Last week we saw that Luke is writing to a questioning or doubting believer to reassure him of the truth of the Christian gospel, that faith in Jesus is not misplaced. (And the classical, literary style of his preface also indicates he’s writing for a wider audience of similarly concerned believers, as well as ultimately for the whole world to know the truth about Jesus.) He wants to persuade us through inviting us to be immersed into a well researched and artistically crafted narrative that tells the story of Jesus afresh and draws us into God’s plans and ways as participants, not bystanders.
So let’s jump in!
1:5-25 – An Impossible Birth Foretold: Zechariah & Elizabeth
1:5
Narrative Build-Up
Luke is the sort of narrator who takes his time and first supplies a rich backdrop for his subject. He gets his account started not right away with his main character, but with a background and context that will build up first to Jesus’ birth and later to Jesus’ actual ministry and mission.
Luke is often a details sort of guy, especially when setting up the socio-politico-cultural context of a scene. Here he clearly locates his narrative not ‘once upon a time’ or ‘a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away’, but ‘In the days of Herod, king of Judea’, a real era in the real history of the world delimited by a locatable, identifiable historic figure and his moment of political power in a certain region of a certain world empire. (Placing this opening within the reign of Herod also evokes a historic time of political, economic, and cultural problems – the Herodians were a family of kings that were not wanted by the people as rulers. So already there are tints and tones of suffering and oppression.)
Luke further sets up the scene with some cultural-religious details about the duties of the religion of this place and time and even the particular name of someone fulfilling this duty along with the name of his family member.
Ironic Reversal
Now right here, right away, we see a powerful writing technique Luke deploys. He loves to set his scenes in terms of very large, sweeping geopolitical sorts of categories only to telescope right down onto very visceral, personal details of ‘regular’ people, even ‘nobodies’, those without much power or prestige. And that’s what he does in these few verses – in quick strokes he juxtaposes an important, powerful king with a rather insignificant, minor priest carrying out his duties. (Luke’s Gospel is the only reason we know this priest’s name today, whereas the Herods are well attested outside Scripture. Notice how he spends no time whatsoever on Herod apart from his name and title and then opens out at length on the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth.)
And this is important for his literary-theological scheme: to show God’s hand at work with high and low, especially for the good (and ‘exaltation’) of the low even in the midst of the corruption of the high (and their eventual downfall apart from repentance). This is Luke’s theme of ‘reversal’ (which of course is also covered to one degree or another in each of the Gospels, for this is a feature of Jesus and his good news: continual elements of what could be called irony and paradox).
1:6
Righteous People of God
Luke sketches their characters: ‘they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord’. On the one hand these were just simple, faithful believers in Yahweh, showing their trust in him by obediently keeping the laws and rituals he had given their people. (This ‘law-keeping’ would of course include the central summary commands of the O.T. to love the Lord your God with all your being and love your neighbour as yourself. It would also include trusting to the divinely provided sacrificial system to deal with one’s sins as well as hoping and yearning for God’s full and final salvation through his Messiah. In other words, Luke is not describing them as people who achieve a sort of ‘works righteousness’ rather than living by God’s grace.)
‘This does not mean that they were sinless, but it does mean that they faithfully looked to God to deal with their lives, including their shortcomings.’ (Bock, p. 35)
Theirs was the same kind of righteousness by faith that was ascribed to Abraham in Genesis 15:6 when God promised to make him the father of many nations against impossible odds (much like the story we’re in the midst of here in Luke)—‘And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.’ (For more on this see Romans 4.)
1:7
Yet People of Reproach
However, Luke introduces another note of tension or irony here, for on the other hand their lives contained what their culture thought of as a sign of ‘disgrace’ or ‘reproach’ (1:25): they were childless. Elizabeth was ‘barren’, physically unable to conceive and become pregnant. We’re given the added detail, which works as a subtle touch of foreshadowing, that they’re also now past the age of being capable of conception even if she were not barren.
This plainly introduces a note of sadness and pain, a reminder that all is not right with the world. (This is a note the Bible consistently strikes for it is a very realistic library of books, not a rosy ‘inspirational’ tome of platitudes and sweet thoughts. And indeed, from the perspective of the Bible being divinely inspired, it strikes a very strong chord of empathy between the Maker and his creatures. He is keenly aware of our sorrowful state and moved to compassion by it as the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation consistently indicates.)
1:8-10
Sights and Sounds of a Busy Temple
We are given more visceral details to really set the scene here. Customs are described, the sights and sounds and smells and emotions of a large temple during the height of its use: incense, priestly ritual, a large gathering of people in the midst of their prayers. (Pause and imagine this for a moment.)
