"Outside the Box" (Luke 1, Gen.15)

As a kid I can remember driving around the neighbourhood looking at the Christmas decorations and singing Christmas songs with my family. We sang about ‘Santa Claus making his list and checking twice to find out who’s ‘naughty or nice’. The implication was good behaviour merited ‘good gifts’. Unfortunately,  the ‘Little Town of Bethlehem’ and the ‘Little Lord Jesus’ weren’t central to my understanding of Christmas.

What did a Jewish baby born 2000 years ago who would be executed on a ‘Roman cross’ have to do with me? However, for me, the message of the ‘life, death and resurrection of Jesus was meaningless. Then, in my mid-20s, God gave me a ‘new heart and put a new spirit’ in me. He ‘removed my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh’ (Ezekiel 36:25-27). Ironically, lyrics like, “Remember, Christ, our Saviour was born on Christmas day, To save us all from Satan's power, When we were gone astray… meant something to me for the first time.  

Lyrics such as…”Offspring of a Virgin's womb, Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate Deity, Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel” from “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” stretched my mind and opened my imagination. (See John 1:14)

Later, as a seminary student I was asked, ‘where was Jesus when he was born?’ My answer was in ‘a manger in Bethlehem of Judea, in ancient Israel’.  “And anywhere else”, I was asked.  I and the others with me were confused. Then our Professor explained that the ‘second person of the Trinity’ did not lose His divine attributes and become less than God by changing into a man. The incarnation was an act of addition, in which God added to himself a fully human body and soul. He did this without ceasing to be God. So Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man at the same time, and that was true even in the manger.

So while Jesus was lying in the manger, ‘heaven and earth could not contain him’. Mary could hold the ‘baby Jesus’, while he was holding the world together by the word of his power. He could cry for comfort, while being adored by ‘all the heavenly hosts’. John Calvin put it like this, ‘Christ left heaven without ever leaving heaven’. This is the meaning in the song: Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate Deity.

But why would God do this? Why would God take humanity upon himself? An important answer to this question is contained in the very first Christmas SONGS. In the ‘Magnificat’, which Mary sang a song of praise after being given the promise of a child who would be the ‘Son of the Most High (Luke 1:32) At the heart of Mary’s song is the promise that God made to their ancestors, to Abraham and his children. Then, Zechariah, after naming his son John, as instructed by the angel Gabriel, praises the Lord who had remembered his holy covenant, the oath he swore to Abraham. So to understand Christmas and the incarnation, then we’ll need to know something of God’s covenant with Abraham.

Mary’s Song (Luke 1:54–55 NLT) ⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. ⁵⁵ For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”

Zechariah’s Song: Luke 1:72–73 (NIV84) ⁷² to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, ⁷³ the oath he swore to our father Abraham. (God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 15)

¹ The Lord speaks to Abraham roughly 10 years after he first arrived in Canaan. God had promised to make Abraham into a great nation, but Abraham childless and his servant was his heir. ³ The Lord promises Abraham that a son from his own body would be his heir. ⁵ He shows Abraham the stars telling him, “So shall your offspring be”. ⁶ Abraham believes and the Lord counts it to Abraham as righteousness. ⁷ Then the LORD reminds Abraham of the promise of the ‘land’ ⁸ and Abraham wants assurance. ⁹ So the Lord has Abraham cut some animals in half and he arranges the pieces across from one another. ¹² Then as the sun set, God tells Abraham that after being ‘enslaved in a foreign country’ in the fourth generation Abraham’s descendants would possess their land ¹⁵ and Abraham would rest with fathers in his old age. Then ¹⁷ a ‘smoking firepot with a blazing torch’ appeared and passed through the pieces. ¹⁸ We are told that the Lord “made or cut a covenant with Abraham” promising Abraham’s descendants the ‘land, from the river of Egypt to the  river, Euphrates’.

The ceremony bound the parties together and the animal carcasses depicted the ‘curse upon the party who breaks the covenant’. What ironic is that ‘Abram falls into some kind of a deep dream-like trance and only the manifestation of God who passes through the pieces’. If God fails to keep the covenant, then God would have to die? This point being that God would fulfill the covenant or He would have to cease being God. The curse of the covenant is symbolically represented at the inauguration of the ‘covenant bond’. Ironically, to bear the curse God would have to become a man. This is exactly what God did in the incarnation of Jesus.  He became a man to bear the curse of covenant. Moreover, in the ‘better new covenant in Christ’ at the inauguration of the covenant we have, not a symbolic death, but the actual death of Christ. In other words, the curse of the ‘covenant breaker’ came upon Christ at the ‘inauguration of the better new covenant’. 

