Verses 1-80
Chapter 1
1:1-4 Since many have
set their hands to the task of drawing up an account of the events which
were completed amongst us, telling the story just as those who were the
original eye-witnesses and who became the servants of the word handed
it down to us, I too made up my mind to carry out a careful
investigation of all things from the beginning, and to write to you,
Theophilus, your excellency, an orderly account of them, so that you
might have in your mind a full and reliable account of the things in
which you have been instructed.
Luke's introduction is unique in the first three gospels
because it is the only place where the author steps out upon the stage
and uses the pronoun "I." There are three things to note in this
passage.
(i) It is the best bit of Greek in the New Testament. Luke uses
here the very form of introduction which the great Greek historians all
used. Herodotus begins, "These are the researches of Herodotus of
Halicarnassus." A much later historian, Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
tells us at the beginning of his history, "Before beginning to write I
gathered information, partly from the lips of the most learned men with
whom I came into contact, and partly from histories written by Romans of
whom they spoke with praise." So Luke, as he began his story in the
most sonorous Greek, followed the highest models he could find.
It is as if Luke said to himself, "I am writing the greatest
story in the world and nothing but the best is good enough for it." Some
of the ancient manuscripts are very beautiful productions, written in
silver ink on purple vellum; and often the scribe, when he came to the
name of God or of Jesus, wrote it in gold. Dr. Boreham tells of an old
workman who, every Friday night, took the newest and shiniest coins out
of his pay packet for Sunday's offering in church. The historian, the
scribe and the workman were all filled with the same idea--only the best
is good enough for Jesus. They always gave their utmost for the
highest.
(ii) It is most significant that Luke was not satisfied with
anyone else's story of Christ. He must have his own. Real religion is
never a second-hand thing. It is a personal discovery. Professor Arthur
Gossip of Trinity College, Glasgow used to say that the four gospels
were important, but beyond them all came the gospel of personal
experience. Luke had to rediscover Jesus Christ for himself.
(iii) There is no passage of the Bible which sheds such a
floodlight on the doctrine of the inspiration of scripture. No one would
deny that the gospel of Luke is an inspired document; and yet Luke
begins by affirming that it is the product of the most careful
historical research. God's inspiration does not come to the man who sits
with folded hands and lazy mind and only waits, but to the man who
thinks and seeks and searches. True inspiration comes when the seeking
mind of man joins with the revealing Spirit of God. The word of God is
given, but it is given to the man who is seeking for it. "Seek and you
shall find" (Matthew 7:7).
1:5-25 In the time of
Herod, the king of Judaea, there was a priest called Zacharias, who
belonged to the section of Abia. His wife was also a direct descendant
of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth. Both of them were good people
before God, for they walked blamelessly in all the commandments and
ordinances of the Lord. They had no child because Elizabeth was barren
and both of them were far advanced in years. When he was acting as
priest before God, when his section was on duty, in accordance with the
custom of priestly duty, it fell to him by lot to go into the Temple of
the Lord to burn the incense. The whole congregation of the people was
praying outside at the hour when incense was offered. The angel of the
Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of
incense. When Zacharias saw him he was deeply moved and awe fell upon
him. The angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, because your
request has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and
you must call him by the name of John. You will have joy and exultation
and many will rejoice at his birth. He will be great in God's sight; he
must not drink wine or strong drink and, even from the time he is in his
mother's womb, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn
many sons of Israel to the Lord their God; and he himself will go before
his face in the spirit and the power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of
the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the
just, to get ready a people prepared for the Lord." Zacharias said to
the angel, "How will I know that this is going to happen? For I am an
old man and my wife is far advanced in years." "I am Gabriel," the angel
answered, "who stands before God, and I have been sent to speak to you
and to tell you this good news. And--look you--you will be silent and
unable to speak until the day these things happen, because you did not
believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time." The people
were waiting for Zacharias and they were surprised that he was lingering
so long in the Temple. When he came out he was not able to speak to
them and they realized that he had seen a vision in the Temple. He kept
making signs to them but he remained unable to speak. When the days of
his time of service were completed he went away to his own home. After
these days Elizabeth his wife conceived; and she hid herself for five
months. "This is God's doing for me," she said, when he looked upon me
to take away my shame among men.
