December 10, 2024 • 35 mins
Could the humble settings of a temple and a small village in Roman times redefine our understanding of divine intervention? Explore the nativity story through a historical and cultural lens as we unravel the rich tapestry woven by the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. This episode promises to offer a fresh perspective on the well-known biblical narratives, starting with the temple's importance in Jewish thought and the critical moment of Zechariah's encounter with an angel. With the temple as a backdrop, we set the stage for a journey through the lives of Elizabeth and Mary, whose experiences challenge societal norms and highlight divine favor.
Join us as we delve into the lives of two remarkable women at the heart of the Nativity story, Elizabeth and Mary, who each experience profound moments of divine intervention. Elizabeth transitions from the shame of infertility to the joy of becoming a mother, while Mary receives a life-altering message that sets her on a path of historical significance. By comparing these narratives, we highlight themes of societal expectations, divine favor, and the elevation of marginalized voices. The contrasting receptions of Gabriel's messages to Zechariah and Mary reveal cultural nuances, while Joseph's significant role further enriches the story.
As we continue, discover the theological depth and messianic hope expressed through Joseph's decisions and Mary's visit to Elizabeth. Joseph, reimagined as a stonemason, navigates social challenges to embrace his role in this divine narrative, while Elizabeth's recognition of Jesus' divine identity underscores the transformative nature of his mission. Reflect on God's choice to dwell among His people—not in distant temples but intimately within their lives. This episode sets the stage for our next installment, where we'll explore the circumstances surrounding Jesus' birth, questioning the traditional narrative and offering insights into the nature of His earthly arrival.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jessica LM Jenkins (00:00):
Welcome back .
We are starting a mini-serieslooking at the Nativity passages
through a historical, accuratelens.
I'm going to be doing ahigh-fly overview of the
passages in Matthew and Luke inchronological order.
So this isn't exegetical, we'renot going verse by verse, but
(00:20):
I'm going to be looking at themkind of in the order they would
have happened in the timeline,not necessarily their order in
the physical Bible.
We're going to be doing a highflyover overview, looking at the
historical context elements ofthese passages so that later
when you read through it verseby verse, you'll have that
historical backgroundinformation to see the text with
(00:42):
new eyes.
This will hopefully be atwo-part series.
Today we are going to start byconsidering Zechariah in the
temple.
The nativity passages startchronologically in the temple of
God and this is significantbecause in the viewpoint of the
(01:03):
Jewish people in the Roman timesthey thought about space and
their relationship with God inpurity contexts and concentric
circles.
Today we teach our childrenthings like Jesus lives in your
heart, which may or may not betheologically accurate and
that's a side conversation.
But we talk constantly abouthow God is always with us.
(01:24):
He's in our hearts, the HolySpirit indwells New Testament
believers, but for the peoplewho actually lived the events of
the New Testament.
They didn't have that mindset.
That mindset comes with the newcovenant that Jesus and the
Holy Spirit bring at the LastSupper and then at Pentecost.
(01:45):
So when you have the beginningof the Gospels, they are still
functioning in this purity spacemindset that centers on the
temple.
Now, what do I mean by that?
The Jewish people consideredpurity and space, your nearness
to God, as dependent on whereyou physically were in the world
.
So the temple is the centralplace where God is, where God
(02:08):
dwells.
If you want to be near God, youneed to be near the temple.
The Holy of Holies is theabsolute holiest, most centric
place.
The only person who could evergo into the Holy of Holies was
the high priest, and that wasonly once a year.
So you have the Holy of Holies,then you have the temple proper
.
Outside the temple you have thecourt of the priests.
(02:28):
Only priests were allowed intothat court.
Then you have the court of themen, where the men, the pure,
clean men of Israel, could enterto pray.
And then you have the court ofthe women and then you have the
court of the Gentiles.
So even in the temple you havethese concentric circles keeping
people of various level ofstatus and purity away from God,
and this was a design, notnecessarily by God.
(02:51):
This is Herod's temple.
Herod the Great redid thetemple that was built after the
exile.
So Solomon built a temple thatwas very quickly, after his
death, ransacked and most of thethings, the gold taken.
Then one of the Judean kingsrebuilt some of the stuff in the
(03:12):
temple, made that out of bronzeand then when the exile happens
, babylon comes in completely,ransacks the temple and destroys
it.
Later you have Nehemiah andEzra and the people coming back
from Babylon and where they hadbeen exiled and they rebuild the
temple.
Then Herod the Great takes thattemple and he just expands the
(03:37):
entire temple complex, making itabsolutely huge.
And that's when you start toget the courts of the Gentiles,
the courts of the women, thecourts of the men.
These are post-exilic additionsto the temple complex added by
the Sadducees and the Phariseesand the rabbis to try to keep
purity bounds, because they'reafraid of being exiled again and
they want to stay within God'sfavor.
(03:58):
So they are creating literallines of access where some
people could not have the sameaccess to God that other people
could have.
The priests could have the mostaccess to God.
The men could have more accessthan women and Gentiles.
The pure, clean Jewish womencould have more access to God
than a pure, clean, gentileworshiper of God could have.
(04:20):
So these consecutive circles ofthe temple.
So you have these consecutivecircles of the temple limiting
who has access to God.
And so the nativity storiesstart in the temple, which, for
the average Jewish person, ifGod's going to come, that's kind
of where you expect it tohappen.
And so you have Zachariah, whois an old man, he's a priest, he
(04:40):
is in the temple to offerincense.
So he's not in the Holy ofHolies Hardly anybody could ever
go in there.
But he's as absolutely close towhere God is as he can get.
He's drawn by lot.
This isn't something he'sexpecting to do.
It just happens.
That just happens God'sprovidence that it falls on him
to do this.
So he's in the temple as closeas he can possibly get to God.
(05:00):
He is praying for Israel, he isoffering incense.
This is like a once in alifetime opportunity that not
everybody gets.
And he is.
He's doing all of this in thetemple and an angel appears to
him.
Of course, he is terrified.
Angels are generally terrifyingbeings, and the angel tells him
(05:21):
that.
The angel says in Luke 1, 13,.
I am reading the NIV.
Any scripture passage I readwill be from the NIV.
The angel says do not be afraid, zachariah.
Your prayer has been heard.
Your wife Elizabeth will bearyou a son and you are to call
him John.
He will be a joy and a delightto you.
Many will rejoice because ofhis birth, for he will be great
(05:41):
in the sight of the Lord.
He is never to take wine orother fermented drink and he
will be filled with the HolySpirit before he is born.
He will bring back many of thepeople of Israel to the Lord,
their God.
He will go on before the Lordin the spirit and power of
Elijah, to turn the hearts ofthe parents to their children
and the disobedient to thewisdom of the righteous to make
ready a people prepared for theLord.
(06:08):
So the angel comes and says hey,zachariah, it's happening.
The Messiah everybody's beenwaiting for and praying for it's
happening.
I'm going to give you a babyand he's going to be the
forerunner.
This is amazing.
And Zachariah goes uh, I don'tthink so.
How can I be sure of this?
I'm an old man and my wife iswell along in years, like she's
post-menopausal, like dude, thisain't happening.
The angel says to him I amGabriel, reality check here.
(06:29):
Hello Gabriel, I stand in thepresence of God.
You think you're close to Godright now in the temple.
I'm going to one-up you on that.
I stand before the presence ofGod in the heavenly places and I
have been sent by God to givethis message to you and tell you
this good news.
So you're going to be silentand not able to speak until the
(06:52):
day this happens because you didnot believe my words, which
will come true at theirappointed time.
So the entire nativity storystarts in the temple, the place
closest to God in Israel, andthe priest, the one who knows
the scriptures, the one who'ssupposed to have this
relationship with God, gets aword from a literal angel and
(07:14):
says I don't believe it.
The man who should have beenthe one ready to receive the
promise of God failed.
He didn't believe it.
And the angel says you aregoing to be silent until what
God promised comes to be.
Zachariah comes out of thetemple.
(07:34):
He is making signs that peoplerealize he saw a vision.
He ends up going home.
His wife gets pregnant, incontrast to her husband and
we're going to see a lot of thisin this story in contrast to
her husband, she, immediatelywhen she's pregnant, says the
Lord has done this for me verse25.
In these days, he has shown mehis favor and taken away my
(07:58):
disgrace.
Among the people, you haveZachariah, who is worshiping in
the temple of God offeringincense, who does not believe a
literal angel standing in frontof him, to the point where God
takes his voice and says you'renot going to be the one to speak
, you're not going to be the oneto share this good news.
(08:22):
I'm taking that from you, I amsilencing you.
And God very quickly shiftsfrom.
He started where people wouldexpect, with Zachariah in the
temple, but he quickly, by hisdivine providence, shifts to
what I think the core of theentire nativity story is.
He shifts from God, is excludedfrom the average person in the
(08:48):
temple, with only certain peoplehaving access Zachariah.
And he gave Zachariah a chance.
And then he says I am going tofocus, which was his original
plan all along to focus on thosewith disgrace, those who are
lowly, those who are weak, andit is their faith that is going
(09:11):
to shine forth throughout thisstory as God works to be near
his people.
As we look at the nativity story, I want you to internalize deep
in your being the nearness ofGod.
We'll get to it in the text ina few minutes.
But, matthew, when the angel'stalking to Joseph, he says you
(09:32):
will call his name Emmanuel,which means God with us.
That is the message of thenativity that the incarnation
came so that God could be withus, not locked away in a temple
somewhere not accessed only bythe priest, which the entire
priestly class really hadtrouble believing anything God
(09:53):
said about this.
And we see that from the verystart.
God is coming to a woman whocarried the shame of infertility
for her entire adult life,shunned from social circles.
Oh, here comes Elizabeth.
Her husband's a priest, but shecan't have kids.
They must be sinners.
The talk behind her back, theshame, the ingracious attitudes,
(10:16):
the lack of status in hercommunity.
She is a high status woman,being the wife of a priest, when
you consider the status, socialstatus ratings in Israel at
this time, but she does not havechildren.
And so, though she is highsocial status by marriage,
married to a priest, and she'sfrom a priestly line, she does
(10:40):
not have kids and that's a hugeweight of shame.
And so God says I amemphasizing those who carry
shame, those who carry deepheart wounds and have their
whole lives.
It says they are advanced inyears.
We don't know how old thatcould be.
Life expectancy back then isnot what it is now.
She could be 50.
She could be 60.
(11:00):
She could be 70 or 80.
We don't know.
We do know she is past the timeof women having children.
She is old, but when thishappens her heart is full of
belief and she praises God fortaking away her shame.
Next, the angel does not go backto the temple.
This might be what some wouldhave expected to happen.
(11:23):
The angel would go back andmaybe talk to a rabbi or a
Pharisee or somebody else in thereligious elite.
But the angel goes now to ayoung woman named Mary in
Nazareth, a town in Galilee, andyou may have heard, because I
grew up hearing this, that Marywas probably a young girl 12, 13
(11:45):
, just after startingmenstruation.
As I researched this, lookingat the Roman world as a whole
and then Jewish writings aroundthis time period, it's much more
likely that Mary was a lateteenager when the angel came to
her Women the average age ofmarrying was late teenager,
(12:08):
maybe even early 20s.
So we're talking 17 to 19 at theyoungest.
And this is important becauseGod did not impregnate a young
child.
It was not a little 13-year-oldgirl whose body is not ready,
physiologically ready.
She may be having periods, butthat doesn't mean her body is
(12:28):
mature enough to carry a baby.
And, yes, god couldmiraculously protect Mary and
all of those things.
But the precedent stands.
God is not making a young child, a 13-year-old girl, get
pregnant.
He is not advocating for this.
He is not sexualizing children.
(12:49):
We are dealing with a youngwoman of marriageable age.
Even today, the age of consentis generally 16 to 18, depending
on your state and your country.
So Mary is definitely at ourmodern age of consent.
If you look at scholarly sourcesdiscussing average age of
(13:10):
marriage, we don't have specificevidence for Mary individually.
The average age of marriage isaround 16 to 22 years old, more
likely 18, 19, 20 in that range.
And this is important.
She is mature enough to consent.
She's old enough to understandwhat is going on.
A 13-year-old girl is stillreally young intellectually,
physically, emotionally, all ofthat.
(13:31):
And brain science tells us nowbrains don't fully mature till
mid-20s.
But back in the ancient worldlife expectancies are short.
People are getting married,especially women, younger, not
like preteen, young teenager,but late teens, early 20s,
rather than average marriage ageof late 20s, early 30s for
women now.
So Mary is late teen, early 20swhen the angel comes to her.
(13:58):
This is significant and I dowant to emphasize that because
it's easy and we see thisconstantly in purity culture and
in our churches for young girlsfor 10, 12, 13, 14 year old
girls to be sexualized from thepulpit in purity culture.
And God is not doing that.
I need you to see that God isnot doing that.
He is coming to a physicallyready, mature young woman.
(14:20):
She's still young, but she is awoman.
She is not a child.
And he's coming to her and theangel appears to marry in
Nazareth.
It says she is pledged to bemarried to a man named Joseph.
We don't know exactly what allthis included.
Later, rabbinic teachings teachthat the engagement is as solid
(14:42):
as marriage.
They're just not cohabitatingand acting married physically
yet.
But it's a very serious thing.
It's not just a flippant likeyou can break off an engagement
today.
There's a lot more going on.
You don't just break off anengagement so it says that she
is pledged to be married to aman named Joseph, who is a
(15:04):
descendant of David, and thevirgin's name was Mary.
The angel came to her verse 28,and said greetings to you who
are highly favored, the Lord iswith you Now.
Mary is greatly troubled at hiswords and wondered what kind of
greeting this might be, whichmakes a lot of sense because it
seems like she's alone, so shemay not be in her house.
She would rarely have solitudeat her house.
(15:26):
She's living with family,extended family, so she's
probably alone.
When he comes to her she couldbe out in a field.
This is a very vulnerable placefor a young girl, for a young
woman to be Young girl, woman,any woman to be alone out away
from family and friends.
And so she's looking at thisangel, which she doesn't seem to
(15:48):
be as afraid, so maybe he's notbeing as angel-y as he was for
Zachariah, maybe just more of adude.
Either way, she's alone with aman who's not a relative, who
she does not know, and he saysgreetings, you are highly
favored, the Lord is with you.
And she's kind of like, oh boy,what's going on?
