Mars, Venus, and Jesus (Part 2)

"The Spirit of the LORD is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor." Luke 4:18-19

This is the first of Jesus' mission statements in the Gospel of Luke. In this author's portrait of Jesus, Christ comes to the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed. In Africa and around the world, women continue to rank high, if not the highest, among the most oppressed people groups. Does Jesus come to women? The author of Luke answers this question overwhelmingly in the affirmative, and the manner in which Jesus comes to women is shown most clearly in the Gospel of Luke. And women respond to Jesus.

Throughout the book, women are set alongside men in the narrative; however, the most striking contrasts occur at the beginning and end of the story. In chapters 1 and 24 we see women responding in faith to some seemingly impossible news. As a man, I am both humbled and enlightened as I consider the disbelief of the men in the face of the believing women. Let's observe...

Second, Luke 24 opens with some pretty glum disciples, both men and women. And why shouldn't they be? Jesus, their Messiah, is dead. The women disciples who had followed him (Luke 8:1-4) came to the tomb early Sunday morning in order to embalm the body of Jesus. They arrive at the tomb, but Jesus is gone! As the women stood there wondering what had happened, two men in dazzling clothes (presumably angels) appeared to them, asking why they sought the dead among the living - "He is risen! Remember how he told you, while he was will with you in Galilee, ...." The angels reminded the women that Jesus had predicted that he would die and rise again. "Then [the women] remembered his words."

The assumption is that the women believed then and there, on the spot, right away. The very next verse tells us that they went back to the Eleven disciples and all the others and told them everything that had happened. "But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed like nonsense" (NIV). Sound familiar? The New American Standard Bible speaks even more harshly of the disciples - "they would not believe." What's worse, Jesus had spoken of his death, burial, and resurrection on 3 different occasions to his disciples!!! The women believed; they did not.

Well, Peter did better than the others, it seems. He "got up and ran to the tomb." If you understand John 20 to be describing the same events as Luke 24, then perhaps John went with Peter on this trip (but this doesn't seem likely to me - read the two stories carefully). Anyway, the text in Luke says that even when Peter saw the empty tomb, he went away "wondering to himself what had happened." This was the same response as the women had before the angels appeared to them. In other words, in took both the women's report and the empty tomb to bring Peter to the same place mentally as the women when they first saw Jesus' empty burial clothes.

In fact, we are not given any indication of belief by any of the Eleven disciples until verse 34, where the text tells us after the fact that "the Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." So it would seem that neither Peter nor the other Eleven believed until Jesus had personally appeared to Peter (although I admit this is an inference). How slow we are to believe the words of Jesus.

"Father, give us grace to believe what You tell us in Your Word. Thank you for the example of godly women of faith as recorded in Luke's Gospel. Please make us malleable to Your Spirit and hungry for Your Son, the true bread from heaven."

Mars, Venus, and Jesus (Part 1)

"The Spirit of the LORD is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor." Luke 4:18-19

This is the first of Jesus' mission statements in the Gospel of Luke. In this author's portrait of Jesus, Christ comes to the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed. In Africa and around the world, women continue to rank high, if not the highest, among the most oppressed people groups. Does Jesus come to women? The author of Luke answers this question overwhelmingly in the affirmative, and the manner in which Jesus comes to women is shown most clearly in the Gospel of Luke. And women respond to Jesus.

Throughout the book, women are set alongside men in the narrative; however, the most striking contrasts occur at the beginning and end of the story. In chapters 1 and 24 we see women responding in faith to some seemingly impossible news. As a man, I am both humbled and enlightened as I consider the disbelief of the men in the face of the believing women. Let's observe...

First, Luke 1 tells the story of two miraculous conceptions, those of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. The principle players in the story are Zechariah, first, and then Mary. As the story unfolds, the angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah to tell him that he will have a son with his wife, Elizabeth, both of whom are old and "well along in years" (NIV). Zechariah says flatly, "How can I be sure of this?" He plain doesn't believe it, and Gabriel tells him so, "And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time." And so the story goes.

In the meantime, we the readers are whisked away to Nazareth, where Gabriel appears to Mary to tell her even more impossible news; she will conceive a child in her virginity. Contrast Mary's question to Zechariah's: "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" Gabriel than describes the overwhelming visitation of the Holy Spirit on Mary and instructs her that nothing is impossible for God. And Mary's humble reply, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be done to me as you have said." Make no mistake - Mary was a woman of great faith.

After hearing Gabriel tell of her relative Elizabeth, who has also conceived miraculously, Mary goes to visit Elizabeth in her late pregnancy. Elizabeth blesses Mary, and it is in this blessing where the reader sees the great contrast of the narrative, "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished." Bear in mind that Mary has most certainly not even begun to show her pregnancy; perhaps she has not even missed a menstrual cycle yet! She has no evidence of the immaculate conception, but she is blessed for believing it. Zechariah did not believe but wanted proof; what he got was the proverbial "gift" of silence.

Upon hearing Elizabeth's pronouncement of blessing, Mary bursts forth in a song of praise to God. We title this hymn the Magnificat, for magnificent it is. Mary believes and sings praise even though it seems as though nothing yet has happened to validate the angel's message to her. Zechariah also sings a hymn of praise to God; we call this one the Benedictus. Like Mary's song, his is marvelous, describing the faithfulness and wonder of Yahweh God. Notice, though, that he does not sing his praise until after his son is born! Now in all fairness to Zechariah, he couldn't have sung it any earlier - remember, Gabriel had struck him with mute-ness. Still, I am awed by Mary's simple, child-like faith when viewed in comparison to Zechariah, a priest(!), who simply did not believe.

Let the Nations be Glad!

This is the title of a popular book by John Piper about the subject of Christian world mission. It is an excellent work and one I enjoyed reading very much. Consider the following quote, which I found to be the most profoundly beautiful and moving passage in the whole book (pg. 216).

"I infer from this that the beauty and power of praise that will come to the Lord from the diversity of the nations are greater than the beauty and power that would come to him if the chorus of the redeemed were culturally uniform. The reason for this can be seen in the analogy of a choir. More depth of beauty is felt from a choir that sings in parts than from a choir that only sings in unison. Unity in diversity is more beautiful and more powerful than the unity of uniformity. This carries over to the untold differences that exist between the peoples of the world. When their diversity unites in worship to God the beauty of their praise will echo the depth and greatness of God's beauty far more exceedingly than if the redeemed were only from a few different people groups."

This paragraph invokes in my mind more wonder about the majesty, artistry, and beauty of God than the whole rest of the book combined (that is not to say that the rest of the book is bad - it's excellent).