Life
of Christ 5
Just a
few short months after Gabriel appeared unto Zacharias in the Holy Place
Gabriel was again commissioned by God to deliver a message to an unsuspecting
human. This time he wouldn't appear in the grand surroundings of the Temple,
but rather in lowly Nazareth, a small town in despised Galilee.
Israel
in Christ's day was largely divided along geographic lines. Jerusalem, in the
south, was the center of the region known as Judea, a Romanized form of Judah,
the Southern Kingdom of Israel we are familiar with from the Old Testament. The
region of Galilee, to the north, was much larger and wealthier than her
southern neighbor.
The
reason I said 'despised Galilee' was because it largely was, at least in the
minds of the religious intellegentsia of Judea. Clearly, if Galilee was
wealthier, it had nothing to do with the fact that since the land and climate
were better in the north it produced better crops, fish, timber, and olive oil.
No, it was simply because Galileans were more materialistic. Clearly, if the
Galileans did not attend the feasts in
Jerusalem with the same fervor it had nothing to do with the much greater
distance, no, it was because they were less spiritual. Clearly, if the Galilean
speech pattern was noticeably different than the Judean it had to be because of
the low priority which education was given in such a carnal place. Clearly,
Judea was superior, for the Temple was located there. Clearly, Judea was superior,
for the Sanhedrin met there. Clearly.
In this
despised Galilee few towns had a lower reputation than Nazareth. 'Can any good
thing come out of Nazareth?' Nathanael asks Philip rhetorically in John 1.46.
One of the regions primary caravan routes ran directly through Nazareth from
the Mediterranean ports to Damascus. This would have brought many of the
unclean Gentiles into town. To add insult to injury, a Roman garrison fort was
stationed just outside of Nazareth. Every military base in history has produced
a strip full of available sin just outside of its boundaries where soldiers could
throw away their pay away on wine, women, and song, and Nazareth was no different.
Yes, it is true that one of the 24 priest courses was based in Nazareth also but
that did little to change its regional reputation as a city of sin.
Thus it
was that Gabriel's second trip to Earth with a message from God found him in
much humbler surroundings than the first time. If his first message was
delivered in grand surroundings to a highly respected priest on the occasion of
the greatest day of his priesthood, well, his second message was completely
different. It was delivered in Nazareth of Galilee to a completely unknown
young woman living in an ordinary home. At that point in her history the only
interesting thing about her was that she had recently formally entered into a
contract of betrothal, becoming espoused to a carpenter named Joseph.
Betrothal was a civil contract that was equivalent to marriage in many
respects, but without the consummation or cohabitation. The couple were called
husband and wife, and the betrothal could not be sundered without a bill of
divorce. In such a situation infidelity was considered adultery. The waiting
period between betrothal and marriage was designed to help the woman to adjust
to the idea of leaving her home, as well as to reveal whether she had been pure,
so twelve months was a typical wait time.
It was in this environment of Nazareth
and to a pure, betrothed young woman that Gabriel brings this most incredible
of announcements. It is amazing how often God does the humanly impossible just
to prove that it is Him doing it. Did it ever occur to you that Jesus entered
this life through a door marked 'No Entrance' and left it through a door marked
'No Exit'? And in between those bookends of the Virgin Birth and the
Resurrection there was lived out the most astounding life in the history of
humanity.
The arc of Jesus' life is
breathtaking, and one of the things that strikes me about this story, which you
find in Luke 1.26-38 is how completely Gabriel describes the breadth of Jesus'
life in just a few short sentences, a life that John would later say would take
more books than the world could hold to accurately discuss (John 21.25).
'His
name JESUS' speaks so sweetly to that for which we love Him first – saving us from
our sins (Matthew 1.21). 'He shall be great' is perhaps the biggest
understatement in the history of language. 'The Son of the Highest' refers
plainly to His relationship to His Heavenly Father, not just a great man, but
the very Son of God Himself. In these we see the mission of His first coming,
namely redemption. We see how the world will view Him, as great. We see the
fundamental doctrine of christology, His divinity. Remarkably, we also see
beyond the scope of His first coming, as large as that is, all the way to the
very end. 'The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And
he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall
be no end.' B. C. Jennings, the old preacher who led my Dad to Christ in 1966
always called Him 'King Jesus', and Bro. Jennings was exactly right. He is
coming back. He will sit on David's throne in Jerusalem. He will rule and reign
there for a thousand years, and then later in a kingdom without end in the New
Heaven and Earth.
But
beyond the rich doctrinal content of the Annunciation to Mary, and the breadth
of it, what also strikes me is the simple faith and obedience with which she
received this stunning news. She has just been informed she is highly favored
of God. She has been told she will have a son. She has been told this son would
be a king. Furthermore, she has been told that this will happen without any man
being involved, a virgin birth, that this boy would be God's Son. And after
hearing all this she sweetly says, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto
me according to thy word.' Without a hint of a fuss she hands her entire life over
to the Lord for His use in His way, and does so immediately.
A few
decades later James would pen his right strawy epistle, to quote Martin Luther,
in which James would forever marry faith and works (James 2.17-26). Mary
rightly married them at the very dawning of the life of our Saviour. She
believed (Luke 1.45), and she obediently yielded her life to the Lord (Luke
1.38). We will see this exact same reaction in her soon to be husband.
What a
wonderful home, not yet even joined, to which God sent His Son! What a sweet
spiritual environment would grace Jesus' life from His first quavering breath!
Jesus wouldn't arrive in a wealthy or famous home, but He would come to a home
full of faith and obedience in His Heavenly Father.
God
makes good decisions, doesn't He?
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