She's troubled at his words andwonders what kind of greeting
this might be.
And the angel said to her don'tbe afraid, mary, you have found
(16:09):
favor with God.
You will conceive and givebirth to a son and you are to
call him Jesus.
Which Jesus?
The Greek word for Jesus istransliterated from the Hebrew
word Joshua, the Hebrew nameJoshua.
You will name him Joshua, whichis the Lord saves.
Read that into the text.
You will name him.
(16:31):
You will call him Jesus.
You will call him the Lordsaves.
He will be great and will becalled the son of the most high.
The Lord God will give him thethrone of his father, david.
He will reign over Jacob'sdescendants forever.
His kingdom will never end.
Mary looks at him and asks howwill this be?
She asked the angel, since I ama virgin.
Honest question.
(16:51):
She's alone with a malepresenting figure.
How is this going to happen?
That's a valid question whichis to be in contrasted with
Zachariah's question.
He asked how can I be sure ofthis?
I'm an old man, my wife isalong in years.
He's also presenting the issue,but he is presenting it out of
disbelief.
(17:13):
Mary is presenting obvious factI am a virgin.
Are you about to change that?
This is a safety question,she's wondering are you about to
attack me?
You have mighty words, but howis this working out?
Am I in physical danger here?
The angel answers her.
(17:33):
The Holy Spirit will come uponyou.
He answers her question.
It's an honest question, likelyborn out of very tangible fear,
with very good reasons, and hecomforts.
He says the Holy Spirit willcome upon you.
The power of the Most High willovershadow you.
I'm not going to touch you.
So the Holy One to be born willbe called the Son of God.
Even Elizabeth, your relative,is going to have a child in her
(17:57):
old age and she, who is said tobe unable to conceive, is in her
sixth month.
For no word of God will everfail.
Mary replies with faith.
I am the Lord's servant, sheanswered.
Let your word be to mefulfilled.
She consents.
She says yes, I will do theplan.
Now that I understand the plan,her question is not a pushback,
(18:18):
it's a hold on.
Her question is not a pushback,it's a hold on.
Male presenting figure, womanalone.
I'm a virgin.
You're saying I better have ababy.
I only know of one way havingbabies happens.
And is that what's going onhere?
And the angel's like no, fullstop, not what's going on here
and she's like oh, I trust God,I am his servant, I consent to
(18:40):
his plan.
She provides consent to what ishappening.
The angel eases her mind, easesher heart and leaves.
So we have two completelycontrasting receptions to the
angel Gabriel.
He comes with messages toZechariah, who is in as close
(19:02):
physically to God as you canpossibly get in the temple in
Jerusalem as a priest.
Then the angel comes to Mary,who is far away.
She's in Galilee.
You have to go through someGentile territory or go really
far out of your way to get toGalilee from Jerusalem.
She's quite a distance away.
She's in a little town, kind ofa suburb of the big town,
(19:23):
tiberias, more than a suburb.
It's a distance away, but it'snear enough to Tiberias.
She's living out there.
She's in Galilee.
Nobody thinks very highly ofNazareth or Galilee.
She's lowly.
We don't know what class she is.
She's likely peasant class,maybe artisan class.
Generally classes you have likethe ruling class, you have the
(19:45):
retainer class, you have priests.
So rulers, retainers, priests,artisans, peasants, day laborers
and then the very poor.
So that's kind of a rundown ofthe class system they're dealing
with.
So she's probably peasant class, maybe artisan, maybe day
laborer, somewhere in that lowerclass.
So she lives in Nazareth andGod is not trying to be with the
(20:12):
elites.
He's coming to a young woman, awoman whose voice doesn't mean
anything in a court of law shecan't testify in a court of law
who is unmarried, she has nostatus.
We know nothing of her familybackground, except that she's a
descendant of David.
So we have David's covenantscoming into play and we know
(20:36):
that she is engaged to bemarried to Joseph.
So let's talk about Josephbriefly.
Joseph, matthew tells us, is agodly man.
Some traditions say he's anolder, widowed man who marries
Mary.
Some believe he was just ayoung man, typical marriage age.
(20:57):
We don't know.
Text doesn't tell us.
Various church traditions arecompletely split on how old he
is, whether they actually everconsummated their marriage and
had children following.
I'm going to leave all thatalone because it really doesn't
pertain to this story inparticular.
But we know that Joseph is arighteous man.
(21:17):
Matthew 1 tells us that he findsout Mary is pregnant and Joseph
now has a conundrum the womanhe's betrothed to is pregnant.
He knows the baby's not his andso he's like okay, that's a lot
of shame.
Potential Like this is a bigcost if I marry her.
(21:38):
I'm not sure I'm okay with thatinheritance.
Blah blah, blah, blah blah.
He's thinking I'm just going todivorce her as quietly as I can
.
So their engagement is it'ssomething that's divorce you.
It's not like I'm just going togive the ring back and we're
done being engaged.
He has to go through legalproceedings to physically
divorce her, so he'scontemplating how he can do this
(21:59):
as quietly as possible to notput any more shame on her than
an unmarried woman already wouldhave, having an illegitimate
pregnancy.
He goes to bed one night and anangel of the Lord appears to him
.
We don't know that it wasGabriel in this case it could
have been, but the text doesn'ttell us.
The angel appears to him andsaid Joseph, son of David, do
(22:20):
not be afraid to take Mary homeas your wife.
This is Matthew 1.20.
Because what is conceived inher is from the Holy Spirit.
She will give birth to a sonand you will give him the name
Jesus.
The Lord saves, because he willsave his people from their sins
.
The text goes on.
All this took place to fulfillwhat the Lord said through the
prophet.
The virgin will conceive andgive birth to a son, which they
(22:47):
will call him Emmanuel, whichmeans God with us.
So you have Joseph he is.
Later on we find out that he isa carpenter.
And when we hear the wordcarpenter today we think of
somebody who makes like cabinetsand tables and chairs, and I
don't know that they had a wholelot of cabinets.
Wood was fairly scarce inIsrael.
(23:08):
They joke in Israel that theirmost prevalent resource is rocks
.
So it's much more likely Josephis not the carpenter you see in
the paintings where he's likemaking a chair and a table.
He's a stonesmith, he is aconstruction contractor.
It's likely he was of theartisan class, which is a very
(23:29):
interesting when you think classdynamics place to be Some of
the research I've done, which,if you're interested in any of
the research, you can go towewhothirstcom slash links,
wewhothirstcom slash links orthe link in my profile on social
media and you can get to.
I have a document with a fullbibliography of all of my
sources and written explanationsof a lot of this information.
(23:51):
I'm verbally telling you on thepodcast so you can get your
hands on these sources.
But some of the things I'veread talked about how the
artisan class was a class thatenabled someone to kind of go
between the higher rulingclasses and the lower, less
powerful classes, so it's kindof this in-between class.
And so for that to be whereJoseph is is very interesting,
(24:11):
because Jesus would then haveJoseph's social class which, for
everything God had for Jesus todo, being in that middle ground
social class Abel, because aconstruction contractor, is
going to have to be dealing withthe rulers.
They're the ones who are payingfor these giant projects to
happen.
(24:31):
He also is going to be hiringday laborers to do the work, and
so he's right in the middlebetween these classes, which
socially gives a lot of room toinfluence and to communicate
with both classes.