This is the heart of Christmas. The Apostle Paul tells us to ‘consider how Abraham believed God’ and he tells us that ‘those who believe in Jesus are children of Abraham.’ ⁸ Moreover, Paul sees the promises to Abraham as the “gospel in advance to Abraham: All nations will be blessed through you” (Gen. 15, Galatians 3:6–8). Paul tells us that “those who belong to Christ are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:29)

God's Anointed is Born (Luke 2:1-21).

Backstory: God had promised Abraham multiple descendants and a homeland to bless the world (Genesis 12:1-3, 15, 17). His descendants ended up enslaved in Egypt, but God rescued them through Moses. They took full possession of their land under Israel’s king, David. They were to be God’s ‘holy nation’ (Exodus 19:4-6) and yet, instead of being a ‘light to the nations’ they became idolatrous like the other nations. The nation was divided, the North was scattered and the Southern kingdom were taken into Babylonian captivity for 70 years. Because God was determined to bless the world through Abraham and make a ‘Son of David’ king over God’s people forever (2 Samuel 7:12-14) they returned to their land under the Persians. However, they remained dominated in their own land and at the time of the Roman Empire they were longing for God to send a ‘conquering king’ to liberate them (Isaiah 42:1-9, 61:1-3)! 

What does this story tell us about Caesar Augustus? ¹ We are told that Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor, issued a census be taken of the entire Roman Empire. Caesar Augustus simply issued a decree and everyone’s life was radically disrupted. Everyone had to return to their ancestral homelands in order to be registered in order to build Caesar’s empire by taxing the common folk under Caesar’s reign.

What so we learn about Joseph and Mary and Mary’s son? ⁴ Joseph's life was altered by the census so that he had to travel from Nazareth in Galilee to the Judean town of Bethlehem. Joseph went to Bethlehem, because he was from the line and town of Israel’s King David. Joseph took Mary to whom he was pledged to marry and who was expecting a child. The visitation of an angel had convinced Joseph to marry her since the child was from the Holy Spirit (Mt.1:20). So Joseph took Mary to Bethlehem to be registered and ⁶ while they were in Bethlehem of Judea, Mary gave birth to her firstborn, a son (Luke 8:19-20, Acts 1:14). Mary, a common peasant woman, wrapped this 'royal baby of supernatural origin' in cloth and laid him in an ‘animal feeding trough’ because there was no special guest room available for him.

⁸Now there were shepherds nearby Bethlehem who were watching over their flocks at night when an angel appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. The angel reassured the terrified shepherds that he was bringing good news of great joy for all people. The ‘good news’ was that in the town of David a Savior, Christ the Lord, had been born. This child was God's promised anointed king; the Son of David’. This newborn child was in fact the ‘Savior and the Lord' and the arrival of Israel’s Messianic King was ‘good news for all people (2 Sam.7:12-14).  

¹² The angel said that the sign for shepherds was that they would find a baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger. Then a great company of angelic being appeared saying, ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth on those on whom his favor rests.” ¹⁵ Then when the angels left, the shepherds went off to Bethlehem to see what the Lord had told them about. There they found Mary and Joseph, and the baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger. ¹⁷ This was the sign told them by the angel and therefore the shepherds spread the news they had been told about the child. Now everyone who heard this was amazed, ¹⁹ and Mary treasured this in her heart. Then the shepherds returned to their fields, glorifying and praising God!

The story contrasts God’s Messiah, God’s savior and Lord, with the Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar, at the height of his power. Augustus, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, was the first and greatest Roman ruler who took control after a great and bloody civil war. After Augustus conquered his rivals he claimed to have brought justice and peace to the world. Augustus declared his dead adoptive father to be divine making Augustus the ‘son of god’. In the Roman Empire story it is Augustus who is considered the ‘lord of the world’.  

Now, by contrast, this story tells us of a baby born to a ‘lowly couple’ in an insignificant Israelite town. However, according to scripture, this child was the promised ‘Son of God’. While Augustus was building his empire at the expense of the ‘common people’ and yet God used these circumstances to reveal the world’s true ‘Savior’ and ‘Lord’. It is this child that brings true justice and lasting peace into the world. Augustus issues a decree and the empire is rearranged so that Jesus ends up being born in the ancestral town of Israel king David. This child is the beginning of a confrontation between God’s kingdom and the kingdoms of this world. The story challenges us to align ourselves with one of two different ways of being king and two alternative kingdoms. The story presents this ‘vulnerable child wrapped in cloth and laying in a manger’ as ‘God’ King’ whose kingdom is in direct opposition with the kingdoms of this world.  