Zacharias, the central character in this scene, was a priest.
He belonged to the section of Abia. Every direct descendant of Aaron was
automatically a priest. That meant that for all ordinary purposes there
were far too many priests. They were therefore divided into twenty-four
sections. Only at the Passover, at Pentecost and at the Feast of
Tabernacles did all the priests serve. For the rest of the year each
course served two periods of one week each. Priests who loved their work
looked forward to that week of service above all things; it was the
highlight of their lives.
A priest might marry only a woman of absolutely pure Jewish
lineage. It was specially meritorious to marry a woman who was also a
descendant of Aaron, as was Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias.
There was as many as twenty thousand priests altogether and so
there were not far short of a thousand in each section. Within the
sections all the duties were allocated by lot. Every morning and evening
sacrifice was made for the whole nation. A burnt offering of a male
lamb, one year old, without spot or blemish was offered, together with a
meat offering of flour and oil and a drink offering of wine. Before the
morning sacrifice and after the evening sacrifice incense was burned on
the altar of incense so that, as it were, the sacrifices might go up to
God wrapped in an envelope of sweet-smelling incense. It was quite
possible that many a priest would never have the privilege of burning
incense all his life; but if the lot did fall on any priest that day was
the greatest day in all his life, the day he longed for and dreamed of.
On this day the lot fell on Zacharias and he would be thrilled to the
core of his being.
But in Zacharias's life there was tragedy. He and Elizabeth were
childless. The Jewish Rabbis said that seven people were excommunicated
from God and the list began, "A Jew who has no wife, or a Jew who has a
wife and who has no child." Childlessness was a valid ground for
divorce. Not unnaturally Zacharias, even on his great day, was thinking
of his personal and domestic tragedy and was praying about it. Then the
wondrous vision came and the glad message that, even when hope was dead,
a son would be born to him.
The incense was burned and the offering made in the inmost court
of the Temple, the Court of the Priests. While the sacrifice was being
made, the congregation thronged the next court, the Court of the
Israelites. It was the privilege of the priest at the evening sacrifice
to come to the rail between the two courts after the incense had been
burned in order to bless the people. The people marvelled that Zacharias
was so long delayed. When he came he could not speak and the people
knew that he had seen a vision. So in a wordless daze of joy Zacharias
finished his week's duty and went home; and then the message of God came
true and Elizabeth knew she was going to have a child.
One thing stands out here. It was in God's house that God's
message came to Zacharias. We may often wish that a message from God
would come to us. In Shaw's play, Saint Joan, Joan hears voices from
God. The Dauphin is annoyed. "Oh, your voices, your voices," he said,
"Why don't the voices come to me? I am king not you." "They do come to
you," said Joan, "but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the
field in the evening listening for them. When the angelus rings you
cross yourself and have done with it; but if you prayed from your heart,
and listened to the thrilling of the bells in the air after they stop
ringing, you would hear the voices as well as I do." Joan gave herself
the chance to hear God's voice. Zacharias was in the Temple waiting on
God. God's voice comes to those who listen for it--as Zacharias did--in
God's house.
1:26-38 In the sixth
month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called
Nazareth, to a maiden who was betrothed to a man called Joseph, who
belonged to the house of David. The maiden's name was Mary. He came in
to her and said, "Greetings, most favoured one. The Lord is with you."
She was deeply moved at this word and wondered what a greeting like that
could mean. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you
have found favour in God's sight. Look you--you will conceive and you
will bear a son and you must call him by the name of Jesus. He will be
great and he will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God
will give him the throne of David his father; and he will rule over the
house of Jacob forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom." Mary
said to the angel, "How can this be since I do not know a man?" The
angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the Spirit of
the Most High will overshadow you, and so the child who will be born
will be called holy, the Son of God, and--look you--Elizabeth, too, your
kinswoman has also conceived in her old age; and this is now the sixth
month for her who is called barren, because there is nothing which is
impossible with God." Mary said, "I am the Lord's servant. Whatever he
says, I accept." And the angel went away from her.
Mary was betrothed to Joseph. Betrothal lasted for a year and
was quite as binding as marriage. It could be dissolved only by divorce.