Joseph is, we're assuming,living in Nazareth, nazareth, as
(24:51):
I said, in Nazareth.
Nazareth, as I said, is nearbyTiberias.
That is where Herod Antipasends up living.
It was being built right aroundthis time, and so he as a
stonemason, as a constructioncontractor, could have been.
We don't know for sure, but hecould have been working in
Tiberias or other large.
The Romans had lots ofconstruction projects going on,
(25:13):
working on those constructionprojects.
So think of him as aconstruction contractor
traveling to Tiberias to work onthese major Roman projects.
Don't think of him as havinghis own little shop in his house
where he's making chairs.
Think of him as he's going towork on major construction
projects and work with a wholelot of people, lots of social
(25:37):
impact.
So that's who Joseph is, and hedecides after hearing from the
angel.
I'm going to take Mary as mywife, and it says verse 24,.
Then when Joseph woke up, hedid what the angel of the Lord
had commanded him and took Maryhome as a wife.
He is officially marrying her,according to Matthew 1.
(26:08):
This is before the baby is born.
They are officially married,which indicates he is also
claiming the baby her baby ashis own.
This is not viewed in theirculture as an illegitimate child
.
He is either adopting or sayingyeah, it's my kid.
If you got your fiancé pregnantbefore you're officially
(26:30):
married, the culture didn'tprefer you did that.
They prefer you wait till youare actually married and living
together.
But you're engaged, it's legalFine.
And so he's basically claimingthis kid that isn't actually his
kid.
He knows it's not his kid, buthe's adopting.
He's claiming.
He's saying this is my son, andwe see this later on in the
(26:53):
gospels.
Saying this is my son, and wesee this later on in the gospels
.
If there was any doubt thatJesus was illegitimate.
That would have been thrown inhis face all the time from his
enemies in his ministry.
But what did they throw in hisface?
We know who your father is.
Your father is Joseph.
He is considered completelyJoseph's son, and so Joseph is
taking all of the weight of that.
(27:14):
He's saying I'm going to claimthis baby as my own, even though
it's not my baby.
I am going to absorb any of theshame and ridicule for her
getting pregnant early beforeour wedding.
I am going to take all of thaton and this baby.
And so Joseph marries her, andwe don't know when Joseph and
(27:39):
the dream happened versus whenMary visits Elizabeth.
I wanted to talk about Josephbefore we talk about Mary
visiting Elizabeth.
They could have been happeningat the same time, that he could
have married her, and then shewent to visit Elizabeth after
they were officially married.
We don't know exactly, becauseMatthew 1 talks about Joseph and
the angel and then it's Luke 1that we go back to for Mary
(28:02):
visiting Elizabeth.
And so somewhere in there,joseph has this dream.
He decides to marry.
They are officially married,either right after she gets back
from Elizabeth this happens orright before she goes to visit
Elizabeth.
They start cohabitating, livingin the same house, husband and
wife, and somewhere in there shealso Mary goes and visits
(28:24):
Elizabeth.
So Mary hears from the angelthat Elizabeth, her cousin, her
relative, is pregnant.
So Mary gets ready and hurriesto the town in the hill country
of Judah.
We're back in Luke chapter,verse 39, chapter one.
She hurried to a town in thehill country of Judah where she
entered Elizabeth's home andgreeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary'sgreeting, the baby leapt in her
(28:47):
womb and Elizabeth was filledwith the Holy Spirit.
In a loud voice she exclaimedblessed are you among women.
Blessed is the child you willbear.
But why am I so favored thatthe mother of my Lord should
come to me?
As soon as the sound of yourgreeting reached my ears, the
baby in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed is she who believedthat the Lord would fulfill his
promises to her.
I love everything Elizabethsays here.
(29:11):
It is all of so much truth.
When the women speak they aredropping theological bombs left
and right.
There's even a subtle jab inhere towards Elizabeth's husband
.
She says blessed is she whobelieves that the Lord would
fulfill his promises, unlike myhusband who can't talk because
(29:31):
he didn't believe, and who can'ttalk because he didn't believe.
Blessed are you and blessed isthe child you bear.
Why am I favored that themother of my Lord, elizabeth, is
calling out the identity ofJesus?
It is a woman who is the firstto call out the identity,
(29:56):
besides the angel, the identityof Jesus.
These women took what they heardfrom the Lord, understood what
was going on and proclaimed itto each other.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Zachariah was given theopportunity and he did not
believe.
I was given the opportunity andhe did not believe.
Women are the ones who stood upto say blessed be the name of
(30:18):
the Lord.
This is what he is doing.
I see it, I proclaim it.
It is here, it is now.
Mary turns and gives theMagnificat.
She says my soul glorifies theLord and my spirit rejoices in
God, my Savior, and she launchesinto this poem that I'm not
(30:39):
going to break down for us, butit deals with themes of the
mighty being made low and thepoor being exalted, god's
faithfulness and upending thepower structures of the world,
and Mary and Elizabeth may havebeen thinking of the Messiah
coming to overthrow Rome and allof those things.
(30:59):
They may not have fullyunderstand what Jesus' kingdom
looked like.
And we see this later on whenMary and Jesus are having
conversations and he's like holdon, you don't get what's
happening here.
Nobody did.
They had a particular pictureof how the Messiah would
function.
But they do see messianic hope.
And whereas Jesus wasn't thereto topple the Roman government,
(31:20):
he was there to upend allsystems.
He was there to say the firstshall be last and the last shall
be first.
The greatest in the kingdom isthe servant.
Of all.
Those words, those ideas, arereflected in Mary's song.
Listen, mary said my soulglorifies the Lord, my spirit
rejoices in God, my Savior, forhe has been mindful of the
(31:42):
humblest state of his servant.
From now on, all generationswill call me blessed, for the
mighty one has done great thingsfor me.
Holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those whofear him from generation to
generation.
He has performed mighty deedswith his arm.
He has scattered those.
Again you have these reversals.
He has helped his servant,israel, remembering to be
(32:16):
faithful to Abraham and hisdescendants forever, just as he
promised our ancestors.
Mary is picking up themes fromthe old testament.
She is understanding how thecoming of the messiah is going
to flip everything on its head.
She doesn't fully get the wholepicture nobody did but she sees
that God is doing somethingunique.
God is elevating the voices ofwomen and the lowly and those
(32:37):
you expect to be the onesheralding are silent.
The places where you wouldexpect God to first appear, he's
not there.
God is not in the temple, theway he is in the womb of a young
woman from Podunkville inGalilee.
(32:58):
God, as he said to Joseph, iswith his people.
He is coming to be with them.
The lowly, the weak, thevulnerable these are the people
(33:22):
that God is coming to be with.
Mary stayed with Elizabeth forabout three months and then
returned home.
Elizabeth was about six months,five or six months with Mary
gets there.
Mary could have stayed throughthe end of the pregnancy, helped
with the birth and the newborn.
She could have done all that,which would have been great
preparation for her to have herbaby.
And then she goes home to bewith Joseph and either get
married to him then or they werealready married when she went
to visit Elizabeth.
(33:44):
And that sets the stage for ournext episode, where we're going
to deal with Luke 2 and Jesus'actual birth.
