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The Holy Spirit
Last time in this series, I ended the post with a hinge to Luke with reference to how the angels function, so now let us now turn to Luke’s Christmas story in its Christian context. As with the analysis of Matthew, I already laid out (even more extensively) the significance of Luke’s Christmas story in its Jewish context, and I will not retread everything here. But the Christian context is going to be more extensive in this case because Luke’s Gospel is the first part of a two-volume work. This is first indicated with the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the various episodes of Luke’s Christmas story. The Spirit is more prevalent in Luke than in Matthew, not least because Luke is cognizant of his task of writing about early Church history and the action of the Spirit in it. The Spirit is first mentioned as filling John the Baptist while he is still in the womb (1:15), but this filling is predicated on the fact that John is to be Jesus’s forerunner. It is to Jesus that the Spirit is linked most intricately, as we see throughout Luke’s two volumes (Luke 1:15–17, 35, 41, 67–79; 2:25–35, 36–38; 3:16–17, 22; 4:1, 14, 18; 5:17; 6:19; 9:1; 10:21; 11:13; 24:49; Acts 1:2, 5, 8; 2:1–4, 14–38; 3:21–22; 4:8, 31; 5:3, 9, 32; 6:3, 5, 10; 7:51, 55; 8:15–17, 29, 39; 9:17, 31; 10:19, 38, 44–47; 11:24, 28; 13:2, 4, 9, 52; 15:8, 28; 16:6; 19:6, 21; 20:22–23, 28; 21:4, 11; 28:25). The presence of the same Holy Spirit in Jesus’s disciples who was in Jesus during his life on earth establishes the deepest level of continuity between Jesus and his disciples, ensuring a sense of continuing Jesus’s mission after his ascension. The primary actions of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel and Acts are performed for the sake of the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, whether in terms of empowering people to speak or empowering them to respond. The most obvious exception to this tendency is the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary and overshadowing her (1:35), which matches more closely the vocabulary of the cases noted earlier of the Holy Spirit coming upon people for special tasks. In addition to its resonance with OT stories, this language also anticipates the dual description of the disciples’ Pentecost experience as being clothed with divine power (Luke 24:49) and having the Holy Spirit come upon them (Acts 1:8, using the same verb). The presence of the Holy Spirit here is significant for how it anticipates the rest of the Gospel-and-Acts story and for how it signifies the eschatological import of the Christmas story. After all, the inauguration of Jesus’s public ministry in Luke 4:16–30 and the inauguration of the ministry of the Church post-resurrection are both predicated upon the Spirit’s anointing in fulfillment of eschatological prophecies (Isa 61 in Luke 4 and Joel 2:28–32 in Acts 2).
Repentance
The annunciation of John’s birth also adumbrates the importance of repentance in the rest of the Gospel-and-Acts story. I have already discussed elsewhere how the language about him turning his people to the Lord resonates with OT descriptions of repentance. But it also anticipates John’s ministry (Luke 3:3, 8; Acts 13:24; 19:4), Jesus’s ministry (Luke 5:32), and the early Church’s ministry (Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38). It is also described as the essential action to take to avoid destruction, again, much like in prophetic literature (Luke 13:3, 5; 16:27–30; Acts 8:22). This is why repentance, when it meets God’s pre-existent offer of forgiveness of sins, can function in Luke as a shorthand for the proper human response to God and his gospel for the reception of salvation (Luke 15:7, 10; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 11:18; 17:30–31; 20:21; 26:20). And this is why the dynamic of repentance meeting forgiveness should define the salvific community (Luke 17:3–4). The Christmas story foreshadows this from its first reference to John, with a line of continuity that will stretch through the ministry of the prophets (by implication), to John’s ministry, to Jesus’s, to the early Church’s, and with the expectation that repentance will be one of the defining features of this larger story.
