November & December 2024 In Avent
Part 1 of 4: The Infancy Narrative
Let’s get into what we know and admit what we don’t know adding the truth that sometimes when we don’t know something, we make up stuff to cover that lack of knowledge. There is a set of questions that ought to guide us whenever we begin to explore something: Who, When, What, Where, and How.
So, who wrote this Gospel? Except for John, the other three Gospels remain anonymous. This is quite different from the writing of Paul whose name appears throughout his writing. However, Luke is the name used consistently from the second century. He was a companion of Paul, and not an eyewitness. So, he is depending upon the testimony of others. He is a second-generation Christian, not a Palestinian but a native of Antioch in Syria. His knowledge of the geography and customs is faulty suggesting he did not live there. He was a some-time companion of Paul. That information comes from the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians and the Epistle to Timothy. He simply suddenly appears at Paul’s side during Paul’s second Mission. We can say that, because in Luke’s second part which we call “Acts of the Apostles” chapter 16, he suddenly switches to the first-person plural. He says, “We.”
When: The years 80 to 85 are generally accepted as the time. However, from the fact that Luke’s writing stops while Paul is still in custody around the year 63 and the fall of Jerusalem in about 70 could push it a little earlier. Here is an example of contrary data that leaves us to simply say: “We don’t really know exactly.”
It is fairly certain that Luke had at hand a copy of Mark’s account. Sixty-percent of Mark is incorporated into Luke. Probably another collection of quotations from Jesus was probably available and these would have been written in Aramaic. There were certainly some oral sources available from John, the deacon Philip, and possibly from Mary herself.
Luke’s Gospel, when it comes to literature is a masterpiece. He is very observant of mannerisms, psychological reactions, and hidden motivations. He favors minorities, segregated groups, and the underprivileged. Watch how often Samaritan, lepers, publicans, soldiers, public sinners, ignorant shepherds and poor show up. All of these people get special encouragement from this Gospel. Some may disagree with me on this, but Trump and his tribe would have a problem with this kind of “Diversity.” He is writing for Gentiles. We know that because of the way he omits Semitic words and finds substitutes for them. For instance, he explains in his Gospel the meaning of “Abba”, “Rabbi”, “Ephphata”. Luke omits all the controversies over the Law about what is clean and unclean. He seldom quotes the Old Testament. This Gospel was written in Greek, and it was good Greek, not easy street language. Luke is educated, and he writes to people who speak good Greek.
Finally, you must keep in mind all the way through. This is not History. It is theology. So, it is a distraction and silly to wonder or ask if something really happened. The question to ask is: “What does this mean?” and “What are we going to do or become because of it?” Luke makes no claim to have been an eyewitness. He tells us that he is giving us a well-ordered narrative so that we may know the truth. He says he is writing to Theophilus. He calls him “excellent”. That adjective/title was reserved for Roman Procurators. It was also a very common name, so there is no point in making a lot out of it.
At the time of Luke, there were two problems or “crises” that may have prompted his writing. The first was the Gentiles, and their concepts or ideas about God. The whole Mediterranean world was very parochial, and there were as many ideas about God as there were communities, and with that, there were different cults. That’s hard for us to understand, but it was a great challenge at the time. Rome made it even more difficult with Emperor Worship. As Rome spread across the region, this parochialism was overcome. With this came an overwhelming sense loyalty and security that drove people to side with the powerful. If you understand that world, then you can see why the message of humility and the ideas expressed in Mary’s Magnificat are seen as a revolutionary threat. Themes of Greek plays at the time would have thought humility to be silly. The grand nobility of persons was the theme of their plays captivating theatergoers. They would have scoffed at the idea of humility proposed by these followers of Jesus Christ. Meanwhile, the Christian community expected the world to believe the story of a man who died the death of a rebellious slave. Rediculous!
The second crisis was over the Jews. The descendants of Abraham even earned the respect of Rome as Rome recognized that in the history of these chosen people no power could shake their fidelity to the law of their fathers. This people, reared with a profound respect for the law, their traditions, the experts would find shocking the stories of Jesus who flaunted the accepted ways and seemed so arrogant toward his religious superiors. Jesus seemed to be encouraging social, economic, and religious sedition.
