God Chooses Low-Status People for Awesome Things

So, Luke. The Bible's really weird, because I flipped through Matthew, Mark, and John, and the books are all so different. Luke is basically the only Gospel that talks about Jesus's life before his ministry. I mean, Matthew spends two chapters on it, but even then most of chapter one is a list of names, and lots of chapter two is stuff that focuses on Joseph.

Luke is the third Gospel in the Bible. They're all in a row. So what's the focus in Luke?

I only read until the sixth chapter, so I obviously don't have everything. But I can at least tell you what I got out of the first part.

The first couple of chapters focus on humble people being exalted and the fulfillment of God's promises (although, to be fair, the whole Bible is basically about how God fulfills his covenant with his people).

1) People that are righteous with God get the good news and the holy babies. Conditions?

• If you're Zechariah and you question the good news, you are still shown mercy and get the holy baby (in his case John the Baptist), but you get turned mute because you should know better. I mean, really, if you're so close to God as to be a priest and the father of John the Baptist, why would you question God?

• If you're Mary and you just ask how it will happen and then say, "let it be," well, you get to be Jesus's earth-mother.

2) The humble people (as in, good-hearted and poor) are exalted. This is a key theme in Luke (and the whole Bible, too).

• Mary is a young girl. She probably doesn't have a lot of status because she's not married yet and in her Magnificat (Song of Mary, sung in liturgical churches I think), she sings twice about having a "humble estate" or a "lowliness" -- depending on the translation you have. Anyway, God chose a humble young woman to be the mother of Jesus. The Son of God. I tended to overlook this because I'd heard it so many times at church, but when I read The Magnificat, I think I understood it a little more. It wasn't just that Mary got to be Jesus's mother. It's that God, the maker of the universe, chose her to be a part of the fulfillment of a covenant that has existed for thousands of years. This covenant is the salvation of her people. And she's bringing the salvation into the world. Everyone will call her blessed now -- that's what she says. She also recalls the history of God helping the Israelites defeat their enemies (like Egypt), and with the same arm that knocks those kings over, he's lifting Mary up to bear his Son. 

• The shepherds. They're actually only mentioned in Luke (as far as I could find), despite the fact that they're in every Christmas story reenactment. The Wise Men are mentioned in Matthew, which tends to focus on Joseph and Herod and all the high stuff. But Luke only mentions the shepherds. Why is this? THEY'RE HUMBLE. And I also overlooked this part when I was younger, until I read this:

"And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them" (Luke 2:20).

Think about it from their point of view. You're a shepherd. You smell. You live with animals. There are lots of people out there. And you're only one shepherd of the many. But for some strange reason, out of all the people God chooses to tell about his Son being born, he chooses you. Imagine that your friend or a family friend has wanted to have a child for years. Suddenly, they find out they're pregnant. Who are they going to tell? The ones closest to them, of course. The ones they love most. So you'd think if God were to tell someone, it would be the righteous, holy, godly people. But it's not. He doesn't tell them. He sends a host of angels to tell YOU, you this shepherd with some of your shepherd friends. He loves YOU. Oh my God. If you're not totally grateful and want to thank God for THAT, who are you? So they tell everyone the good news for God. Because He deserves it, and they definitely owe it to Him after He chose them to tell and to show Jesus to.

And I'm guessing all of you aren't super-holy or righteous or anything. Not many people are. So isn't it great that, despite all that, if you're humble and good, God loves you and has a special place for you (even though the whole Jesus-being-born isn't happening now)? You're like the shepherds. You're important to God. He'd tell you about his baby.

Just something to think about (and then do what the shepherds did).