Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Matthew 1; Luke 1 Part 1 • Dr. Gaye Strathearn • Jan. 2 - Jan. 8

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

What can we learn about discipleship? Dr. Gaye Strathearn explores the nature of discipleship, the importance of asking questions, and the differences between the Book of Luke and the Book of Matthew.Please rate and review the podcast!Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.coApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/follow-him-a-come-follow-me-podcast/id1545433056Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15G9TTz8yLp0dQyEcBQ8BYThanks to the follow HIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Welcome to Follow Him, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping individuals and families with their Come Follow Me study. I'm Hank Smith, and I'm John by the way. We love to learn, we love to laugh, we want to learn and laugh with you. As together, we follow him. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode in a new year of follow him. My name is Hank Smith. And I am your host. I am here with my new testament expert co-host, John, by the way, John, that's our guest.

John, I don't think people realize, I don't think our audience realizes how long you've been studying the new testament that you've been studying the New Testament that you've been a student in the New Testament for a long time. How long have you been teaching the New Testament? Let's see. I taught it when I was at BYU Provo for a couple of years and then I started teaching again for three or four years up at the BYU Salt Lake Center and I just love it. It's so rich, so beautiful and just love it. It's so rich, so beautiful, and there's so much out there to help us understand it. So thank you for adding that. I'm not an expert, but I sure love it. You are. In my mind, you're an expert. So we have, we have two experts with us here. We have my co-host, John, by the way, and John, tell us who else is joining us. Well, I'm excited to have Gay Strathorne back again. Sometimes I

wish people could hear what we were talking about as we were setting up our microphones because I have already been taking notes from something Gay just taught me. But let me just give a brief bio for those who don't remember. Gay Strathurne is a professor in the Department of Ancient Scripture and an ancient near Eastern Studies program at BYU. She has taught at BYU since 1995, including a year at BYU's Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. Dr. Strathurne received her Bachelor of Physiotherapy from the University of Queensland in Australia,

a BA and MA in Near Eastern Studies from BYU and a PhD in religion, New Testament from the Claremont Graduate University. I love how widely read our experts are, Hank. Her research centers primarily on New Testament topics, especially those of interest to Latter-day Saints. And we were talking before we pushed record about every year there's a very symposium. We're gonna talk about that in a minute, but the newest's a spary symposium. We're going to talk about that in a minute, but the newest New Testament spary symposium

is called the Household of God and gay wrote an article called communal settings for meals in the New Testament, which I'm excited to read. Gay welcome. And can you tell us and tell our listeners a little bit about this spary symposium? Because I know they've had it for years. Yeah sure thanks for the welcome. The spary symposium is in honor of Sydney B. Spary. He was somebody who wanted to study Bible and he went back to Chicago and got degrees there and he came

back to BYU and started teaching there and he was kind of one of the first that really melded academic training along with a spiritual approach to the scriptures. And so his impact on religious education has been really quite profound and has influenced a lot of young scholars to want to go out and do likewise. It's wonderful because I have a number of spary symposium books on my shelf and if I want to go a little more in depth, somebody will take a topic like you did, Camino Settings for Meals in the New Testament. How interesting and give us some more about that.

So is it RSC, Religious Studies Center publication? It is. If someone went to rsc.biu.edu, they just need to click on books. And the fourth one down is the household of God, the 51st annual Brigham Young University Sydney Bees Barry Symposium. You can get all of those. And there's a number of books. People might be surprised that the number of books that are available there at the RSC website.

It's a Deseret book co-publication. So give credit, we credit as June. Yeah, they've done it together and Hank, you're looking right at it. Some of those available in an electronic format as well. You can get it in the ebook, right, from Deseret Book, or you can get it at the hardcover. For the first time this year, we get to open up the new testament. We are gonna be in both Matthew 1 and Luke 1 today. Is there anything we need to know before we go in to the new testament? Is there anything that our audience needs to have in mind

before they jump in? Or should we just go right into these two chapters and let you do your thing? Well, you know me, Hank, I'm a context person. And so I can't do anything without thinking about context. So I think the first thing that's a good reminder is that we have four gospels, we know that. And Matthew and Luke are the only two

who talk about the birth of Jesus. And we know that from our Christmas stories because we try and meld the two accounts. One of the things, though, I think is really important is to understand them in their setting. What is Matthew trying to teach us by including the birth of Jesus and what's Luke trying to do? They have different audiences.