Gabriel's Gospel to Mary (Lk 1:26-56)

Backstory: God had called Abraham and had promised him multiple descendants and a homeland to bless the world (Genesis 12:1-3, 15, and 17). His descendant ended up in Egypt for 400 years and became enslaved. God rescued them through Moses and brought into their homeland under Joshua, though they didn’t fully possess it until God made David Israel’s king. They were to be God’s ‘treasured possession’ and be God’s ‘holy nation’ (Exodus 19:4-6). However, instead of being a ‘light to the nations’ they became idolatrous like the other nations. The Northern kingdom was defeated and scattered by the Assyrians and later the Southern kingdom was taken into Babylonian captivity. God restored them to their land after 70 years because God was determined to bless the world through Abraham and make a ‘Son of David’ king over God’s people forever (2 Samuel 7:12-14). They returned to their land under the Persians, but they remained dominated in their own land. Then at the time of the Roman Empire they were longing for God to send a ‘conquering king’ to liberate them and God sent them Jesus (Isaiah 42:1-9, 61:1-3)!  

²⁶ We are told that in Elizabeth’s sixth month of pregnant, the Lord sends the angel Gabriel, who had told Zechariah that he would have a ‘great son’ who would go before the Lord and prepare a people for the Lord’. Now Gabriel is sent to Nazareth of all places; an insignificant place and of ‘poor reputation’ (John 1:46). Moreover, Gabriel goes ²⁷ to an ‘unknown girl from this insignificant village’ and she’s a virgin somewhere between 12-14 years old and her name is Mary.²⁸ The angel greets Mary calling her ‘highly favored’ and telling her that the ‘Lord is with her’. ²⁹ This troubled Mary and she wondered about the meaning since she’s not used to thinking of herself in such ‘blessed’ terms. ³⁰ The angel assures Mary’s that need not be afraid for she had ‘found favor with God’. ³¹ Then Gabriel tells her that she would have a son, to be named Jesus, and that her ³² great son would be called the ‘Son of the Most High’. In addition the Lord God would give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s house forever with no end to his kingdom. 

Now Mary responds with faith, but she wants to know how this is going to happen since she is a virgin. ³⁵ The angel says this will be the work of God’s Holy Spirit and that this would come about when the ‘power of the Most High’ would overshadow Mary. As a result, the ‘holy child’ to be born to Mary would be the very ‘Son of God’. ³⁶ Mary wanted to know how this was going to happen. She didn’t ‘doubt’ and she wasn’t asking for a ‘sign’ or ‘for proof’, but Gabriel gives her something to follow-up on. Gabriel tells Mary that her elderly and ‘barren’ relative, Elizabeth, would have a child in her old age. She could check it out because Elizabeth was already in her sixth month of pregnancy. The inevitable explanation or conclusion to all this was that ³⁷ ‘nothing is impossible with God’.

³⁸ This makes Mary the ideal example of New Testament faith! She sees herself as the ‘Lord’s servant’ and she wants God’s will done in her life. She embraces God’s will and she does so knowing that others would doubt her story and would consider the child to have been conceived out of wedlock. She answers Gabriel saying, “May it be to me as you have said!” Mary’s reaction to Gabriel’s announcement is very different than Zechariah reaction to his ‘good news’ about his son through Elizabeth. Zechariah wanted to be assured since he and Elizabeth were elderly. However, Zechariah as a priest and he would have known scripture well. God had the womb of Samson’s mother and had also opened Hannah’s womb. Also Hannah’s son, Samuel, was a prophet who ‘anointed David King of Israel’ which in a way prefigured what John would do for Jesus. Moreover, Israel had come into existence through the barren Sarah, who gave birth to Isaac when Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. Zechariah should have none that this was ‘not impossible for God’.

On the other hand, Mary was an illiterate girl from the village. She would have heard these stories in the Synagogue, and she believed the angel’s announcement. However, nothing like a ‘virgin’ birth had ever happened or would ever happen again. She believed, but she needed addition explanation and once she received it she accepted as God’s will for her life, no matter what hardship may have resulted. So after Gabriel’s explanation she headed off to find Elizabeth. ⁴¹ Upon arrival Mary greets Elizabeth, and at the sound of Mary’s voice the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and she goes into ecstatic praise of God.

