A look at the gaps in the lectionary.
This week: the gap between Advent 3C + 4C
The text: Luke 1:1-38
This week, we jump back from an adult John the Baptist announcing the coming of the Messiah with a message of repentance, to his being in utero. So we’re jumping back to before Jesus is born, before the talk of messiah, to the sudden and exciting news that is coming.
These first two chapters of Luke are some of my favorite parts of scripture. And it’s a shame we don’t spend Advent on chapter one! This is a beautiful story of temple priest named Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth. They were old, unable to have kids, going about their business.
And one day, while at the temple, an angel appears to Zechariah and tells him that God has shown favor on them and will give them a son. And he will be special, proclaiming the Good News of the Messiah to come.
And, like any of us in that situation, he was like, Hold up. That’s not possible. We’re too old.
And the angel was like, Sorry, Charlie. It’s going to happen. And because you didn’t believe it, you’re going to go the next nine months without talking.
Ope!
That Messiah
Six months later, the angel appears to Mary and gives her a similar message of an impending pregnancy. But the angel also tells her of her cousin, Elizabeth, who is six months into an impossible pregnancy. That’s what God thinks about “impossible”, thank you very much.
He will be holy and called the son of God.
And Mary says, OK. Let God have their way.
Aaron’s Line
It isn’t accurate to call it subtle, so much as easy to miss, if you aren’t paying attention. And most of us aren’t. Probably because we don’t care about this stuff half as much as they did. But back in verse five, when the reader is being introduced to these characters, it says Zechariah “belonged to the priestly order of Abijah” which is to say that he is of those people. But that isn’t the lightning strike. It is the next line:
His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
It is she who is of the first family of the Hebrew people. Aaron, the priest, brother of Moses. This is like holy royalty.
That means that her cousin, Mary, is too.
Family Lines
In chapter three, we get Luke’s genealogy of Jesus, going all the way back to Adam. This is a far more traditional affair than Matthew’s, tying Jesus all the way back through Joseph.
This is a matter of tradition, isn’t it? Luke ties Jesus into the line, not through blood, but through the accepted system. Which tells us how little the genealogy has to do with being born as it is being born into the circumstances. Having a descendent of David as a stepfather grants you that privilege.
This is a delightful contrast for us with the genealogy in Matthew, which is often saved for Christmas Eve. Rather than focus on pulling Jesus into the formal tradition over blood, that one ties Jesus into the lineage through Mary, which seems like a patriarchy-challenging move, made triply challenging by the inclusion of problematic stories of fierce Hebrew women. This exceedingly challenging genealogy is far more interesting to ponder and delight in its controversy!
Setting up the story
This introduction sets up a full, beautiful, parallel birth story for John and Jesus, with the meeting we read about on Sunday, John’s birth, which unglues Zechariah’s lips and he goes around proclaiming the greatness of God. Then the famous birth of Jesus.
This other story, of another holy family: Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John: serves as a beautiful companion to the first holy family. And it speaks to the glory of God, of the joy and expectation of what these two will be up to. And, in a sense, seeing a family that isn’t anticipating the Messiah makes them feel a bit closer to our own families, I suppose. A vision a bit closer to what we might find in our own lives.