Should the man to whom a girl was betrothed die, in the eyes of the law
she was a widow. In the law there occurs the strange-sounding phrase,
"a virgin who is a widow."
In this passage we are face to face with one of the great
controversial doctrines of the Christian faith--the Virgin Birth. The
church does not insist that we believe in this doctrine. Let us look at
the reasons for and against believing in it, and then we may make our
own decision.
There are two great reasons for accepting it.
(i) The literal meaning of this passage, and still more of Matthew 1:18-25, clearly is that Jesus was to be born of Mary without a human father.
(ii) It is natural to argue that if Jesus was, as we believe, a
very special person, he would have a special entry into the world.
Now let us look at the things which may make us wonder if the
story of the virgin birth is to be taken as literally as all that.
(i) The genealogies of Jesus both in Luke and in Matthew (Luke 3:23-38; Matthew 1:1-17) trace the genealogy of Jesus through Joseph, which is strange if Joseph was not his real father.
(ii) When Mary was looking for Jesus on the occasion that he
lingered behind in the Temple, she said, "Your father and I have been
looking for you anxiously" (Luke 2:48). The name father is definitely given by Mary to Joseph.
(iii) Repeatedly Jesus is referred to as Joseph's son (Matthew 13:55; John 6:42).
(iv) The rest of the New Testament knows nothing of the virgin birth. True, in Galatians 4:4 Paul speaks of Jesus as "born of woman." But this is the natural phrase for any mortal man. (compare Job 14:1; Job 15:14; Job 25:4).
But let us ask, "If we do not take the story of the virgin birth
literally, how did it arise?" The Jews had a saying that in the birth
of every child there are three partners--the father, the mother and the
Spirit of God. They believed that no child could ever be born without
the Spirit. And it may well be that the New Testament stories of the
birth of Jesus are lovely, poetical ways of saying that, even if he had a
human father, the Holy Spirit of God was operative in his birth in a
unique way.
In this matter we may make our own decision. It may be that we
will desire to cling to the literal doctrine of the virgin birth; it may
be that we will prefer to think of it as a beautiful way of stressing
the presence of the Spirit of God in family life.
Mary's submission is a very lovely thing. "Whatever God says, I
accept." Mary had learned to forget the world's commonest prayer--"Thy
will be changed"--and to pray the world's greatest prayer--"Thy will be
done."
1:39-45 In those days
Mary arose and went eagerly to the hill country, to a city of Judah, and
went into the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth
heard Mary's greeting the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was
filled with the Holy Spirit, and she lifted up her voice with a great
cry and said, "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of
your womb. Why has this been granted to me that the mother of my Lord
should come to me? For--look you--when the voice of your greeting came
to my ears the babe in my womb leaped with exultation. Blessed is she
who believed that the things spoken to her from the Lord would find
their fulfilment."
This is a kind of lyrical song on the blessedness of Mary.
Nowhere can we better see the paradox of blessedness than in her life.
To Mary was granted the blessedness of being the mother of the Son of
God. Well might her heart be filled with a wondering, tremulous joy at
so great a privilege. Yet that very blessedness was to be a sword to
pierce her heart. It meant that some day she would see her son hanging
on a cross.
To be chosen by God so often means at one and the same time a
crown of joy and cross of sorrow. The piercing truth is that God does
not choose a person for ease and comfort and selfish joy but for a task
that will take all that head and heart and hand can bring to it. God
chooses a man in order to use him. When Joan of Arc knew that her time
was short she prayed, "I shall only last a year; use me as you can."
When that is realized, the sorrows and hardships that serving God may
bring are not matters for lamentation; they are our glory, for all is
suffered for God.
When Richard Cameron, the Covenanter, was caught by the dragoons
they killed him. He had very beautiful hands and they cut them off and
sent them to his father with a message asking if he recognized them.
"They are my son's," he said, "my own dear son's. Good is the will of
the Lord who can never wrong me or mine." The shadows of life were lit
by the sense that they, too, were in the plan of God. A great Spanish
saint prayed for his people, "May God deny you peace and give you
glory." A great modern preacher said, "Jesus Christ came not to make
life easy but to make men great."
