St Luke was a learned man. He was well-versed in upper-class
Greek. Traditionally he has been known as a doctor, a healer and this gives us
a clue to his nature. Because he was very different from most well-educated
people, he had a real concern for the poor, the afflicted and most of all the
rejected. He realized that they were the ones God chose to carry his message in
the world.
To highlight this we should take today’s Gospel
passage about Mary’s Annunciation in tandem with the passage that immediately
precedes it about Zechariah.
Zechariah was an educated man; notice the word man,
women in those days simply weren’t educated. Moreover Zechariah was a priest in
the temple and knew the law intimately. It was his job to go into the innermost
sanctuary to burn the incense there. This was the Holy of Holies where the Jews
believed that God resided. At the hour when all the people were praying the
Angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him that he would be the father of a
great prophet, with the spirit and the power of Elijah and would prepare the
way for the Lord. But on hearing this he doubted because his wife was barren
and asked the angel: ‘How can I be sure of this?’ Because of his disbelief, he
was struck dumb until it was time to name his son.
Notice the contrast with Mary. First she was a woman,
a simple girl and therefore uneducated. She had no power, she didn’t know the
intricacies of the law, she could not even enter the temple. Although too she
at first expressed some incredulity: ‘How can this come about since I am a
virgin’ she nevertheless placed her trust in God. Notice that both these births
were normally speaking impossible: one from an old woman and the other from a
virgin.
So according to Luke the Gospel comes from where one
least expects: not from the Holy of Holies in the temple, but from the
back-streets of a country village. Not from a senior priest of the temple, but
from a lowly maiden. The Gospel comes from improbable quarters, but isn’t this
always the case, isn’t this the case even today.
Luke understood this. He saw that God regarded the
homeless, the poor, the outcasts as being truly honourable, the true children
of God. He understood that for God the world was upside down.
One simple thing illustrates Luke’s thinking so well
and it is the greeting. The angel’s opening words to Zechariah were ‘Do not be
afraid.’ To Mary, ‘Rejoice so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ Only when
she asked herself what this greeting could mean did the angel go on to say, ‘Do
not be afraid.’
Zechariah, the learned priest of the temple gets no
greeting at all but the insignificant young girl gets a very elaborate greeting
and is told that the Lord favours and honours her. In the ancient world young
girls were considered too insignificant to greet and the only honour they could
attain was honour from their husband’s or father’s achievements. We get the
message clearly that the world has turned upside down.
But let’s take another point. Yes, the angel Gabriel
says to Mary ‘You have won God’s favour,’ but when we consider all that
subsequently happened to Mary how can we consider that she was favoured
according to our way of understanding the word.
After this episode with the angel Mary was probably
ostracized by her community and was certainly going to be ‘put aside’ by Joseph
if God hadn't interfered and told him through a dream to take her into his
home.
She then bore a son away from her family in a strange
town, which she walked about seventy miles while pregnant to get to. She was
told that her own soul would be pierced by a sword then had to flee to Egypt to
keep he baby safe.
Later on she worried and searched for him for days
while he was in the temple. She saw him grow up to be an itinerant rabbi
instead of having a good job as a carpenter. And eventually saw him scourged,
crucified and buried. Again the world seems upside down.
Looking at this it seems to be quite clear that being in God’s favour doesn’t necessarily mean the good life. No wonder it is hard to be a Christian. I’ve met a number of people recently who have waved their fists at God wondering what is left for him to throw at them next!
This is all part of the great paradox of
Christianity. To be favoured by God is to discover that that through pain and
death there is new life and great blessing. Mary’s simple ‘yes, let it happen
to me’ brought the greatest possible blessing on her and on the whole human
race.
God chooses his moment and intervenes in our life. He
faces us with a choice and we can go either the way of Zechariah or the way of
Mary. We can doubt, disbelieve and draw back. Or we can accept, believe and go
forward. Either way we will face difficulties. Either way God will do what he
intends and if he needs to will achieve what he wants by other means.
Choosing Zechariah’s way of disbelief and hesitation
is understandable and it doesn’t shut the door on God because one can’t
actually close the door on God; he will be back, he will keep knocking.
But to choose Mary’s way is better, it brings
sufferings but it brings blessings on us all. Choosing Mary’s way is choosing
God’s way and it always ends with Christ being reborn into our world.
Look at the final contrast between Zechariah and
Mary. Zechariah is struck dumb while Mary lets out a great shout of praise in
the Magnificat: My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my
Saviour.’
But as we have said God gets his own way in the end
and after the birth of John the Baptist our friend Zechariah eventually finds
his voice and lets out his own shout of praise in the Benedictus: Blessed be
the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited his people and redeemed them.
Indeed the poor and the suffering are close to God.
They share his sufferings, they are not blown up with pride or think of
themselves better than anyone else. They are the despised of this world but God
turns their sufferings in due time into blessing and salvation for us all.