12/24/2023
I wonder if an email from Luke to Theophilus would look like this? (Variation of Luke chapters 1 & 2)
Theo,
I hope everything with you and the crew is going well. My time studying here has been fun! While I do get homesick, I have put myself to good use. I wanted to see and talk to people about Jesus, see if I could find anyone that knew him or had any stories about him. So much of what we heard was second hand and I wanted to see for myself what exactly happened that we and so many others base their hope and faith on. So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story’s beginning, I decided to write it all out for you so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught.
The best place perhaps to start is with Zachariah who was a priest during Herod’s time in office. He and his wife were childless and an angel appeared to him, told him they would have a son. Needless to say Zachariah was freaked out by just seeing an angel. The angel then went on to explain to Zachariah that this boy would grow up to fulfill a specific mission for God by preparing the hearts and minds of the people for God Himself.
It’s easy to believe that if you or I had an angel appear to us and say this, we would believe him, but Theo, we both know how skeptical people can be, Zachariah was no different and didn’t believe the word form God delivered by the angel. In response to this the angel, Gabriel, said that Zachariah would be mute until the arrival of the baby.
Sure enough, Zachariah’s wife got pregnant and she gave birth to a baby boy. Now, having been humbled by the muteness, Zachariah, as soon as he could talk again, declared the name of the boy to be John just as the angel had instructed him.
A few months after this a cousin of Elizabeth, Zachariah’s wife, was ALSO visited by an angel, it was the same angel, Gabriel. Her name is Mary, and this is important to the story, she was engaged to a guy named Joseph. So Gabriel appeared to Mary and said to her “Good morning! You’re beautiful with God’s beauty,
Beautiful inside and out! God be with you.”
Needless to say Mary was freaking out! The angel told her to chill, she had nothing to be afraid of and that he brought amazingly good news to her. He told her she would be pregnant soon and her son would be epic, she was to name him Jesus. The angel then told her “He will be great, be called ‘Son of the Highest.’ The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; He will rule Jacob’s house forever—no end, ever, to his kingdom.”
This freaked her out even more, on top of talking to an angel (or thinking she herself was crazy) she asked the angel how in the heck this could happen since she had never fool around anyone. Gabriel told her, it was going to be a God thing, a miracle, by God’s Spirit. This way, he went on to explain, her child would be called the Holy Son of God. The angel then went on to tell her about how everyone thought Elizabeth was barren but is also pregnant too!
Needless to say this was a big deal to both Mary and Elizabeth and they decided to have a 3 month sleep over. They became closer than ever and it seemed the two children they carried were somehow connected as well.
So Zacharais’ son was born, and a few months later Mary’s son was born.
This happened to be at the same time Augustus ordered the census. So, since Mary and Joseph were married by now they went to his ancestral home of Bethlehem. So their son, he was named Jesus, was born there. But the cool thing is what happened around his birth. First off, there were these shepherds, they had been out in the fields working when the landscape lit up like the day, and again, an angel appeared and assured them that they were fine and that a savior had just be born in Bethlehem. The angel even told them where to find him. Then other angels show3d up and began singing, it was like a heavenly flashmob. The shepherds went to look for the baby, they found him just like the angel had told them, in a stable…in the feed trough. Mary was even amazed and encouraged, knowing that this was all real, and that the son she weld was definitely going to be someone amazing.
Then Joseph and Mary took the baby to the temple for the offering as instructed by the law. Now this next part gives me goose bumps: this guy, named Simeon had been promised by God that he would live to see the savior. When they walked in, he knew right then that this baby was the savior and God had been true to his promise. He sang to God, told God he was ready to pass on (this guy was really old and had been waiting for the savior for a long time), as he made up his song Simeon declared that this baby was not only the savior of Israel but also all the gentile nations! Then this lady, a prophetess, Anna, who hung out day and night at the temple saw the baby and she also broke into song. The parents we humbled, grateful and proud but you could tell they seemed to not understand it all.
Alright man, I have A LOT more to tell you, but I will have to email more of what I have learned later. Seriously, the story of this man, Jesus is amazing. Even before he was born, God was at work in and through so many people. I know that when we heard the story originally, we were unsure what was real, what was fable and what was exaggerated. But just the part I have told you about, the birth of this baby may be the most defining birth of human history.
I will email you again soon!
Lukas