It is the paradox of blessedness that it confers on a person at
one and the same time the greatest joy and the greatest task in all the
world.
1:46-56 And Mary said,
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has exulted in God, my
Saviour, because he looked graciously on the humble estate of his
servant. For--look you--from now on all generations shall call me
blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me and his name is
holy. His mercy is from generation to generation to those who fear him.
He demonstrates his power with his arm. He scatters the proud in the
plans of their hearts. He casts down the mighty from their seats of
power. He exalts the humble. He fills those who are hungry with good
things and he sends away empty those who are rich. He has helped Israel,
his son, in that he has remembered his mercy--as he said to our fathers
that he would--to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
Here we have a passage which has become one of the great hymns
of the church--the Magnificat. It is saturated in the Old Testament; and
is specially kin to Hannah's song of praise in 1 Samuel 2:1-10.
It has been said that religion is the opiate of the people; but, as
Stanley Jones said, "the Magnificat is the most revolutionary document
in the world."
It speaks of three of the revolutions of God.
(i) He scatters the proud in the plans of their hearts. That is a
moral revolution. Christianity is the death of pride. Why? Because if a
man sets his life beside that of Christ it tears the last vestiges of
pride from him.
Sometimes something happens to a man which with a vivid,
revealing light shames him. O. Henry has a short story about a lad who
was brought up in a village. In school he used to sit beside a girl and
they were fond of each other. He went to the city and fell into evil
ways. He became a pickpocket and a petty thief. One day he snatched an
old lady's purse. It was clever work and he was pleased. And then he saw
coming down the street the girl whom he used to know, still sweet with
the radiance of innocence. Suddenly he saw himself for the cheap, vile
thing he really was. Burning with shame, he leaned his head against the
cool iron of a lamp standard. "God," he said, "I wish I could die." He
saw himself.
Christ enables a man to see himself. It is the deathblow to pride. The moral revolution has begun.
(ii) He casts down the mighty--he exalts the humble. That is a
social revolution. Christianity puts an end to the world's labels and
prestige.
Muretus was a wandering scholar of the middle ages. He was poor.
In an Italian town he took ill and was taken to a hospital for waifs
and strays. The doctors were discussing his case in Latin, never
dreaming he could understand. They suggested that since he was such a
worthless wanderer they might use him for medical experiments. He looked
up and answered them in their own learned tongue, "Call no man
worthless for whom Christ died!"
When we have realized what Christ did for all men, it is no
longer possible to speak about a common man. The social grades are gone.
(iii) He has filled those who are hungry ... those who are rich
he has sent empty away. That is an economic revolution. A non-Christian
society is an acquisitive society where each man is out to amass as much
as he can get. A Christian society is a society where no man dares to
have too much while others have too little, where every man must get
only to give away.
There is loveliness in the Magnificat but in that loveliness
there is dynamite. Christianity begets a revolution in each man and
revolution in the world.
1:57-66 When
Elizabeth's time to bear the child was completed she brought forth a
son. When her neighbours and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown
great mercy to her they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they went
to circumcise the child and it was their intention to call him Zacharias
after his father. But his mother said, "No; he must be called John."
They said to her, "There is no one in your connection who is called by
this name." They asked his father by signs by what name he wished him to
be called. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, "John is his name."
Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed and he kept
on praising God. And great awe fell upon all the neighbours, and all
these events were talked about in all the hill country of Judaea; and
all those who heard them kept them in their hearts and said, "What will
this child turn out to be, for the hand of the Lord is with him?"
In Palestine the birth of a boy was an occasion of great joy.
When the time of the birth was near at hand, friends and local musicians
gathered near the house. When the birth was announced and it was a boy,
the musicians broke into music and song, and there was universal
congratulation and rejoicing. If it was a girl the musicians went
silently and regretfully away! There was a saying, "The birth of a male
child causes universal joy, but the birth of a female child causes
universal sorrow." So in Elizabeth's house there was double joy. At last
she had a child and that child was a son.
On the eighth day the boy was circumcised and received his name.
Girls could be named any time within thirty days of their birth. In
Palestine names were descriptive. They sometimes described a
circumstance attending the birth as Esau and Jacob do (Genesis 25:25-26).