And they're talking about the birth of Jesus for different reasons. I think it's really important to kind of get the birth of Jesus for different reasons. I think it's really important to kind of get a sense of those kinds of things. I think here we're going to start with Luke because I think most of us take the Christmas story from Luke's gospel. Even though it's only we're only looking at one chapter in Luke and one in Matthew, I think they're really, really important chapters that I love to read and to study and to think about. Matthew and Luke are both going to concentrate on Jesus' ministry

in the Galilee. That's different to John's Gospel who concentrates on his Judean ministry, and Mark is likewise going to concentrate on his Judean ministry. If we open Luke chapter 1 to verse 1, we kind of get this introduction and ancient texts, introductions are really important. They really do set the scene for what the rest of the text is about, but they also kind of tell us and give us a sense of what they're trying to do in writing this and connecting it to other writings out there. We learn a little bit about Luke and a guy by the name of Theophilus here. It starts off for as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us. Let me just stop there for a minute. This is Luke telling us some interesting material here.

Luke isn't the first one to write. Other people have already tried to or have written down about the story of Jesus. Now, we don't know whether he's referring to of the Gospels or whether other texts, but Luke isn't the first one to do this. They've made this declaration which are most surely believed among us. This is kind of letting us know that Luke counts himself as one of the communities of those who follow Jesus. He seems to be a gentle and that's going to influence his writings because one of the

things that he's really interested in throughout his gospel. And we're going to see this in chapter one, is Luke wants to show that this message of Jesus is for everybody. It's a universal gospel. It's for Jews, but it's also for Gentiles. It's for men and it's for women. And it's for those who are rich and those who are poor, with an emphasis actually on the poor and then kind of together

Luke's gospel is really kind of showing Jesus reaching out to those who are normally on the periphery of society. So that's really important to him. This gospel is for everybody. And then verse two he says even as they deliver them unto us, which from the beginning were eye witnesses and ministers of the word. This may be saying that Luke was also an eye witness of some of the things with Jesus. He certainly seems to be with Paul, but also he's probably tracking down who were the witnesses to try and get this story from them. And then verse three, it seemed good to me also having had a perfect understanding of

all things from the very first to write unto thee in order most excellent Theophilus. Now we don't know very much about this Theophilus. It may be, many have thought, that he is a patron for Luke, that was something that happened in antiquity, but the name theophilus means friend of God or beloved of God, even though it may have originally been written to an individual, I think it's clear that it was meant to be dispersed, and maybe it's meant to be dispersed for all those who are beloved of God, all of the theophiluses around to help them better understand the message of Jesus. So this theophilus could be a guy who, when you say, patron, he basically paid for this

to be done. Well, he supports Luke in his efforts to do it, whatever that means. Yeah, but the ophthalus could be any reader. Yeah, which includes us, right? Yeah. Friends of God. What I found interesting was that in verse 5, we have that giant capital T. So it's kind of like the King James translator said, well, these first four verses are like an intro, and then we're really going to start in verse 5. This is where the story really begins, yeah, absolutely. We've talked about how Luke is

interested in this being a universal gospel. So there's a couple of kind of clues that kind of give us a sense of that. Number one, when Luke does the genealogy, even though that isn't in this week's reading, but when he gives Jesus' genealogy, he goes, he starts the genealogy of Jesus originates with Adam. That's going to be different from Matthew, who we'll see later, where he starts with Abraham, but Luke is writing to a universal audience for Jews and Gentiles, and so starting with Adam,

who is the father of all humanity, is really important to him. So I don't think that that's just something that we kind of gloss over too quickly. The story of Mary here in chapter one is also part of this inclusivity part of it. It sets up the scene for the rest of the gospel. So the story of Mary is really, really important in portraying that inclusivity. And we'll talk more about that as we go through. So Gay, is this why I've heard it said before that Luke is like a historian. He's going after these eyewitnesses. Oh yeah, but you've got to understand that ancient history is not the same as modern history. I think it's unfair to judge Luke's version of history from what we think history is. He's doing it according to how they did history in the

first century. They're quite happy to do things with, I wasn't there to hear the exact sermon. This is probably what it sounded like. And so if he puts sermons in people's mouths, that was a common occurrence in other ancient historians as well. And so the other thing about this, I guess, is that the Gospel of Luke is chapter one of a two-chapter book. It's a quirk of fate that the way the New Testament set up is that we have Luke, and then we've got the gospel of John, and then we've got Acts.

But Acts is chapter two, and they're meant to be read together. There's lots of themes that kind of run between Luke and picked up by Acts as well, some of the stories, and they've got similar things going. So Luke, chapter one, is talking about Jesus in his Jewish context with the help of Rome to be sure and Acts then is how the gospel is then taken to the rest of the world. And it's not happens then. So I think that Acts finishes off with Paul in Rome because now he's there in the center of the empire. And this is gospel then would be taken to all of the empire from them.

All right. So the sequel to the gospel of Luke is the book of Acts. Absolutely. Yep. And I've heard that on my life that Luke wrote the book of Acts. Does he say that in the book of Acts? Yeah. And it's also written to Theophilus, Acts chapter 1 verse 1, the former treatise, the gospel

of Luke, have I made O Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was taken up. After that, he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the Apostles, whom he has chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, etc., cetera. The idea that it was written if theophilus is what ties it to Luke one. Yeah, and him saying the form of treatise. Perfect. So we've got this guy Luke, and correct me

if I'm wrong here, Dave, but Luke comes onto the scene, don't most scholars think after Jesus has been ascended into heaven, or does he know Jesus personally? Well, that's a good question and it is something of a debate. And I think that one of the parts here is in 1 verse 3. So he's clearly in verse 1 part of the community, verse 3.