This begins to strike Luke’s constant note of his great love and deep respect for the Jewish people and their ancient ways. As a Gentile outsider he yet clearly feels his profound connection to the ethnicity and community and theology and culture and customs of these people (see Romans 11:17-18). He has clearly spent much quality time with these people, in their land and in their Scriptures, and thus knows his subject very intimately, for he describes the setting so vividly and accurately. Indeed, many have observed that these first few chapters of Luke’s Gospel almost feel like they could be the last few chapters of the Old Testament, just before the era of Christ and the New Testament begins.
Old Testament Continuities: Law and Temple
There are a few particular O.T. continuities being introduced here: Law and Temple. Luke agrees with the consistent teaching of both Jesus and Paul that God did not send his Son to as a move against the Law he had given his people, but as an already planned move to fulfil the Law for us so that we could simply be united to Jesus. Jesus is the perfect Israelite and thus ‘in him’ we become righteous before God because we are cloaked in Christ’s righteousness. The Law is upheld and sinners are saved. Not ‘either/or’ but ‘both/and’. Luke will unfold this over the entirety of his Luke-Acts narrative.
He also shows here and over the next few chapters how central the Temple was to life and worship for the Jews of this time: it is the meeting place for God and humanity. But notice that the people come into this ‘holy place’ only through representative priests and atoning sacrifices (offered up with incense), but they must wait ‘outside’. Luke is highlighting this because he wants to eventually show how the person and work of Jesus fulfils and develops each of these elements (Temple, Priest, Sacrifice) and thereby welcomes each and every person from all nations and ethnicities directly into God’s presence through faith in him.
It is so important to see the continuity and development Luke draws here (and the rest of the N.T. consistently does this as well). We are not dealing with a ‘God of the Old Testament’ and then a ‘God of the New Testament’, but one, good, righteous, holy, sovereign, almighty, gracious, merciful, compassionate, and loving God that is progressively revealing himself and his plans from Genesis to Revelation, creating one people of God in his Messiah and Son.
Now there were apparently about 750 priests in each of the 24 priestly divisions (18,000 priests), each serving in the temple twice a year, and you only entered the holy place to assist in the daily offering once in a lifetime when the lot fell to you (see 1 Chronicles 24:7-19). So this is actually a hugely unique moment for Zechariah (who is not a ‘chief priest’ dwelling in Jerusalem). (Bock, p. 35)
1:11
Understated Miracle Report
True to the uniform biblical style in this regard, Luke narrates a stupendous miracle, an astounding bursting in of the supernatural realm by one of its inhabitants sent from God, with severe economy and understatement. Also true to the biblical style of miracle report, the supernatural is clearly and briskly described in its natural setting: here we are given the simple but evocative detail that the angel was ‘standing on the right side of the altar of incense’. It’s all very (and almost comically) lucid, succinct, and rational! Not the ravings of a mad mystic!
1:12
Angel-Shock!
But while Luke may be in control of his emotions during this description, his protagonist was not! It is through Zechariah’s response that we as the readers get our permission to respond more spontaneously – with shock, wonder, and not a little fright! (And it is usually through the descriptions of the responses of the witnesses that we are able to vent our own awe and amazement at the advent of a miracle in the Gospels.)
That Zechariah was ‘startled and was gripped with fear’ (NIV) is verbally more vivid than that he was ‘troubled… and fear fell upon him’ (ESV); however, the latter’s ‘troubled’ is helpful too. I always find it curious and amusing that in our popular culture we often portray angels as lovely, often soft-toned or sort of wispy, gentle and florid or ‘aerial’ beings of a rather sentimental ‘inspiration’ and comfort. But in the Bible, though they are usually harbingers of glad tidings, without fail their appearance immediately inspires terror – people are often described as being knocked right off their feet by being suddenly in presence of an angel. It would indeed be profoundly ‘troubling’ to be in the presence not only of an otherworldly being, but one who is still glowing with the radiant holiness of God! To be in the presence of such powerfully unspoilt goodness is troubling for fallen creatures like us. (This is quite different and really more potent than the sort of ‘troubling’ fear we would feel in a demonic presence of evil.)
1:13-17
Think about it: what is the first thing an angel almost always has to say when he shows up? ‘Do not be afraid.’ (I love it!)
Answered Prayers
Apparently Zechariah has been praying and this angelic appearance is connected to Zechariah’s prayer life. Was he praying about his wife’s barrenness? By his objection to the angel in a moment, we might take it that though he may have prayed about that long and hard in the past, he’d perhaps given up on it. But he probably continued to pray about the ‘hope of Israel’, that God would send his Messiah to deliver them from foreign oppression. (This is a quiet encouragement to us about persevering in our own prayers, thereby orienting ourselves toward, however falteringly, that we might hear from him when he does speak and be ready and willing to obey, at least in the long run.)