They sometimes described the child. Laban, for instance, means white or
blonde. Sometimes the child received the parental name. Often the name
described the parents' joy. Saul and Samuel, for instance, both mean
"asked for." Sometimes the name was a declaration of the parents' faith.
Elijah for instance, means "Jehovah is my God." Thus, in a time of
Baal-worship, Elijah's parents asserted their faith in the true God.
Elizabeth, to the neighbours' surprise, said that her son must
be called John and Zacharias indicated that that was also his desire.
John is a shorter form of the name Jehohanan, which means "Jehovah's
gift" or "God is gracious." It was the name which God had ordered to be
given to the child and it described the parents' gratitude for an
unexpected joy.
It was the question of the neighbours and of all who had heard
the amazing story, "What will this child turn out to be?" Every child is
a bundle of possibilities. There was an old Latin schoolmaster who
always bowed gravely to his class before he taught them. When he was
asked why, he answered, "Because you never know what one of these lads
will turn out to be." The entry of a child into a family is two things.
First, it is the greatest privilege which life can offer a man and wife.
It is something for which to thank God. Second, it is one of life's
supreme responsibilities, for that child is a bundle of possibilities,
and on parents and teachers depends how these possibilities will or will
not be realized.
1:67-80 His father
Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied like this:
"Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has graciously
visited his people and wrought deliverance for them. He has raised the
horn of salvation for us in the house of David, his servant--as long ago
he said he would through the mouth of his holy prophets--even
deliverance from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, in
that he has shown mercy to us as he did to our fathers and has
remembered his holy covenant, the pledge which he gave to Abraham our
father, to grant to us that we, being delivered from the hands of our
enemies, should fearlessly serve him, in holiness and righteousness
before him, all our days. And you, child, shall be called the prophet of
the Most High; for you will walk before the Lord to prepare his ways,
in order to give the knowledge of salvation to his people together with
forgiveness of their sins, through the mercy of our God, in which the
dawn from on high has graciously visited us, to shine upon those who sit
in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to direct our feet in the
way of peace."
And the child grew and
was strengthened by the Spirit; and he lived in the desert places until
the day when he was displayed to Israel.
Zacharias had a great vision for his son. He thought of him as
the prophet and the forerunner who would prepare the way of the Lord.
All devout Jews hoped and longed for the day when the Messiah, God's
anointed king, would come. Most of them believed that, before he came, a
forerunner would announce his coming and prepare his way. The usual
belief was that Elijah would return to do so (Malachi 4:5). Zacharias saw in his son the one who would prepare the way for the coming of God's king.
Luke 1:75-77 give a great picture of the steps of the Christian way.
(i) There is preparation. All life is a preparation to lead us
to Christ. When Sir Walter Scott was young his aim was to be a soldier.
An accident made him slightly lame and that dream had to be abandoned.
He took to reading the old Scottish histories and romances and so became
the master novelist. An old man said of him, "He was makin' himself a'
the time; but he didna ken maybe what he was about till years had
passed." In life God is working all things together to bring us to
Christ.
(ii) There is knowledge. It is the simple fact that men did not
know what God was like until Jesus came. The Greeks thought of a
passionless God, beyond all joy and sorrow, looking on men in calm
unmoved detachment--no help there. The Jews thought of a demanding God,
whose name was law and whose function was that of judge--nothing but
terror there. Jesus came to tell that God was love, and in staggered
amazement men could only say, "We never knew that God was like that."
One of the great functions of the incarnation was to bring to men the
knowledge of God.
(iii) There is forgiveness. We must be clear about one thing
regarding forgiveness. It is not so much the remission of penalty as the
restoration of a relationship. Nothing can deliver us from certain
consequences of our sins; the clock cannot be put back; but estrangement
from God is turned to friendship. The distant God has become near and
the God we feared has become the lover of the souls of men.
(iv) There is walking in the ways of peace. Peace in Hebrew does
not mean merely freedom from trouble; it means all that makes for a
man's highest good; and through Christ a man is enabled to walk in the
ways that lead to everything that means life, and no longer to all that
means death.
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)