It seemed good to me also having had a perfect understanding and the language there has thoroughly investigated in light of the available evidence. But the understanding of all things from the very first. So does that mean he's studying what others have said from the very first or has he had a part of it could be read and understood either way? We don't hear of him until here.

And we certainly hear more of him in acts and his relationship with Paul. He may have had more experiences than we're aware of. The word perfect there, a whole, a complete understanding, is that the way to understand it? I remember everything perfectly, but I have a complete understanding of what happened. Yeah, I think that that's probably a good way of looking at it, yeah. I like to restate and then have you carry on there

So our first five verses are Luke telling us who he's writing to and why he's writing and he seems very confident that he has The absolute truth of what has taken place. He's got eyewitnesses and he's done a careful investigation Did I get that right? Yeah, I think that that's good.. Look at it. So then he starts the story in verse 5. Yeah. This chapter is crafted really, really well. And one of the things that I like to do with studying is not just to read to get the story, but I love to ask questions of why is the person writing? In other words, why are they starting with the story of Jesus and John? Why does Luke choose that? None of the other gospels start there, but why it's Luke trying to do? What's he trying to teach us by doing that? And I also like to ask the question, why does he say it this way? Because I think wonderful things happen with asking those questions. So if I could just

kind of give an overview of chapter one and some of the things that are happening here, I think that that can kind of give us a big story. Luke is going to start his account of Jesus, not with Jesus, but with Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, Zacharias and Elizabeth. And then he's going to tell the story of Mary. And in both occasions we're going to get this kind of a non-ciation that Zacharias and Elizabeth and Mary are both going to have a child in unexpected ways. And so there's this prophecy of that and when Luke is telling the story, he's very intentional about how he tells a story. So the story of the prophecy of John's birth and the story of the prophecy of Jesus' birth,

he's intentionally put them in parallel form. For example, both stories start with the parents being introduced and they're not anticipating a child. That is followed by, in both stories, an appearance of an angel, both of them is Gabriel, we'll talk more about him. The response of both Zechariah and Mary is that they are troubled, and the word is intentional there. They're both told by Gabriel, do not fear. They're both promised that they will have a son. They're then both told what the name of the son is going to be. And then we have that both of these children are going

to be great. Zechariah and Mary both ask the same question, how's that going to happen? Even though Zechariah gets a negative view of it in a way that Mary doesn't, but I think they're both legitimate questions in my book. They're both given an answer. I have sent to announce this to you or the Holy Ghost shall come upon you. Then both are given a sign. Then we have a contrast, Zechariah's forced silence and Mary's spontaneous answer. And then we're told Zechariah and the angel went away. So I've wondered why is Luke doing this? Why does he want to set these two stories up so carefully? And I think in part it is to show and to help us as readers

to understand the relationship between Jesus and John long before we ever get to the baptism. And that becomes crystal clear. But this idea that John is to be a forerunner for Jesus, that their births will be in parallel just as their missions will be in parallel. So it's the help us kind of get thinking here and that it is the kind of the extension of the history of Israel that we've had from the beginning. But one of the things that I really like is not just thinking about how are they the same, sometimes how are they different really stands out in important ways and teaches us some important things. Let me just give you two examples. The stories both start with the parents introducing and they're not having a child, but they're not having a child for very different reasons. Elizabeth is barren, but she has a child. Now, the fact that she's

going to get pregnant is miraculous, but has that miracle ever happened before in Israel's history? And we can think particularly of Abraham and Sarah. We can think of Jacob and Rachel. We can think of the parents of Samuel and Samson. This is a miracle. There's no doubt in my mind that Luke wants us to see it as a miracle, but it's not a miracle that is unique. But then in contrast, Jesus' parents are also not expecting a child, but it's for very different reasons than that of Zacharias and Elizabeth, because Mary is unmarried and she's

a virgin. The fact that she's going to get pregnant is also a miracle, but it's not a miracle that has been done before. And then the second thing is notice how the angel talks about these children. When he's talking to Zacharias about John, he shall be great before the Lord. But when Gabrielle talks to Mary, it is Jesus will be great. Period. His greatness is not dependent on some other being. He is great period. John is great before the Lord. And so that's telling us, although their births and their ministries parallel, they're not equivalent. And we're going to see John is going to defer to Jesus because I'm not worthy to even unlatch the shoes of his feet kind of thing.

