Luke 1:34-38

Transcript

00:00:00:41 – 00:00:25:24
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. We are making our way again through the Gospel of Luke, kind of the heart of the story, a story that by virtue of our Christmas season is, I think, well known among the better known parts of the gospel from a cultural sense. But we continue today in verse 34, chapter one. Just a quick recap.

00:00:25:24 – 00:00:58:10
Clint Loveall
Remember that yesterday we saw Gabriel come to Mary to pronounce to her that this intention that God had to include her in the plan, the delivery of the Messiah, literally in her case. And we continue that conversation today. Mary said to the angel, How can this be since I’m a virgin? The angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you in the power of the most high will overshadow you.

00:00:58:33 – 00:01:19:51
Clint Loveall
Therefore, the child to be born will be holy. He will be called the Son of God. And now your relative, Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month for her, who was said to be barren for nothing will be impossible with God. Then Mary said, Here I am, the servant of the Lord.

00:01:20:25 – 00:01:57:03
Clint Loveall
Let it be with me, according to your word. Then the angel departed from her. So maybe we can work backwards here, Mike. I think, you know, the. The signature piece of this story is Mary’s answer. Here I am. Let it be with me. According to your word. A tremendous affirmation of faith, a tremendous acceptance on her part. Also, I think a reminder and an instructive one at that, that Mary is not an unwitting participant.

00:01:57:34 – 00:02:31:33
Clint Loveall
God is not telling Mary what she has to do. This answer has generally been seen to indicate that Mary has a choice in this. Now, there would be people who would argue both sides of that, but I think in order for this to be what Christians profess it to be, Mary has to say yes. And in saying yes, she demonstrates a great deal of faith, of faithfulness, of courage, of trust, I think.

00:02:32:54 – 00:02:54:30
Clint Loveall
I think her answer really epitomizes the way in which Christians have aspired to receive their callings from God. Let it be, as you’ve said, here I am. And I think clearly, Michael, we should celebrate that and we should commend Mary for that.

00:02:54:45 – 00:03:17:22
Michael Gewecke
I think there’s a couple things here worth mentioning. The first is that this connection to the Old Testament and here am I is prevalent are we had that genocide all the time, talked about how different characters of the covenant were. God would speak to them and they would respond. Here I am or, you know, essentially I’m here, I’m listening.

00:03:17:22 – 00:03:43:19
Michael Gewecke
And here this being in Mary’s mouth is a clear awareness that she is now connected in that vast story of people who respond to God. Yet having the words of the Old Testament scriptures, her scriptures on her lips, makes it clear she herself is a person of faith. She knows the story. And then, of course, yeah, to your point, Clint, you also have this response in the positive.

00:03:43:21 – 00:04:23:12
Michael Gewecke
And I think it’s important to note that this must be interpreted in light of what came before, where you have another person, Zacharias, who also received a word from the Lord, who also asks a question of the angel, and in that case is severely rebuked because we’re told that his question came from a spirit of unbelief. And what is not said of Mary is that her response, her question, which we had earlier in this text, is a question or a statement of unbelief, but rather it is leading to a statement of faith may be one of the pivotal statements of faith in the early gospel.

00:04:23:12 – 00:04:40:57
Michael Gewecke
And so I think that it’s worth noting that the way that this story has been constructed from the beginning of chapter one, verse one to now is intentional. And I think we need to read Mary and this moment in light of the story that we had before, because there’s beautiful comparisons and contrasts in that.

00:04:41:13 – 00:05:08:34
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I’m glad you brought that up. Mike. I was going to mention that it, it on the surface could seem that Zachariah and Mary get treated differently, but the language matters here. And she says, How can this be Zachariah? You’ll remember, ask, How will I know this is true? How will I know this is so? So there is a difference in the motivation of the question.

00:05:08:35 – 00:05:38:58
Clint Loveall
And I think that matters. And clearly, neither the angel nor God nor Luke take this on Mary’s part to be any sort of reservation or to be any sort of doubt rather a question of amazement of how how can this happen. The other the other tie in again, Michael, this I think, undergirds what you what you just said in regard to the Old Testament.