‘So God is tackling two requests at once, one national and the other personal, a prayer that had long since been abandoned and all but forgotten. Sometimes God’s answers to prayer come in surprising ways after a long time.’ (Bock, p. 36)
The angel has a lengthy speech here, obviously never forgotten by its one witness, Zechariah (who may have even noted it down as soon as he returned home – he certainly was capable of at least writing a short sentence on a tablet: 1:63).
Rejoicing in Divine Gossip
Tidings of joy and gladness about events that will be the cause of rejoicing is a feature especially of these opening birth narratives and the spread of joy alongside the spread of the word is a note struck in Acts as well. Mixed right into the dark contours of suffering and oppression that Luke frequently paints (and the fairly electric but mysterious feelings of awe and fear that he often cites) are the warmer, brighter colours of these emotions of joy and their divine causes.
The Holy Spirit
It is promised that John will be ‘great before the Lord’—specifically as the Lords’ prophetic forerunner (7:28)—and therefore must be raised as some O.T. prophets were (e.g. 1 Samuel 1:11) and forego wine and strong drink, invigorated instead by the Holy Spirit, right from the womb. (Though abstaining from alcohol and being filled with the Spirit are not necessarily linked as Jesus’ own life shows: see 7:31-35.) Here Luke introduces yet another major theme of his two-volume work: the person, presence, and work of the Holy Spirit. (Theologians call the study of the person and work of the Holy Spirit ‘pneumatology’, from the Greek word pneuma for ‘spirit’, ‘breath’, or ‘wind’; the Hebrew word ruach has the same threefold connotation).
Painting the ‘Turn’ of Repentance
The angel describes something of John’s ‘great’ role and task: he will ‘turn’ (a term frequently employed by Luke) ‘many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God’. This is essentially describing what we often call ‘repentance’. It always has to do with a ‘turning’: away from our sin and our self-salvation projects in the form of various idolatries, and instead turning to God to save us by graciously granting us forgiveness and new life under his loving and liberating Lordship: reorienting our lives from centring on ourselves to centring on God (‘theocentricity’). ‘Repentance’ and ‘faith’ are constantly urged when the gospel is preached in Luke-Acts. These are the divinely-supplied ‘tools’ of human response by which we can receive the benefits of eternal life in God’s kingdom offered to us in the gospel. It is this kind of response that this narrative will be calling us to if we are ready and willing.
The angel basically paints a picture of what this repentance, this ‘turning’, looks like fleshed out in real life: in the same sort of attitude and authority and authenticity of a key Old Testament prophet, John’s ministry will be a forerunner to the Lord himself that will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of disobedient people to the ‘wisdom of the just’ (authentic reconciliation with God always creates reconciliation between people), all of which will ‘make ready for the Lord a people prepared.’
Hard hearts will be ploughed and prepared for the seed and rain and growth of God’s saving presence. People don’t tend to turn to God overnight but are usually led on a journey of preparation, where their hearts become softer and softer, their minds more and more open, their imaginations more and more receptive and awake, and their wills more and more ready to surrender and trust.
1:18-20
A Dark Comedy of Incredulity
Here the angelic visitation turns into a (fairly comical) dialogue. John (very understandably) balks at the idea of the promised miracle (and he’s not the first! remember Abraham and Sarah, for example). (Remember too, that this is a man with a real prayer life—think if he hadn’t been praying!) He reasons from the human scientific understanding of sexual reproduction and reckons this is going to be extremely difficult, frankly beyond what he can imagine. (The ancient Hebrews understood the natural processes as well as anyone and were not just running around looking for miraculous suspensions or over-rulings of the natural way of things – they had a consistent track record of having a very hard time coming to terms with the miraculous when it was promised and when it occurred; the record shows that they were not gullible or credulous or so self-hypnotically mystical that they could easily imagine or hallucinate such things.)
I can’t help but hear a hint of exasperation and subtle scorn in the angel’s reply! This is one of only a few biblical mentions of the angelic personage of Gabriel. (It’s very interesting that as one of only two unfallen angelic names mentioned—the other being the archangel Michael—he has become a figure of literary and popular culture through the ages alongside human Bible characters!) It’s as if Gabriel need only describe his ‘professional’ role under God to clearly and devastatingly demonstrate the absurdity of Zechariah’s doubt. This is a message straight from the throne room of God – an awe-inspiring thought.
Does this seem a bit harsh to poor Zechariah?