So as you process Luke 1,matthew 1, think through the
themes of Jesus is coming tosave his people, not from the
Romans but from their sins.
He is coming to be with them,not dwell in a temple where only
(34:06):
certain people have access, butwith his people in their very
bodies.
He's coming in the womb of awoman, in her body, so that
later the spirit will come andindwell the church, indwell the
people of God.
The theme of God being with hispeople.
He is not separated, he is notfar away, he is not.
(34:28):
The whole idea that God is soholy he has to be away from his
people is actually counter towhat we see in scripture.
God is continually drawing nearand he starts by elevating the
voices of these women, by givingthem powerful words and
recognition of what he is doingand by being physically present
(34:49):
among them.
Come back next time.
We're going to talk about Luke2.
Was Jesus born in a barn?
Was he born in a house?
We're going to talk about it.
I will see you then.
Welcome back .
We are starting a mini-serieslooking at the Nativity passages
through a historical, accuratelens.
I'm going to be doing ahigh-fly overview of the
passages in Matthew and Luke inchronological order.
So this isn't exegetical, we'renot going verse by verse, but
(00:20):
I'm going to be looking at themkind of in the order they would
have happened in the timeline,not necessarily their order in
the physical Bible.
We're going to be doing a highflyover overview, looking at the
historical context elements ofthese passages so that later
when you read through it verseby verse, you'll have that
historical backgroundinformation to see the text with
(00:42):
new eyes.
This will hopefully be atwo-part series.
Today we are going to start byconsidering Zechariah in the
temple.
The nativity passages startchronologically in the temple of
God and this is significantbecause in the viewpoint of the
(01:03):
Jewish people in the Roman timesthey thought about space and
their relationship with God inpurity contexts and concentric
circles.
Today we teach our childrenthings like Jesus lives in your
heart, which may or may not betheologically accurate and
that's a side conversation.
But we talk constantly abouthow God is always with us.
(01:24):
He's in our hearts, the HolySpirit indwells New Testament
believers, but for the peoplewho actually lived the events of
the New Testament.
They didn't have that mindset.
That mindset comes with the newcovenant that Jesus and the
Holy Spirit bring at the LastSupper and then at Pentecost.
(01:45):
So when you have the beginningof the Gospels, they are still
functioning in this purity spacemindset that centers on the
temple.
Now, what do I mean by that?
The Jewish people consideredpurity and space, your nearness
to God, as dependent on whereyou physically were in the world
.
So the temple is the centralplace where God is, where God
(02:08):
dwells.
If you want to be near God, youneed to be near the temple.
The Holy of Holies is theabsolute holiest, most centric
place.
The only person who could evergo into the Holy of Holies was
the high priest, and that wasonly once a year.
So you have the Holy of Holies,then you have the temple proper
.
Outside the temple you have thecourt of the priests.
(02:28):
Only priests were allowed intothat court.
Then you have the court of themen, where the men, the pure,
clean men of Israel, could enterto pray.
And then you have the court ofthe women and then you have the
court of the Gentiles.
So even in the temple you havethese concentric circles keeping
people of various level ofstatus and purity away from God,
and this was a design, notnecessarily by God.
(02:51):
This is Herod's temple.
Herod the Great redid thetemple that was built after the
exile.
So Solomon built a temple thatwas very quickly, after his
death, ransacked and most of thethings, the gold taken.
Then one of the Judean kingsrebuilt some of the stuff in the
(03:12):
temple, made that out of bronzeand then when the exile happens
, babylon comes in completely,ransacks the temple and destroys
it.
Later you have Nehemiah andEzra and the people coming back
from Babylon and where they hadbeen exiled and they rebuild the
temple.
Then Herod the Great takes thattemple and he just expands the
(03:37):
entire temple complex, making itabsolutely huge.
And that's when you start toget the courts of the Gentiles,
the courts of the women, thecourts of the men.
These are post-exilic additionsto the temple complex added by
the Sadducees and the Phariseesand the rabbis to try to keep
purity bounds, because they'reafraid of being exiled again and
they want to stay within God'sfavor.
(03:58):
So they are creating literallines of access where some
people could not have the sameaccess to God that other people
could have.
The priests could have the mostaccess to God.
The men could have more accessthan women and Gentiles.
The pure, clean Jewish womencould have more access to God
than a pure, clean, gentileworshiper of God could have.
(04:20):
So these consecutive circles ofthe temple.
So you have these consecutivecircles of the temple limiting
who has access to God.
And so the nativity storiesstart in the temple, which, for
the average Jewish person, ifGod's going to come, that's kind
of where you expect it tohappen.
And so you have Zachariah, whois an old man, he's a priest, he
(04:40):
is in the temple to offerincense.
So he's not in the Holy ofHolies Hardly anybody could ever
go in there.
But he's as absolutely close towhere God is as he can get.
He's drawn by lot.
This isn't something he'sexpecting to do.
It just happens.
That just happens God'sprovidence that it falls on him
to do this.
So he's in the temple as closeas he can possibly get to God.
(05:00):
He is praying for Israel, he isoffering incense.
This is like a once in alifetime opportunity that not
everybody gets.
And he is.
He's doing all of this in thetemple and an angel appears to
him.
Of course, he is terrified.
Angels are generally terrifyingbeings, and the angel tells him
(05:21):
that.
The angel says in Luke 1, 13,.
I am reading the NIV.
Any scripture passage I readwill be from the NIV.
The angel says do not be afraid, zachariah.
Your prayer has been heard.
Your wife Elizabeth will bearyou a son and you are to call
him John.
He will be a joy and a delightto you.
Many will rejoice because ofhis birth, for he will be great
(05:41):
in the sight of the Lord.
He is never to take wine orother fermented drink and he
will be filled with the HolySpirit before he is born.
He will bring back many of thepeople of Israel to the Lord,
their God.
He will go on before the Lordin the spirit and power of
Elijah, to turn the hearts ofthe parents to their children
and the disobedient to thewisdom of the righteous to make
ready a people prepared for theLord.
(06:08):
So the angel comes and says hey,zachariah, it's happening.
The Messiah everybody's beenwaiting for and praying for it's
happening.
I'm going to give you a babyand he's going to be the
forerunner.
This is amazing.
And Zachariah goes uh, I don'tthink so.
How can I be sure of this?
I'm an old man and my wife iswell along in years, like she's
post-menopausal, like dude, thisain't happening.
The angel says to him I amGabriel, reality check here.
(06:29):
Hello Gabriel, I stand in thepresence of God.
You think you're close to Godright now in the temple.
I'm going to one-up you on that.
I stand before the presence ofGod in the heavenly places and I
have been sent by God to givethis message to you and tell you
this good news.
So you're going to be silentand not able to speak until the
(06:52):
day this happens because you didnot believe my words, which
will come true at theirappointed time.
So the entire nativity storystarts in the temple, the place
closest to God in Israel, andthe priest, the one who knows
the scriptures, the one who'ssupposed to have this
relationship with God, gets aword from a literal angel and
(07:14):
says I don't believe it.
The man who should have beenthe one ready to receive the
promise of God failed.
He didn't believe it.
And the angel says you aregoing to be silent until what
God promised comes to be.
Zachariah comes out of thetemple.
(07:34):
He is making signs that peoplerealize he saw a vision.
He ends up going home.
