Some Additional Thoughts on Last Weekend's Bible Lesson

I have a Biblical prep-work to do on several texts for this coming week. Christmas Eve worship and regular Sunday morning worship, which just happens to fall on Christmas this year,will command my attention, among other things. But there is one additional point about the Gospel of Luke that I should have mentioned in my posts on this past weekend's Bible lesson, Luke 1:26-38.

To this end, God knocks down the haughty and the self-satisfied powerful and lifts up the humble and the repentant.

I'll mention just a few places in Luke's Gospel where we see this:

(1) As I mentioned last week, in Luke 1, we find two annunciations, or announcements. The angel Gabriel goes to the priest, Levi, announcing that his wife Elizabeth, long barren, will give birth to a son. That son was to be John the Baptizer, described as great, but as subservient to the Savior Who John will be called to announce and for Whose coming He will prepare people.

Later, Gabriel goes to the virgin, Mary, and announces that she will give birth to the Savior of the world, "Son of the Most High," a phrase that denotes oneness with God. (Check further Colossians 1:15-16.)

As a member of the priestly ranks, Zechariah would have enjoyed a privileged station. Mary, by contrast, is a peasant girl from a backwater village in the less-than-esteemed area near the Sea of Galilee.

Yet, Zechariah is stricken mute for doubting the proclamation of Gabriel while Mary believes. The high one is brought down, the low one is lifted up.

(2) Mary talks about God does the same thing for all believers in her famous speech, the Magnificat, found in Luke 1:46-55. She says of God there:

He has shown strength with His arm;
He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. [Not unlike
what God did the arrogant people of Babel in the Old Testament.]
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones;
and lifted up the lowly...

Mary's speech echoes that of Hannah in First Samuel. Hannah gave it after she too learned that she would give birth to a son. But there, the theme is less about leveling than it is about the elevation of the poor at the expense of the wealthy.

(3) We see the language of road engineering to describe the work of John the Baptizer in Luke 3:4-6. Just picture giant earth-movers as they make cuts in great hills or push dirt into low places in order to create a smooth superhighway:

The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
"Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.
"Every valley shall be filled,
"And every mountain and hill shall be made low,
"And the crooked shall be made straight,
"And the rough ways made smooth;
"And all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

John's role was to make it possible for all to see Jesus.

In the selection of Mary, the "favored one" to be the mother of Jesus Christ, we see one more example of God's penchant for lifting up those deemed unimportant by the world. The Old Testament says that God doesn't look at human beings the way we do. He sees their trust in Him and that's what we need to have a relationship with God.