Studies in Luke’s Gospel - The Ordinary and the Extraordinary (Luke 1:26-55)
I’ve titled this study ‘the Ordinary in the Extraordinary’ because that is a good description of the whole of the Christian life and message. While we are all ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Ps 139:14), we know there is nothing about us that has eternal value unless we are have given our hearts and lives to Christ and so received eternal life – his life – which is extremely extraordinary. As Paul puts it in 2 Cor 4:7 ‘we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.’
When Jesus came into the world as a baby it was the extraordinary being amazingly willing to become the ordinary. Remember there was nothing about Jesus’ physical humanity that was exceptional – as Isaiah says: ‘He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him’ (Isaiah 53:2).
It all started in:
An ordinary place – Nazareth
‘In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee’ (v26). There is no mention of Nazareth on the Old Testament and even in New Testament times, it had a poor reputation ‘“Nazareth! Can any good thing come from there?” Nathaniel asked’ (John 1:46).
A few years ago, I visited Nazareth, and it is still a very ordinary town. So Jesus’ upbringing was not in a glamorous place, but God delights to do the extraordinary in the middle of the ordinary. Jesus really was ‘a root out of dry ground’ (Isaiah 53:2) i.e. the world contributed nothing to his person.
Secondly his birth involved:
An ordinary person - Mary
Mary would have been a typically poor 15-18year old girl betrothed to a local tradesman. We generally think of Joseph as a carpenter which is likely the case but the word ‘tekton’ can mean a general builder or craftsman. It was very much an unglamorous and poorly paid occupation in those times.
However, Joseph had an:
Extraordinary heritage - royalty
Luke tells us that Joseph was ‘a descendant of David’ (v27) and both Matthew and Luke’s genealogies confirm this (Matt 1:6, 17-18; Luke 3:23-31). In addition, many conservative scholars see that Luke’s record is actually Mary’s lineage and so is different. Either way, Jesus is a descendant of King David and in Luke’s account back through Abraham and all the way to Adam. Joseph and Mary are both royalty and we too are royalty masquerading as peasantry!
We are then told of an:
Extraordinary visit and message – Gabriel
Gabriel is an angel of national significance. The first time Gabriel is mentioned in the Bible is in the Book of Daniel. Daniel had been praying with great fervour for the nation ‘while I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill… Gabriel… came to me in swift flight’ (Dan 9:20-21). In an even greater way than during Daniel’s day, when Jesus was born, the nation’s destiny and the whole world’s destiny was at stake.
Gabriel also came with an extraordinary message ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you’ (v28). The phrase “highly favoured” is literally ‘full of grace’. This does not mean that Mary was sinless – in her own words she ‘rejoices in God my Saviour’ (v47) so she too needed salvation by her sins being forgiven.
This amazing message was met with:
An ordinary reaction – greatly troubled
Mary’s response was very understandable, ‘Mary was greatly troubled and wondered what kind of greeting this might be’ (v29). This was too big an honour for her to accept - how could it be directed at her? Do we feel the same about our position in Christ? “Do not be afraid” (v30) is the most common command in scripture. Her natural reaction was “how will this be...?” (v34) – there was no human possibility for her to bear a child as she was a virgin (which affirms her virginity). But she was told that her relative Elizabeth was also going to give birth (barren and in her old age) and so ‘nothing is impossible with God’ (v37)
Mary is then favoured with:
An extraordinary revelation – a son!
Despite her natural misgivings and feeling unworthy, Gabriel affirms that ‘you will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus’ (v31). This is a direct fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy ‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given’ (Isaiah 9:6) which affirms the humanity of Jesus (‘a child born’) and the deity of Jesus (‘a son given’). It also points to his first and second comings.
Furthermore, he was going to be a king with an eternal kingdom ‘he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end’ (v33) which was a fulfilment of 2 Samuel 7:16. Jesus would offer himself as king over Israel during his earthly ministry but be blatantly rejected by those in religious authority (see Matt 12:22-37) and also be finally rejected by the crowds of ordinary people at his trial (see Matt 27:11-26). Despite the rejection by his own people at that time, we are looking forward to his reign on earth for a thousand years and then his reign in eternity forever.
