Luke, one of the gospel writers and a traveling companion of the Apostle Paul (Colossians 4:14), was a medical doctor and historian who investigated the life of Jesus Christ. In the gospel account that bears his name, he writes to someone named Theophilus (which means “God’s friend” or “loved by God” depending on how you translate) and says he did his homework in writing Jesus’s story (Luke 1:1-4).
The Beginning of Luke’s Gospel
Luke begins in Jerusalem, at the temple, where a Jewish priest named Zechariah had a vision from an angel and was promised that he and his wife would have a son, despite both of them being quite old and having no children to this point. Like Abraham and Sarah in the Old Testament (OT), God was going to give an elderly couple a “promised child” who would change the world. This child was John the Baptist.
John the Baptist was a prophet who came to “prepare the way” for the Messiah – Jesus Christ. John’s birth had been predicted centuries earlier by the Hebrew prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 40:3). And now, to prove that John’s birth was definitely from God, God waited until his parents were far beyond childbearing age for him to be born. John was a miracle baby.
[Related: Who Was John the Baptist?]
Messianic Expectations
At the time of Jesus’s birth, the people were waiting for the Messiah, who they believed would deliver them from the Roman Empire, which ruled the region but allowed a puppet king named Herod the Great (Matthew 2) to rule them. The Jews wanted nothing more than to be free from Rome, to govern their own land, and to worship God according to the OT law.
The story then shifts to a young woman named Mary (Mariam). She was engaged to be married, and an angel appeared to her as well, saying that she, too, would have a son who she was to call Jesus (“Yeshua;” ישוע) which in Hebrew means “the LORD saves.” He would be a king like King David, who would rule over God’s people forever.
Mary asked how this was possible since she was a virgin. The angel said that the Holy Spirit who brought light out of darkness in Genesis 1 would generate life inside her womb. Like Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac and like Zechariah and Elizabeth’s son John, the Messiah would be a miracle baby. Mary sings a song about how this “upheaval” of her lot in life – a poor girl from nowhere to the mother of the Messiah – represents a greater upheaval of all of our lots in life. Jesus the Messiah would turn the whole world order upside-down.
The Birth of Jesus
When Mary was close to giving birth, the Roman Empire ordered everyone to return to their hometown to register for tax purposes. Mary went with her future husband Joseph to Bethlehem – the hometown of the ancient Israelite king, David. Because of the influx of people in the town, Joseph and Mary had to stay where the animals slept.
Nearby, shepherds with their flocks were surprised when an angel appeared to announce that the Messiah was to be born. They were told to go and find this baby because they would find him in a feeding trough. They go and find Jesus as they are told and leave surprised. If God is coming to save the world, would anyone really expect him to arrive like this – as a baby, without anywhere to stay, laying in an animals’ feeding trough? What was God doing?
[Related: Can We Believe in the Virgin Birth?]
Everything in Luke’s story was backward by human standards. God’s kingdom was first revealed in dirty places among the poor. Jesus came to turn our world order, our expectations of greatness, upside-down.
Article for this topic by Daniel Martin.
