Robert F. O'Toole, «How Does Luke Portray Jesus as Servant of YHWH», Vol. 81 (2000) 328-346

This article explains Luke's meaning of Jesus as Servant of YHWH and claims this title as part of Luke's christology. Many references to Jesus as Servant of YHWH are unique to Luke, and a few summarize Jesus' ministry. These summary passages particularly look to Jesus' saving activity, universal mission and suffering. Other Servant of YHWH passages point out that Jesus is specially chosen and pleasing to God and determined to do his will. In particular, Acts 8,32-33 summarize Jesus' passion during which Luke views Jesus as the Servant and thus humble, innocent and silent. As the Servant Jesus is also risen and active.

that it was first necessary to speak the word of God to them; but since they rejected it and did not judge themselves worthy of eternal life, Peter and Barnabas were going to turn to the Gentiles since the Lord had commanded them, ‘I have set you (se) to be a light for the Gentiles, so that you (se) may bring salvation to the ends of the earth’. Since se surely does not refer to them, Barnabas and Paul must be carrying out a mission which is attributed to Jesus. Much the same statement has to be made about Acts 26,23 which speaks of the Messiah who must suffer and be first to rise from the dead to proclaim light to the people and to the Gentiles; for during his earthly life, Jesus did not proclaim light to the Gentiles. On the contrary, this task is part of the mission given by the risen Jesus to Paul (cf. vv. 17-18) but which Luke identifies as the continual work of Jesus ²⁹.

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        Not all of the above Lukan references to Jesus as the Servant of YHWH may be equally convincing; nor has our investigation been limited only to Isaian hymns, today associated with this theme. Moreover, the word-pattern for this theme is not always as clear as would be desirable. On the other hand, many of the above Servant of YHWH references are unique to Luke (e.g., Luke 2,29-32; 4,18-19; 7,21; 9,51; 11,21-22 [?]; 20,20; 22,19.37.48; 23,9.35; 24,7.20; Acts 3,13-14.26; 4,27.30; 8,32-33; 13,47; 26,23; 28,28 [?]). This is not to deny that a few of these citations might be questionable or that Luke got some of these citations or terminology from his sources, e.g., the use of paradi/dwmi from Mark. So, although some authors have questioned whether the tradition of Servant of YHWH enters into Luke’s christology, the evidence shows that it does: some aspects of the tradition about the Servant form a not insignificant aspect of Luke’s christology. To be sure, for Luke no one Jewish tradition or title was able to express fully who Jesus was. However, a few passages (cf. Luke 2,29-34; 4,18-19; Acts 13,47; 26,23) provide a general summary of Jesus’ ministry in terms of Servant of YHWH terminology. These passages particularly look to Jesus’ saving activity, universal mission and suffering. In fact, although the concept ‘prophet’ provided Luke with a means of explaining Jesus’ suffering (e.g., Luke 4,24-30; 13,33-35), that of ‘Servant of YHWH’ was more suited for this purpose.