Originally, the Gospel began with Chapter 3. The Infancy Narrative was added after Acts of the Apostles was finished. The presence of the genealogy in the third chapter is a clue that suggests this. Listen how Chapter 3 begins and see if you don’t think is the beginning. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod was ruler of Galilee and Philip his brother ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
With the way it opens now, Luke has a formal prologue, a literary convention common among historians and other writers of his time. He is the only New Testament evangelist to do so. Matthew begins with a genealogy that stakes a claim for Jesus as the royal Davidic Messiah. Mark begins with a one-line heading that launches a tale told with thunder, John. Luke mentions his predecessors, alludes to his sources, touts his credentials as a longtime observer of events, acknowledges his patron, Theophilus and states his basic purpose in writing. We are in the hands of a confident author who invites us, gently, into his narrative world.
In his address to Theophilus, he reveals that what has transpired – what he will narrate is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. He understands the events he will narrate in a biblical mode – in other words, what is to come is a biblical narrative held together by a progression of prophecies and fulfillments. He revers Jewish scriptures, makes use of quotations from it, and often writes in the style of the Septuagint.
With the birth and infancy narratives we enter an enchanted world. It is replete with angels, heavenly signs, startling prophecies, unlikely pregnancies, improbable births, temple rituals, religious functionaries, pious laypeople, isolated shepherds, a child prodigy, and with it all an abundance of echoes from Israel’s Scriptures. It’s almost like Harry Potter when you start to think about it. This is the religious imagination at its best, an outpouring of legend and imagery fitting for a turning point in human history. It the momentous coming of a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
Think for a minute how Luke organizes Chapters 1 & 2. There are seven episodes or scenes if you want to think in drama terms, and it is dramatic.
- Annunciation of John the Baptist
- Annunciation of Jesus
- Visitation
- Birth and Circumcision of John
- Birth and Circumcision of Jesus
- Presentation in the Temple
- Finding in the Temple
There are obviously two parallels 1 & 2 and 4 & 5. Three hymns fill in the narration: The Canticle of Zechariah, The Magnificat, and The Gloria. Scholars believe that these were added later. Episode 7 serves as a transition or story/passage.
I cannot emphasize this enough.
The Infancy Narrative is a Dramatization of Theology. It is NOT history!
It all begins with the story of the conception of John the Baptist by Divine plan.
Now we get down to business with Zechariah. Luke tells us he is a good man married to a good woman. Yet, in spite of that they have no children, and in that time and culture, something is not quite right. God is about to intervene to make right what that culture believe is not right. So, Zechariah enters the Temple to perform the privileged and familiar duty of lighting an incense offering to God. An angel scares him with good news. What we see here is God confronting the highest of temple officialdom. Zechariah does not believe this good news, and Gabriel strikes him mute. There is no room or time for doubt. There is no blessing outside the Temple that day either. A world of religious devotion has been disrupted. There is also an important detail. Zechariah does not name his son, God has done that, and the same thing occurs with the second Annunciation story.
There is a struggle in Luke to fit John the Baptist into the schema of salvation and persuade unconverted disciples of John. You can sense that as the Gospel unfolds. With the birth of John, it is likely that Luke is trying to establish a connection with the Old Testament rather than writing intimate family history, because there is a parallel between the parents of Samuel as told in the Book of Samuel, and the parents of John. They are old. The career of John the Baptist caused problems for the early church. He was a prophet in his own right, founder of a Palestinian reform movement that would eventually find adherents as far away as modern Turkey. An inconvenient truth is that for a time Jesus of Nazareth was part of it. He was baptized by John. Luke will work hard through his gospel to make it clear that John was not superior to Jesus. Scholars believe that the legends of John’s birth originated in the circles of believers John attracted to himself. Luke incorporates this into his narrative. In this first story, Luke stirs imaginations. He paints a picture of a world of religious devotion about to be disrupted and enriched in ways no one could have foreseen He invites us to make it our own.
