Some of you know, I’ve been taking classes at Fuller Seminary. I’m taking one class a quarter, so it’s slow going. But I’m able to keep up with the course work and still do some of the other things I need to do, like drive two teenagers around every afternoon when they get home from school.
Last year I took two quarters of NT Greek, which was probably the hardest thing I’ve done in ages and then this summer I took a Biblical interpretation class, which was awesome. I did all of that hoping to take a Luke Exegesis course. When I registered for the class back in August they notified me that I’d been waitlisted. I was super sad. I pretty much gave up hope but kept my name on the waitlist and registered for OT 500.
A few days ago, I got an email that there was room for me in the Luke class! I dropped OT 500 and went off and studied the syllabus. For the next ten weeks I’ll be studying my very favorite book of the Bible in the original language. How fun is that.
I hope to share some of the things I’m learning here on my blog.
The first chapter of Luke opens with two stories and two songs. Luke casts two opposites against each other to teach us something about the beauty of the Gospel, the out-working of the Good News.
The first is the story of a devout priest, a tired priest, a priest who has not seen God do for him what he would have hoped God would do. Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth have no children. Zechariah was chosen by lots to go into the sanctuary of God and offer incense. This was a big deal, and one that no priest ever took lightly.
Inside the sanctuary, an angel visits Zechariah, announcing that his wife Elizabeth is going to have a baby. She’s way past the age when a woman gets pregnant and Zechariah clearly went through too many false pregnancies. Right there, before the vision of an angel, Zechariah cannot muster the faith to believe him. He asks the angel, how I can it be?
Gabriel seems to get irritated, and mentions the very small but significant detail that he is a real live angel who stands in the presence of God and because Zechariah did not believe the word of God, Zechariah is going to be mute. The angel takes away his voice. Silence for Zech.
Then Gabriel visits his second assignment. She is a young girl who is also going to have a baby. If Zechariah needed faith to believe his wife was going to get pregnant, this gal is going to need a double portion.
Except Mary reacts otherwise. As she is a virgin, she asks how this is going to happen, and Gabriel explains that the Shadow of the Most High will come upon her and it will be. I like the way the Latin renders Mary’s response. Mary says this:
Fiat mihi secundum verb tuum.
Let it be to me according to your word.
Fiat Mihi. Let it be unto me.
Fiat. Let it be.
We find the same words in Genesis when God says, “Let their be light.” Fiat. There is weight and authority to these words that resound through the ages.
Mary accepts the word of the angel and sets off to the hill country to visit her cousin Elizabeth.
As soon as Elizabeth opens the door and Mary comes into the house, the baby inside Elizabeth’s womb jumps and Elizabeth cries out in joy.
These opening stories of Luke set the tone for the entire book. Luke juxtaposes the two characters, an important religious man, a devout priest, against a lowly girl.
Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth have not had children. Elizabeth is barren but will be barren no more. The fullness of time is upon them, except Zechariah, who is in the most holy place does not believe the angel Gabriel. He doubts and is silenced.
Contrast that with a lowly girl who receives a visit from the same angel except she believes the word Gabriel brings. She dashes off to visit her cousin, and upon arrival the baby leaps inside Elizabeth’s womb. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?”
Then Mary sings her song, the Magnificat. I translated Mary’s song from the Greek just the other day. The power of her words undo me.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
He has scattered the arrogant in the thoughts of their heart.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly;
He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
Here we have two women setting the stage for the story of the incarnation. The devout priest is not center stage. In God’s wisdom, and for Zechariah’s good, the priest is silenced for a time so that he might learn afresh the ways of his God, and also be reminded that God has not forgotten him.
While Zechariah is off quietly learning how to listen, Mary and Elizabeth are given the spotlight. This is something Luke does time and again. He gives the spotlight to the ones usually in the margins to show us that that gospel places those in the margins front and center, and sets those who believe they’re in the center on the margins, and mutes them.
This is a Gospel like no other.
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