All Things Christmas (9 page)

Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.

The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength.

Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn.

The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to
Sheol
and
raises
up.

The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts.

He
raises
up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world.

He will guard the feet of his faithful ones; but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness; for not by might shall a man prevail.

The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king, and exalt the power of his anointed.

A Second Young Woman

We first encounter Mary at prayer in her Nazareth home. (Luke 1:26) The angel Gabriel appears to her and tells her she is to become the mother of the Messiah. Afterwards, Mary travels to Judah where she visits her cousin, E
lizabeth, who is also pregnant.

Elizabeth greets her with the cry, “
Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit
of your womb!
” She goes on to say, “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what wa
s spoken to her from the Lord.”

Mary responds with what has come to be known as the
Magnificat
…
the opening word
of the prayer
in the Latin
version.

MARY’S SONG

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded th
e low estate of his handmaiden.

For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things
for me, and holy is his name.

And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generat
ion.

He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in t
he imagination of their hearts,

He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent e
mpty away.

He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity forever.

Comparing the Two Women

Types and archetypes are found throughout the Bible. People and events in the Old Testament find their counterpart in the New Testament. The life of Christ is particularly rich with such comparisons. Throughout his Epistles, Paul develops corollaries between Jesus and various events and figures from the Old Testament. Jesus is
the new Adam
,
the
Paschal
Lamb
,
we are all members in the
Body of Chris
t
, and on and on. Though longer, the parallels between Hannah’s Song and Mary’s are impossible to miss. The tone, the imagery,
her
references to the poor and
down-trodden…they’re all there.

Nestled within the stories surrounding these two women are many other interesting points and counterpoints. Yet on closer inspection we begin to see that while there is congruence between Hannah
’s Song
and Mary’s, Samuel is not an archetype for Jesus, but for John the Baptist. For instance, Hannah was unable to conceive. Elizabeth, too, had reached an advanced age and never had a child. We are told before he is born that Elizabeth’s son, John, will take the
Nazarite
vow just as Hannah promised Samuel would before his birth. Since Samuel was given to the Lord and raised by Eli, one might say his
father
was a
priest. John’s father, Zechariah, was also a priest.

The Hebrew word
Mashiach
means
the
A
nointed
O
ne
. Samuel, as Judge, identified and then anointed David to become king of Israel. It is David who is the archetype for Jesus, and like Samuel
,
John identified Jesus an
d anointed him through baptism.

In retrospect we find that what began as a tale of two women expands to become a tale of three women, their sons, and the leaders these sons anointed.

Chapter
Ten

THE FULLNESS OF TIME

“
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman
…”

— Galatians 4:4

Jesus last words to his disciples were, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” On examination, it appears God chose the perfect time to send his Son into this world so that the Apostles could disperse this new faith
,
which would come to be
called Christianity
,
throughout the world. How and why did He choose that particular moment in history?

A Moment in Time

The phrase the fullness of time is ripe with expectancy…waiting…longing. It brings to mind a convict in his cell leaning against the barred window and wistfully watching the sun set. Another day is done, one less day to be served. Perhaps that was what Paul had in mind when he penned those words. A captive world bound and chained by sin anxiously awaiting its promised Redeemer. Clearly this is how the Jews felt as they struggled und
er the thumb of Rome and Herod.

Though most people ascribe the Book of Daniel to the period of the Babylonian Exile (586-536 BC), there are some who would have us believe it to be much newer than that. They say it was composed during the
Maccabean
period, more precisely in the time of Antiochus IV,
Epiphanes
(175-164 BC). However, the date of the Book of Daniel is not relevant to this discussion. We know that Jesus made a specific reference to a passage from Daniel in Matthew 24:15 when he said, “So when you see the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place…” This validates both the Book and its
existence in the First Century.

We also know that apocalyptic literature of all kinds was very popular during that period of time. As much as anything it was probably a backlash to high taxes and oppressive rulers. The Messianic hope reached a fever pitch in the early 1st Century. Several sections of the Book of Daniel contain Messianic predictions. The primary one being the prophecy of the seventy weeks found in Daniel 9:2
4-27.

