Luke 1

Chapter 1. The Son of ManHere is the man! (John 19:5)The Gospel of Luke is the picture of the Son of Man. The very fact that it begins with a preface is significant. The other Gospels have no preface, but immediately introduce us to the very heart of the subject. Luke presents to us the human medium through which this revelation of the Master comes. It is no disparagement to inspiration to recognize the coloring of the earthly medium through which the light is communicated. Luke tells us of his careful investigation (Luke 1:3) of all things of which he writes and leaves us to conclude that, with his trained mind, he has given the most thorough and painstaking inquiry into every fact and question that has come to him, and that while the Holy Spirit has guided and controlled, at the same time the instrument has been used with the fullest recognition of all his special qualifications for the task assumed. The first two chapters of Luke contain a number of testimonies to our Lord, especially in connection with His birth, which have not been recorded by any other evangelist. The Announcement of the Birth of John The first of these is the announcement to Zechariah of the birth of John, the great forerunner. The revelation comes to him from the angel Gabriel as he is ministering in the holy place in the due course of his priesthood. The messenger informs him that his prayer is heard and that God is about to give a son to him and his godly partner after long delay, and when, in the course of human events, such a blessing had become improbable. Zechariah receives the message with astonishment and doubt, and asks for a sign to confirm his hesitating faith. The angel gives him a sign which is at once a reproof to his unbelief and a prop to his faith. He tells him that he shall be mute until the prophecy shall have been fulfilled. There was extraordinary significance in this sign. It was not merely a miraculous testimony of the prophecy just given, but it was a striking symbol of a still greater fact. Zechariah represented the priesthood of Israel, and his unbelief was just a type of the unbelief of the nation in the coming Messiah, and the judgment upon that priesthood for its unbelief. Israel was to be silenced as the messenger of God because she had failed to be true to her divine commission and to believe the gospel of which she had been made the trustee, and God was to put her aside and choose instead a new body of inspired messengers. And so God will silence every voice that fails to honor His well-beloved Son, and honor every voice that bears witness to Jesus Christ. This is in keeping with Luke’s special ministry to portray the Savior and His wider relation to the Gentiles rather than to Israel. With the ministry of Zechariah and John, his distinguished son, the voice of Israel was to cease and the Church of God was to come instead. The Annunciation The Annunciation to Mary is in the same spirit. The angel Gabriel appears to her in the seclusion of her modest life, and bearing to her the greeting of heaven upon the high honor that was to be bestowed upon her, he announces the birth to her of a divine Son. But the name he gives Him is the name which is given to sinners of every race, Jesus. “You are to give him the name Jesus” (Luke 1:31). Then are added the majestic words which tell of His deity as the “Son of the Most High,” His heirship to David’s throne, and the fact that His kingdom “will never end” (Luke 1:32-33). Her modest question, “How will this be?” (Luke 1:34) was not a word of doubt, but simply of inquiry, and as the answer comes telling her how the Holy Spirit shall accomplish this stupendous and holy miracle, she believes and answers, “I am the Lord’s servant… May it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38). Here again we see the human element in our great redemption. There must be a cooperation of some believing soul before even the Son of God could become incarnate. While we guard against the exaggerations and blasphemies of the Church of Rome in giving to her equal worship and homage with God, at the same time let us not withhold from her the veneration and love which God intended that all ages should accord to that one woman whose consecration and faith rolled back the curse which the sin and folly of another woman had brought upon the human race. The visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth is the next incident in this chain of testimony. It would seem that she hastened to her cousin in the hill country of Judea as soon as the angel’s strange message had been fully realized. She needed the sympathy of a true sister in this tremendous crisis, and so the two women met without previous knowledge by any earthly means of their several conditions. How perfectly natural as well as supernatural is the narrative of this meeting. Taught by the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth pours out in inspired language her greeting to the mother of her Lord; tells of her own strange joy and coming motherhood, and adds the benediction, “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” (Luke 1:45). The Magnificat The song of Mary which follows rises to a higher plane. It is Jewish throughout, breathing the very essence of the old covenant and the spirit of the ancient prophets; but it goes back beyond Moses to Abraham, and thus rises to that lofty plane from which the Apostle Paul ever grasped the gospel plan of salvation. But while a Hebrew psalm, Mary’s Magnificat is in perfect keeping with Luke’s purpose to reveal the Savior to the Gentiles. As someone has well said, it is the swan song of Judaism, the dying dirge of the old dispensation. Mary reaches the very highest point of Hebrew poetry and lofty vision, and then she stands aside lost in the light of her greater Son as the chorus of redemption begins with its worldwide and eternal refrain. The Promised Fulfillment First comes the birth of John and the testimony of Zechariah. At length the promise of the forerunner is