Jesus and Israel
More specifically, the text tells us that John will turn back many of the children of Israel to the Lord (1:16). The specified importance of God’s action for Israel also appears in Mary’s Magnificat (1:54), the Benedictus (1:68), the introduction to Simeon (that he was looking for the consolation of Israel [2:25], which is presented as parallel to Anna’s hope for the redemption of Jerusalem [2:38]), in Simeon’s praise to God that he has given a light for revelation to the gentiles and for the glory of Israel (2:32), and his statement to Mary that Jesus is appointed for the fall and rise of many of the children of Israel (2:34). The opening chapters also look forward to when John would appear before Israel (1:80). That makes seven references to Israel out of twelve in the entire book. Luke will switch to a preference for referring to the people of Israel as “Jews” in Acts, but the fact that there is a distinct preference for “Israel” here illustrates—as but one type of example among many—the indebtedness of Luke’s narration of the Christmas story to the OT. The Christmas story is a critical link between the story of Israel and the story of Jesus, to show how the latter fits into the former. The five other uses of “Israel” in Luke’s Gospel illustrate this same point, as Jesus notes the tension with his ministry being among Israel while knowing that the response among the gentiles will be more positive, as he links his story to the examples of Elijah and Elisha ministering in Israel but only provided for a widow and healed a leper among the gentiles, rather than Israel (4:25–27; cf. Acts 10:36). He also notes how the centurion has demonstrated faith unlike any he has found in Israel (7:9). Part of Jesus’s eschatological promise to his disciples is that they will fulfill their roles as the Twelve by sitting on thrones and judging the twelve tribes of Israel (22:30). The two disciples on the road to Emmaus tell the resurrected Jesus—although they do not yet know who he is—that they hoped Jesus would redeem Israel (24:21). Indeed, we see this hope persist in the post-resurrection reality as the disciples asked Jesus if he was now going to restore the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6), which Jesus does not answer directly (and which has led to much dispute about the place of Israel’s redemption in Luke’s eschatology, which we cannot adequately address here). God, through Jesus, gave repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel (5:31; cf. 13:23–24). On multiple occasions in the first gospel proclamations to the Jews, the speakers still address the audience as Israelites (Acts 2:22, 36; 3:12; 4:10 [as well as a textual variant of 4:8]; 13:16; cf. 5:21). Likewise, Gamaliel (5:35) and the Asian Jews (21:28) direct their pleas to Israelites, one to discourage harsh resistance against the Christians and one to provoke action against Paul on the basis that he teaches against the people, the law, and the temple of Israel. Of course, the people of Israel are also listed among those who arrayed themselves against Jesus (4:27). Still, God is identified by the traditional description of being the God of Israel (13:17) and Paul insists in the closing story of Acts that he is in chains because of the hope of Israel that he is proclaiming (28:20).
Proclaiming the Gospel
Finally, the annunciation of John introduces an important concept for Luke-Acts of proclaiming the good news/gospel by the verb εὐαγγελίζω. This verb is not used quite as often as one might expect (twenty-five times combined in Luke-Acts), given all the gospel proclamations in Acts, but its significance is defined more by the context of its use than the frequency of its use. Gabriel tells Zechariah that he was sent to him to bring good news concerning Elizabeth’s forthcoming miraculous conception of John (1:19). When the angel appears to the shepherds at night, he tells them that he brings them good news of great joy for all the people (2:10). John’s own ministry is described as proclaiming the good news to the people of Israel (3:17). Jesus likewise describes his own ministry in this fashion (4:43; 16:16; 20:1; cf. 8:1; 9:6), including by appealing to the fulfillment of an OT text (Isa 61) that uses the same language (4:18; 7:22). On one occasion in Acts, the gospel is similarly described as the gospel of the kingdom and the name of Jesus Christ (8:12), but it is otherwise described simply as a proclamation about a person—the Lord Jesus, the Messiah—and what had happened through him (Acts 8:4, 25, 35, 40; 10:36; 11:20; 13:32–33; 14:7, 15, 21; 15:35; 16:10; 17:18). We thus see a progression in the proclamation of the good news in Luke-Acts. Initially, the good news concerns the conception or birth of individuals, as these two people will be key figures in salvation history, one as the preparation for the Messiah, the other as the Messiah himself. Next, both John and Jesus function as proclaimers of the good news, which is about the kingdom of God. Finally, the good news in Acts is defined as a proclamation about a person, the King of God’s kingdom, and what God has accomplished in him, especially in the events of the crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation.
