Theology, Thoughts & Coffee
Reading and Class Schedule:
Amy-Jill Levine, Light of the World: A Beginner's Guide to Advent
- Chapter 1, The Meaning of Memory, pp. 21-52
- Chapter 2, The Promise of Potential, pp. 53-80
- Chapter 3, The Journey to Joy, pp. 81-110
- Chapter 4, The Gifts of the Gentiles, pp. 111-140
Chapter 1 - The Meaning of Memory
Luke 1:5-25, 57-79 (Luke 1:26-56 is the text for chapter 2)
“Knowing the when and where of Jesus is essential for understanding him.” When the Gospel writers mention names, dates, and places they are alerting us to pay attention because these details are rich with meaning.
The mention of King Herod is not a happy start to the story. He was a ruthless leader who killed his sons, his wife, her brother and mother, and in his dying days ordered the execution of one member from every family in order that the whole nation should mourn.
“His building projects still stand as a testimony to his reign; to see the buildings without knowing the history behind them is insufficient. Any story set in the reign of King Herod is a story of political intrigue and of threats to life.”
While Herod holds the throne, Zechariah and Elizabeth are the focus of the story and tell us that “to understand Jesus requires an understanding of Jewish history. More, Luke is telling gentile converts: this history of Israel is now part of your history as well. It is part of your story.”
The annunciation in the Jerusalem Temple is rooted in the history and memory of Israel and Luke reminds readers that they have seen this story before and are about to hear it again with a new couple, at a new time, and with a new message.
The Angel proclaims good news to Zechariah of an impending birth, however his doubt has consequences and he is “unable to speak until the day when these things happen.”
Elizabeth recognizes that her pregnancy is a gift from God that connects her with the matriarchs of Israel. The birth of her son and the story of how he came to bear that name invites us to consider the meaning of our own names and the memories they are intended honor and preserve.
Zechariah’s song highlights (again) the connections between ancient Israel and the biblical tradition. “Jews knew that God was always ready, and eager, to forgive anyone who repents. They also knew that repentance required correction.”
Chapter 2 - The Promise of Potential
Luke 1:26-56
This chapter examines the encounter of Mary with the angel Gabriel (vv. 26-38), her visit to her cousin Elizabeth (vv.39-45), and her “song” in response to the news of her pregnancy and the significance of the child she was bearing, known as the Magnificat (vv.46-56).
Mary’s name has symbolic value. She reminds us of Miriam, the sister of Moses, who is remembered as a poet, prophet, and protector. While we remember Mary primarily as the mother of Jesus, she is also a poet, prophet, and protector.
We do not know the details of Mary’s background. “When we do not have the details and want to know more, we tell stories. Such stories and others about Mary resemble Midrash, Jewish storytelling that fills in the gaps….Good stories always give rise to more stories.”
The Bible, by telling and repeating stories, taps into human imagination and speaks to our deepest desires and longings as well as entertaining, instructing, inspiring, and astounding as it does in the story of the Annunciation.
Those who dismiss the Nativity stories as “mythological claptrap” have missed the main point. Luke’s story is not primarily about the conception of Jesus but rather “about divine care and human potential, about how we are all children of God and can therefore do God’s will, about the difficult choices we must make, about our memories and our goals.” Nothing is impossible for God (v. 37).
Elizabeth to Mary: God has blessed you above all women, and has blessed the child you carry (v. 42). This is the first use of the word blessed in Luke’s Gospel and it will be repeated again by Elizabeth, by Mary herself, by Simeon upon seeing the baby Jesus, and then frequently by Jesus. The story of the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth is one of both joy and blessing.
“Mary’s Magnificat, together with her words to Gabriel and Elizabeth’s words to her, explains why she should be blessed, even to Protestants. She was able to receive the angel’s words with both humility and grace. We see through her prayer, the Magnificat, that her focus is not on herself; it is on the mighty acts of God.”
Chapter 3 - The Journey to Joy
Luke 2:1-40
“The story of Jesus begins, as does that of John, locally in Israel, in ‘Nazareth, a city in Galilee’ (Luke 1:26), but his birth in the context of the Roman census signals an empire-wide focus. John’s message will be for his fellow Jews; Jesus’ message is not just for the people and land of Israel, but for ‘all the world.’”
The Census: the mention of a decree by the Emperor Augustus “that all the world should be registered” (Luke 2:1) points to the universal focus intended by Luke’s Gospel. The concern is “more theological than historical, for there was no empire-wide census under Augustus.”
The significance of the census is: 1) theological: Luke implicitly contrasts the Kingdom of God with the Roman Empire; 2) symbolic: it provides Luke with an occasion to indicate the Davidic connection to Joseph and why “Jesus of Nazareth” was not born in Nazareth but in Bethlehem; and 3) ethical: it announces that Jesus and his followers are not part of a movement intent on military revolt. “Instead of rebelling Mary and Joseph obey the governmental command, no matter the personal hardship.”
The imagery used by Luke in the birth narrative allows him to make “a profound point that many readers today miss because we don’t think about the metaphoric potential of words.” For instance, the term manger is not just a bed of straw; it is a feeding trough. “Mary places her baby where food is found…By locating Jesus in the manger, Luke is anticipating the Communion story.”
