Luke 1

Luke offers yet another take on Jesus. You will find that Luke is writing to/for Gentiles (non-Jews who became Christians. Luke seems to care about the marginalized and sick more that the other Gospel writers. (Luke is a physician.) Luke's Gospel is the first half of a two-parter, the other half being the Book of Acts.

Luke shows how Jesus came for everyone and his embrace is wide. The book was written between 80-105 AD. Luke shares parts of Mark and Matthew but has his own stories as well, ones not contained anywhere else.

 

Luke writes to Theophilus (literally, "God-lover.") The Gospel was written to under gird what was taught already.

 

We start with a barren woman of Jewish decent. Being barren is a disgrace for a woman in those times. Remember "barren" is always a key that something special is about to happen, usually a child and the child will be God's special agent. In this case, the child is Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist (or baptizer.) Angles (God's messengers) tell Zechariah, a good Jewish worship leader with a good pedigree, that he and Elizabeth will have a special son and that he should be set aside for the work of God. This son will prepare God's way before Him.

 

Zechariah doubts the angels words (he is a geezer and his wife is barren,) so the angel makes him speechless until the birth. Take that for doubting God!

 

The angel Gabriel now shows up to Elizabeth's sister, Mary. She, too, is favored by God. Gabriel says to call him Jesus (same name as Joshua – "God is salvation.") He also says the Jesus will be the "Son of the most High" and in the line of David, the great king of Israel. This probably was not understood by Mary as Jesus being fully God as we understand him today.

 

Mary is not sure how this will happen since she is not yet married. Gabriel tells her about her sister's pregnancy and ends with the great phrase, "nothing is impossible for God." Mary is obedient and says "bring it on."

 

Mary visits her sister and sings a song (often called the Magnificat) about how God favors the humble and scatters the proud. Kind of a foretaste of what Jesus will be about.

 

Zechariah gets his speech back when John is born and has a song as well.

 

Since there were no tape recordings at the time, note that Luke uses songs and speeches to drive home his point. To be sure, something along the lines of what was sung or said may have happened. But the real point is "pay attention" to we who hear the Gospel any time a speech or song shows up. Luke will be expressing a theme or point.