A further significance to this fact is something I have noted elsewhere in my analysis of gospel proclamations in Acts. The shift that takes place from the good news about the kingdom to the good news about the King fits the larger theological shift after Jesus’s resurrection and ascension. As some of the earliest recorded Christian theology would develop, the ascension showed that God exalted Jesus to his appropriate place, at his right hand, designated with equal authority over heaven and earth to be the executor of the coming of the kingdom/new creation (e.g., 1 Cor 15:20–28). This proclamation would set the precedent for the shape of the kingdom of God theology for the earliest Christians. While phrases related to “the kingdom of God” appear with less frequency after the Gospels, it appears implicitly every time the early Christians proclaim Jesus as Lord (i.e., King). Jesus is King and his kingdom is God’s kingdom. If he is King, people must get with the program. The way to begin getting with the program is repentance, faith, and baptism, abandoning one’s own way of life and taking up the way of life which acknowledges the Kingship of Jesus. Repentance was/is a way of acknowledging who was in charge, whose will is supreme, and what time it was/is: the time for the story to reach its promised climax of the kingdom. Faith was/is the pledge of loyalty to the King Jesus and the identification with him as the object of faith. Baptism was/is the declaration of one’s citizenship in the kingdom of God by identification with Jesus. Membership was/is further proved by deeds performed by the empowerment and transformative work of the Holy Spirit. With this entry comes the forgiveness of sins and the endowment of the Holy Spirit (as one would expect being incorporated into the identity of this same Jesus the Christians proclaimed to the world as Lord and Christ). The Christmas story anticipates this progression in its proclamation of good news about two individuals and of how they will function in God’s salvific plan.
The King of God’s Kingdom
These observations lead into the annunciation of Jesus’s birth to Mary and the promise of his mission in relation to the kingdom. Gabriel tells Mary that her son will be called the Son of the Most High, to whom God will give the throne of David whose reign and kingdom will last forever (1:33). I have examined the varying layers of significance for these statements elsewhere in light of the OT and Second Temple Jewish literature, but now I consider this in light of Luke’s context. While the language most directly refers to expectations of the Davidic royal Messiah, but the rest of Luke-Acts makes clear that Jesus’s kingdom is the kingdom of God. His purpose in being sent by God was to proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom (4:43; cf. 8:1; 9:11)—in continuity with John and the Scriptures that preceded him (16:16)—and he sends out his disciples for this same purpose (9:2; 10:9, 11; cf. 9:60). And what is this good news? Among other things, that the kingdom belongs to the poor (6:20) and people such as the little children (18:16–17); that it will be revealed before his followers taste death (9:27; 21:29–31); that demons are being driven out from the people they torment and dominate (11:20); that it will start small and grow to be grand in scale (13:18–21); that the last will be first and the first will be last in entering the kingdom as people come from all over the world to participate in the eschatological banquet (13:28–30; 14:15–24), which the Eucharist anticipates (22:15–18); that the kingdom is in our midst or within our grasp because Jesus has come near (17:20–21); that those who leave all else for the sake of the kingdom will receive much more than they forsook (18:29–30); that the Son will receive his kingdom, bring judgment, and both vindicate and exalt his loyal followers (19:11–27; 22:28–30). (And that is only restricting ourselves to the explicit references to the kingdom.) Of course, because the acknowledgment of God’s kingship that characterizes God’s kingdom is not simply assent to a statement of fact but is a programmatic action, one must be fully committed to the kingdom (9:62), one must seek it first before daily needs (12:31–32), one must pray for its coming to align one’s will with God’s (11:2), one cannot remain devoted to one’s wealth or else one cannot enter the kingdom (18:24–25), and one must be about the business of the King until he returns (19:11–27). In Acts, Jesus continues to teach his disciples about the kingdom of God prior to his ascension (1:3). The disciples will continue to carry forth Jesus’s good news about the kingdom, although now they focus primarily on doing so through proclaiming the King. Still, the idea appears a few times in the preaching of Acts, once at the outset of the proclamation to the Samaritans (8:12)—wherein we see the tendency of proclaiming the kingdom by proclaiming the name of the King (cf. 28:23)—once in a message of encouragement about persevering through suffering to enter the kingdom (14:22), once in a context in which Paul reasons with the Jews about the kingdom (19:8), and once in Paul’s summary of his ministry in Ephesus as proclaiming the kingdom (20:25). Indeed, the teaching about the kingdom of God forms a basic inclusio of the book of Acts. It appears as the basic foundation of Jesus’s teaching in 1:3, after which he will leave the disciples the charge to carry his gospel to the ends of the earth upon receiving the Holy Spirit, and as one of the basic components of Paul’s teaching in the closing verse 28:31.