Right after the birth of John comes the second annunciation. Having entered this enchanted world through John the Baptist and his parents. Few scenes in all the Gospels rival the annunciation to Mary for its capacity to fire up the imagination. I think that is why so many artists have been and still do try to capture this moment on canvas. They are countless. The Louvre alone has 2,000 of them!
The second annunciation story is linked to the first in two ways: it is dated to the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, and it is constructed out of similar components, the appearance of the angel Gabriel, the perplexity he causes and the assurance not to fear, the announcement of an unlikely pregnancy, the divine naming of the child and the reference to a legitimating sign.
Gabriel shows up. The only other time in the Bible that we hear of Gabriel is in the eighth chapter of the Book of Daniel. There, Gabriel is sent to explain a vision Daniel has, and Gabriel scares him so much that he fell to the ground. The Book or Prophecy of Daniel proclaims the coming of everlasting justice – the final time.
In the Annunciations scene there are five steps:
- The appearance
- The fear
- The message
- The objection
- The giving of a sign
The central figure is a young girl in a man’s world. Perhaps younger than 15, she is an impoverished girl with nothing of importance to say. Her question to the angel is much like the question of Zechariah. The main burden of this text is to establish Jesus as a Davidic Messiah and Son of God. The whole concept of a Virgin Birth is unheard of in the Old Testament. So, when it springs up in the Gospel two times, it is an entirely new idea that brings with it the sense of a “New Creation”. The language and the images are rich in symbolism. Being “overshadowed” reminds is all of the cloud in the desert that hid God but yet was a sign of God’s presence and action. This is the introduction of the message and identity of Jesus as God’s Son.
A departure is a literary technique or gimmick Luke uses to indicate a change of scene. Notice how often he has some one departs or go away as the scene changes. So, the Angel departs, and a new scene begins that is an otherwise unremarkable meeting of relatives that takes a dramatic turn when the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps at the sound of Mary’ voice. It is not the first time for such gymnastics to be recorded in the Bible. Twice in Genesis, Jacob and Esau do the same thing. It is a jump for Joy and it all happens because of the Holy Spirit. More than fifty times in Luke’s Gospel the action and consequences of the Holy Spirit will be recorded. So, with the Visitation story, the scene of the Annunciation is complete. The Visitation itself is a bridge passage that now brings together two characters of this drama: John and Jesus.
We get two birth stories. One is of lesser importance than the other obviously by the details. John’s birth only takes two verses. In Chapter 3 Luke describes the entire career of John including his imprisonment by Herod before he narrates how John Baptized Jesus. You might see something odd here. The Baptism of Jesus had to have happened before John was imprisoned. Again, there is no history here, so do not expect things to “add up”. This is Luke’s way of shifting all the focus onto Jesus. Another example is that Luke describes the growth of John into manhood before he describes the birth of Jesus which, if this was history, should have taken place only a few month later. Again, a shift of attention.
Now, the census is Luke’s way of explaining the presence of Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem. Since it all began in Nazareth, he had to get them Bethlehem. There is no historical evidence of a census. It is a literary device that provides a solemn beginning. I find great irony is the way Luke uses the mightiest figure in the world, the Roman Emperor, to serve God’s plan by issuing this edict for a census. Caesar Augustus is the peaceful ruler, the one who pacified the world. Greek cities of Asia Minor (perhaps not far from where Luke was writing) adopted September 23, the birthday of Augustus as the first day of a new year, calling him a “savior.” Luke’s description of the birth of Jesus is a direct challenge to this imperial propaganda.
As I said earlier, Luke is interested in details. Swaddling and manger are more important any anything else if you just look at the information. That manger has nothing to do with poverty. It is simply an odd location caused by circumstances. There is a reversal going on here. In the first chapter of Isaiah it says: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey knows the manger of its lord; but Israel has not known me.” Luke is saying that this is now repealed. The shepherds have been sent to the manger to find the Lord who is the source of joy for all people of Israel.
Like the manger, the swaddling is no sign of poverty. It is a sign that Israel’s Messiah is not an outcast among his people but is properly cared for. In Luke, Jesus is not born like an alien in an Inn, but in a manger where God sustains and feeds his people. This is Theology. The details lead us deep into the mystery of what God is doing.
