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It's perhaps appropriate in the week when Harry
Potter hit the big screens in Australia that we should be
looking at this account of Luke 1. Because here we see
the supernatural in far more startling form than anything
you'll ever read in Harry Potter - and this is history!
Here we have an angel appearing out of nowhere,
announcing that a barren couple will have a child. Even
more amazing than that, he subsequently announces that an
unwed virgin will also become pregnant and bear a child
and even more startling, that this child will be called
the Son of God. And overarching all of this is the
announcement of God intervening in the creation to bring
salvation to all people. |
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Here at the beginning of Luke's Gospel we find
three accounts where a herald brings a message to God's
people, a message of hope, a message of a long-awaited
deliverance. |
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1 John, the Forerunner. |
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After a short introduction, which we'll look at
later, Luke launches into the account of the birth of
John the Baptist. We're introduced to Zechariah and
Elizabeth, both descendants of Aaron. Their story is one
which has certain parallels with another story from the
Old Testament, that of Elkanah and Hannah, who were the
parents, after a long wait, of Samuel, the first of the
Prophets. We're told that Zechariah and Elizabeth were
getting on in years. Like Elkanah and Hannah, and Abraham
and Sarah before them, they were getting too old to have
children. In fact they were probably well past the normal
age for childbearing. Yet, strangely, as far as people of
their day were concerned, they were both righteous before
God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments
and regulations of the Lord. Their barrenness, you see,
would have been taken as a sign of God's displeasure. But
not so! God had great plans for them and for their son
who was yet to be born. |
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One day as Zechariah is standing in the Holy of
Holies, a privilege received probably only this one time,
his prayers are interrupted. There, to the side of the
altar, is an angel. You can perhaps understand that
Zechariah at that moment is terrified. But the angel
quickly reassures him. He's come bearing good news. His
prayers have been answered. His wife Elizabeth will bear
a son and they're to call him John. |
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Well, that's certainly good news for Zechariah
and Elizabeth. But as you read on you start to wonder,
what were the prayers that this child's birth would
answer. Were they just the prayers of a barren couple for
a child to be born, or were they more than that? As we
read on in the first couple of chapters of Luke's gospel
we come to realise that the prayers that are being
answered may be far more than just Zechariah's and
Elizabeth's. Notice in v10 that the whole assembly of the
people was praying outside. As we read on we discover
people like Simeon and Anna who are waiting for God to
act, to bring about the consolation of Israel, the
redemption of Jerusalem. So it seems quite likely as we
read further that the prayers to which the angel refers
are those prayers: prayers that God might send the
Messiah to restore the Kingdom of Israel. |
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Certainly the words of the angel in vs16&17
point to such a conclusion. This child will be the one
whom Malachi foretold, Elijah reborn, who will turn the
hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient
to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people
prepared for the Lord. |
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Well, the response of Zechariah is total
confusion. He wants to know how he can be sure of all
this. After all he knows how old he and Elizabeth are,
how impossible all this is. But the angel will have
nothing of his doubting. He's the angel Gabriel, who
stands in God's presence. He's been sent by God to give
this message. How could anyone doubt such a messenger?
But just to show that he is what he says he is, he tells
Zechariah that he'll be struck dumb until John is born. |
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Well, as the story progresses we discover that
Elizabeth does become pregnant and we end this episode
with Elizabeth rejoicing. |
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2 Jesus, the Son of God. |
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Well, if the first herald's proclamation of good
news was received with joy, we have to imagine that the
second herald's message may have caused a little less
joy. In fact probably quite some consternation to begin
with. Here was Mary, betrothed to Joseph, of the line of
David, and she's about to be told she's going to have a
baby, without Joseph having anything to do with it. The
angel may say that she's highly favoured, but she may
wonder whether Joseph will think so. |
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Still, the privilege she's being given is no
small thing. She's to bear a child who "will be
great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and
the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor
David. 33He will reign over the house of Jacob
forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
His name will be Jesus, which means Saviour. And he'll be
called the Son of God. His kingdom will not only
encompass Israel, but the rest of the world as well.
It'll be a kingdom without end. I don't think we can
really comprehend the sorts of feelings and thoughts that
must have been going round Mary's head at that moment.