That's verse 32. He shall be great in the sight of the Lord versus Jesus. He shall be great. I like that. I've never seen that connection. Yeah. I just feel like there are so many things that are hidden in plain sight in the scriptures. The fact that you are saying, look at the peril of this was a crafted chapter. He just didn't sit down and start writing, but he maybe thought about it outlined it. How can I make this elegant and beautiful even? I'm symmetrical. They spent time on these things and I like seeing stuff like that. Yeah, I always tell this to my students when they're writing papers for me. I can tell if the paper is written the morning that it was due, but take some

time to think about what you're saying and how you're going to say it. And Luke certainly does that. He's a master at that. Yeah. And this is a long, this is 80 verses. So when I first look at the lesson plan, just one chapter, well, it's a pretty long chapter. Yes. A few important things going on here. So connecting Jesus and John before the baptism, I'd never thought of that either, Gabe,

bringing them together long before they meet at the Jordan. Yeah, it gets us thinking about it. And I think that there's a lot to say here of that either a gate, bringing them together long before they meet at the Jordan. Yeah. It gets us thinking about it. And I think that there's a lot to say here about the Zacharias and this experience here, culture and what's happening. These events are put in history by Luke, saying these in the days of Herod, the King of Judea. We have Zacharias, a priest of the course of Abia. If you understand Hebrew Bible stuff,

that's significant, because in Chronicles, when they're describing priesthood, they're talking about how they're 24 courses of priests and that Abia was one of those. And so each of these courses, two weeks in the year, they would come and work at the temple. Besides the great feasts these are the ones who are doing the daily sacrifices and the workings of the temple. Zachariah here is part of this daily experience of what the priests

were doing in the temple. He's probably in the holy place and is lighting the altar of incense for the day and that incense before the veil that's splitting us off from the holy of Holies is to represent the prayers of Israel ascending into heaven. I think what's happened, although it's not in the text, he's doing this to represent all of Israel and their prayers to God, but I think maybe he had his own prayer going on here, given what happens next. In his prayer, I think was praying to God even still that he and his wife could have a child. Verse 6, I think, is really important. Zechariah and Elizabeth were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and the ordinances of the Lord blameness. That's going to be an

important thing in both stories actually, but I think one of the things that it's saying here is the fact that Zechariah and Elizabeth with childless did not mean that they were in some way sinning. Maybe Luke's making that clear for us that this trial was not a result of some sort of sin. We see that in the Gospel of John. Who did sin this manner's parents that he was born blind? They were always looking for a law of retribution type of a thing and glad you brought that up, paying that, that no, sometimes trials happen to good people. Here's Luke saying they were both righteous. The lesson that I take from this is God promise us great things, but he doesn't always promise

that they're going to happen immediately. And sometimes people can have really, really righteous desires, but the blessings of those righteous desires aren't always fulfilled immediately. And here we have two very, very righteous people who have waited how many years? Is it 10 or is it 20 or is it 30? I don't know the answer to that, but they're aged probably at a time when most people would have given up on the opportunity of it.

In God's timetable, the blessings come. I think that that's hard sometimes to wait and think, why is God blessing other people and not me? My patriarchal blessing said this, but it hasn't happened yet. So why does God wait so long sometimes? Why does he force us to wait? Why is waiting upon the Lord so important? And I don't know, I can't speak for Zechariah and Elizabeth,

but I wonder whether there are things that we learn in the waiting. Sometimes the waiting forces us to our knees in ways that we haven't done previously, with a prayer that's not wrote but is coming from the depths of our soul. And I believe that God sends us angels. It might not all be Gabriel, but he does send moments to us where we have experiences that we know God knows us. Thy prayer is heard. What a fantastic insight, Gaye, and interesting that Luke starts off with a

barren couple. Here's this great good news, this beautiful gospel, and it starts out with a barren couple. Here's this great good news, this beautiful gospel, and it starts out with a big trial. Yeah. Well, it shows that God's in control. He's in charge of what's going on, even though Zechariah's may have thought otherwise, or Elizabeth. I think sometimes we think of,

and maybe we can talk about this backstory a little bit, that the Jews kind of in an apostate condition, and yet here is Zach Grace in the temple, and he is called very righteous here, and the temple is a righteous place, and Jesus wanted to protect it back then as well. Yeah, I think for Luke's gospel in particular, the temple is important. Sometimes I think we're really quick to judge the Jews while they're living the law of Moses, but hey, they're living the Law of Moses, but hey, we're living the higher laws,

so we're more important. I think that the Law of Moses was a really, really positive thing. I don't have negative feelings about this at all. This is God taking people where they're at and helping them to learn about him. Paul talks about the Law of Moses, a school master to bring us to Christ. And that means kind of somebody who takes people who aren't of age yet and helps guide and direct them until they can step up and stand for themselves spiritually speaking.