‘Zechariah, righteous as he is, needs to learn that God will fulfil his promises when he sovereignly chooses to act. The God of heaven may even do things out of the ordinary. The major lesson in this announcement for the priest, as well as for Luke’s readers, is that God will do what he promises in his own way… This short-term judgment from God allows the priest to reflect on what he must learn. As Luke 1:56-79 shows, Zechariah will learn from his time of silence. The angel is explicit that the reason for the imposition of muteness is that Zechariah did not believe the angel’s words. Sometimes we experience trial so that we can learn to trust God more.’ (Bock, pp. 37-38)
God in his Fatherly grace must have known that this was the only sort of sign that could really teach Zechariah what he needed to learn in his heart about trusting God at his word. (Sounds like me!)
Fulfilment
Now we start to see the use of this word ‘fulfilled’ that we saw introduced in Luke’s preface. Indeed, that Gabriel is mentioned as an interpreter of visions about end times to the prophet Daniel (Daniel 8 & 9) shows that there is an ‘eschatologically charged ethos’ (Green, p. 59) to these tidings (i.e. an element of ‘end times’ prophecy). It is another step in being assured that what God promises will come to pass in the time that it is meant to.
1:21-23
Meanwhile…
Again, we are snapped out of this heavenly scene back into the realistic details of the earthly scene. (This isn’t Narnia where no time passes back on earth whilst we’re away in fairyland!) John’s reappearance from his incense-lighting duties is long overdue and people are scratching their heads. This puzzlement is compounded by the fact that when he does finally re-emerge from the temple he can’t speak a word! Though they weren’t necessarily a gullible people, they did have the history and thus the categories for divine-human encounter and thus were able to put two and two together to deduce that Zechariah had seen a vision while on duty inside. Zechariah for his part could only vaguely relay any of this for the time being through hand gestures. (You can just imagine the bewildered, farcical mute mime or charades that took place!)
In this mute state he finished his priestly duties and returned home to the ‘hill country’ (1:39-40). (Hence, he is often called a ‘country priest’.)
Divine-Human Hilarity
It is important for us to see some of the ridiculousness and humour of these wonderful and sober scenes of God’s hand at work in the world. (Tom Wright calls the scene of Zechariah and Gabriel a ‘dark comedy’ and tells us plainly: ‘don’t be frightened of finding the Bible funny when it really is!’) This is what some theologians have called ‘theo-comic perception’ and it is important that we see that the divine-human encounter isn’t something that just humanly ‘makes sense’ and is all neat and tidy and altogether ‘respectable’. God himself gets all undignified and comically stoops very, very low to reach us where we’re at in order to raise us up to his glorious heights through a series of equally comical stages of ascent. This process is often ‘messy’ and unavoidably farcical and slapstick at times. This is not because God is a bungler or an inept clown. Quite the contrary, it is we, because of the limitations of our finite and fallen human nature, who are so often the clowns and bunglers in the divine-human encounter! And the ingenious incarnational heart and plan of God achieves the divine mission and purpose through faltering human means over time—thus it is unavoidably ‘theo-comic’. So feel free to chuckle a little and let out a guffaw now and again at the hilarity of God’s grace!
1:24-25
Learning Anew What it is to Trust God
Again, we see the simple and understated language to communicate the fulfilment of a promised miracle.
Perhaps Elizabeth kept it to herself at first for the same reasons that couples that have lost babies keep a new pregnancy quiet for awhile at first (so as not to have to, if it doesn’t work out, explain to so many people the tragedy). We don’t know. What we do know is that her words show a quiet gratitude and praise and even ‘humble pride’ in what God has so graciously done for her.
‘Joy and relief are mixed together in Elizabeth. She appears to be preparing herself for what is ahead. God is powerfully at work again for Israel and for this righteous couple, who are learning anew what it is to trust God. When God speaks and acts, people are supposed to listen. His word will come to pass.’ (Bock, p. 38)
God Regularly Works Through Ordinary People
‘This story, preparing us for the even more remarkable conception and birth of Jesus himself, reminds us of something important. God regularly works through ordinary people, doing what they normally do, who with a mixture of half-faith and devotion are holding themselves ready for whatever God has in mind. The story… is about the great fulfilment of God’s promises and purposes. But the needs, hopes and fears of ordinary people are not forgotten in this larger story, precisely because of who Israel’s God is – the God of lavish, self-giving love, as Luke will tell us in so many ways throughout his gospel. When this God acts on the large scale, he takes care of smaller human concerns as well. The drama which now takes centre stage is truly the story of God, the world, and every ordinary human being who has ever lived in it. That’s how Luke intends it to be.’ (Wright, pp. 7-8)
Perhaps God is speaking to us in different ways about different things, seeking to assure us of his promises and their fulfilment (on the large scale and in the details). How will we respond?
Works Cited
Darrell L. Bock (1994), Luke, IVP
Joel B. Green (1997), The Gospel of Luke, Eerdmans
Tom Wright (2001), Luke for Everyone, SPCK
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