There is absolutely no question that Jesus was the fulfilment of the hundreds of Old Testament prophecies that the Messiah would come and that this would be brought to pass by the fullness of the Godhead. All three members of the Trinity are involved: ‘the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God’ (v35).
Now we see Mary’s:
Extraordinary faith – be it to me as you have said
She still recognizes her ‘ordinariness’ and calls herself ‘I am the Lord’s servant’ (v38). The word Luke uses is doule - “slave-girl”. All that God requires in order to accomplish the miraculous is - a willing servant, but she is also an obedient servant “May it be to me as you have said” (v38). She’s is prepared to risk life and reputation (Matt 1:19 ‘ Joseph… did not want to expose her to public disgrace’; Deut 22:23-24 ‘if a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death’).
This obedience is followed by:
An extraordinary testimony – the baby leaped in her womb
When “the baby leaped in her (Elizabeth’s) womb” (v41), that was an amazing confirmation for Mary that she would be the bearer of the Saviour of the world. Also, this was John the Baptist’s first message! He was already announcing the presence of the One ‘the thongs of whose sandals I am unworthy to untie’ (Luke 3:16).
There is also an implication for the issue of abortion here in that even before birth John was spiritually conscious of the presence of Jesus – also before his (Jesus’) actual birth. The world likes to tell us that ‘a foetus is not necessarily a “person” with the right to live - it is a collection of human cells’ (BBC Ethics guide). In contrast, Elizabeth remarkably says ‘why am I so favoured that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’
Finally, we have an:
Extraordinary celebration – “the magnificat”
Mary’s song is worthy of a study all on its own. It captures the full significance of Jesus person and ministry. Mary expresses even before Jesus is born what he will accomplish: “my soul glorifies... my spirit rejoices” (v46-47). We are all designed to have God’s presence in us – there was no visible sign of a baby at this stage and yet Mary is full of joy and confidence. I trust we too have the same measure of joy and confidence if we have invited Jesus to be present in us. We don’t see any physical change of course but our soul (conscious life) and spirit (where deity dwells in us) will bear increasing witness as we grow in Christ and he grows in us.
Mary begins with her personal response ‘my soul… my spirit’ but then recognizes that there is a much fuller consequence to the coming of the child she is bearing – it will be ‘from generation to generation’ (v50) and he will ‘be merciful to Abraham and his descendants for ever’ (54-55).
The song concludes with a series of ‘he has…’ statements which are in the aorist tense and so ‘finished’ acts. God is in the eternal present (note his name is ‘I am…’) and so what to us is still future to us, is for him a completed work of salvation. What was a promise to Abraham of a ‘seed’ has now been fulfilled in one person ‘the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. ’The scripture does not say “and to seeds”, meaning many people, but “and to your seed” meaning one person who is Christ’ (Gal 3:16).
So as we have seen, the start of Jesus life and ministry was a combination of ‘the ordinary and the extraordinary’ and so it continued for the rest of his life on earth. He lived for 30 years as an ordinary man but then began an extraordinary ministry for 3 years that revealed him to be nothing less that ‘the Messiah, the Son of the Living God’ (Matt 16:16). As prophesied in Isaiah he would die with criminals and be ‘assigned a grave with the wicked’ but also ‘with the rich in his death’ (Isaiah 53:9) which is a microcosm of the whole extent of his sacrificial death. Paul makes it clear that Jesus ‘made himself nothing’ but ‘God exalted him to the highest place’ (Phil 2:5-11). The ‘ordinary’ would be recognized by all humanity as nothing less than ‘extraordinary’.
We may feel that our lives are ‘ordinary’ but please know that the very presence of Jesus in us means that it is actually ‘extraordinary’. I hope and pray you have realized this and live in the truth of it.
Prayer:
Thank the Lord for the amazing announcement to you that the Lord has been born in you, if you truly are a child of God
Pray that you will be a willing and obedient servant just as Mary was
Pray that you will be a willing and obedient servant just as John the Baptist was and take this powerful message to the world
Praise the Lord for making your ordinary life extraordinary because of his abiding presence