His wife gets pregnant, incontrast to her husband and
we're going to see a lot of thisin this story in contrast to
her husband, she, immediatelywhen she's pregnant, says the
Lord has done this for me verse25.
In these days, he has shown mehis favor and taken away my
(07:58):
disgrace.
Among the people, you haveZachariah, who is worshiping in
the temple of God offeringincense, who does not believe a
literal angel standing in frontof him, to the point where God
takes his voice and says you'renot going to be the one to speak
, you're not going to be the oneto share this good news.
(08:22):
I'm taking that from you, I amsilencing you.
And God very quickly shiftsfrom.
He started where people wouldexpect, with Zachariah in the
temple, but he quickly, by hisdivine providence, shifts to
what I think the core of theentire nativity story is.
He shifts from God, is excludedfrom the average person in the
(08:48):
temple, with only certain peoplehaving access Zachariah.
And he gave Zachariah a chance.
And then he says I am going tofocus, which was his original
plan all along to focus on thosewith disgrace, those who are
lowly, those who are weak, andit is their faith that is going
(09:11):
to shine forth throughout thisstory as God works to be near
his people.
As we look at the nativity story, I want you to internalize deep
in your being the nearness ofGod.
We'll get to it in the text ina few minutes.
But, matthew, when the angel'stalking to Joseph, he says you
(09:32):
will call his name Emmanuel,which means God with us.
That is the message of thenativity that the incarnation
came so that God could be withus, not locked away in a temple
somewhere not accessed only bythe priest, which the entire
priestly class really hadtrouble believing anything God
(09:53):
said about this.
And we see that from the verystart.
God is coming to a woman whocarried the shame of infertility
for her entire adult life,shunned from social circles.
Oh, here comes Elizabeth.
Her husband's a priest, but shecan't have kids.
They must be sinners.
The talk behind her back, theshame, the ingracious attitudes,
(10:16):
the lack of status in hercommunity.
She is a high status woman,being the wife of a priest, when
you consider the status, socialstatus ratings in Israel at
this time, but she does not havechildren.
And so, though she is highsocial status by marriage,
married to a priest, and she'sfrom a priestly line, she does
(10:40):
not have kids and that's a hugeweight of shame.
And so God says I amemphasizing those who carry
shame, those who carry deepheart wounds and have their
whole lives.
It says they are advanced inyears.
We don't know how old thatcould be.
Life expectancy back then isnot what it is now.
She could be 50.
She could be 60.
(11:00):
She could be 70 or 80.
We don't know.
We do know she is past the timeof women having children.
She is old, but when thishappens her heart is full of
belief and she praises God fortaking away her shame.
Next, the angel does not go backto the temple.
This might be what some wouldhave expected to happen.
(11:23):
The angel would go back andmaybe talk to a rabbi or a
Pharisee or somebody else in thereligious elite.
But the angel goes now to ayoung woman named Mary in
Nazareth, a town in Galilee, andyou may have heard, because I
grew up hearing this, that Marywas probably a young girl 12, 13
(11:45):
, just after startingmenstruation.
As I researched this, lookingat the Roman world as a whole
and then Jewish writings aroundthis time period, it's much more
likely that Mary was a lateteenager when the angel came to
her Women the average age ofmarrying was late teenager,
(12:08):
maybe even early 20s.
So we're talking 17 to 19 at theyoungest.
And this is important becauseGod did not impregnate a young
child.
It was not a little 13-year-oldgirl whose body is not ready,
physiologically ready.
She may be having periods, butthat doesn't mean her body is
(12:28):
mature enough to carry a baby.
And, yes, god couldmiraculously protect Mary and
all of those things.
But the precedent stands.
God is not making a young child, a 13-year-old girl, get
pregnant.
He is not advocating for this.
He is not sexualizing children.
(12:49):
We are dealing with a youngwoman of marriageable age.
Even today, the age of consentis generally 16 to 18, depending
on your state and your country.
So Mary is definitely at ourmodern age of consent.
If you look at scholarly sourcesdiscussing average age of
(13:10):
marriage, we don't have specificevidence for Mary individually.
The average age of marriage isaround 16 to 22 years old, more
likely 18, 19, 20 in that range.
And this is important.
She is mature enough to consent.
She's old enough to understandwhat is going on.
A 13-year-old girl is stillreally young intellectually,
physically, emotionally, all ofthat.
(13:31):
And brain science tells us nowbrains don't fully mature till
mid-20s.
But back in the ancient worldlife expectancies are short.
People are getting married,especially women, younger, not
like preteen, young teenager,but late teens, early 20s,
rather than average marriage ageof late 20s, early 30s for
women now.
So Mary is late teen, early 20swhen the angel comes to her.
(13:58):
This is significant and I dowant to emphasize that because
it's easy and we see thisconstantly in purity culture and
in our churches for young girlsfor 10, 12, 13, 14 year old
girls to be sexualized from thepulpit in purity culture.
And God is not doing that.
I need you to see that God isnot doing that.
He is coming to a physicallyready, mature young woman.
(14:20):
She's still young, but she is awoman.
She is not a child.
And he's coming to her and theangel appears to marry in
Nazareth.
It says she is pledged to bemarried to a man named Joseph.
We don't know exactly what allthis included.
Later, rabbinic teachings teachthat the engagement is as solid
(14:42):
as marriage.
They're just not cohabitatingand acting married physically
yet.
But it's a very serious thing.
It's not just a flippant likeyou can break off an engagement
today.
There's a lot more going on.
You don't just break off anengagement so it says that she
is pledged to be married to aman named Joseph, who is a
(15:04):
descendant of David, and thevirgin's name was Mary.
The angel came to her verse 28,and said greetings to you who
are highly favored, the Lord iswith you Now.
Mary is greatly troubled at hiswords and wondered what kind of
greeting this might be, whichmakes a lot of sense because it
seems like she's alone, so shemay not be in her house.
She would rarely have solitudeat her house.
(15:26):
She's living with family,extended family, so she's
probably alone.
When he comes to her she couldbe out in a field.
This is a very vulnerable placefor a young girl, for a young
woman to be Young girl, woman,any woman to be alone out away
from family and friends.
And so she's looking at thisangel, which she doesn't seem to
(15:48):
be as afraid, so maybe he's notbeing as angel-y as he was for
Zachariah, maybe just more of adude.
Either way, she's alone with aman who's not a relative, who
she does not know, and he saysgreetings, you are highly
favored, the Lord is with you.
And she's kind of like, oh boy,what's going on?
She's troubled at his words andwonders what kind of greeting
this might be.
And the angel said to her don'tbe afraid, mary, you have found
(16:09):
favor with God.
You will conceive and givebirth to a son and you are to
call him Jesus.
Which Jesus?
The Greek word for Jesus istransliterated from the Hebrew
word Joshua, the Hebrew nameJoshua.
You will name him Joshua, whichis the Lord saves.
Read that into the text.
You will name him.
(16:31):
You will call him Jesus.
You will call him the Lordsaves.
He will be great and will becalled the son of the most high.
The Lord God will give him thethrone of his father, david.
He will reign over Jacob'sdescendants forever.
His kingdom will never end.
Mary looks at him and asks howwill this be?
She asked the angel, since I ama virgin.
Honest question.
