two criminals. While He’s dying He says “Father, forgive them they don’t know what they’re doing,” and He promises one of the criminals “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

He dies. The sky goes dark. The huge curtain in the temple rips in half from top to bottom (a sign that the separation between God and people is now gone). A Roman soldier says, “This man really was righteous.”

Three days later some women go to the tomb with spices to care for His body and the stone is rolled away and the tomb is empty. Angels tell them “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is risen.” The women run to tell the disciples, who mostly think it’s nonsense at first.

Later that day Jesus walks with two discouraged disciples on the road to Emmaus, explains the whole Old Testament to them showing how it all pointed to Him, and they only recognize Him when He breaks bread, then He vanishes. They run back to Jerusalem full of joy.

That night Jesus suddenly appears in the locked room with the disciples, shows them His hands and feet, eats fish in front of them to prove He’s not a ghost, opens their minds to understand the Scriptures, and tells them: “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be preached in my name to all nations, starting in Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Stay here until you receive power from heaven.”

Then He leads them out near Bethany, blesses them, and is carried up into heaven while they watch. They worship Him, go back to Jerusalem filled with joy, and spend their days in the temple praising God.

Luke’s book is the story of how God came to Earth as Jesus, lived a perfect life full of love and power, let evil people kill Him on a cross to pay for everyone’s sins, rose from the dead to prove He defeated death, and then told His followers to tell the whole world that anyone who turns to Him can be forgiven and live with God forever with the Holy Spirit.