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.
Yet, when you zoom out from this particular story, and are able to examine how God had worked throughout history, we see that maybe his choice of a poor, young, nobody from Nazareth was right in keeping with how He’d worked all along.
The Hebrew Scriptures show God to have a bias for the poor in a world where the rich almost always got their way. They show God as having the propensity to choose second sons in a world where first sons inherited everything.
They show God as inclined to included women in his plan; barren women, prostitutes, women of questionable character, and even pagan women…in a world where women were often no more than property.
Moses, the hotheaded murderer raised by pagans was His choice to lead His chosen people…a tribal group of slaves…to the “Promised Land”…a hilly, rocky, postage-stamp, sized piece of real estate. And He chose this tiny nation of ex-slaves to be the source of salvation for the entire world.
Why Mary? Why a poor, young, nobody from nowhere? Well, maybe because that’s the way God has always chosen to do it.
II. The Magnificat: Radical Jesus
Then, Luke continues his focus on Mary by recording the text of her amazing song of praise, found in verses 46-55 of chapter one. And it’s here we learn that however humble her condition, Mary must have loved God very much. Literate or no, the text reveals a young girl steeped in the language of the Scripture…which perhaps speaks to the devotion of her family. The young only know this sort of language because they’ve heard it a lot.
The devoted nature of Mary, overcome by all that’s happening, is stirred to offer this song that praises God as the God of the underdog. He, mighty yet merciful, has reached low to her! And because of it, all the generations after her will call her blessed!
But the song isn’t just a personal praise about what God has done in her life, it’s also a recognition of the nature of God Himself. To Mary, God is a promise-keeping God…He performs what He promises to do! He is merciful! He has helped His people! Mary views what’s happening to her and all around her as the fulfillment of the promises of God. Elizabeth’s baby and her baby…both are God fulfilling His promise of mercy, both are God fulfilling His promise to help Israel.
There’s a third element to Mary’s song that allows it to rise to the realm of the transcendent…and that’s the element of prophecy. Not prophecy in the contemporary sense that makes the gift out to be little more than fortune telling…no. It’s prophecy in its true, ancient sense of powerfully declaring the intention of God. Speaking in the eschatological past tense, she prophecies the overthrow…the reversal…of the powerful, the prestigious, and the prosperous. They’ll be scattered, brought down, and sent away empty…while those in humble circumstances will be exalted, and the hungry filled with good things.
Lest you think this is a prophecy of a future workers paradise, of a communist nirvana, remember that Mary is steeped in the language of the Scripture. So, the overthrow is of the powerful who abuse their power, of the prestigious who’ve mistreated others, and of the prosperous whose gains have come through exploiting others.
And remember that Luke is writing to point to early Christian beliefs! So it’s no wonder that the theme of eschatological reversal shows up early in the ministry of Jesus, both in word and deed. The baby that Mary is carrying in her womb would echo the same theme as a young man while preaching to the crowds and teaching his disciples. Jesus would actually kick off his public ministry by declaring the year of Jubilee; freedom to all slaves, forgiveness of all debts. He would demonstrate it by cleansing lepers, feeding hungry crowds, and healing blind beggars. And none of this out of some radical socialist political agenda, but out of the eschatological past tense; this is what God has always been about.
III. Born to Be the Lamb
Finally, Luke’s account of the Jesus story shows that Jesus was born to be the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice for sin.
More than any other writer, Luke shows the very difficult circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth. The journey of the very pregnant Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem…75 miles on foot, or perhaps with Mary seated on a donkey…if Joseph could afford it. Each night they either slept in the common room of an inn…again, if they could afford it. Or perhaps they’d sleep in the walled courtyard shared with the animals…it was certainly cheaper. Or maybe they just camped with some of their fellow travelers alongside the road.
They would have arrived in Bethlehem already exhausted and dirty, only to find that the place they’d planned on staying had no room for them. Early Christian tradition says that instead they bedded down in a cave that served as a stable, but we’re not really sure what that looked like. It was certainly not the best of circumstances. Jesus came into the world in humble surroundings.
And he came to humble people; Joseph the artisan, and his fiancée, Mary…the poor, young, nobody from Nazareth. Not to people of power like the Trumps, the Obamas, the Bushes, or the Clintons. Not to people of prestige like Kim & Kanye…not to Gwen & Blake. Not to people of prosperity like the Gates, the Krafts, the Bezos, or the Buffets. But to humble people like Mary…the poor, young, nobody from Nazareth, and to her husband-to-be Joseph, the artisan.
You’ve met them, you know. You’ve seen them, been at arms-length from them, and didn’t know who they were. They were just ahead of you in the check-out line at the Dollar Store…or perhaps it was Aldi.
She was that very pregnant young girl…hardly more than a child herself…whose dark hair was a bit dull…whose olive complexion was just a bit too pale, as if she hadn’t been eating quite right. Her clothes were just a bit shabby, her shoes just a bit run down at the heel.
He was standing close to her, supportively, one hand protectively on her elbow. His bearded face was a bit older, but still young. And tired, weary. He had those tell-tale bags under his eyes from early hours up and late nights to bed. And his hands told you why; calloused with labor, with grime ground into the callouses.
He counted out the money carefully, and then just as carefully walked slowly to the door, carrying the bags…his very pregnant young woman clinging tightly to his arm, as if to keep herself from tipping over.
You watched them as they walked to their car…it was more than a few years old and had seen better days. You watched him help her in, gently. You wondered, pondered, as you watched them drive away, at the youth, the poverty, and the love you saw. And never for a moment did you realize who they were; that when you looked at them and wondered, you were looking at Mary & Joseph.
Jesus was born to them, a wanted, loved, and anticipated baby. He wasn’t born in isolation, cold and alone…but he was born into the arms of a family that wanted him, and loved him. The circumstances were humble, yes. And the people were humble, too. And they were very poor. But humility and poverty don’t preclude warmth and welcome. Or love.
Isolation, abandonment, and betrayal are all things that he’ll experience in spades…but they’re not for now. They’ll come later. And they’ll come because that’s what he’s come into the world to bear. He’s been born to suffer. This is the reason, the purpose, for his coming. He is, after all, the Lamb of God. And the Lamb of God is born to die for purpose, to die sacrificially.
This is what Luke is pointing us toward with his record of “shepherds in the fields, keeping watch over the flocks by night.” According to some scholars, this line from Luke makes it the spring of the year…lambing season...with the shepherds in the fields to help the ewes give birth. Perhaps this is so…that the Lamb of God was born in the spring of the year when lambs are born. Perhaps the one who would be the world’s Passover Lamb was born close to Passover.
What’s fairly certain, though, is that Luke is pointing to Jesus as the Sacrificial Lamb by telling of the angels singing to shepherds. And by having shepherds first on the scene to worship. Luke is telling us that Jesus was the Lamb from the beginning, and that he would spend his short life pouring out life to others. That Jesus should end days on earth dying for the salvation of the world should come as no surprise; he was a lamb from the start.
Summary:
Luke’s Advent story is the one we most recognize. It’s got the Annunciation; Gabriel appearing to Mary. It’s got the Magnificat; Mary’s song of praise. It’s got the decree from Augustus, the journey to Bethlehem, the no-room-in-the-inn story, and the manger. It’s got Angels We Have Heard on High, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, O Little Town of Bethlehem, and Away in the Manger all together. But it’s got far more than that.
Luke opens by reminding us that Israel’s God is the God of the underdog. That God chose a poor, young, nobody from nowhere to play a pivotal role in His redemptive plan is only surprising to those who are casual readers of Scripture. To those who have seen the big picture, this is what God has always done. His choice of Mary wasn’t out of character.