We thus see repeated emphasis throughout Luke-Acts on the everlasting kingdom introduced in Gabriel’s announcement to Mary. It was not entirely what anyone expected. No one expected that the Son of the Most High would literally be born from a woman who had no sexual contact. No one expected that the Messiah’s cradle would be a feeding trough. No one expected that the Messiah’s throne of his father David on earth would be a cross, designed as it was to dismantle any perception of power and honor he might have. No one expected that a crucified Messiah would be resurrected to eternal life, much less that he would be resurrected in this way ahead of everyone else (indeed, there is no clear statement in any Second Temple literature before or after the NT that Jews expected the Messiah to be resurrected). No one expected that many of those who would be outside the kingdom were ostensibly the most qualified to enter it and that those who would enter it were the lowest of society who followed the Messiah (where such description of the people used, they were used to describe the faithful Jew and the members of the sect). No one expected that there would be a gap in time between the inauguration and consummation of the kingdom in which the Messiah’s people would suffer at the hands of the powers of this world. But it has happened thusly. He has indeed received an everlasting kingdom. And he has received a throne at the right hand of God after his ascension into heaven. And so, wherever he is proclaimed, there the kingdom of God, his kingdom, is proclaimed. And so, he has set out the path that others are to follow in repentant life if they wish to enter the kingdom. Gabriel announced it to Mary, and so it has—and will continue to—come to pass.
God’s Power
Two other features of this episode are important to unpack. First, as I noted earlier, when Luke refers to Jesus’s virginal conception, he does not quote Gabriel as citing any prophecy that Jesus fulfilled by this conception. As such, Luke’s description is not attached to a sense of prophetic necessity, that it happened this way because it needed to happen this way to fulfill God’s promises through the prophets. Rather, the point seems to be primarily about the power of God—as well as the Holy Spirit, whose action in Luke-Acts I have already briefly analyzed above—and how this conception will be an even more vivid display of that power than what Elizabeth had received (1:34–36). Indeed, the final clause of Gabriel’s statement is that nothing will be impossible with God (1:37). Naturally, the question of how something will happen appears frequently in the traditional stories of Israel, which are fundamentally questions about the power of God to fulfill promises. And this episode introduces a motif that will recur many times in Luke-Acts, specifically the type of power that refers to strength or power that one exerts (as opposed to the exercise of authority, which also recurs in Luke-Acts). Jesus operates with the power of the Spirit (4:14), he exorcizes demons with power (4:36), he heals by God’s power (5:17; 6:19; 8:46), he transmits this same power to his disciples (9:1; 10:19), these deeds of power demonstrate divine support for his message and his call to repentance (10:13; cf. 19:37; Acts 2:22; 10:38), and Jesus promises that the disciples will be clothed with power from on high after his ascension (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8). Just as Jesus came into the world, he anticipates that he will depart to sit at the right hand of the power of God (Luke 22:69) and that he will come with that power (Luke 21:27). In Acts, just as the Holy Spirit is given to the disciples, so too is the power implied by his presence, which they invoke by the name of Jesus in connection with proclaiming his gospel (3:12–16; 4:7–12, 33; 6:8; 8:13; 19:11). Luke’s emphasis on the power of God in Jesus’s virginal conception thus communicates that God’s power to enact his inexorable, faithful love was in Jesus’s life from its very inception and that same power characterizes his life and the life of the Church. The Christmas story, and the virginal conception that was part of it, thus laid the foundation for a new era of expression for God’s power among God’s people. Of course, while this power produced some extraordinary deeds and wonderous displays, one must remember that this power was expressed in the birth of a child in lowly circumstances, in a man who stored no earthly treasures, in a man who was crucified, and in a Church that knew both great suffering in persecution and temporary triumph in anticipation of God’s eschatological victory in Christ. This new era of power did not mean that the Church could avoid such troubles; it meant that God would bring them to victory through them by his inexorable, faithful love, which he demonstrated in his brining his Son into the world through a virgin and by bringing him up out of the dead.