And I don't know about you, but I don't think I'm of age yet, spiritually speaking. I have so much to learn. I've learnt some things, but the more I learn, the more I realise how much I do not know, right, of the things of eternity. And so the Law of Moses was meant to help people progress, and we should be grateful for that. So people were trying to do the best they could with what they had. And I hope God does look after them because I hope he thinks of me and works with me and my imperfections as well so that I can become what only he really sees and understands. And I'm making mistakes all of the time just trying to do better, but I fall regularly. And so that's what this message is all about, taking us in our imperfections

and helping us grow. And that's just as true in Judaism as it is in Christianity. And I feel like with the temple there, yeah, that even though it's not their totally righteous or totally wicked, this was an honor for Zacharias to be in the temple. The Lord acknowledged the temple as a holy place. Jesus did when he came. He cleansed the temples. There were different levels of righteousness, I guess, but Zacharias was honored and this was the priesthood. And if we say that they're totally apostate condition,

that's probably wrong. If we say they're totally righteous, that's probably wrong. But the temple was an important place to them. Am I saying that okay? Yeah, they're like us. We're somewhere in between. Yeah. Trying to move forward. Okay, so he gets to work in the temple just two weeks of the year. Yeah. And it may have been a once in a lifetime. I've heard some people say it may have even been a once in a lifetime because there are so many descendants now of Levi.

And I've heard people say that it was an assignment that they drew lots for and it's way subtle, but maybe that's what verse 9 means according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot. Well, he got it this time, maybe had been waiting for a long time to get this assignment. It was excited to get it. Is that possible? I think so. The drawing of lots was really quite a standard thing. They're going to call it, who's going to be the new member of the 12 in Acts 1?

It's by lots. We see this in Kumran. They do things by lots as well. So this is their way. Then it's in the hands of God. He decides which one is chosen. And so in a maybe it was, because then he did's acurace to be in the temple so that the angel, maybe it was, because then he did Zacharias to be in the temple

so that the angel could appear to him. This was all kind of meant to be, but maybe as you said, Gai, not the timing that they expected perhaps. And it does remind us also that the temple is a revelatory place for Zechariah. And he's working on behalf of all of Israel, but the fact that he has his own personal prayers and desires

and wishes from God and that God is going to answer the community prayers. He will, but he's also going to think about the individual and the Zechariah here is a really important part of the individual part of the revelatory experience is in the temple. About halfway through the manual, it says, if you find yourself having to wait for a blessing, or if it seems that God isn't hearing your prayers, the story of Elizabeth and Zacharias can be a reminder that he hasn't forgotten you. Is Elder Jeffrey our Holland promised? While we work and wait together for the answers to some of our prayers, I offer you my apostolic promise that they are heard and they are answered, though perhaps not at the time

or in the way we wanted, but they are always answered at the time and in the way an omniscient and eternal compassionate parent would answer them. Now, ask these questions, how did Zacharias and Elizabeth remain faithful? Well, look at them, they're in the temple. Do you find yourself waiting for a blessing? What do you feel

the Lord expects of you while you wait?" And you said, they could have given up by this point. Sounds like he's still praying for it because the angel says thy prayer is heard. They're still waiting for their blessing. And we're going to have the similar thing in chapter 2 with Simian and Anna. They've been waiting for a long time as well. Is that an old saying? God has seldom on time, but he's never late. It's kind of meeting. He's not what you think is on time, but he's not late. He knows exactly when is the best time to come, like Elder Holland said.

Where should we go next, Gay? What do you want to do next? I think it's 14 and 15. Gabriel is going to tell Zacharias a little bit about John. 15, he shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. This language indicates that like Samson and Samuel, John may have been a Nazarite, as part of a Nazarite vow that we read about in numbers, but the other thing I want us to see here, he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost. If we're talking

about themes that run throughout the gospel and acts, this is a huge one. The importance of the Holy Ghost and what great things happen because of the Holy Ghost and being filled with the Holy Ghost. And I think it's also a gentle nudge and reminder of what's going to happen when John is in Elizabeth's womb, when Mary comes along as well. We'll talk a little bit about that. And just as a reminder, a Nazarete vow was this a way of kind of setting yourself apart for a time period to kind of consecrate yourself to God. Am I thinking of the right thing?

Samuel's mother did that before he was even born, is that? Yeah. So we learn about it in numbers chapter six. And this is a way that non-pricedly is relight could become holy. And it's usually for a set period of time. It's not a lifetime thing, but for, it might be six months. It could be for longer period of times. So verse three talks about the vow of a Nazarite. He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. No razor come upon his head and he shall be holy and he shall don't touch dead bodies.

