The Lukan Jump

 No, it’s not some veiled Star Wars reference.  It has everything to do with when the Liturgical calendar of the Church begins to read Gospel lessons from the Gospel of Saint Luke.  And we find ourselves in the middle of it this week!

So let’s first look at what Gospels are read when during the Liturgical year.

Things begin with Pascha.  John 1:1 starts the cycle of Gospels for the year on the day of Pascha.  We continue to read from the Gospel of Saint John from Pascha until the Liturgy of Pentecost.

Starting with the Monday after Pentecost we begin to read from the Gospel of Saint Matthew.  His Gospel is setup for readings for up to as many as seventeen weeks from this point forward.  From the twelfth week forward, it is read on Saturdays and Sundays, while the Gospel of St. Mark is read on the weekdays.

And now comes “the Lukan Jump”!

Beginning with the Monday after the Sunday after the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross we read from the Gospel of Saint Luke.  Why the reference to “jump”?  Because the number of weeks between Pentecost and the Elevation of the Cross is dependent on the date of Pascha,  This number of weeks is different from year to year, longer when Pascha is “early”, shorter when it is “late”.  The seventeen weeks of Matthew already mentioned is the LONGEST distance possible between the Feasts.  When the calendar finds the distance shorter, gospel readings from St. Matthew are “jumped over” in deference to reading from the Gospel of St. Luke.  More on that in a moment.

Finally, with the exception of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the Gospel of St. Mark is read during the season of the Great Fast on Saturdays and Sundays.

Based on all of the above, many people assume that the Lukan Jump is related to the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross. 

In fact, this is not the case.

The Elevation of the Cross falls on the “Fixed Calendar” of the Church, each year on September 14th.  In close proximity to this date is September 23rd, the Feast of the Conception of the Forerunner and Baptist John.  Since this event is best recorded in the Gospel of Saint Luke (Luke 3:23-4:1), we “jump” to the Gospel of Saint Luke with this Feast and continue in St. Luke until we approach the Great Fast the following spring.

On your calendars, the Sundays of the Gospel of St. Matthew are simply referred to as “The N^th Sunday After Pentecost,” with N being the number of weeks following Pentecost.

When you look at your calendars starting with September, this same numbering is retained, and it in fact dictates which Tone of the Week is to be used, and also which Epistle is to be read (there’s no “jump” for Epistles!).  But you’ll also see that beyond “Sunday N After Pentecost,” there will also be a note, “Y^th Luke”, indicating which of the nineteen gospels of Luke is to be read in any given week. 

Make sense?

Now you can wax profound with your Orthodox friends about when, where, and why the various Gospels are read throughout the Ecclesiastical year.

Glory to Jesus Christ!