Deciphering Daniel’s Prophecy

Like all prophetic writings, as specific as it sounds,
the prophecy of the seventy weeks
still required interpretation. When did one begin counting the weeks? What was to occur when this period of time had elapsed? Some would say it would mark the arrival of the Messiah, but in what form? Would that be the date of his birth, the beginning of his ministry/revolt, the declaration of his kingdom? Things were just obscure enough to allow for multiple opinions. Consequently, a number of Messianic Pretenders arose around the time of the birth of Christ. Their appearance, and almost instant success in
gathering a conquering army, was no doubt motivated as much
by frustration as by prophecy.

Messiahs aside, there were other factors that had to be in place and, in retrospect; we can see the hand of God moving the various playing pieces into position. Astronomers have developed a set of criteria necessary for a planet to support life. Without factors such as a temperate climate, oxygen, liquid water and so on, life as we know it, whether created or evolved, can never exist. Perhaps it would be helpful to draw up a similar list of factors required for any Messianic movement to grow and flourish. First of all, the people had to be open to the message. While readiness may be hard to quantify, we
can make several observations.

Putting the Pieces in Place

Though the presumption among Jews was that the Messiah would be a warrior king, the message Jesus brought was spiritual, not temporal. This meant that there had to be a certain level of intellectual curiosity, if you will, about spiritual matters. The
F
irst
C
entury was a time of wildly divergent religious beliefs. As the Romans annexed territory, they also assimilated the local gods of that region into their pantheon of divinities. This combined with a general freedom of worship meant that a person could explore any and all alternatives.

Plato and Aristotle developed the idea of a soul, or spiritual
essence, that
was immortal. The rise of philosophies such as Hedonism, Epicureanism, and Stoicism, which generally rejected the established gods, created a spiritual void while the mystery cults emphasized a savior-god and required worshipers to offer blood sacrifices, making the gospel of Christ which involved a single ultimate sacrifice acceptable.

An In-Gathering of the Jews

All the spiritual hunger in the world won’t do you much good if your core group is dispersed and inaccessible. The Jews went through a general in-gathering in the years preceding the birth of Christ. The existence of the Temple in Jerusalem and the requirement that all adult males return to celebrate the Pilgrim festivals of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkoth meant that those believers who were geographically distant could still keep up with the latest happenings and newest ideas. The passage in Acts 2:9 relating to Pentecost
lists
sixteen different nationalities, or language groups, present in the city for the Festival
. The miracle of Pentecost is, of course, that all
who heard Peter speak
understood him
. Having heard, these people could carry th
is
message (gossip) back to where they’d come from.

The Unity of the Roman Empire

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to disperse a message across an area consisting of competing kingdoms, city states, petty fiefdoms and territories ruled by war lords and tribal chieftains. This is the primary reason the Roman Empire stalled in its conquest of northern Europe. These are the conditions the Romans encountered as they moved into areas such as Ireland, Scotland, and Germany…areas they never
completely
subdued.

The Germanic tribes, in fact, inflicted the greatest military defeat Rome ever experienced when they slaughtered three Roman Legions plus six cohorts of auxiliaries and three squadrons of cavalry in the Battle of
Teutoburg
Forest. Hadrian built his famous wall from the North Sea to the Irish Sea in an attempt to stop incursions by the
Picts
of Northern Scotland.

Despite its problems in the outer reaches of the Empire, Rome unified and civilized a huge area that stretched from northern Africa and the Middle East, around the Mediterranean Basin into the Balkans and across the greater part of Europe. Reciprocal trade relationships connected the Roman Empire with India, China and great portions of the African continent. A single governmental authority meant that travelers could move across the Empire and beyond freely. Such freedom to travel would have
been impossible in prior eras.

The Roman
Empire, inherited a culture left behind by the Greeks. Most of the Empire was multi-lingual, speaking two if not three languages. While the affairs of the Empire were conducted in Latin and the average person in the Holy Land spoke Aramaic, Greek served as a common unifying language facilitat
ing
trade and commerce. Apostles carrying the message of Christianity were easily able to communicate regardless of the locale they found themselves in.

Roman Roads and Bridges