Songs Before the Manger: Mary, Zechariah, and the Deep Theology of Christmas

The world is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny God. As such, we need Thinking Christian to become as natural as breathing. Welcome to the Thinking Christian podcast. I'm Dr. James Spencer. Through calm, thoughtful theological discussions, Thinking Christian highlights the ways God is working in the world and questions the underlying social, cultural, and political assumptions that hinder Christians from becoming more like Christ. Now, on to today's episode of Thinking Christian. Welcome to this episode of Thinking Christian. Today, we're going to continue our Thinking Christian about Christmas series, and we're going to continue in the beginning of Luke's gospel. So where we left off last time, we had just seen the birth of Jesus foretold. And now where we're going to go is in actually Luke 1, verse 39. And this is where Mary is going to visit Elizabeth. And this whole section, the rest of the chapter, is really quite important because there are two songs. We could call them poems or psalms sort of embedded within the narrative that are going to give us an extremely deep theological look at what exactly Luke is trying to tell us is going on with the birth announcement, both of John to some degree, but more importantly, of Jesus. And so if you'll remember, last time we looked at the birth announcement of Jesus, and Mary asked, you know, how is this going to be since I was a virgin? And the angel tells her that he sort of points to Elizabeth and says, look, here's how this is going to happen. The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you. This is verse 35. The power of the Holy Spirit is going to or the most high is going to overshadow you. And therefore, the child will be born to you and it'll be called holy and the son of God. And then he points to Elizabeth and he says, look, your relative Elizabeth, who is barren, she's also very old. She's just conceived a son. And so he points to Elizabeth to demonstrate that nothing is impossible with God. And that's in verse 37. So now in verse 39, we find that Mary is going to go up and visit Elizabeth. And so verse 39 says in those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah. And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. Now, remember, Zechariah is still mute. The word of the angel to him after he asked his question, you know, how will I know that this could be true? How will I know that these things will come to pass? And the angel said, here's your sign. You're going to be mute until this child is born. And so Zechariah isn't talking. But Mary and Elizabeth are going to meet one another and spend some time together. And so when Mary comes in, it says in verse 41, and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she exclaimed with a loud cry, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Now, we're not exactly sure where Elizabeth is getting any of this. Up to this point, we really haven't seen Elizabeth much. You know, the only thing we've seen is in verse 24. After these days, his wife Elizabeth, Zechariah's wife Elizabeth, conceived and for five months, she kept herself hidden saying, thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among the people. And so this is Elizabeth being happy that she is pregnant. She has been without child and that was a, it had an element of shame associated with it in this time period. And so she's pleased to have a child, but we really haven't heard much else from Elizabeth. And so as Mary comes in and is visiting Elizabeth and the child jumps in her womb, Elizabeth recognizes something and understands that something is going on. And so she's also, you know, trusting that this leap in her womb and being filled with the Holy Spirit has something to do with the coming of the Lord. And she notes in verse 44 that for behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. Now, how are we to think about this narrative? You know, I think we can sort of suspend the question of how does Elizabeth know any of this? Why? Where is she getting this? What is that coming from? Because Elizabeth has been filled with the Holy Spirit. And so I think we can assume that this is a, you know, sort of a prophetic moment where the Holy Spirit is actually giving her a word and, and she's conveying this to Mary. The really interesting part of this is that because at least from the narrative's perspective, we understand that Elizabeth doesn't necessarily know anything. Mary doesn't seem to have told anyone about anything. She seems to have just, you know, moved from speaking with the angel and, and, you know, I don't want to say being resigned to her fate, but accepting what the angel has said. The angel leaves and then Mary goes up and goes to see Elizabeth. She, she probably wants to see this, this miraculous thing that has happened with Elizabeth. And so as Mary walks in, what she's getting is this interesting confirmation, right? It's almost that the Lord has visited Elizabeth. He's filled her with the Holy Spirit so that Mary can have this moment of surety and clarity that everything is going to plan. And so when Elizabeth gives this sort of cry, this, this almost quasi prophecy to Mary, Mary is going to recognize now that, oh wow, everything the angel said is true. This is another confirmation that this is happening. Elizabeth is recognizing that even this is, you know, this is the mother of my Lord. And, and, and she's seeing that this is going to come to pass. And as we read that, then what we, what we recognize then is that this Mary's song of praise, usually referred to as the Magnificat in Luke 1 46 through 55 is probably a response to this, this joyful affirmation that Elizabeth has just given her. In other words, it prompts Mary to praise. Whereas maybe she's been a little bit, you know, less exuberant about what's going on, a little bit gun shy, if you will, about what the angel has told her. Not really sure what's happening. Not, not really sure of all that's going on. She, she does seem to trust the angel, but ultimately it's kind of big news and you know, what do you do with that? Now she's going to break out in this song of praise. And so as we read the Magnificat, we want to just think through, I'll read it all the way through and then I'll make some comments afterwards. But I think we want to, we want to make some connections and think about this. There's a gentleman who wrote a book on the Old Testament. His name is Chen, and he talks about Nexus passages. And I would locate the Magnificat and Zechariah's prophecy, which we'll look at in just a minute, both as sort of Nexus passages, perhaps Nexus passages altogether, because they're in such close context. But the idea of a Nexus passage is that, and the way he illustrates it is if you think