We are given this incredible picture of John, in Elizabeth’s womb, jumping for joy. We also see the Spirit of God filling Elizabeth and producing joy in the child in her womb. Ironically, her husband’s mouth had been closed but the Spirit fills Elizabeth enabling her to proclaim in a loud voice that ‘Mary was blessed’ and that Mary’s ‘child was blessed’. But even more amazing is Elizabeth’s question as to why she is so favored that the mother of Elizabeth’s Lord would come to her? There is this amazing picture of the ‘Spirit-filled’ baby John in Elizabeth’s womb worshiping the ‘Messiah Jesus’ who is in his Mother’s womb as well. With Zechariah’s unbelief in the background Elizabeth tells Mary, ⁴⁵ “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said will be accomplished!”

The 'Gospel to Zechariah' (Luke 1:5-25)

Backstory: God had called Abraham and had promised him multiple descendants and a homeland to bless the world (Genesis 12:1-3, 15, and 17). Then went down into Egypt for 400 years and became enslaved. God rescued them through Moses and brought into their homeland under Joshua, but they didn’t take full possession of it until God made David king over Israel. They were to obey God’s covenant and they would be God’s ‘treasured possession’ and God’s ‘holy nation’ (Exodus 19:4-6). But instead of being a ‘light to the nations’ they became idolatrous like the other nations. They were divided and the Northern kingdom was defeated and scattered by the Assyrians (722). Later, Southern kingdom was taken into Babylonian captivity for 70 years (586). God preserved them due to His promise to bless the world through Abraham and His promise to David of a perpetual kingship over God’s people (2 Samuel 7:12-14). They returned to the their land under Persian rule but their return from Exile never lived up to the glory prophesied by Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They remained dominated in their land by first the Persians, then the Greeks and at the time of the Roman Empire they were longing for God to send a ‘conquering king’ liberate them from Roman rule and God sent them Jesus (Isaiah 42:1-9, 61:1-3)!  

Luke 1:5–25

⁵ Herod was king of Judea and he was known as ‘Herod the Great’. Herod was ‘great’ in the sense that he was a ‘great builder’ and his greatest project was his renovation of the Jerusalem Temple. Herod did this to validate his ‘kingship’, but Herod was an Idumean (descendant of Esau) and he wasn’t really even a ‘Jew’. Herod was a ‘great builder’ and a ‘great tyrant’, but Herod was not faithful to YHWH. He may have been called ‘Herod the great’ but he was not ‘great before the Lord’.

So Herod was no valid ‘King of the Jews’ for he was a descendant of Esau and not Jacob (Malachi 1:2-3). So Herod was a great builder, a great tyrant, and great impostor; and great friend of Rome, and of course he rebuilt the Jerusalem Temple (which was a great achievement) but that did not legitimize his ‘Kingship’ for he was not great before God.

At that time, there was a priest named Zechariah. Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, were both from the ‘line of Aaron’ and so Zechariah was a genuine priest. Aaron was Israel’s first High Priest and Aaron was the brother of Moses. Moses, of course, was God’s great deliverer of Israel who rescued Abraham’s descendants out of Egyptian after being in that foreign land for 400 years.

Zechariah was genuine and ‘upright before the Lord’. In fact, both Zechariah and Elizabeth were and they were ‘blameless’ in their observance of the Lord’s commandments. They weren’t ‘sinless’ but they were dedicated to observing the ‘Law of Moses’ and they weren’t compromisers or hypocrites. They are said to be ‘blameless’ which doesn’t mean ‘sinless’ but this is reminiscent of God’s call upon Abraham’s life (Genesis 17:1). So they represent the ‘faithful remnant’ of Israel and yet they were childless, Elizabeth was barren and they were beyond childbearing years. Zechariah and Elizabeth were representatives of the ‘faithful remnant’ and their bareness depicted Israel’s condition.

Israel was supposed to be living in their land under God’s reign, and they and their land was to be wholly dedicated to the worship of YHWH. They were to faithfully observe the Mosaic covenant and they would be ‘God’s treasured possession’ and ‘God’s holy nation’. Consequently, as God’s ‘holy nation’ they were to be a ‘light to the nations’ (Exodus 19:5-6, Isaiah 42:6). They were to be a ‘kingdom of priests’ to the nations so that the other nations desire to go up to Jerusalem and learn the ways of the God of Jacob (Isaiah 2:3).

