The Gospel of Luke.
This painting of Christ as Good Shepherd is from the crypt of Santi Apostoli in Rome.
The Gospel of Luke is extremely conscious of the Davidic origin of Jesus, and therefore, the writer constantly draws parallels between the Messiah David, who united Israel in peace and prosperity and the Messiah of his gospel who will unite the world in peace and prosperity.
Two Annunciations?
When we read the account of the Annunciation in Luke, we should be conscious of the Matthean account. There are two Annunciations, one to Matthew’s Joseph and the other to Luke’s Mary. Matthew’s angel appears in a dream while Luke’s angel appears in person. Matthew’s angel comes when Mary is already pregnant, while Luke’s angel Gabriel comes to announce the conception of the Child in Mary’s womb.
Bethlehem
Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem? This was to fulfill the prophecy that the messiah would be born in that town. The Jewish interpretation, however, was that David had already been born there and so fulfilled the prophecy. This is the town of Boaz and Ruth, the town of Jesse and David. One must also be aware that the town’s name, in Hebrew, means ‘the house of bread’.
Shepherds at Bethlehem
There is general agreement that the appearance of shepherds is a way of strengthening the shepherd motif. David was a shepherd when the prophet of God came to make him the king. Jesus is also portrayed as associated with shepherds to accentuate his link to David.
She laid him in a manger
In later times, the Church fathers would see in this occurrence, a providential foretelling of Jesus’ role as the giver of the bread from heaven. Jesus is born in the place where the animals come to find food. He is the true food from heaven.
The Temple
Luke’s Gospel begins its account of the origins of Jesus in the very holiest place, the Temple of Jerusalem. Notice that the last incident in the Lucan Infancy narratives also takes place in that same Temple as Mary finds Jesus among the Doctors of the Law. (Luke 24: 53) This may be due to Luke’s deliberate parallelism between the Jesus story and the David Story. Samuel, the one who anoints David, is with the prophet Eli in the shrine when God speaks to him. (1Samuel 3) Since so much of the childhood of Samuel is spent in a cultic place, it may be a deliberate stratagem by Luke to locate Jesus also in cultic surroundings.
The Visit of God’s angel to the priest Zekariah in the Holy of Holies introduces us to the later role of John the Baptizer. He will drink no wine, he will proclaim the way of the Messiah. In Luke 3:1-18, John the Baptist will try to make the people worthy to stand in the presence of the newly-arrived Messiah. John is the New Testament’s Elijah, the one who shouts and who condemns, the one who attempts to make the people holy enough for God’s coming.
John’s first duty is to introduce the Savior to the world. He does this in his first home, the womb of his mother, Elizabeth. When the voice of Mary reached her ears, the child in her womb leaped for joy, signifying to her that the child in Mary’s womb was the Son of God. Therefore, the precursor of the Savior begins to announce his Lord while yet unborn.
“That Elizabeth is able to call Jesus ‘Lord’ is attributed, it seems, to the movement of John in Elizabeth’s womb. One might argue that such a movement, if it occurred, need not be interpreted as an indication that the Lord is present. But all those stories are filled with the Christian convictions of the ‘80’s A.D. that Jesus, particularly by virtue of his resurrection, is deserving of the title ‘Lord’. ”16
Six months later, in a small town in the north of Palestine, a virgin called Mary is visited by an angel. Her child will be far greater than any Old Testament prophet, even Elijah. He will outshine John the Baptist.
“The role this Jesus will play far exceeds the role of John; Jesus will rule, like David his forefather, over the people of Israel. Jesus, in fact, is the One promised to David, the One who would be anointed (= Christos Messiah.) to perform a service for God’s people. And that service is to be their king.”17
I think that we need to be aware that this coming of the angel brings with it the anointing of Mary by the Spirit – she is drenched in the dew of the Spirit and so she becomes the Mother of God’s Word. Thus, one might say, as some of the Fathers do, that Mary is the first to be baptized and that she also the first to enter the Kingdom of heaven by the grace of the Crucifixion and resurrection.
Mary goes to the Temple after Christ’s birth to be purified by the priest. This ritual was not an admission of guilt or sin, but rather a request for a blessing for the mother who, having successfully brought a son into the world, is hoping for many more children. The male children who opened the womb represented the promise that God had made to Abraham – that his children would be as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. Therefore, the tradition of bringing the first-born male to the Temple was a way of thanking God for his on-going blessings to Israel. “The promise that you made to our fathers, to Abraham and to his children forever.” (Canticle of Mary. Luke 1: 55)
It might also be remembered that Yahweh demanded the first-born sons of all Egypt as punishment for their evil deeds. Israel, on the other hand was spared the scourge of that massacre. Her first-born sons were preserved by God’s mercy. This presentation of the child to God is recognition that all life comes from God. It thanks God for saving Israel from death.
Mary as Virgin Daughter of Zion.
In Biblical usage, Zion is symbolic of Jerusalem. The daughters of Zion are generally meant to signify suburbs of Jerusalem. In Micah 1: 3 we first hear mention of the poorer districts of Jerusalem as daughters of Zion. These were the districts where the anawim lived, the exiles who had no home, position or property. Therefore, there may be some intention to represent Mary as the symbol of the rejected ones of Israel when she is spoken of as a Daughter of Zion.
“Thus it would seem that the echoes of the virgin passages concerning Israel and Zion are quite inappropriate as background to Luke’s description of the Virgin Mary. She is to be identified with those of low estate, and the poor, (the Magnificat) but she is not oppressed or violated, and she is totally faithful (1: 450 and obedient to God’s Word. (1: 38)18
The general evidence of the Old Testament does not seem to favor calling Mary a Daughter of Zion, since there is a far greater body of biblical reference which condemns the daughters of Zion for their unfaithfulness to God than that which praises them as virtuous. The Christian Church has made much of Mary’s status as a virgin. But this virginity is in marked contrast to the constant unfaithfulness of Israel in worshipping false gods. The prophets e.g. Hosea and Jeremiah, compare the relationship of Israel to a whoring wife whose husband still hopes for her salvation. But this is certainly not a universally consistent image. Israel is sometimes called a virgin bride of Yahweh (eg. 2 Kings 19: 21. Isaiah 37: 22 and Amos 5: 2.) In Matthew, it may be that he is attempting to say that Mary represents the Virgin daughter of Zion – Israel, who cannot produce a son without divine help.
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