about a map of, of trains in a city, you know, like the L stops in Chicago or the subways in New York or what have you, they have these stations where you can get on and off of multiple different trains. You could go many different directions and that's how these passages sort of are. They're referencing so many little pieces from across the scriptures. They're not quoting any one thing necessarily, but they are gesturing toward all of these different aspects of the Old Testament. And it's all coming together in this one little concise space of about nine verses. So let's go ahead and read the Magnificat. So here is Luke 1 46. And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed, for he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy and as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever. This is really interesting because what we're finding here is that Luke is going to start setting up one of his major themes. One of the major themes in Luke is actually the idea that Jesus is going to come and in coming, he is going to not only care for Israel, but that those who are in a lowly place, those who are marginalized, those who are sort of dismissed and thrown away by society are going to experience this sort of quasi jubilee, that it's going to be fantastic for them. Actually, Luke is the only gospel that ends up quoting Isaiah 61, 1 through 2. And in context, Isaiah 61, and this is in, I believe, Luke 4, if I'm remembering correctly. But what it's doing is in context, Isaiah 61 is really speaking of the one who will bring deliverance to the people in the midst of the nations. And in Isaiah, in Isaiah 60 particularly, it makes clear that there's this day that is going to come in which the Lord will rise upon his people

clear nations shall come to your light and kings to your brightness, the brightness of your rising. And so what we see in Isaiah 61, and why it's noteworthy that Isaiah is quoting it, even though it's not in this chapter, is that it's going to have this good news for the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the prisoners, and is also sort of a day of vengeance. And this is all sort of coming together within Luke. And so this quotation of Isaiah 61 later on in Luke reflects this theme of God caring for the downtrodden, that things are going to be inverted to some degree, that those who have had high estate are now going to have low estate, that those who have had low estate are going to have high estate. And we really do see that across a lot of the different narratives in Luke. And so even this initial poem, like I said, it's sort of a nexus passage. So, you know, aside from, let's say, the references to Abraham, right, where we have a clear understanding of where that's going, the covenant promises of Abraham and the offspring and all that good stuff. But we're also seeing it look a little bit forward and gesture towards some of Luke's themes, that this is what's going to happen when Jesus comes, that things are going to get better for those who life has been hard on. If we if we just take a minute and think about a couple of the narratives in Luke, I would say specifically the rich man and Lazarus is a great illustration of this theme. Luke, you know, depicts Lazarus as a poor man at a rich man's gates. The rich man dies. Lazarus dies. But Lazarus goes into Abraham's bosom and the rich man goes into Hades and there's a gulf between them. And so we even see this probably with Zacchaeus. Again, a narrative that's unique to Luke. Zacchaeus, there's a good argument to be made that Zacchaeus is, yes, a rich tax collector, but he's also marginalized within the society. People hate him. And so even though he's rich, he is pushed aside and pressed out and they try to keep him away from Jesus. But Jesus ends up going to his home. And so, again, these are these are things that Luke sort of draws out in his narrative. And we're seeing an awful lot of them here in the Magnificat. And so as we just take a couple of seconds to look through a few of these things, you know, we see the emphasis on God's mercy. We see that twice, at least in verse 50 and then in verse 54. The first one in his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. This idea that God is going to be merciful, faithful, show his chesed love to those who fear him across the generations, who attend to him, who are allowing their lives to be a response to God. These are the people who receive mercy. And then in 54, he's helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. So now he's coming back and fulfilling some of the promises to Israel in Christ because he has mercy on Israel. It's not because Israel has necessarily done good things. Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. 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And so now Mary is going to return home and we're going to go to the time of Elizabeth is going to give birth then to the to John the Baptist. And we're going to see something somewhat similar happen when when John the Baptist is born. Right. And so John the Baptist is born. Elizabeth neighbors and relatives all come around there. They're it's the eighth day comes around and they they all come to circumcise the child. And they were thinking about what to call the child. What do we what do we name him? And in verse 59, we see and they would have called him Zechariah after his father. But his mother answered, no, he shall be called John. Zechariah is still silent. And in verse 61, and they said to her, none of your relatives is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he he asked for a writing tablet and wrote his name is John. And they all wondered and immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue loosed and he spoke blessing God. And fear came upon all their neighbors and all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea. And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts saying, what then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was upon him. Now, why are they saying that? Why is this such a big deal? Well, number one, Zechariah, again, as you recall from last time, he is he asked this sort of errant question, you know, how do I know these things are going to be true? You know, how do I you know, how can I how can I how can I really trust you, angel? But also in verse 13, what we found was that the angel says to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John. Now, after he asked the sort of errant question, the the angel says, and behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. Well, what are those things that will be fulfilled in their time? What is it that the angel told him? It wasn't just the birth of a son. It was also the calling of that son, John. And so even though Elizabeth is adamant, no, we're going to call him John, the relatives are