(16:51):
She's alone with a malepresenting figure.
How is this going to happen?
That's a valid question whichis to be in contrasted with
Zachariah's question.
He asked how can I be sure ofthis?
I'm an old man, my wife isalong in years.
He's also presenting the issue,but he is presenting it out of
disbelief.
(17:13):
Mary is presenting obvious factI am a virgin.
Are you about to change that?
This is a safety question,she's wondering are you about to
attack me?
You have mighty words, but howis this working out?
Am I in physical danger here?
The angel answers her.
(17:33):
The Holy Spirit will come uponyou.
He answers her question.
It's an honest question, likelyborn out of very tangible fear,
with very good reasons, and hecomforts.
He says the Holy Spirit willcome upon you.
The power of the Most High willovershadow you.
I'm not going to touch you.
So the Holy One to be born willbe called the Son of God.
Even Elizabeth, your relative,is going to have a child in her
(17:57):
old age and she, who is said tobe unable to conceive, is in her
sixth month.
For no word of God will everfail.
Mary replies with faith.
I am the Lord's servant, sheanswered.
Let your word be to mefulfilled.
She consents.
She says yes, I will do theplan.
Now that I understand the plan,her question is not a pushback,
(18:18):
it's a hold on.
Her question is not a pushback,it's a hold on.
Male presenting figure, womanalone.
I'm a virgin.
You're saying I better have ababy.
I only know of one way havingbabies happens.
And is that what's going onhere?
And the angel's like no, fullstop, not what's going on here
and she's like oh, I trust God,I am his servant, I consent to
(18:40):
his plan.
She provides consent to what ishappening.
The angel eases her mind, easesher heart and leaves.
So we have two completelycontrasting receptions to the
angel Gabriel.
He comes with messages toZechariah, who is in as close
(19:02):
physically to God as you canpossibly get in the temple in
Jerusalem as a priest.
Then the angel comes to Mary,who is far away.
She's in Galilee.
You have to go through someGentile territory or go really
far out of your way to get toGalilee from Jerusalem.
She's quite a distance away.
She's in a little town, kind ofa suburb of the big town,
(19:23):
tiberias, more than a suburb.
It's a distance away, but it'snear enough to Tiberias.
She's living out there.
She's in Galilee.
Nobody thinks very highly ofNazareth or Galilee.
She's lowly.
We don't know what class she is.
She's likely peasant class,maybe artisan class.
Generally classes you have likethe ruling class, you have the
(19:45):
retainer class, you have priests.
So rulers, retainers, priests,artisans, peasants, day laborers
and then the very poor.
So that's kind of a rundown ofthe class system they're dealing
with.
So she's probably peasant class, maybe artisan, maybe day
laborer, somewhere in that lowerclass.
So she lives in Nazareth andGod is not trying to be with the
(20:12):
elites.
He's coming to a young woman, awoman whose voice doesn't mean
anything in a court of law shecan't testify in a court of law
who is unmarried, she has nostatus.
We know nothing of her familybackground, except that she's a
descendant of David.
So we have David's covenantscoming into play and we know
(20:36):
that she is engaged to bemarried to Joseph.
So let's talk about Josephbriefly.
Joseph, matthew tells us, is agodly man.
Some traditions say he's anolder, widowed man who marries
Mary.
Some believe he was just ayoung man, typical marriage age.
(20:57):
We don't know.
Text doesn't tell us.
Various church traditions arecompletely split on how old he
is, whether they actually everconsummated their marriage and
had children following.
I'm going to leave all thatalone because it really doesn't
pertain to this story inparticular.
But we know that Joseph is arighteous man.
(21:17):
Matthew 1 tells us that he findsout Mary is pregnant and Joseph
now has a conundrum the womanhe's betrothed to is pregnant.
He knows the baby's not his andso he's like okay, that's a lot
of shame.
Potential Like this is a bigcost if I marry her.
(21:38):
I'm not sure I'm okay with thatinheritance.
Blah blah, blah, blah blah.
He's thinking I'm just going todivorce her as quietly as I can
.
So their engagement is it'ssomething that's divorce you.
It's not like I'm just going togive the ring back and we're
done being engaged.
He has to go through legalproceedings to physically
divorce her, so he'scontemplating how he can do this
(21:59):
as quietly as possible to notput any more shame on her than
an unmarried woman already wouldhave, having an illegitimate
pregnancy.
He goes to bed one night and anangel of the Lord appears to him
.
We don't know that it wasGabriel in this case it could
have been, but the text doesn'ttell us.
The angel appears to him andsaid Joseph, son of David, do
(22:20):
not be afraid to take Mary homeas your wife.
This is Matthew 1.20.
Because what is conceived inher is from the Holy Spirit.
She will give birth to a sonand you will give him the name
Jesus.
The Lord saves, because he willsave his people from their sins
.
The text goes on.
All this took place to fulfillwhat the Lord said through the
prophet.
The virgin will conceive andgive birth to a son, which they
(22:47):
will call him Emmanuel, whichmeans God with us.
So you have Joseph he is.
Later on we find out that he isa carpenter.
And when we hear the wordcarpenter today we think of
somebody who makes like cabinetsand tables and chairs, and I
don't know that they had a wholelot of cabinets.
Wood was fairly scarce inIsrael.
(23:08):
They joke in Israel that theirmost prevalent resource is rocks
.
So it's much more likely Josephis not the carpenter you see in
the paintings where he's likemaking a chair and a table.
He's a stonesmith, he is aconstruction contractor.
It's likely he was of theartisan class, which is a very
(23:29):
interesting when you think classdynamics place to be Some of
the research I've done, which,if you're interested in any of
the research, you can go towewhothirstcom slash links,
wewhothirstcom slash links orthe link in my profile on social
media and you can get to.
I have a document with a fullbibliography of all of my
sources and written explanationsof a lot of this information.
(23:51):
I'm verbally telling you on thepodcast so you can get your
hands on these sources.
But some of the things I'veread talked about how the
artisan class was a class thatenabled someone to kind of go
between the higher rulingclasses and the lower, less
powerful classes, so it's kindof this in-between class.
And so for that to be whereJoseph is is very interesting,
(24:11):
because Jesus would then haveJoseph's social class which, for
everything God had for Jesus todo, being in that middle ground
social class Abel, because aconstruction contractor, is
going to have to be dealing withthe rulers.
They're the ones who are payingfor these giant projects to
happen.
(24:31):
He also is going to be hiringday laborers to do the work, and
so he's right in the middlebetween these classes, which
socially gives a lot of room toinfluence and to communicate
with both classes.
Joseph is, we're assuming,living in Nazareth, nazareth, as
(24:51):
I said, in Nazareth.
Nazareth, as I said, is nearbyTiberias.
That is where Herod Antipasends up living.
It was being built right aroundthis time, and so he as a
stonemason, as a constructioncontractor, could have been.
We don't know for sure, but hecould have been working in
Tiberias or other large.
The Romans had lots ofconstruction projects going on,
(25:13):
working on those constructionprojects.
So think of him as aconstruction contractor
traveling to Tiberias to work onthese major Roman projects.
Don't think of him as havinghis own little shop in his house
where he's making chairs.
Think of him as he's going towork on major construction
projects and work with a wholelot of people, lots of social
(25:37):
impact.