It sets it set. So you separate yourself from the world for a time where you can concentrate on relationship with God and try to become holy as he is holy. Paul also seems to have had part of a Nazarete vow later on in Acts as well. Awesome. And it says, I mean, this is almost like a patriarchal blessing. Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. He is making a people prepared for the Lord as in verse 17. Yeah, I kind of like 15, 16, 17. This is not unique to me. I got it from somebody else who learned that, no, who. But when the church talked about the three purposes

of the church, perfect the science, missionary work, and redeem the dead, I know we've expanded that. But 15, 16, 17, maybe able to be understood that way. So perfecting the John, being filled with the Holy Ghost, many of the children of his, I shall

turn to the Lord, missionary work, and he shall go before them in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the children, et cetera, et cetera, could be seen as temple work as well. I love stuff like that. Some of the closing words of Maroni, he just hits boom, boom, boom. The three-fold mission is President Kimball used to call it when he says, strength and nice stakes and enlarge the place of the I-10th. He uses the Isaiah language for it. And today, as you said, gay President Monson added to take care of the poor and needy,

it's been really beautifully articulated in our latest handbook, the work of salvation, live, care, invite, unite, live the gospel of Jesus Christ, care for those in need, invite all to come into Christ, the missionary work component, and unite families for eternity. It's fun to see that. I'm so glad you pointed that out to see this is the work of salvation hasn't changed a lot. Okay, so can we jump into Mary's story now? This is the part that really gets me excited, so you might have to get me down off the shelf there a little bit. As I think about this story of Mary and as I work with and teach it by students, there's a couple of things that I want them to think about in this story.

Number one, I hope, as whenever we read the scriptures, but particularly in this one, try and put yourself in the shoes of the person that you're reading about. Don't study the scriptures from afar. Don't be in the grandstand looking at what's going on in the field. Get down on the field and become a part of this experience. So I asked students as we're reading through this to put themselves in Mary's place and position, trying to imagine what this might have been like for Mary.

And I say this is something that I want both men and women to do in the class. This isn't just something that the women should be thinking about because this story is outlining the experience of Mary, but I think it also gives us some really, really interesting clues of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. I would argue that Mary is the first of Jesus disciples in mortality. Let's start in verse 26. So this is after Elizabeth has conceived, and then verse 26 it says, and in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, The angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth. Now I always paused there. So we've mentioned Gabriel, who's the angel who also appeared to Zacharias,

but these are the questions I ask. Why Gabriel? Joseph Smith is reported to have said that Gabriel is another name for Noah and so if that's true and I believe that it is, then why not just say a Noah came? Why Gabriel? And so I want to know something about the name Gabriel and in Hebrew Gabriel means a mighty man of God. I like that because it suggests to me God doesn't just send anybody to Zacharias and to Elizabeth. He sends a mighty man to them.

This suggests to me how important the story and the message is to God. So I see Gabriel as a title, as much as a personal name, and he sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth. Well here's the second place I stop and going, well where's Nazareth? What does it mean? Why is all this happening in Nazareth? What do we know about Nazareth in the first century? It's in the Galilee in the New Testament times it was a nothing place in many respects. It's small, a small village. In fact, if you go to Nazareth today, the scholars have excavated down to the first century village.

We're probably not talking a city, but a village. And we can see houses and streets that date back to the first century. And I don't know about you guys, but that just gets me really excited. The thought of, these are the places where Jesus hung out with that as a young child, he's running the streets and all of those things that we don't hear much about in the scripture. Why is this story taking place in Nazareth?

It's just a nowhere place. It is unimportant. Why is it this happening in Jerusalem? Where the temple is, where the priesthood is and the priests. Why is it this happening in Jerusalem? Where the temple is, where the priesthood is and the priests. Why is it happening in Nazareth? Why is this small village? Is it happening? But he comes to Nazareth to a virgin, espoused to a man, his name was Joseph, of the House of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. She was probably never called Mary. Her name was probably Miriam. That would be the Hebrew name. Mary is kind of the Greek form of it.

Joseph is of the house of David. Virgin's name is Mary. I'd like you to kind of imagine what's going on might be going on in Mary's mind here. She's probably very young. Women got married a lot younger than they do today. People could become engaged as young as 11 or 12. That's kind of for us in our day and age, but it was normal for them in their day. So that we can anticipate that she's young here. So how would this young girl be experiencing then all of a sudden, I don't know what she was doing, but this divine messenger, Gabriel, comes to her and says verse 28, Hail thou art highly favored. The Lord is with thee and blessed art thou among women. Now the Joseph Smith translation has a different reading of this verse. We don't find it in the footnotes and it's not in the back of the book where we have the longer versions

but nevertheless it's there. So this is how it reads and just see if you can follow along in the King James, what's the difference? What do you see here? So Gabriel says in the JST, Hail their Virgin who art highly favoured of the Lord. The Lord is with thee for thou art chosen and blessed among women. Do you notice any difference? The word chosen is definitely not in the Luke account. And so my question is, so what does that mean? Why is Mary chosen? She's not from the temple aristocracy, who you might expect this to come from. She's not in Jerusalem, she's in this backwards kind of podunked place. Why would he choose Mary? And honestly, if she's that young, I don't know how much of her

life experience would be that God's saying, oh, you should be chosen. So for a latter-day saint, that leaves this is a primortal chosenness, blessedness kind of thing. I have a couple of quotes from Elder Bruce Arma Konki, they're oldies, but I love them, and so I keep coming back to them. We don't mind oldies here, I'd follow him. Yeah, this has had a big impact on me. So, this is what Elder Mekonki says. Can we speak too highly of her whom the Lord has blessed above all women?

