[Music]
the Gospel of Luke Luke investigated
many of the earliest eyewitnesses of the
life of Jesus and then composed this
account and the story begins up in the
hills of Jerusalem the place where
Israel's ancient prophets said that God
Himself would come one day to establish
his kingdom over all the earth in the
city is the temple run by the priests
and one of them named Zechariah was
working in the temple when he had a
vision that freaks him out an angel
appears it says that he and his wife
will have a son what's this all about
well Zechariah and his wife were told
are very old they've never been able to
have children and Luke setting up a
parallel here with Abraham and Sarah the
great ancestors of Israel because they
too were very old and could never have
kids yet God gave them a son Isaac which
is how the whole story of Israel began
and so Luke's implying here that God's
about to do something that significant
for this people once again the angel
tells Zachariah to name the son John and
then he says that the sons going to
fulfill a promise of Israel's ancient
prophets that somebody would come one
day to prepare Israel to meet their God
when he arrived to rule in Jerusalem
because right now Jerusalem is ruled by
the Romans
yeah specifically it's governed by a man
named Herod who's a puppet king under
the Roman Empire and so the Jewish
people wanted nothing more than to be
free and govern themselves in their own
land so this is shocking news
everything's gonna change God's on his
way but how is he going to arrive well
to find out Luke takes us out of
Jerusalem and then up into a small town
in the hills of an out-of-the-way region
called Galilee there we find a young
woman named Mario or we call her Mary
she was engaged to be married and then
an angel appears to Mary saying that
she's gonna have a son she's supposed to
name him Jesus which in Hebrew means the
Lord saves and he will be a king like
David who will rule over God's people
forever and then Mary asks okay well how
is this possible because I'm a virgin
and she's told that the same holy spirit
that brought life and
light out of darkness in Genesis chapter
one is going to generate life inside her
womb God is about to bind himself to
humanity through the conception and the
birth of the Messiah and so Mary goes
from some backwoods no-name girl to the
future mother of the king exactly in
fact she sings a song about how this
reversal of her own social status points
to a greater upheaval to come through
her son God's going to bring down rulers
from their thrones and exalt the poor
and the humble he's going to turn the
whole world order upside down so when
Mary was really pregnant she and her
fiance Joseph had to go down to
Bethlehem yeah there was a decree across
the Roman Empire about new taxes and so
everybody had to go get registered in
the town of their family line there are
so many visitors in Bethlehem they can't
find a guest room and so the only place
they can find is a spot where animals
sleep now nearby were some Shepherds
with their flocks and an angel appears
which of course freaks them out but
they're told to celebrate because
tonight in Bethlehem a savior has been
born yeah they're told to go and find
this baby and they'll know that it's the
Messiah because he's going to be wrapped
up and laying in a grimy feeding trough
yeah which is pretty gross totally and
then these Shepherds who aren't very
clean themselves they go and find the
newborn Jesus in this really dingy place
and their minds are blown they go home
wondering what on earth is about to
happen and this is all really strange
I mean if God's really coming to save
the world this isn't how you would
expect him to arrive born in an animal
shelter to a teenage girl celebrated by
no-name Shepherds exactly I mean
everything is backwards in Luke's story
and that's the point he is showing how
God's kingdom was first revealed in
these dirty places among the poor
because Jesus is here to bring salvation
by turning our world order upside down
[Music]
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