How can a mere human being give birth to a child like
that? It's hard enough for us to understand how God could
take on the form of a human being, but for Mary it must
have been unbelievable. |
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Well, one of the themes of Luke's gospel is the
way Mary observed the things that happened to Jesus as he
grew up. The term that's used is 'she treasured them up
in her heart.' It's as though she was still taking it all
in long after the angel Gabriel came and announced the
coming of Jesus. |
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But that's really just an aside. What really
matters here is the divine origin of Jesus. Look at how
the angel describes what will happen to Mary: "The
Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most
High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born
will be holy; he will be called Son of God." If the
first announcement was of a special messenger sent from
God, a prophet like Samuel and Elijah, this second
announcement is of a miraculous birth far outweighing
John's in significance. The birth the angel is announcing
will be a virgin birth. Joseph has no part to play in
this birth. Mary is the mother but there's no father
apart from God himself. The power of the most high will
bring it to pass. |
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This is one of those contentious pieces of
Christian theology. People in this scientific age steer
away from anything that sounds quite this supernatural. I
mean they're happy to read about Harry Potter or Gandalf
and imagine supernatural events, as long as its clear
they're purely fiction, but when they read something like
this, a virgin birth, purporting to be history, they
immediately bring it into question. |
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But let me ask you, if we believe in a God who
brought this world and all that's in it into being, who
created out of nothing everything that can be seen, why
do we doubt that he could bring a child to birth in the
womb of a young woman? Surely that would be easier than
creating human life in the first place? Or is it that
deep down people doubt that God even created the world? |
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In any case the virgin birth is an integral part
of the story. Both here and in Matthew's independent
account of Jesus' birth, we're told that the pregnancy
comes about by the intervention of the Holy Spirit. God
is at work here in as significant a way as when he first
created the universe. |
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To reassure Mary, who needed to be reassured
just as much if not more than we do, the angel Gabriel
tells her how Elizabeth too has become pregnant. This is
to encourage Mary to see that with God nothing is
impossible. |
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So Mary responds in humble submission:
"Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with
me according to your word." Now let's not just read
this and pass over it without further thought. I'm sure
those words were a lot harder to say than they sound.
It's been suggested that the reason Elizabeth goes into
seclusion for 5 months (v24) was because she was avoiding
any further reproach from her neighbours until it was
obvious to all that the disgrace of her barrenness was
removed. But Mary faces far greater disgrace as it
becomes obvious that she's pregnant long before her
marriage to Joseph actually takes place. Matthew tells us
that Joseph considered divorcing her, before an angel
came and reassured him. So her submission to the will of
God is in fact an act of great heroism on her part. |
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So here are 2 cases where a herald brings
significant tidings to 2 different people, tidings that
in one case are entirely good news and in the second are
good news for the world but are a mixed blessing to the
recipient. |
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3 Luke, the Herald of The Gospel |
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But overarching and incorporating both of these
is a herald who announces a message for all people to
hear. His message is announced initially to a man named
Theophilus. It's a considered message, an account of
things that have been carefully researched from the
eyewitness accounts of those who were present when these
things took place. |
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But it's an account of what has been fulfilled
(v1). What does that mean? Well, it means that the things
that he's recounting, the events of Jesus life, are the
fulfilment of the sort of thing that the people like Anna
and Simeon and those praying in the Temple precincts were
looking forward to. They're the fulfilment of all the Old
Testament prophecies about the coming of a Messiah.
They're the fulfilment of the plan of God to create a
people for himself who will reflect the community that
exists within the Godhead. They're the fulfilment of the
creation of the world and of humanity in God's image. |
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Here is a message that's to be proclaimed to all
people, about a king whose kingdom will extend to the
ends of the earth and whose kingdom will never end. Luke
is one of the first in a long line of heralds of this
message. But he tells it not just for Theophilus, but
also for us. And he tells it so that we too can become
heralds of that message. |
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I started off by mentioning Harry Potter coming
to the big screen. Now unless you've been on a desert
island you've no doubt been hearing about Harry Potter's
coming for weeks or even months now. The heralds of Harry
have been trumpeting his coming far and wide. We'll find
the same thing over the next month with the coming of
Lord of the Rings. And they've been heralding his coming
with such great enthusiasm that there's been such an
incredible desire to see him that apparently you can't
get tickets if you want them. Well, we have someone to
herald who is of far greater significance than Harry
Potter. In fact it's almost ridiculous to speak of them
in the same breath. We're looking forward, not to the
coming of the Lord of the Rings, but to the coming of the
Lord of the Universe, the Lord of the Ages. Here we are
on this Advent Sunday 2001 being reminded again that we
too, just like Luke, are chosen by God to herald the good
news of Jesus Christ. Let's not be ashamed to tell people
about this child who was born of Mary but who was also
the only Son of God. Let's get excited by the fact that
God has become one of us. That God has revealed himself
to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Let's be looking for
opportunities to tell our friends and neighbours about
him. Then this good news of great joy for all people
might be heard by those thousands who live around us who
still need to hear that Jesus has come to be the Saviour
of the world, that he's the Son of God, that his kingdom
will not only encompass Israel, but the rest of the world
as well, a kingdom without end. |