There was only one Christ Christ and there is only one Mary. Each was noble and great in the pre-existence and each was foreordained to the ministry he or she performed. We cannot but think that the Father would choose the greatest female spirit to be the mother of his Son, even as he chose the male spirit like unto him to be the Savior. And then he goes on and says, we should hold up Mary with that proper steam, which is hers. I love that statement because I think when do we think about Mary? December?

But how often do we think at other times about her and what she's doing and what we learn from her? I think we miss out because we don't take the time to really think about this young woman and what she teaches us. And again, I'm going to ask the question about discipleship. What can I learn about discipleship and my personal discipleship by thinking about Mary and her experiences. And her response? Yes. So if she's chosen because she was maybe amongst the noble and great ones that Abraham sees, but she's not going to understand that at this point at least. Verse 29, and when Mary saw Gabrielle, she was troubled at his saying,

and I've wondered what she troubled about. Is she troubled that an angel is speaking to her? Who are you talking to? Who me? Why me? Or is she afraid? The ancients believed you enter into the presence of a divine being that you would get zapped because of their glory. Going into the presence of divine was a dangerous proposition for the ancients as they understood it. So she's troubled at the saying and cast her mind, meaning she's considering in a head, she's reasoning what manner of salutation this should be.

Why is he talking to me? Why is he saying that I am blessed among women? Why am I chosen from all of the women in Israel? And then the angel says unto her, fear not Mary, for thou hast found father in God. And so I wonder again, how would I react in this situation? I would love actually to have a divine being come to say that I have found favor with God even in my imperfections. This is a really, really poignant moment. This isn't something to read over quickly and be hold. Thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shall bring forth a sun.

Well again, what do you think Mary's thinking here? Is this weird to her? She's engaged. I could imagine her saying, yeah, all right. I'm about to get married. Of course. That's what happens when you get married I'm going to have a son But then you shall call his name Jesus. This I think is probably one of her first things goes, whoa, I think something else is going on. Jesus in Hebrew means salvation. So John's name was gift, Yohanan gift, but not salvation. So that I think might have given her a clue. And he shall be great, and she'll be called the Son of the highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his Father David." Now Mary would have understood this. The throne of his Father David is language-saying,

the throne of his father, David, is language saying, your son is going to be the Messiah. He's not going to be just some any other kid coming along. Something really important is happening here. And he carries on and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom, there shall be no end. That is also Messiah language. So even though Gabriel doesn't come out and say your son

is going to be the Messiah, he gives all of the language that even a young Jewish girl would have understood. So again, I think how's it feeling about this? What's this doing to it? What's going through her mind here? And so it's not a shock to me, then said Mary unto the angel, how shall this be? Seeing I have not known a man. I'm not married yet. How is this going to happen? So here's my first principle of discipleship. Disciples of Jesus Christ ask questions.

It's okay to ask questions. Questions invite revelation. Questions help us to learn more than we know now. And so her question, how shall this be? I think is a really quite reasonable question given the circumstances and all of the things that she has heard, but she voices her questions, and it's a good thing to do so. And Gabrielle recognizes the importance of questions, and the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. And I want to stop there here. This for me is my second principle of discipleship.

God asks his disciples to do things that we don't even conceive of how it's possible to do. And the answer, how is this be? I mean, I don't think Mary's the only person to ask that. We've already seen Zacharias do it, but I ask it. I read my patriarchal blessing and some of the promises there and I sit there thinking, how is this going to be? My patriarchal blessing and some of the promises there and I sit there thinking, how is this going to be? My patriarchal blessing says that you will have a priesthood holder will desire to take you to the temple, you'll have children, da da da da da, and I go, how will this be now? I just turned 60.

The answer here I think from Gabriel is really, important. And it's for all disciples. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. That's how we get through all of the trials and the tribulations and the difficulties of life because the Holy Ghost will be with us. In my ward, a number of years ago, it was a young ward that just been formed. One of the members was called to be the pianist in primary She had been having lessons I think for two months And here she is being called as the pianist and I can imagine her

Saying when the bishop extends that call how can this be? But President Monsons whom the Lord calls he qualifies. And I was just so impressed with this woman who went to work. Okay, I can't do this, but I'm going to do it anyway because I've been called and she went to work hard. She worked hard on trying to develop her skills playing the piano and the Lord magnified her in ways that she couldn't

imagine. Why? Because the Holy Ghost comes and empowers us in such important ways if we give him the chance by willing to have the faith to step up and say yes. I love that. This is a great principle of discipleship. Ask questions and realize that the Holy Ghost is gonna be the answer. You said, that's how we get through it. That's how we get through the difficulties. I really like that.

