Luke's Story Series

The Story Starts Here

Advent Series

Part 3: Luke 1 & 2

Introduction:

In this series we’re taking a look at how each of the Gospel writers chose to introduce Jesus to the world.

So…why? Why keep looking at these stories year after year? Haven’t we told these stories enough? Well, no. We haven’t told these stories “enough”…you can’t tell these stories “enough”. Fact is that outside of the Christmas season, and more specifically, outside of the Church, you’re gonna hear these stories little, if at all.

Look…the stories you don’t tell will be the stories you forget. The untold stories are the ones that aren’t passed on…they represent ideas that are no longer important. The stories you stop telling will no longer frame your worldview. Other stories will begin to slip in to fill the empty spaces…and they’ll frame your worldview. So, we keep telling these stories year after year because the stories themselves matter and shouldn’t be forgotten. We keep telling these stories because we want them to continue to frame our worldview.

We’re going to tell these stories yet again because if we don’t do it here, where will it be done? If we’re not reminded of the purpose and significance of Jesus’ arrival here, in this place, then where will we be reminded? If you don’t hear it from this pulpit, then who will you hear it from?

We can’t allow ourselves to join in the world’s chorus that what matters most during the holiday season is family, friends, and togetherness. As good and wonderful as those things are, they’re not what matters most! What matters most is the fact of Christ’s advent and the purpose of his advent. That’s what each of the Gospel writers told the story for; to establish the fact of Jesus’ coming and the reason for Jesus’ coming. So we’re hearing these stories again so that we don’t lose sight of what Christmas is about for us.

I. God of the Underdog

Today’s message is drawn from the first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke, and Luke is unique among the other four Gospels in that it’s actually volume one of two. Luke and Acts were both written by the same author, to the same person, a convert named Theophilus. And they were both written for the same reason; to help ground Theophilus in the things he’d been taught.

So Luke isn’t primarily writing a history…he’s providing a handbook of Christian belief. That’s no deep secret, by the way…Luke says that plainly in the first four verses. And that’s important to keep in mind as we look at his introduction to the Jesus story; that everything Luke says in his Gospel points to what was believed by the Christians of his time.

Luke begins his edition of the Jesus story by pointing out that the God of Israel is the God of the Underdog. God of the Underdog. Let that sink in a moment. And he does this by telling us the story of Mary. That’s another of the unique aspects to Luke’s Gospel; Mary’s place in the story. I mean, Matthew gives her honorable mention, but Luke places Mary at center stage…especially as he introduces Jesus to the world. The angel Gabriel appears to Mary. Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, who’s also having a miracle baby. Mary sings her song of high praise, the Magnificat. Mary gives birth to Jesus. Mary treasures the whole experience, and ponders over the meaning of it all.

And it begs the question, “Why?” Why Mary? What was so special about Mary? Why Mary as opposed to Judith or Miriam or Zara, or any one of the countless thousands of young Jewish girls of the region? We know nothing about her except that she came from the village of Nazareth. We know nothing of her family other than her cousin, Elizabeth. Mary is essentially an unknown.

She’s engaged to an artisan, Joseph...though “artisan” in our society has implications of slick hipsters making stained glass windows for upscale lofts. There’s not really a good English word for “tektone”…the Greek word for Joseph’s living. He’s called a carpenter by Matthew, but he was more likely a stonemason or a woodworker or even a blacksmith. And Joseph was never gonna be rich; artisans basically eked out a living. Mary being engaged to him suggests that her family wasn’t well-off, either.

And she’s young…probably far younger than our culture would be comfortable acknowledging or would deem marriageable. She was very possibly betrothed at 12, to be married at 13. Other scholars place her closer to 18…which I suspect may be more for our comfort than anything else. IN any case, the likelihood is that she’s an adolescent, a young teenager. She’s not old enough to have done anything significant. She’s probably illiterate or barely literate. So…she’s a poor, young, nobody from Nazareth. Why Mary? I have no idea.