The promised salvation that God would begin to accomplish in the work of Jesus Christ…even that very idea of “salvation” demonstrates God’s bias for the underdog. We think of “salvation” in almost entirely individualistic & spiritual terms, with the result of that salvation being the avoidance of hell and the enjoyment of heaven.
But to the peoples of the ancient world, “salvation” was about being delivered from the oppression of a foreign ruler, and being brought under the dominion of your rightful king. So, you couldn’t separate the idea “salvation” from the idea of deliverance from oppression.
Obviously then, this salvation was only going to appeal to those who felt the weight of oppression. You had to be saved from something, and if there’s nothing you want to be saved from, well… You can see why the comfortable, the well-off, the powerful, mighty, and influential felt no need of “salvation”. And they still don’t. That’s bad news for them.
But it’s good news to the broken, the weary, the cast-down and the cast-off. It’s good news for the weak, the struggling, the desperate, and the alone. It’s good news for the underachiever, for the unfulfilled, and for those who are falling toward the back of the pack in the rat-race called “life”.
God’s bias for the underdog is seen not only in who Jesus was born to and raised among, but in the disciples he chose. In an era when rabbis chose disciples from among the best and brightest teen boys and children, Jesus chose grown men whose course in life seemed already set.
He started, then, by choosing those who were passed over, with nothing in particular to recommend them. He chose rough tradesmen, a tax collecting sell-out, a terrorist, at least one married man with a business, a home, and a family of his own…and picked up a couple from John the Baptist. They were a motley crew, and some seem not particularly devout. But other than John’s disciples, no one else had chosen them. No one else would. But Jesus did.
The bias of God for the underdog is echoed in the life of the Church from its earliest days. The first dispute recorded in Church life was about the distribution of food among its widows. Then the Church’s most eloquent & powerful son of those earliest years put it this way; (1st Cor 1:26-29)
(26) For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. (27) But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; (28) God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, (29) so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
All of this means that there is a place for you. He’s still the God of the underdog!
Then, Luke reminds us that a Day of Justice is coming…that eschatological reversal is part of God’s plan for saving the world, initiated by the life-death-and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is seen early on in Mary’s Song of Praise. The powerful who abused their people would be pulled down. The prestigious whose arrogance led them to lord it over others would be scattered, their influence shattered. And the prosperous who’d built their wealth by exploiting others would be emptied out.
Jesus picked this message up and carried it on. His ministry took place almost entirely among those who were at the bottom of life’s heap. He healed them, he fed them, and he called them to be his disciples. In His preaching and teaching he promised that the day was coming when all would be set to rights, and through his followers he formed a community that would operate by a different system and live by different rules. They would care for and honor one another…and help one another as they could.
Does any of this mean that God is against the powerful, the prestigious, and the prosperous? No…not at all. But there are two things this shows us.
One, that God sees the elite as having the propensity to misuse their power, influence, and money. They have the tendency to try to shape the world to fit what suits them best…and that almost always involves abuse, disrespect, and exploitation. So, God is saying through prophetic language that His eye is on it…and the elite will answer for how they’ve treated others.
The second thing we’re being shown is that with the rise to power, influence, and wealth comes the responsibility of caring for what happens to those who aren’t powerful, influential, and wealthy. If you’re in the position to, if you have the means to, you’re expected to.
Then, finally, Luke shows us that from the very beginning, Jesus was the Lamb…the spotless, harmless, sacrifice. Luke points us toward the man who would spend all his energies in a short public ministry, doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil. He was the Lamb of God his entire life. And he’d end his life as he’d lived it; by dying among the lowly, crucified, for us all.
Closing:
This is Christmas; that the God of the underdog came among the humble & the lowly, embodied in Jesus Christ, promising a better day, showing a better way. In his atoning death, he defeated the greatest oppressor the world has ever known; sin. Then, through his resurrection, he opened a door for all of us to know freedom. All of this is wrapped up in Christmas.