Thank you, Gaye. And then he goes on and says, and this is specific to you, Mary, and the power of the highest shall over shadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which is to be born of thee shall be called the Son of the highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which is to be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. So again, she's being reiterated,

initially Gabrielle said the Son of the highest, but now specifically, he's not just going to be the Messiah, and this is one of the places where it's a little bit different in terms of Christian understanding of Messiah, but he shall be called the Son of God. And here's the sign. What's the sign to marry? Is that Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age.

And this is a six month with her who is called Baron. So if anybody knows what you're going through, God has not left you alone, but there's somebody else who God has touched in a miraculous way who can maybe help you with this. You almost see the look on Mary's face like, wow. And the response from Gabriel is, for with God, nothing shall be impossible. That is my next principle of discipleship. It doesn't matter if we are disciples of Jesus Christ, who ask questions but have the faith to move forward, nothing, nothing is impossible for God.

And believing that is, I think, a really important part of that's what disciples do. Because God can do the impossible, because He's not like us. And having all of those experiences then, we get one of my most favourite verses in all of Scripture. And Mary said, Behold the hand made of the Lord. Now the word handmade here is doule. Probably it's basic translation is slave. And we don't like that word in the political realm that we live in today

But this is what she's saying here. I am willing to be a slave to God not because he's forcing it on me I think but he here is her willingly saying I choose you I choose to say yes Even though I can imagine that Mary couldn't see the end from the beginning here. I don't think that she I would imagine fully understood the implications of what is happening here and how this would impact her life. But even not knowing, she said, here I am. Be it unto me according to thy word. I'm glad you bring this up. I like for my young adult sisters in my classes to hear Mary give consent. It almost sounds like she could have said never mind.

But she was saying, yes, I will do this. I will do what I was chosen to do. And so I appreciate that verse. And I've got that marked as well that she is. Okay, thanks for explaining that to me. I am willing. Yeah. And then it says the angel departed from her. Now, I think that's a really interesting thing to, uh, because you have this tremendous experience and then the angel leaves.

And so what does that mean? That means she's left to herself. How do you respond to something like this? What do I do now? Yeah, and how do I go home and tell mum and dad about this? Remember, we've talked about Nazareth as a small community. What's everybody else going to think? Why don't she start showing? How are they going to respond to her?

Is she going to be ostracized or is she going to be embraced? Some of the costs of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. And do we often think about that because we just read through the story in here in terms of what the cost Mary paid to say yes to this calling from the Lord. But God has not left her alone. He's already pointed her to Elizabeth. And so the next verse is that she got up and she went into the hill country with haste

into a city of Judea. It's about a hundred miles away. And she went into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the situation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb in fulfillment of what Gabriel had told Zacharias, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost also. It's not just John, but it's also Elizabeth because she's a righteous person. And so if we're thinking here about discipleship, and now let's put that in the context of Luke's gospel. Luke's gospel is saying that this gospel is for everyone.

And so look what we have here. Who are the first disciples of Jesus? We have a very young Mary and we have a very old Elizabeth. And we even have somebody who hasn't been born yet, John the Baptist. So now we've got men and women involved in this disciple experience of witnessing who Jesus is even before he is born. For me, this sets up again Luke's gospel. How this gospel is for all ages across the spectrum

and for people who live in small, potent towns or in wildernesses. Out on the periphery, this gospel message is for them. And in fact, it starts with them. And while we might reasonably assume why Mary, who on earth would know that Mary, who would pick Mary from Nazareth, but the message is God new, Mary. And God knew who she was. And God had a calling for her that nobody in her village I would imagine would ever have thought was happening, but God knew her and he reached out to her and invited her to be a part of one

of the greatest stories in eternity. And he didn't leave her alone. I love this idea of bringing her to Elizabeth. I remember President Benson saying, God will raise up friends for those who turn their lives over to him. And this seems to be one of those moments where he raises up somebody

because she's so validating to her and she could be a mentor to her. And wouldn't you want that? Wouldn't being as young as you suggested she may have been. How nice to have someone who is a mentor, friend, that's a good point. I like to use this story as an example of what release of society can be, should be, women of all ages coming together in a community that strengthen each other in our personal journeys that we have with the Lord. Relief society needs young people.

And it needs people who are a little bit further down the line of life because each of us has something to give to strength and others. And if we think that relief society isn't for me because well that's just old people, that's where my mother goes or something like that. We've missed a really, really important opportunity here to have that strength and support and help in difficult things that we go through. And I don't know what priesthood forums are about. I imagine that there are similar things there as well.

But this is about a young woman being strengthened and guided by a woman, a more mature woman who God has prepared so that she would not be alone during this process. Please join us for part two of this podcast. part two of this podcast.