Faithful Service to God
Second, we must consider Mary’s faithful response to Gabriel in light of the rest of the Gospel. Once Gabriel has reassured Mary that God is able to do what he has promised without Mary knowing a man, she accepts what she has been told by calling herself a servant of the Lord, and so let it be done according to the word she was given (1:38). There are multiple words that can be translated as “servant” in Luke-Acts. This one (δοῦλος) often has the sense of one who is bound in service to another, hence why it can also be translated as “slave” (in Luke alone, see 7:1–10; 14:16–24; 17:7–10; 20:10–11). It is thus a statement of absolute submission to God’s will, and it is the first of its kind in the Gospel according to Luke. In Mary’s celebratory song, she identifies herself in this way again (1:48). Simeon, a righteous and devout man on whom the Spirit came, likewise describes himself this way when he says his Master can now dismiss him, since he has seen the one in whom is the hope of Israel (2:29). Jesus exhorts his followers to be as faithful servants dutifully carrying out their master’s will, with the master’s resources (i.e., his teachings, his Scripture, the same Holy Spirit who was in him), until he returns (12:35–48; 19:11–27). In Acts, Peter cites the prophecy from Joel that refers to the Spirit being poured out, among others, on men-servants and maid-servants (2:18). He again describes himself and his fellow believers with this terminology in a prayer to God that he would empower them to speak his word with boldness (4:29). A slave-girl with a spirit of divination proclaims that Paul and his fellows are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim his gospel (16:17). In this context, we can see that Mary’s response, while impossible to duplicate (since no one will ever again be asked to bear the Messiah, the Son of the Most High), is a paradigm to emulate. This consummate submission to God’s will should characterize all God’s people in response to God’s promises and God’s commands.
The Magnificat in Christian Context
The next part of Mary’s response that we should consider is the Magnificat. Again, I have addressed the rich OT and Second Temple Jewish literature background for this song, but now we consider it in its later Christian context. This song makes sense as one sung by a Jew in response to ancient promises, repeated through tradition, coming to fruition. But it has been preserved by Christians and sung by Christians, even before the emergence of the celebration of Advent (the earliest textual record of which is in the late fourth century). There are reasons, besides its obvious association with Jesus’s birth, that it became a traditional Advent and Christmas hymn, of which we will examine two here.
One, many of the verbs in the Magnificat are in the aorist tense, especially all the verbs in vv. 51–55. The aorist is not strictly the past tense—although it can often be properly translated that way—but is simply referring to the action of the verb as a whole (meaning that the form itself does not indicate if the action is completed or incomplete). What is especially interesting here and in the Benedictus is that the aorists tend to refer to events still in the future. Mary rejoices that she has already received a taste of these fulfillments before Christmas has even arrived. The aorist tenses also fit in this context, given the confidence in future expectations based on past performance (a point that still rings true in the Advent season). It is a proper reflection of how Christians should react to these promises and Jesus’s fulfillment of them in the Advent season and outside of it since eschatology properly colors all of Christian theology. After all, the future is as settled as if it has already come to pass (i.e., the futuristic/proleptic aorist) because the means of redemption are already at work (or already on the way, since Jesus has yet to be born). The aorists, which were translated as perfects in Latin and either perfects or pasts in English, fit the perspective of those singing the Magnificat after Mary who have looked back at Jesus’s birth in the past. But with the text using the aorist to refer to things that are still future in the narrative, there is also a sense of continuity with the later Christians, looking to the future with hope motivated by the confidence that the God who has promised is faithful and will do it.