00:05:38:58 – 00:06:26:33
Clint Loveall
The idea of barrenness is not really in pushback on this. If it if you can think of exceptions. The theme of barrenness is not really a New Testament theme. And the idea here that the angel invalidating this pronouncement to Mary points to Elizabeth, who was barren, has rich deep Old Testament overtones. Barrenness gets talked about as maybe a spiritual condition at times, but we we just don’t see that in the New Testament the way if you were with us through the Book of Genesis especially, it’s just written all over the early part of the Old Testament.

00:06:26:33 – 00:06:49:15
Clint Loveall
And for that to be the evidence, given that you can know this is true because Elizabeth, who was barren, is now in her sixth month of pregnancy. The idea that that’s the proof that the angel offers, I think has a very clear implications to the ties of the Old Testament.

00:06:49:26 – 00:07:11:45
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I think it does as well. I think that the reality of the New Testament, though, I never really thought of it quite in these terms, clean, you know, in John, you have Nicodemus having a conversation with Jesus about, you know, being born again. And you do have in the Pauline letters this emphasis upon rebirth, you thought idea of baptism, dying, being rose again.

00:07:12:07 – 00:07:40:04
Michael Gewecke
And I think what’s fascinating about this story here is as as we tell, as Luke tells us the story of Jesus being born, it’s the last womb being filled for the next step of God’s redemption plan, that that period of barrenness of waiting is now come to an end. Because in Jesus, all of the hopes of salvation for all humanity has now been fulfilled.

00:07:40:04 – 00:07:52:28
Michael Gewecke
So, Mary, in being told this is in some ways hearing that now the next chapter is here, and I think that’s a beautiful turn in the cosmic story, not just Luke’s story.

00:07:52:30 – 00:08:22:06
Clint Loveall
Yeah, clearly the idea that there have been people waiting for something in the Michael story, Zachariah in Elizabeth in the macro story, all of Israel waiting for the arrival and now both are being fulfilled. And and at the intersection are these two women kings, women in the text and the next part of the story. And you know this is one of those moments, Michael, where we could spend a great deal of time.

00:08:22:06 – 00:08:49:36
Clint Loveall
But but let me read through it and then there is a great deal here. In those days, Mary set out and went to the house of in went with haste to a Judean town to the hill country where she entered the house of Zachariah and greeted Elizabeth when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child in her womb, leaped and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed was a loud cry.

00:08:49:37 – 00:09:12:59
Clint Loveall
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 for as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.

00:09:13:01 – 00:09:49:40
Clint Loveall
So this is a this is a wonderfully crafted text. There are not, unfortunately, a great deal of texts where the Bible shines the full spotlight upon women and women only. There are a couple of those moments in the gospel, but this may be the most profound of them. The mother of John the Baptist and the mother of Jesus gather together in a home and it says an amazing thing here.

00:09:50:04 – 00:10:16:48
Clint Loveall
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. That is not language that is often pointed at female characters in the Scripture. And again, it is unfortunately kind of a product of that time. And the way they told the story and the culture maybe of the day. But this is not only an incredible text, Michael, but in many ways this is an unusual text.

00:10:16:48 – 00:10:50:27
Clint Loveall
I mean, this is one of those moments where everything kind of gets put on hold and we really dial the focus down to these two incredible women who are doing these two incredible things, both now firmly embracing the plan of God and the unfolding of the coming of the Messiah in their own way. And for them to be together in this moment is a really intimate and really beautiful portrait that Luke takes the time to paint for us here.

00:10:50:36 – 00:11:10:21
Michael Gewecke
I was also going to hone on hone in excuse me on that verse, but I think what’s fascinating, Glenn, is if we look at this, it’s not just that this is being told about the women, which is beautiful, as you said, but also we just had the introduction of the Holy Spirit, which should surprise us because bear with me.

00:11:10:21 – 00:11:34:21
Michael Gewecke
If you get to the end of Luke’s gospel, which becomes a bridge in two acts, you’re going to remember that Jesus tells the disciples, Wait in Jerusalem, and I will send my spirit. I will send my helper who will be with you. Here we are. We’re not even past the first chapter of the Book of Luke, and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit.

00:11:34:31 – 00:11:55:58
Michael Gewecke
And so the very thing that God’s that Jesus is going to promise his disciples the 12, while the 11 at that point, those are going to be the very ones who receive the spirit. Elizabeth here is, we’re told, filled with that same spirit. And I think that this does a lot theologically. I think it does a lot to show us the scope of God’s salvation plan.

