Luke Part 1 - Some Assembly Required

If you're joining us now for the first time, you're going to want to start at the beginning - click here to view the start of this project. 

If there had been email back in the day of Luke and Theophilus:

 

Why does Luke start the story the way he does?

Did anyone else ask themselves that? Why did he include this story of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth? Who the heck is this guy Gabriel? Why is he such a busy character in this story? Why don’t we even see a peep about Jesus’ birth until after 80 verses? Why is chapter 1 SOOO LONG?

Option 1: Luke is a verbose and wordy writer (just like his buddy Paul)

Option 2: Luke found it really entertaining how Gabriel interacted with Zechariah and put it in for a laugh[1]

Option 3: Luke is showcasing the type of people who were prevalent in Jesus’ life, and they were good, godly Jews who sought after God and followed His commands with their hearts and their actions.[2]

I'm going with option 3.

And it doesn’t end with Zechariah and Elizabeth. Luke notes that Mary is also a good, godly woman, which is precisely why God chose her to be His sacred vessel. He notes after the birth of Jesus that Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple to be circumcised on the 8^th day[3], where the family encountered even MORE good, godly people who had been waiting on Jesus’ birth, namely Simeon and Anna. Both of these individuals are described as being (1) older (2) devout and righteous, and (3) having had the Holy Spirit come upon them. Now, this third point was a big deal. The Holy Spirit was interacting and moving and shaking all over the place, which was something Israel hadn’t seen in a long time (click here for some of the background on that, if you haven’t been with us through this whole series :) ).

Jesus was raised by parents who loved Yahweh and honored His commands. He had people all around Him who loved Yahweh and honored His commands. As He grew up and developed into a young man, He was raised to love Yahweh and honor His commands. So much so that when His parents accidentally left Him in Jerusalem after a Passover feast (way to go, Mom and Dad…) He stayed at the Temple and wowed the officials with how much He…

[everyone, now, all together:]

Now, Luke tells us that Mary pondered and treasured all these things in her heart. To me, that sounds like she was even amazed at the boy Jesus was becoming. As Jesus grew into a man, he had favor in the sight of God and in the sight of men. 

But it shouldn’t have been a big shocker! Jesus was constantly surrounded by a community of people who feared God and showed Him by example how to live like someone who fears God. His own cousin was the last of the Old Testament prophets, for goodness sake! Jesus had solid examples to follow.

I can almost hear you asking – did Jesus NEED an example? Wasn’t He God? Didn’t He know all of this stuff already? Well…yes and no. In the words of a dear professor, “Jesus didn’t pop out of the womb spouting parables.”[4] He grew. He developed. He learned. And He needed people in His life to teach Him how to be the man God was preparing Him to be.

That translates pretty clearly to you and me, doesn’t it? We don’t pop out of the womb exactly who we’re supposed to be, knowing everything we need to know, do we? We have to learn. We have to grow. We need teachers and mentors and peers in our life to teach us what we need to know. That’s why kindergarten is so important and awesome.

Let’s bring it in even further – at the moment of conversion (the instant you go from non-Christian to Christian) do you automatically know EVERYTHING it takes to be the “perfect Christian?”

I certainly didn’t. 

It wasn’t until I surrounded myself with people who knew Jesus and knew what was important to Him, and were willing to teach me and walk with me down the road of what that looked like in my life that I began to actually grow as a Christian. It’s a long jump from being an infant in Christ to being a mature adult in Christ, and without GOOD. GODLY. PEOPLE. in our lives to show us how to get from point A to point B, we don’t ever really make any progress towards being the people God wants us to be.

Jesus’ early years gave us a great example of that first step – surround yourself with godly people, because when we get isolated, that’s when the devil tries to tempt us off the path that God wants for us. Once again, this was no different in Jesus’ case[5].

So what we’ve learned so far: it is SUPER important to be a part of a community who knows God, loves God, and follows God. We are going to start to see Jesus develop and hand pick His community of godly people, and step by step by step, we’ll get to see Him groom and train and prepare them for a life of full-blown discipleship.

Be seeing you at the next post – put this post into practice and BRING A FRIEND!

Stay classy!

---

[1] Luke 1: 11-20

[2] A word to the wise – if you have multiple choice answers and you’re just not sure…go with the longest answer. 66% of the time, it works every time. Thank you, Anchor man.

[3] This is an indicator of the type of people Mary and Joseph were – they were following the letter of the Mosaic Law with their/God’s son. Good. Godly. People.

[4] Quote stolen from professor John Correia…because the imagery tickled me.

[5]  We see this very clearly in Luke 4:1-13. Granted, Jesus was led out into the wilderness for the expressed purpose of being tempted by Satan, but this doesn’t make the fact that isolation is Satan’s favorite place to attack us any less true or significant.