fulfilled and a child is born to aged Zechariah and Elizabeth. Her cousins and neighbors gather to hail the event with rejoicing. On the appointed day they meet to circumcise the child, calling him Zechariah, after his father. But the mother forbids and appeals to the father. He in turn declares on the writing tablet, “His name is John” (Luke 1:63). His long silence is broken, and, filled with the Holy Spirit, he begins to praise God and utters his sublime testimony not only to John, but to Jesus (Luke 1:68-79). This is the glorious gospel of salvation. First is the keynote of the incarnation, “He has come” (Luke 1:68). Next comes the echo of the cross, “and has redeemed his people” (Luke 1:68). Then we have the fullness of the great salvation which He is about to reveal, “to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” (Luke 1:74-75). This is the gospel in all its fullness. Then follows the special introduction of John’s ministry: “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him” (Luke 1:76). Next his special ministry of repentance and remission of sins is specified: “To give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God” (Luke 1:77-78). Then the vision expands into the larger fullness of the perfect day, of which this was but the dawning, “by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace” (Luke 1:78-79). Good Tidings Next, there is the message of the angels to the shepherds of Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-20). Here again the keynote is loftier and larger than in the other Gospels. Matthew opens with the question, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2). But the message of the angels to the shepherds is, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). The spirit of the message is joy and gladness. The very word the angels use is the sweet word that has passed into all Christian speech, the gospel—“I bring you good news” (Luke 2:10); that is, I bring you the gospel. The keynote of their message is gladness and great joy, and it is no longer the joy of a little exclusive company, but “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10). And then the song with which this glorious evangel is climaxed prolongs the notes in a still grander refrain: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14). How perfectly this fits into the scene which follows. “They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger” (Luke 2:16). This is the inauguration of the world’s redemption. Not in palace halls and amid pageants of earthly grandeur, not with princes leading the inaugural procession, but with a company of shepherds at their nightly task as the first witnesses. And the Savior Himself is introduced with a lowliness and poverty in keeping with the calling of the shepherds and the condition of the sinful world to which He has come. Thus the story of salvation is begun and the Savior of sinners enters upon the stage of human suffering as our Brother and our Kinsman-redeemer. The Testimony of Simeon and Anna One more testimony completes this striking chain (Luke 2:1-38). The eighth day of our Savior’s life brings His circumcision, followed soon after by His presentation in the temple. How natural, yet supernatural again, is the whole scene. Without notice or invitation cards, Simeon and Anna meet at the right moment by the intuition of the Holy Spirit. The whole circumstances are very touching and intensely human. The offering which Mary and Joseph bring is the offering presented only by the very poorest of the people, a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons. But as the little Babe is presented and the aged priest receives Him in his arms, the whole scene is transfigured, and that sublime testimony which fittingly closes this series of witnesses to the birth of Christ flows from his lips. Taking the infant Jesus in his arms, how truly he can say, “For my eyes have seen your salvation” (Luke 2:30). What a beautiful picture of faith, not only accepting but embracing the Lord! But the salvation which He has prepared is as wide as the world “which [He has] prepared in the sight of all people.” He adds, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:31-32). Here is the gospel for both Jew and Gentile. Here is the watchword of the missionary crusade and the promise of the Chosen People’s final restoration. And as the scene closes, he turns to Mary and adds a message more personal to her, and yet as true for every one of us, “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:34-35). The shadow of the cross is not only to fall upon Him, but upon her, and yes, upon all that receive Him. They must fall before they can rise. They must die before they can live. They must get down to nothingness before they can rise to holiness and heaven. Simeon’s testimony was followed by that of Anna, who, womanlike, went out to tell the joyful news to those who waited for redemption in Jerusalem. Thus dawned the glorious light of the Sun of righteousness and the Savior of the world. Shall we catch the spirit of these opening scenes in the beautiful Gospel of Luke? Shall we hear the blessed “Do not be afraid” (Luke 2:10) which is the very keynote, and enter into the gladness of the good tidings which it brings? Shall we accept it not merely as our heritage of blessing, but our trust to pass on to all the world? And shall we fully recognize with deeper, truer love the human Christ, the Son of Man, the Kinsman-redeemer, who is bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh and heart of our heart, and go forth to walk in closer fellowship with His great human heart and constant sympathy? We may not climb the heavenly steeps To bring the Lord Christ down; In vain we search the lowest depths, For Him no depths can drown. But warm, sweet, tender, even yet A present help is He; And faith has still its Olivet And love its Galilee. The healing of His seamless robe Is by our beds of pain; We touch Him in life’s throng and press And we are whole again.