00:11:55:58 – 00:12:14:58
Michael Gewecke
There’s a lot there. But I do think that it’s worth just pause and reflecting upon the fact that Luke, who knows the end of the Luke story, knows the beginning of the story, he is still telling us that the Holy Spirit is alive network here. That says a lot theologically. And who is included to your point, Clint? It absolutely matters.

00:12:15:46 – 00:13:01:21
Clint Loveall
There’s another similar kind of moment here, Michael and because we know Christmas, because we’ve seen the nativity sets, we’ve sung the songs, we’ve heard the hymns, we’ve seen the pictures, you can easily read by this phrase, the mother of my Lord. But when you think in the context of the unfolding story, what that means that Elizabeth, a Jewish woman, would would be able to say that the mother of the Lord, that the Lord has a mother is is something we take for granted because we’re familiar with the concept.

00:13:01:21 – 00:13:17:18
Clint Loveall
But in the moment here, it really is a remarkable, I think, of a stunning kind of statement. If you hear it as if hearing it for the first time, it really they are amazing.

00:13:17:18 – 00:13:44:00
Michael Gewecke
Words and this is most certainly an older woman speaking to a woman much her junior. I mean, here you have a woman who’s long in her entire life to have a child. And now this young girl not even yet married. And and this woman who Mary would have at this moment being pregnant, not married, and drifted even lower in the Jewish societal structure.

00:13:44:13 – 00:14:15:48
Michael Gewecke
She being addressed as the mother of my Lord, that your right to point that out? I think we should be astonished by what it might mean socially, what it means theologically, what it means that the Lord will have a mother, that that God will be born, take on flesh, that that God will, as a baby, look into the eyes of a teenage girl and find hope, nurture, support, strength, all of those things that we attribute in our own lives and families.

00:14:15:48 – 00:14:40:39
Michael Gewecke
I think, man, what the edge of language to describe that. But it’s a beautiful, mysterious it’s a beautiful, mysterious image. And I think it’s worth slowing down to see it. And I do want to emphasize, I cannot think of in the New Testament many I’m not going to say any other stories where we get to see women alone in the conversation.

00:14:40:44 – 00:14:55:51
Michael Gewecke
You have Mary Martha, but Jesus is there. I mean, you have the women. There are. Yeah. I can’t think of one offhand, but but regardless, this does stand as a beautiful example of a of a story told like this, I think.

00:14:56:04 – 00:15:22:03
Clint Loveall
I think this stands out as unique. Certainly there are other stories that women are involved in, but there’s nothing else like this. And speaking of language, Michael, and I don’t want to in any way have this come across as critical. But, you know, at this point in the story, we have details. And if you continue to put those details in conversation with one another, it’s interesting.

00:15:22:26 – 00:15:55:13
Clint Loveall
So we go into the house of Zachariah and Zachariah, who cannot yet speak, has his wife filled with the Holy Spirit proclaiming what God is doing. So we we have a mute priest while the wife of the mute priests filled with the spirit and prophesying over the mother of the Lord. I mean, you know, you kind of either get it or you don’t.

00:15:55:13 – 00:16:20:22
Clint Loveall
But we don’t want to over overdo it. But it is it is a remarkable moment. It’s an incredible snapshot. Luke has done, I think, a beautiful job of giving us the details of of painting the picture for us. And this is I hope we can convey to some extent what a unique and interesting text this is for some of those reasons.

00:16:20:34 – 00:16:42:16
Michael Gewecke
You know, another thing I think that’s worth pointing out here, Clint, is the fact that this story is told as if it’s happening in real time. And the narration of that matters because we see that Mary goes with haste, she moves quickly, she enters the house, she’s greeted, and when she hears Mary’s greeting, that’s all we hear is she hears Mary’s greeting.

00:16:42:16 – 00:17:02:29
Michael Gewecke
We’re not there’s not a sense that they, you know, slow down. They grab a cup of tea, they sit down, they’re having a conversation. We get the sense that immediately, almost at the door, that’s when Elizabeth, a child, leaps into her room and then she exclaims, Blessed is the fruit of your womb that the mother of my Lord comes to me.