When it comes the Annunciation to the Shepherds, there is nothing sentimental intended nor is there any effort on Luke’s part to identify with the common man as sometimes badly conceived homilies might want to suggest. This episode is tied to the Jewish idea that is much more deeply involved. It is draws heavily from images in the Prophet Micah which anticipates and for-sees the triumph of Jerusalem by a ruler from David’s place of origin. Remember what David was? This detail ties in with a King descended from a shepherd image: David the King.
This Annunciation to Shepherds is written in the style of an Imperial Proclamation. I like to think that this is Luke’s counter-propaganda that Jesus, not Augustus was the Savior and source of peace whose birthday marked the beginning of new time. Probably however, Isaiah 9: 5 seems to be the source: “For the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. For a child has been born for us, a son given us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Then Luke gives us the final hymn: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he favors”. Like the other hymns, added later, it was probably composed by a community of Jewish Christians using the same kind of poetry. It is used to hail Jesus as the Messiah at the end of his ministry, something the angles knew at the beginning of his life. Luke is telling us that the angels of heaven recognized at the beginning of life for Jesus what the disciples came to know only at the end; namely, the presence of the Messiah King comes in the name of the Lord.
After the Shepherd’s visit, Luke says: “The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them.” With that, they depart. There is Luke’s signal: End of scene.
Through all of this we see Luke the pastor writing to comfort, encourage, and renew a community that was stumbling, disconnected from its roots and facing new challenges. His purpose was not so much to speak new things, but to present old things in a new way, old things which the readers knew from the very sources and traditions Luke used in his work. He chose a familiar form, “narrative.” This form is to literature what story telling is to the spoken word. It communicates in such a way that the readers enter the story and discover that it is their own. Gifted with knowledge, the readers little by little learn how the characters in the story arrive at the knowledge which they already have and what that truth really means.
The whole thing is an invitation to keep these things in our hearts, to wonder at them as their meaning is gradually unfolding in the story. Remember, Luke is writing to people who have differing ideas about God in the midst of a Roman occupation as Rome has its own idea about God with a divine Emperor. Luke is going to straighten that out.
What do we learn so far?
Jesus is a human, born of a woman.
Jesus is Divine, born of God.
Jesus would return to God, and Christians must accept the end of his life and his absence from history as an individual figure or person.
The Narrative is like a painting with two panels. In the first panel is set in Jerusalem with Zachariah and Elizabeth. Like them, we believe yet we doubt, and what does God do? God does not need our perfect belief to fulfill the promise of biblical history which reveals again and again that the barren past can become fruitful. In the second panel the scene shifts from Jerusalem to Nazareth. Luke is concerned to show that the origins of Jesus are much more significant than those of John the Baptist. Nazareth is a no-place. Jerusalem is power. There is a message here.
The role of Zachariah and Mary are parallel, but it is Mary the mother, not Joseph the father who gives a name, who receives a message and brings things to pass. John’s birth is about overcoming the inability to conceive. The birth of Jesus introduces a whole new order, and we are pulled into the realm of creation by the working of the Spirit which is a powerful theme in Luke’s Gospel as we will see chapter by chapter.
The visitation story invites us to see the New Testament, Mary reaching out and transforming the Old Testament, Elizabeth.
Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth of Galilee. This is clearly held by Christian tradition without contest. At the same time, a clear theological tradition held that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Matthew handled it one way, by beginning at Bethlehem. Luke another way by beginning in Nazareth. Luke had a problem of getting them to Bethlehem, so he has a census. He uses this event for another reason too. He wants to show that Jesus was being just, obedient, and legitimate when it comes to Roman Law. This is a concern all through Luke.
It’s all a journey, a long pilgrimage to Jerusalem in Luke’s Gospel just as it is for us. As we conclude this reflection on the Infancy Narrative, remember the story of Jesus being lost for three days only to be found again. It’s all part of Luke’s plan. The loss of Jesus creates confusion and consternation and Jesus explains the divine necessity which called for his absence; the Father’s business. He must be with the Father. This is his ultimate destiny, and we, the church through him, and with him, and in him are on the same journey to the New Jerusalem.