Two, it is not only a paradigmatic response to the hope provided by Jesus’s birth; it is also a paradigmatic response to the hope of Jesus’s return. As Advent is simultaneously characterized by both remembrance looking back to Jesus’s First Coming and hope looking forward to Jesus’s Second Coming, this song serves both purposes. The fact that we continue reciting this song shows that we know that God’s will has been enacted in Jesus, but that his purposes for Christmas have not yet been consummated. We do not yet know when these purposes will be consummated, but because of the story of Christmas, we know that they will be consummated and who will accomplish this. This is why we also magnify the Lord and exult in our Savior as we await the future tense of our salvation to become the present (1:47). This is why we also celebrate how God has exalted his humble servants while bringing down the rulers of this age and expect that day when he will do so once and for all (1:48, 52–53; 13:30; 14:8–11; 18:14). This is why we can declare that the Mighty One has done great things for us and will yet do great things for his holy name (1:49), in accordance with how we pray for his name to be hallowed (11:2). This is why we can proclaim his mercy as something that our ancestors experienced, that we experience, and that all of God’s people will yet experience (1:50, 72, 78; 6:36; 18:13). This is why we can declare the mighty works that we remember as part of our tradition and that we hope for in God’s promised eschatological future (1:51–52). This is why we can declare that God has provided for his destitute people and that he will provide for them on the day of consummation (1:53). This is why we can proclaim God’s past actions of help in faithfulness to his promises—climactically in Jesus—and in anticipation of his help for us that will faithfully bring the rest of his promises to pass (1:54–55).
The Benedictus in Christian Context
The same framework applies to Zechariah’s Benedictus. It makes sense as a song sung by a Jewish priest, but it was also preserved by and sung by Christians both in remembrance of Christmas and in hope of the Second Coming. In fact, as I have shown elsewhere in my research on Christmas’s assignment to December 25, one reason for this song being used in Advent and Christmas celebration is the cosmic significance assigned to Jesus and John the Baptist. This extends from the correlations of their annunciations and births to important dates (such as the solstices and equinoxes) to the imagery used to describe them, with Jesus being described as the Sun of Righteousness (drawn from Mal 4:2, which precedes a reference to the expectation of Elijah’s coming) and John being described as the morning star who precedes and prepares the way for him (cf. 1:78). This imagery even inspired Cynewulf’s Crist II poem, with its reference to the morning star as Éarendel, which in turn inspired Tolkien’s story of Eärendil (though the derivation is not direct).
But more to the point about its correlation to the overarching themes of Advent and Christmas, it is notable that much of the language here is in the aorist tense in the Greek, much like the Magnificat. This would once again make it suitable for use by future Christians, both because of their perspective looking back at the events of the Christmas story and because of their sharing in the narrative perspective looking forward to the future, to the Second Coming in our case. This is why we can sing in solidarity praising the Lord God of Israel (1:68), acknowledging that we have been incorporated into an ancient, ongoing grand narrative that involves God choosing Israel as his people, incorporating others into them, making promises to them, and fulfilling them. We speak as those who know that God has visited (or, “looked upon”) and made redemption for his people (with all the significance I have examined elsewhere) and those who hope that he will consummate this action in his still future visitation and final redemption. This is why we can speak of God’s mighty works of salvation already performed and his covenantal promises already fulfilled, and still anticipate the promises yet to be fulfilled (1:69–74). This is why we can speak as people who exhort one another to be like John, preparing the way for our Lord’s Second Coming by our faithfulness in the present, serving him in holiness and right conduct, proclaiming the larger message of salvation and the forgiveness of sins that is part of it (1:74–77). We can proclaim even more of the compassionate mercies of our God, living on the other side of the Dawn as children of the Day, and call all the more fervently to the way of peace, the shalom that is communal wholeness, harmony, restoration, reconciliation, stability, security, and fulfillment under the reign of God (1:78–79), knowing what we do about the light of Jesus and about his way of peace, and knowing that the darkness has not yet been totally banished and knowing that peace does not yet reign in the world.