followHIM - 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. 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 a student of the New Testament for a long

time. How long have you been teaching the New Testament? Oh, let's see. I taught it when I was at BYU Provo for a couple of years. And then I started teaching it 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 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 two experts with us today. 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 Strathern 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 Strathern 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 program at BYU. She has taught at BYU since 1995, including a year at BYU's Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. Dr. Strathern 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 Sperry Symposium. We're going to talk about that in a minute, but the newest New Testament Sperry Symposium. We're going to talk about that in a minute, but the newest New Testament Sperry 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 Sperry Symposium? Because I know they've had it for years.

Yeah, sure. Thanks for the welcome. The Sperry Symposium is in honor of Sidney B. Sperry. 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 Speri Symposium books on my shelf. And if I want to go a little more in depth, somebody will take a topic like you did, communal 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.byu.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 B. Sperry Symposium. You can get all of those. And there's a number of books. People might be surprised at the number of books that are available there at the RSC website. It's a Deseret Book co-publication. So give credit where credit is due. 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 an e-book right from Deseret Book or you can get it the hardcover. For the first time this year, we get to open up the New Testament. We are going to 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. So 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. And even though 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 accounts himself as one of the communities of those who follow Jesus. He seems to be a Gentile, 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 delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. This may be saying that Luke was also an eyewitness 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 3, 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 patriot, he basically paid for this to be done? Well, he supports Luke in his efforts to do it, whatever that means. Yeah. But Theophilus 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. Yep, 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, 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 put sermons in people's mouths, that was a common occurrence in other ancient historians as well.

And see, 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 is 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 happenstance, I think, that Acts finishes off with Paul in Rome, because now he's there in the center of the empire, and this gospel then would be taken to all of the empire from then. All right. So the sequel to the gospel of Luke is the book of the empire, and this 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 all 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 1, verse 1, the former treatise, the Gospel

of Luke, have I made, O Theophilus is what ties it to Luke 1. Yeah. And him saying the former treatise. Perfect. So we've got this guy Luke, and correct me if I'm wrong here, Gabe, 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. And the language there has thoroughly investigated in light of the available evidence. But he's 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 what we're aware of. The word perfect there, a whole, a complete understanding, is that the way to understand? It's not like 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'd 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 a good way to look at it. So then he starts the story in verse five. 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 what'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 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 enunciation

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 to 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 that 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 in the 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. 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, 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 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 there are 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. Zechariah 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. And 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 blameless. 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 were 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 man or his 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, Hank, 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 promises 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. Yeah. Thy prayer is heard. What a fantastic insight, Gay. 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 big trial. Yeah. Well, it shows that God's in control. He's in charge of what's going on, even though Zacharias may have thought otherwise, or Elizabeth. I think sometimes we think of, and maybe we can talk about this backstory a little bit,

the Jews kind of in an apostate condition. And yet here is Zacharias 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. Well, they're living the law of Moses, but hey, we're living the higher law, so we're really quick to judge the Jews. Well, they're living the law of Moses, but hey, we're living the higher law, 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 was a schoolmaster 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 learned some things, but the more I learn, the more I realize 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 in 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 there 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 temple. 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. Gay, 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, 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 Qumran. 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, you know, maybe it was because they needed 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, Gabe, not the timing that they expected, perhaps. And it does remind us also that the temple is a revelatory place for Zacharias, 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 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. As Elder Jeffrey R. 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, Now I 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 two with Simeon and Anna. They've been waiting for a long time as well. Is that an old saying? God is seldom on time, but he's never late. It's kind of meaning 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 Nazarite 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 6, and this is a way that non-priestly Israelite 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, et cetera, et cetera. So you separate yourself from the world for a time where you can concentrate on relationship with God and trying to become holy as he is holy. Paul also seems to have had part of a Nazarite 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, it says in verse 17. Yeah, I kind of like 15, 16, 17. This is not unique to me. I got it from somebody else, although I don't know who. But when the church talked about the three purposes of the church, perfect the saints, missionary work, and redeem the dead, I know we've expanded that. But 15, 16, 17 may be able to be understood that way. So perfecting the John, being filled with the Holy Ghost,

many of the children of Israel 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, etc., etc., could be seen as temple work as well. I love stuff like that. Some of the closing words of Moroni, he just hits boom, boom, boom. The threefold mission, as President Kimball used to call it, when he says, strengthen thy stakes and enlarge the place of thy tent. He uses the Isaiah language for it. And today, as you said, Gabe, 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 unto Christ, the missionary work component, and unite families for eternity. And 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 at my 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 ask 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 in 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 pause there. So we've mentioned Gabriel, who was 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's 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 of 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 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, 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 isn't this happening in Jerusalem, where the temple is, where the priesthood is and the priests? Why is it happening in Nazareth? Why this small village is it happening? But he comes to Nazareth to a virgin, espoused to a man whose 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 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 favoured. 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 thou 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 premortal chosenness, blessedness kind of thing. I have a couple of quotes from Elder Bruce R. McConkie. They're oldies, but I love them. And so I keep coming back to them. We don't mind oldies here. I follow him. This has had a big impact on me. So this is what Elder McConkie says.

Can we speak too highly of her whom the Lord has blessed above all women. There was only one Christ and there is only one Mary. Each was noble and great in the preexistence 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 esteem, 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 Gabriel, 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 and so she's troubled at the saying and cast her mind meanings she's considering in her 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 faith 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 behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shall bring forth a son 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 shall 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 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 is she feeling about this? What's this doing to her? 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 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 who's asked 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 says that you will have a priesthood hold who 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 Gabrielle is really, 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 had 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 going to 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, Gay.

And then he goes on and says, and this is specific to you, Mary, and the power 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, Gabriel 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 Mary is that Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her, who is called Barron. 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 favorite verses in all of scripture. And Mary said, behold the handmaid of the Lord. Now the word handmaid here is doule.

Probably its 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 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, too, 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 once she starts 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 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, podunk 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 knew 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. 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 Relief 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 strengthen 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 quorums 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.