They returned to their land under the Persians but in a sense they were still in ‘Exile’ for they were living under Roman rule. They were a colonized, oppressed people living under Pagan domination and they were longing for God to send a rescuer to deliverer them from Rome and establish God’s reign. Their temple had been rebuilt by Herod and while it was a ‘magnificent structure’ but there was no evidence that God was really returned to that ‘Temple’. There was no manifestation of God’s presence like when Moses built the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-35) or when Solomon dedicated the Temple (1 Kings 8:10-11). In a sense, Zechariah and the other priests were just going through the motions and much of Israel’s formal leadership were ‘compromised collaborators’ with Rome.

⁸ As a genuine Priest, Zechariah was privileged to serve at the temple which was designed to be the ‘special place of God’s dwelling’ among his people. However, was God really in the temple? Had they grown accustom to God being absent? In the providence of God, Zechariah had been chosen by lot to burn the incense at the altar while the people were assembled outside praying (Proverbs 16:33). They would have or should have been praying for the restoration of Israel, the coming of the Messiah and the internal transformation of heart that only God could produce. 

Much to Zechariah’s surprise, when he went into the temple ¹¹ an angel of the Lord appeared to him. ¹² Zechariah saw him, and he must have been awesome because Zechariah was gripped with fear! ¹³ This angel couldn’t be mistaken for a man (Lot, Sarah); his appearance must have been overwhelming (Judges 13:6-19). The angel tells Zechariah: “Don’t be afraid, your prayers have been heard. But what prayer had been heard? Was Zechariah praying for a son, a child to take away the shame of Zechariah’s barrenness or was he praying for the restoration of Israel and the coming of Messiah?

¹³ Was Zechariah in his old age praying persistently by bringing his request for a child before God? Was he praying expectantly for God to open Elizabeth’s womb and take away the cultural shame of not having a child? If so, then why was it so hard for him to believe this ‘gospel’ when he received the news that Elizabeth would bear him a son?  Even when the magnificent Angel Gabriel appeared to him it was so hard to believe that he asked for assurance. Hadn’t God opened the womb of a barren mother to deliver Israel from the Philistines through the ‘Judge Samson’? When God was going to raise-up Israel’s king David didn’t God open Hannah’s womb to give birth to the ‘king-maker’ Samuel? Even more so, hadn’t Abraham and Sarah been given their ‘child of promise’ Isaac when they were both over 90?  Was anything impossible for God?

Wouldn’t Zechariah have been praying, as a faithful priest and as the other faithful remnant of Israel, for the ‘coming of Messiah and the ‘consolation of Israel’ (See Luke 2; Simeon, Anna)? Wouldn’t he have been praying that God would send His Messiah, to liberate Israel, to restore the temple and return to the land to restore the kingdom to Israel? Perhaps Zechariah was believing God for the fulfillment of His covenant promises, but he just couldn’t believe that he would have a son in his old age that would ‘come in the spirit and power of Elijah’ who would prepare a people for the coming of the Lord.

The angel tells Zechariah, your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to name him John. ¹⁴ John will be a joy to you, and many in Israel and ¹⁵ he will be ‘great before the Lord’. He is never to drink wine or fermented drink. He would be ‘Nazarite (Numbers 6) as Samson was supposed to be anyway. Rather, this John would be exceptional in that he would be ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ from birth. ¹⁶ This work of the Spirit in John would enable him to restore many in Israel to the Lord ¹⁷ and he will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare a people for the Lord. Zechariah’s son would be great and his greatness is seen in the greatness of his God given task so that John would be ‘great before the Lord’.

Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure? I am an old man and my wife is elderly.”

¹⁸ Zechariah wanted to know ‘how he can be sure of this’ since Zechariah and Elizabeth are both elderly. ¹⁹ The angel tells Zechariah that he is Gabriel and that he stands in God’s presence. In addition, Gabriel had been sent from God’s presence to bring Zechariah this good news. ²⁰ Consequently, Zechariah would not be able to speak until the day the child is born because Zechariah didn’t believe the ‘good news’ message Gabriel had been sent from God’s presence to bring to Israel through Zechariah. ²¹ The worshippers assembled outside were wondering what was taking Zechariah so long in the temple. ²² When Zechariah did come out he was waving his hands and because he couldn’t speak, the people realized that he must have seen a vision in the temple.

²³ Zechariah finished his service in the temple, and he returned home. ²⁴ Lo and behold, Zechariah’s wife, Elizabeth, became pregnant! Then for five months Elizabeth remained in seclusion. ²⁵ Then Elizabeth concluded that the Lord has done this for her. ²⁵ She exclaimed, “The Lord has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”