Luke has done something most story tellers try hard not to do. He’s pretty much told us how the story is going to end and we’re not quite through the first two chapters. It doesn’t look like he’s leaving much room for suspense. Why does Luke seem to give away the ending? I think it’s because he knows his first readers would be overwhelmed by the ending, so he is preparing them for the shock.
Like Simeon, many of Luke’s readers had been looking for God to redeem Israel. Unlike Simeon, their expectation of God’s way of redemption was completely different than what God was beginning to reveal through the births of John and Jesus. Today’s reading is a reminder to guard against thinking I know what, when and how God is going to act. God’s ways are not my ways, and if I allow myself to become rigid in my expectations I’ll become like the many in Israel who missed the Messiah because they were intently looking for something else.
One temptation that snares many in our time is the temptation to think that what God did in Christ, he did for me. Sometimes we’re told to take John 3:16 and substitute the words ‘world’ and ‘everyone’ with ‘me’ and ‘I’. Yes, Christ is my salvation; but he’s not mine alone. At least twelve times in the first two chapters Luke makes clear that God is at work in the lives of his people; not just Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and Zachariah, but all of Israel. And, not just Israel; there are also several references of what God is doing for all the nations, all the world, through these miracle births. I am convinced that a major portion of being transformed by the renewing of my mind is in learning to think in terms of Kingdom values, in terms of inclusivity.
God’s Kingdom is revealed by bringing diverse people together. There are the young, Mary and Joseph; and the older, Elizabeth and Zachariah; and older still, Simeon and Anna. There are the well off, Mary & Joseph (the gifts of the Magi made them so); and the poor, the shepherds. There are the people of God (the Church) and other people we didn’t know are included by God, the Magi. The births of John and Jesus have already brought all sorts of people together for worship and fellowship.
What word or phrase in these verses
attracts your attention?
Reflect on that word or phrase.
What insights come to you?
How does this passage touch your life today?
28-Dec-11 Luke 2:41-3:14
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