From Unbelief to Wonder: How will you respond? (Nurture Notes 001)
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One of the first things which strikes me about the opening of Luke’s Gospel is that it was written for one person - ‘Theophilus’ (See Luke 1:3). In a world often clamouring for attention of the hundreds, thousands, millions and beyond, it’s quite striking how much time and attention was taken to communicate the truth and beauty of Jesus to one individual. Luke didn’t just write his gospel for Theophilus either. The book of Acts is also addressed to him. Of course, we’re now reading these words too and so what he wrote didn’t stop with Theophilus, but it’s where it started.
It causes me to really pull back and pause actually. Because we all have Theophilus’s in our lives, don’t we? People God puts in our paths either permanently or for a moment, who want to learn more about Jesus. Perhaps even we ourselves are Theophilus in a lot of ways too as we continue to learn and grow. There’s scholarly debate around who he was, but what’s not debated is that he was someone seeking to further explore their faith, and Luke made every effort to give a faithful account.
Now being spiritual successors of Theophilus - those who long to ‘know the certainty of the things we have been taught’, there’s no greater place to start than with Jesus.
It’s our response to him when we’re told what he will do in and through us, which I’ll be reflecting on today as we begin our Nurture Notes journey in Luke’s gospel, particularly looking at both Zechariah and Mary’s responses to angel Gabriel’s message.
When first re-reading the text as I prepared for this study, what immediately jumped out at me was the fact that both Zechariah and Mary seemed to ask questions of God when they were told of their fate. However, the responses they got were very different. Let’s first take a look at the two questions asked:
🗣 Zechariah (Luke 1:18)
“How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
🗣 Mary (Luke 1:34)
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
To me and perhaps to you, at first glance, they look like similar questions, right?
I was then reminded of a portion of another verse in 1 Samuel:
“...The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7b)
Outwardly both Zechariah and Mary were asking questions, inwardly the disposition of their hearts were rooted in different places.
Zechariah’s, in unbelief and Mary’s in wonder and curiosity.
A quick scan of scripture will tell us that God is not at all afraid of our questions and that he in fact welcomes them. In fact, asking for signs doesn’t appear to even be a stretch too far for God either. Gideon asked for a clear sign it was God calling him (check out Judges 6), but when you look at his disposition, the NIV notes his initial responses to the angel talking to him with “Pardon me, my lord” (v.13 & 15).
Much like Gideon, Mary’s response to the announcement that she was going to give birth to Jesus(!) was quietly curious. She’s gone from being ‘greatly troubled’ (Luke 1:29), to at least open, in wonder perhaps.
Zechariah was a priest and by his own admission, advanced in years. (Luke 1:7) Despite being someone who had both walked with the Lord and served him for many years, when met with the possibility of God actually showing up in his life in the form of his wife giving birth to a son after all of these years of waiting, he asks: “How can I be sure of this?”
Verse 20 makes it clear that Zechariah didn’t believe, and he was therefore subject to silence.
Given Zechariah’s status and age, should he have known better? Perhaps. What’s mostly significant here though is Mary’s response when she understood what was going to happen.
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:38)
What faith!
Over in Rooted Rhythms, which is my member’s only space where we continue to chew over the week’s passage with daily journal prompts, a private podcast and an exclusive group chat community, we’re going to be exploring the disposition of our hearts as we consider that God is speaking to us right now, as well as going deeper with Mary’s response in her ‘song’ AKA The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-56). To become a member for just £7 ($9.50) a month, click HERE.
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