00:17:02:31 – 00:17:27:46
Michael Gewecke
She she is saying a thing that she does not even know yet. And that’s you use the word prophesy. That’s the exact right word. She’s telling us the thing that we that Luke has essentially told us that she doesn’t know. And so what could have been read as Mary getting this word and in fear and then anxiety, rushing off to an older woman to find comfort and hope.

00:17:27:46 – 00:17:57:49
Michael Gewecke
And, you know, what do I do next with my life? We are told as a story of apps, salutes, celebration, because the moment she gets there, Elizabeth already knows and Elizabeth is already celebrating. She’s already rejoicing. And that is the tone that revolutionizes what we might expect as the reader. And Luke is pushing back against some idea that Mary is the underdog here, that Mary is in some way gotten short shrift.

00:17:57:50 – 00:18:06:08
Michael Gewecke
It is clear, as Luke tells us the story, that Mary has been favored and that favor brings joy and celebration.

00:18:07:22 – 00:18:44:07
Clint Loveall
One of the one of the struggles that will have really, I think any time we read a scripture, Michael, especially parts of the scripture we’re familiar with, is that we stand in the we stand under the benefit of thousands of years of people thinking about these words. And so we know words like incarnation and Trinity and the dual nature of Jesus things, things that for the life of the Christian church, people have thrown themselves against and and tried to discern.

00:18:44:31 – 00:19:10:53
Clint Loveall
But if if you can if you can to some extent step back from that and enter the mystery of these words as if we didn’t have all of that, I think, you know, you get a sense of what a stunning and incredible, amazing story this is. We don’t yet know at this point in Luke’s narrative what any of this means.

00:19:11:09 – 00:19:14:13
Clint Loveall
We don’t know what the Holy Spirit is. We don’t.

00:19:14:30 – 00:19:15:05
Michael Gewecke
Exactly.

00:19:15:05 – 00:19:46:28
Clint Loveall
We just we have to if we can separate ourselves from some of the assumptions that we’ve been handed about the text. And we’re grateful for those assumptions because they guide our faith. But sometimes they make it more difficult for the text to really just astound us and confuse us. You, as Mary, as we saw yesterday in Mary, to be perplexed and ponder what it means that that really is, I think, a good framework for approaching the text.

00:19:46:28 – 00:19:46:44
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I.

00:19:46:44 – 00:20:14:06
Michael Gewecke
Think it also helps us understand that Luke is not writing this gospel to people who have never heard anything about the faith. I mean, the idea of just including the Holy Spirit in the text like this, Sure. I think is a reasonable inclusion. If you believe that the readers of this would have heard the Holy Spirit before. And I do think that we need to remember that the Gospels are written for the faith community.

00:20:14:06 – 00:20:43:42
Michael Gewecke
They’re written so that we might know more of who Jesus Christ is and that that that authoritative truth of His life, of his power, of who he is and what he’s done might then therefore shape that community that that’s all at work here. It’s not just Luke writing it, saying that happened, it’s Luke writing a thing that happened to people who both know and need to be reminded and also need to be rethought out what that story is and why it matters.

00:20:43:42 – 00:20:59:07
Michael Gewecke
And that’s the exact same thing that happens when we come to a study like this. We seek to open up our hearts that maybe we too might hear again, and that in that hearing it might change and transform us to be the kind of community that can know, understand and hand on this faith.

00:20:59:22 – 00:21:23:20
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think that’s a good word because while Luke is doing some of the work of a historian, he’s not writing history in the sense that we understand that he’s he is writing a faith story. He is writing the story of the Messiah, the story of Christ, and that we’ll have occasions to get deeper into that conversation later.

00:21:23:20 – 00:21:27:14
Clint Loveall
But I think that’s a I think that’s a good thing to keep in mind.

00:21:27:57 – 00:21:48:37
Michael Gewecke
Friends, that’s where we’re going to pause today, hope that there’s been something encouraging, challenging in this for you. Certainly if you’ve enjoyed it or found it meaningful, give it a like that. Helps other people find the same study and do subscribe if you’re on YouTube if you’d like more studies like this. But that is all for today. We will see you when we continue on the verse for the six tomorrow.

00:21:48:41 – 00:21:56:33
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.