The Gospel of Luke, Part 1

When a mother is expecting her first baby, it’s an extraordinary story of great expectation and some anxiety for her and for her whole family. Luke, who has been hearing eyewitness accounts from Mary, the mother of Jesus, begins to tell that story in his Gospel (“Gospel” means a story of Good News!). In a way, Luke tells the story of three expectant mothers: The story of Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth, who will give birth to John the Baptist; the story of Mary, who will give birth to Jesus; and the story Israel and the national family that will be utterly changed by the births that are coming.  As the angel tells Zechariah in Luke’s first chapter,

“And he [John the Baptist] will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:16 & 17).

As we look forward to Christmas Day over these weeks of Advent (the Christian celebration remembering and expecting Christ’s coming) and study these opening chapters in Luke’s Gospel, our prayer is that God will prepare us too and continue to make us ready for His Kingdom.