standing there like, this doesn't mean anything. This is crazy. Why are you calling this kid John? And so until Zechariah confirms this name and then all of a sudden his mouth is open and he's speaking, he's blessing God. And so this is how they know him. Now, this guy's been mute essentially for probably a little over nine months. And so all of a sudden, as soon as the child is named, he's able to speak. And here's what Zechariah ultimately says. I don't think this is what he said immediately after this sort of blessing, you know, that when he opens his mouth and he blesses God in verse 64. I don't think this is the content of what he said in that context, but I think this is something that is done after the fact, sort of what what it is that Zechariah says after everyone leaves. So here's what Zechariah says. And again, I'm going to read this and then I'll just make a few comments on this in this section of the text. So here's Zechariah's prophecy, Luke 1, 67 through 79. OK, verse 67. And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from a world that he would that he should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the most high for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people and the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercies of God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. All right. So there is an awful lot there. This this this prophecy is packed with allusions and different references to all that God is doing and has done. And so what Zechariah is is providing here is not only a just a, you know, a prophecy that that deals with,

John is going to be the prophet of God. And we do see that in other places. But here, what I think is important to note is the allusions to Isaiah 43 through 5, which talks about a voice crying out in the wilderness, clear a way for the Lord, build a level road through the rift of the valley. Where we're seeing that is in this reference to preparing his ways at the end of verse 36, the Lord to prepare his ways, to give people a knowledge of salvation. We see this as something that is similar to Jesus' role in Luke 3, 1 through 14, for instance, or 5, 31 through 32. You know, Jesus is going to say in that latter verse, you know, those who are well don't need a physician, but those who are sick, I have come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. We also see this forgiveness of their sins, that this is going to come. That's a major Lukean theme that will be developed throughout the book. We see, again, another reference to God's tender mercy and his loyal love. And that's pretty fantastic here in this moment. We see these references to the dawn breaking. This is probably, you know, an allusion to perhaps the morning star or to the sun, but what we see then is that Christ is going to be sort of pictured or in the Old Testament context, the Messiah, as this saving light that points the way, it shows the way, it shines the way. And the Greek term that's used to translate branch or sprout, some of those seem to have sort of a messianic overtone. And if we look at something like in Isaiah 11, 1 through 10 or Jeremiah 23, 5, we find these words that Luke is using in some of these prophecies. The last ones in verse 79 here in 2.41, those who sit in darkness in the shadow of death, those are also some Old Testament allusions, primarily from Isaiah. We find them in Isaiah 9, 1 and 2. We have similar imagery and verbiage there. So 9, 1 reads, the gloom will be dispelled for those who were anxious. In earlier times, he humiliated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but now he brings honor to the way of the sea, the region beyond the Jordan, the Galilee of the nations. The people walking in darkness, a bright light, light shines on those who live in a land of deep darkness. We see this again in Isaiah 42, 7, to open blind eyes, to release prisoners from dungeons, those who live in darkness from prisons. And so what Zechariah's prophecy here is doing is really gesturing toward what John is going to be participating in as the prophet of God, pointing to and preparing the way of the Lord. And that Lord is going to be Christ. And so really in this first whole chapter, we haven't even, Jesus isn't even born yet, but we have all of this buildup of expectation about who Jesus is going to be, what Jesus is going to do, how John the Baptist is going to factor into this. And we are having this sort of building up to a moment where Christ is going to be born and all of this is going to start unfolding. And so it's just a beautiful picture. I think sometimes we can rush past these initial narratives, specifically Luke chapter 1, and I would say in particular the Magnificat and Zechariah's prophecy, but they really are quite rich and they set up so much of Luke's other theology that it's absolutely worthy going through them and understanding them and trying to get at least an initial feel for what these passages are. So as we start thinking about Christmas, what we need to realize is that Christmas is full of expectation, that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of these hopes, everything that the Old Testament was waiting for and that it promised but never delivered. Right now, Jesus is the answer to all this. And the interesting thing is that he is the answer to this as a baby. This is not like, you know, a conquering figure coming down and, you know, the King, King David coming down with a sword or something like that. And, you know, just fixing everything all at once. There's still, because Jesus is a baby, there's still this time of anticipation. It requires us to be patient. It requires us to wait. And I think so often we forget that because we are on the other side of Christ's resurrection. We know the end of the story, but this moment where Christ comes as a baby, it is really still a moment of hope and peace and waiting in many ways. And so we don't want to neglect that as we continue to go through aspects of the Christmas story. So thanks everybody for being here today. Thanks for spending the time to think about Christmas and hopefully you enjoyed this episode. Go back, read Luke 1. It's a really fantastic chapter. Spend more time with it than I have, but that's the episode for today. And I'll look forward to seeing you again next week on Thinking Christian. Take care, everybody. Just want to take a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the Thinking Christian podcast. If you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. God invites us to cultivate thankful hearts by turning our eyes toward him in good times and bad. To listen to more Abide Christian Meditations, just go to lifeaudio.com or search your favorite podcast app for Abide Christian Meditation. You can also download the Abide app for more biblical meditations at abide.com.