“The universal is always anchored in the particular: Jesus is fully located in Jewish geography and Jewish lineage because, as Mary said (1:55), he is the fulfillment of the promises to Israel.” Luke’s claim is straightforward: Israel’s Messiah is also the savior of the world. A key question: what kind of savior is this particular Christ, Jesus of Nazareth? The answer is rooted in the Jewish scriptures.
“The texts that will become the Old Testament typically speak of salvation as an event that occurs in history, as in being saved from war, hunger, disease, plague, and oppression.” Salvation in the New Testament always retains this focus in the Jewish tradition. Tikkun Olam: Repairing the World
“Salvation means that there is respite from whatever oppresses in the community that hears, and lives, the Gospel. Men and women, slaves and free people all come together to say, ‘In our midst, we have a savior.’” This is the “wonderful, joyous good news for all people” (2:10) announced to the shepherds in Luke’s gospel.
The shepherds decide to go to Bethlehem to see the focal point of this joyous good news. When they arrive, they “don’t see a baby that glows in the dark, or one fully verbal, or even one with a complete set of teeth. They see a baby, snuggled in his wrappings. There is nothing particularly special about what their eyes see; there is everything special about how they interpret what they see.”
“Today we see shepherds in every manger scene; the ‘three kings’ are there too, but the Magi are only in Matthew, and Matthew has no manger scene…Luke keeps his eye on one message of the Gospel: the lifting up of the lowly. Matthew offers other concerns: the response of the Gentile nations to this Jewish king…and the clash between earthly and heavenly kingdoms. Luke tells the story through Mary’s experience; Matthew concentrates on Joseph. The gospel takes different forms that will speak to us with different messages at different times.”
“In terms of messianic ideas, the opposition from many Jews to the claims of Jesus’ status should not be a surprise. The dominant Jewish idea at the time (and subsequently) is that the Messiah brings about the messianic age, a time when death no longer has dominion, when there is a general resurrection of the dead, a final judgment, the return of exiles to their homeland, peace on earth. Because Jesus did not bring about this type of salvation, most Jews concluded that he could not be the Messiah. What Christians sometimes call the “Second Coming” looks, to a great extent, like traditional Jewish messianic hopes. The only difference is the identity of the Messiah, who in Jewish tradition is not a divine being to be worshiped, but a representative of the one God.”
Chapter 4 - The Gifts of the Gentiles
Matthew 1:18-2:15
“The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are documents of literary genius. Each presents the story of Jesus’ birth in its own way, and each offers a narrative that challenges, that provokes, that shocks, and that makes readers want to hear more.”
Many of the central elements of Luke’s account are absent in Matthew: the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary’s encounter with Gabriel, her visit with Elizabeth, the Magnificat, the census, the journey of Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus in the stable, the angelic choir, and the visit of the shepherds. “Matthew has none of this!”
Instead of focusing on Mary, Matthew tells the story from Joseph’s perspective. Instead of shepherds, Matthew presents Magi; instead of a census that brings Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, Matthew begins in Bethlehem and then recounts their flight to Egypt. Matthew depicts Jesus as the new Moses.
The Genealogy of Matthew demonstrates the embeddedness of Jesus in the Jewish tradition: “Jesus as son of David inherits the throne of David; Jesus as son of Abraham continues the promise made to the ancient patriarch.” Jesus the Messiah will preserve the ancient traditions, even as he offers his own interpretations.
The mention of four women—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba—demonstrates that women contribute to salvation in unexpected ways and that the birth of Jesus is good news to the gentiles as well as the Jews.
Joseph and the virgin birth: When Joseph discovers that his bride-to-be is pregnant he decides to call off their engagement. However, an angel appears to him and tells him the child she carries was conceived by the Holy Spirit and he should name him Jesus (name comes from Hebrew root meaning “to save”).
Reference to Isaiah 7:14: In the Hebrew, there is no mention of a virgin. The text simply states, “a young woman is pregnant.” When the Hebrew text was translated into Greek the term alma (“young woman”) became parthenos, which can mean “virgin.” The Greek translation also changed the Hebrew adjective pregnant to a future verb “will conceive” leading to, “the virgin will conceive.”
The Magi and their gifts: Matthew tells us that a star guided the Magi to Jerusalem, and then from Jerusalem to Bethlehem until it stopped over the place where the child was. They entered the house and fell to their knees and honored him, giving gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Early Christian writers interpreted the gifts as having symbolic purposes: “the gold represented Jesus’ royal status; the myrrh was to anoint his corpse and so to show his humanity; the frankincense, which was burnt on alters, symbolized his divinity.”
Jesus as the new Moses: “Attentive readers immediately note what Matthew is doing; Matthew is connecting Jesus to both the story of Israel and, more particularly, to the story of Moses. Like Moses, Jesus escapes the slaughter of children; like Moses, Jesus will leave Egypt and move to Israel; like Moses, Jesus enters water and experiences a life-changing event; like Moses, Jesus spends forty segments of time in the wilderness; like Moses, Jesus ascends a mountain and delivers instructions on how to live. Jesus does not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them as the new Moses.