So that's who Joseph is, and hedecides after hearing from the
angel.
I'm going to take Mary as mywife, and it says verse 24,.
Then when Joseph woke up, hedid what the angel of the Lord
had commanded him and took Maryhome as a wife.
He is officially marrying her,according to Matthew 1.
(26:08):
This is before the baby is born.
They are officially married,which indicates he is also
claiming the baby her baby ashis own.
This is not viewed in theirculture as an illegitimate child
.
He is either adopting or sayingyeah, it's my kid.
If you got your fiancé pregnantbefore you're officially
(26:30):
married, the culture didn'tprefer you did that.
They prefer you wait till youare actually married and living
together.
But you're engaged, it's legalFine.
And so he's basically claimingthis kid that isn't actually his
kid.
He knows it's not his kid, buthe's adopting.
He's claiming.
He's saying this is my son, andwe see this later on in the
(26:53):
gospels.
Saying this is my son, and wesee this later on in the gospels
.
If there was any doubt thatJesus was illegitimate.
That would have been thrown inhis face all the time from his
enemies in his ministry.
But what did they throw in hisface?
We know who your father is.
Your father is Joseph.
He is considered completelyJoseph's son, and so Joseph is
taking all of the weight of that.
(27:14):
He's saying I'm going to claimthis baby as my own, even though
it's not my baby.
I am going to absorb any of theshame and ridicule for her
getting pregnant early beforeour wedding.
I am going to take all of thaton and this baby.
And so Joseph marries her, andwe don't know when Joseph and
(27:39):
the dream happened versus whenMary visits Elizabeth.
I wanted to talk about Josephbefore we talk about Mary
visiting Elizabeth.
They could have been happeningat the same time, that he could
have married her, and then shewent to visit Elizabeth after
they were officially married.
We don't know exactly, becauseMatthew 1 talks about Joseph and
the angel and then it's Luke 1that we go back to for Mary
(28:02):
visiting Elizabeth.
And so somewhere in there,joseph has this dream.
He decides to marry.
They are officially married,either right after she gets back
from Elizabeth this happens orright before she goes to visit
Elizabeth.
They start cohabitating, livingin the same house, husband and
wife, and somewhere in there shealso Mary goes and visits
(28:24):
Elizabeth.
So Mary hears from the angelthat Elizabeth, her cousin, her
relative, is pregnant.
So Mary gets ready and hurriesto the town in the hill country
of Judah.
We're back in Luke chapter,verse 39, chapter one.
She hurried to a town in thehill country of Judah where she
entered Elizabeth's home andgreeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary'sgreeting, the baby leapt in her
(28:47):
womb and Elizabeth was filledwith the Holy Spirit.
In a loud voice she exclaimedblessed are you among women.
Blessed is the child you willbear.
But why am I so favored thatthe mother of my Lord should
come to me?
As soon as the sound of yourgreeting reached my ears, the
baby in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed is she who believedthat the Lord would fulfill his
promises to her.
I love everything Elizabethsays here.
(29:11):
It is all of so much truth.
When the women speak they aredropping theological bombs left
and right.
There's even a subtle jab inhere towards Elizabeth's husband
.
She says blessed is she whobelieves that the Lord would
fulfill his promises, unlike myhusband who can't talk because
(29:31):
he didn't believe, and who can'ttalk because he didn't believe.
Blessed are you and blessed isthe child you bear.
Why am I favored that themother of my Lord, elizabeth, is
calling out the identity ofJesus?
It is a woman who is the firstto call out the identity,
(29:56):
besides the angel, the identityof Jesus.
These women took what they heardfrom the Lord, understood what
was going on and proclaimed itto each other.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Zachariah was given theopportunity and he did not
believe.
I was given the opportunity andhe did not believe.
Women are the ones who stood upto say blessed be the name of
(30:18):
the Lord.
This is what he is doing.
I see it, I proclaim it.
It is here, it is now.
Mary turns and gives theMagnificat.
She says my soul glorifies theLord and my spirit rejoices in
God, my Savior, and she launchesinto this poem that I'm not
(30:39):
going to break down for us, butit deals with themes of the
mighty being made low and thepoor being exalted, god's
faithfulness and upending thepower structures of the world,
and Mary and Elizabeth may havebeen thinking of the Messiah
coming to overthrow Rome and allof those things.
(30:59):
They may not have fullyunderstand what Jesus' kingdom
looked like.
And we see this later on whenMary and Jesus are having
conversations and he's like holdon, you don't get what's
happening here.
Nobody did.
They had a particular pictureof how the Messiah would
function.
But they do see messianic hope.
And whereas Jesus wasn't thereto topple the Roman government,
(31:20):
he was there to upend allsystems.
He was there to say the firstshall be last and the last shall
be first.
The greatest in the kingdom isthe servant.
Of all.
Those words, those ideas, arereflected in Mary's song.
Listen, mary said my soulglorifies the Lord, my spirit
rejoices in God, my Savior, forhe has been mindful of the
(31:42):
humblest state of his servant.
From now on, all generationswill call me blessed, for the
mighty one has done great thingsfor me.
Holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those whofear him from generation to
generation.
He has performed mighty deedswith his arm.
He has scattered those.
Again you have these reversals.
He has helped his servant,israel, remembering to be
(32:16):
faithful to Abraham and hisdescendants forever, just as he
promised our ancestors.
Mary is picking up themes fromthe old testament.
She is understanding how thecoming of the messiah is going
to flip everything on its head.
She doesn't fully get the wholepicture nobody did but she sees
that God is doing somethingunique.
God is elevating the voices ofwomen and the lowly and those
(32:37):
you expect to be the onesheralding are silent.
The places where you wouldexpect God to first appear, he's
not there.
God is not in the temple, theway he is in the womb of a young
woman from Podunkville inGalilee.
(32:58):
God, as he said to Joseph, iswith his people.
He is coming to be with them.
The lowly, the weak, thevulnerable these are the people
(33:22):
that God is coming to be with.
Mary stayed with Elizabeth forabout three months and then
returned home.
Elizabeth was about six months,five or six months with Mary
gets there.
Mary could have stayed throughthe end of the pregnancy, helped
with the birth and the newborn.
She could have done all that,which would have been great
preparation for her to have herbaby.
And then she goes home to bewith Joseph and either get
married to him then or they werealready married when she went
to visit Elizabeth.
(33:44):
And that sets the stage for ournext episode, where we're going
to deal with Luke 2 and Jesus'actual birth.
So as you process Luke 1,matthew 1, think through the
themes of Jesus is coming tosave his people, not from the
Romans but from their sins.
He is coming to be with them,not dwell in a temple where only
(34:06):
certain people have access, butwith his people in their very
bodies.
He's coming in the womb of awoman, in her body, so that
later the spirit will come andindwell the church, indwell the
people of God.
The theme of God being with hispeople.
He is not separated, he is notfar away, he is not.
(34:28):
The whole idea that God is soholy he has to be away from his
people is actually counter towhat we see in scripture.
God is continually drawing nearand he starts by elevating the
voices of these women, by givingthem powerful words and
recognition of what he is doingand by being physically present
(34:49):
among them.
Come back next time.
We're going to talk about Luke2.
Was Jesus born in a barn?
Was he born in a house?
We're going to talk about it.
I will see you then.
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