I. Intro: Bad News
A. Quotes
1. “Bad news travels at the speed of light; good news travels like molasses.”--Tracy Morgan
2. “He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news.”--Bertolt Brecht
3. “I've just had some bad news. Tomorrow is the mother-in-law's funeral. And she's cancelled it.”--Les Dawson
4. “Winning the election is a good-news, bad-news kind of thing. Okay, now you're the mayor. The bad news is, now you're the mayor.”--Clint Eastwood
5. “Experts say that Iraq may have nuclear weapons. That's bad news - they may have a nuclear bomb. Now the good news is that they have to drop it with a camel.”--David Letterman
B. Good News/Bad News
1. Good News: You baptized seven people today in the river. Bad News: You lost two of them in the swift current.
2. Good News: The Women's Guild voted to send the pastor a get-well card. Bad News: The vote passed by 12-11.
3. Good News: The Personnel Committee accepted your job description the way you wrote it. Bad News: They were so inspired by it, they also formed a search committee to find somebody capable of filling the position.
4. Good News: You finally found a choir director who approaches things exactly the same way you do. Bad News: The choir mutinied.
5. Good News: Mrs. Jones is wild about your sermons. Bad News: Mrs. Jones is also wild about the "Gong Show", "Beavis and Butthead" and "Texas Chain Saw Massacre."
6. Good News: Your women's softball team finally won a game. Bad News: They beat your men's softball team.
7. Good News: The trustees finally voted to add more church parking. Bad News: They are going to blacktop the front lawn of the parsonage.
8. Good News: Church attendance rose dramatically the last three weeks. Bad News: You were on vacation.
9. Good News: Your deacons want to send you to the Holy Land. Bad News: They are stalling until the next war. And they’ve only budgeted enough for a one-way ticket.
10. Good News: The youth in your church come to your house for a surprise visit. Bad News: It's in the middle of the night and they are armed with toilet paper and shaving cream to "decorate" your house.
C. Our tendency, especially as we age, is to gravitate to bad news, or to assume the worst, or a “catch,” when good news is delivered. There is a biblical response to this.
D. Luke wrote a report to Theophilus in two parts: Book 1 was his Gospel, a reporter’s biography about the life of Christ; Book 2 was Acts, a combination of his own and others’ experience with the new-born church
E. While Luke clearly has a prosletyzing agenda, he wants to deliver these accounts in as even and unbiased style as possible
II. The Wrong Way: Zechariah (vv. 5-25)––In a nutshell
A. Zechariah, a priest (and his wife Elizabeth, also of a priestly family) who has lived “righteous” and “blameless,” wins the “lottery” of the privilege of burning incense in the Holy Place (right in front of the Most Holy Place, or Holy of Holies)
B. An angel appears before him; he is, of course, terrified (like the shepherds in chap. 2). The angel says not to be afraid and tells him Elizabeth is about to become pregnant with John (the Baptist), as well as how he is to be raised, and of the ministry he will have as forerunner to Messiah
C. Zechariah says, “Say what?” He observes his age (maybe he thought the angel hadn’t noticed; cf. Abraham). The angel announces his name (Gabriel), his job (stands in the presence of God), and his purpose (to bring this great news). Since Zechariah doubted, he will be mute until John’s birth, and have to use sign language to communicate. Elizabeth does indeed get pregnant; she responds favorably, but keeps herself in secret.
III. The Right Way: Mary (vv.26-56)
A. In a nutshell:
1. In Elizabeth’s sixth month, Gabriel shows up in “podunk” Nazareth (in Galilee, kind of like “redneck country”) to a 13- or 14-year-old girl named Mary, engaged to Joseph. He greets Mary as the “favored one” and tells her she’s about to become pregnant with Messiah
2. Mary asks, “How does this work, if I’m a virgin?” Gabriel tells her she’ll be “overshadowed” by the Holy Spirit, and that her relative Elizabeth, though too old to have a baby, is expecting, too (no one else knew this)
3. Mary responds: “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Garbiel leaves, Mary goes to stay with Elizabeth and tells her about the “visitation;” the baby in Elizabeth’s womb “leaps for joy;” Elizabeth immediately blesses Mary as “she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
4. Magnificat: “To God be the glory, great things He has done.” She stays until John is born, then goes b
A. What’s the Difference?
1. Education
a. Zechariah is a trained minister, and old enough to know the prophecy, and that God has done this before (Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac). But, like modern Jews, he seems not to really believe in the prophecy, and is just doing his priestly “thing” out of tradition, habit, and cultural prestige--all this gets in the way of belief
b. Mary is a poor teenager in a backwater community and probably had limited access, as a girl and as a Galilean, to much schooling or education
2. Knowledge
a. Because of his education, Zechariah knew all the prophetic details regarding the coming of Messiah, and how there would be a forerunner, “a voice in the wilderness”
b. Mary basically knew “the birds and the bees”
3. Social status
a. Zechariah was a respected member of the priesthood, and honored by God to be father of Messiah’s herald, and both he and Elizabeth had been good “church kids”
b. Mary was just a girl in a patriarchal culture that persists (to some extent) in that region even today--which we frown upon--and had no social standing (and thought nothing unusual about it, though we in the 21st century think of her culture an oddity and best and a social injustice at worst)--and she knows what this will mean for Joseph
4. Reaction
a. Zechariah has lived a God-honoring life, but at the moment of this encounter, he reveals he is a doubter
b. Mary, with no evidence to offer anyone about her oncoming pregnancy, asks only a biological question and submits implicitly
IV. Conclusion: Which One are You?
A. Zechariah is the picture of the person whose knowledge and background inhibited his ability to receive the miracle. How many of us would respond any differently?
B. Mary is the picture of one who, though surrounded by an impossible situation that no sane person could believe, trusts God implicitly
C. May we be more like Mary, who took God at His word from the beginning, rather than Zechariah, who “knew too much” to have a real faith and was nearly robbed of the joy of being an integral part of God’s redemptive plan
