Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Luke 1:26-38


Dear Theophilus,
What a picture your words paint!  A man who is responsible for transformation of your life, who makes you look at business deals differently, is indeed more than I have bargained for!  I must say that I read your letter several times, with trepidation rising within me each time.  I believe I have lived a good life, and that I am a good man.  I am not prepared for some man to enter into it and suddenly change the way I look at things.  But, then again, perhaps he will merely confirm what I believe about myself.  I do not know.
I do not know is a phrase I have uttered again and again since I last wrote.  When I read your letter, I tried to take in the bulk of what you said and figure out how it makes sense.  These things just don’t happen!  But I have promised to take up this endeavor with an open mind and an open heart, and so I shall strive to accept the things I hear.  I trust that the authenticity of lack thereof will be revealed and I will be at peace once more.  There have been few issues throughout my life that have managed to burrow their way this deeply into my consciousness, and each one I have been able to settle decisively in my favor.  I am sure this matter will yield to my investigative prowess, too. 
The story you relate is certainly beyond the fringe of what I consider believable, and I would discount it readily if I heard about it on the news from some shepherd, but I know you would not relate it were it not true.  And, I must confess, I have recently heard recounted a similar story to the one you relate.  I believe that part of my soul wishes it were not true—for if the story is to be found confirmed so early in the telling, then the implications only grow as it continues.  I anticipated myself wrestling with the truth of the matter until the last page, and perhaps beyond it, but one angelic story leads straight into another, and I am on the defensive already.
I received this account from a solicitor I have known for many years.  I wrote to ask him what he knew of Jesus, and within weeks he responded with a tale I must have read twenty times when I received it.  Several social arrangements were skipped due to how absorbed I was in the issue.  I imagine you have heard it before, and I will admit that it will be nice to have some confirmation of a tale the likes of which I am accustomed to reading in children’s fairy tales!
It appears that this angel Gabriel you mention in your story has been busy—for he also visited a young virgin by the name of Mary in Nazareth.  She was a rather ordinary girl, engaged to a carpenter named Joseph, of the house of David.  She was the type of girl who moves through life without creating many ripples on the pond, but in this case God seems to have dropped a boulder into it, and for some strange reason I believe it all to be true.  My friend tells me that the angel addressed Mary as a favored one, and told her that the Lord is with her!  Imagine that—a plain young virgin being favored by the Lord!  It strikes me as rather odd.
The story only grows stranger.  She, as most of us would, did not understand the angel’s greeting.  But the angel continued, telling her that she had somehow found favor with God, and that she would conceive and have a child, the one whom is named Jesus.  This child, the son of a young, ordinary virgin, will be great, the Son of God, and will sit on the throne of the house of David!  The angel told her the kingdom will be eternal.  It was a lot to take in, but she had a question about the same thing you or I still have questions about—how is such a thing possible, since Mary had never had relations with a man?
Well, the angel didn’t seem nearly concerned about that detail as Mary was.  He told her that the Holy Spirit would be with her, that the power of God would be over her, and therefore the child would be a holy child, the Son of God!  As proof that God can do anything, the angel referred her to Elizabeth, who is her cousin, the barren woman you referenced who was pregnant. 
Mary was overwhelmed by all this, but she remembered the way her parents talked about Elizabeth.  They could scarcely believe the news when they heard that Elizabeth and Zechariah were going to have a child—their arthritis is so bad some days the child may have to carry them!  But Mary had wondered about all of this and believed that God did a miracle, so who was she to resist God performing a miracle in her own life?  She replied to the angel, “I am the Lord’s servant, by your word, may it be so.”  Then the angel left.
Such a tale, isn’t it Theophilus?  What kind of story begins not just with one, but with two miraculous children, each one announced by the arrival of an angel?  One to a barren woman past her years of childbearing, another to a young girl who is before them?  While Zechariah was undoubtedly thrilled about the arrival of a son, I wonder if the young woman’s fiancĂ© felt the same? 
I told myself I would stay emotionally removed from this research—that it would be but a matter of collecting and processing stories, of examining them and the sources, and then making a reasoned decision.  I see now how challenging that will be—for these happenings are so much bigger than what I had expected.  I am not a young man, and I have seen and heard much in this life, but this tale is so much bigger than I could imagine.  And to think that you believe God has been preparing for it for many years prior! 
It is late, and my weary mind is exhausted already.  I pray this finds you well, and I look forward to hearing what unravels next in this yarn.
Sincerely,
Luke 

No comments: