Luke Part 3: Abraham and the Birth Announcements

Part 3 in my series on Luke, I find it fascinating and inspiring how the birth announcements in Luke (i.e. births of John the Baptist and Jesus) are so fully tied up in imagery from the Abraham narrative. Luke has woven this into the story in a complex way whereby there is not a one-to-one mapping between characters in the Abraham narrative (in the usual pattern of typology), but rather "evidence of Luke's own reading of and reflection on the story of Abraham, and reflection on the accounts of the births of John and Jesus in light of that narrative" (quoting Joel Green.)

As Green points out, reading the opening chapters of Luke is as if we were reading the continuation of a story "rooted in the Abrahamic covenant" - God's action for the world through Israel has not ended; it is still taking place:

This is evident for the narrator in the divine machinations behind the extraordinary births of John and Jesus, workings which themselves constitute evidence that God has remembered his promise and that God is even now working graciously to bring to fruition his purpose.

Thrilling stuff, when you think about it! Promises made to Abraham so many years earlier, and these remarkable births that are bringing the story to its unexpected climax. Some of the ties between the abrahamic narrative and Luke 1 and 2 are:

• Gen 11:30, Luke 1:7 - Sarai barren, Elizabeth barren.
• Gen 12:2, Luke 1:15, 1:32 - Abram will become a great nation, his name will be made great, John will be great, Jesus will be great.
• Gen 12:2, 14:19, Luke 1:44-45, 2:25,34 - Abram blessed by the LORD and by Melchizadek, Mary blessed by Elizabeth and Mary and Joseph blessed by Simeon.
• Gen 12:3, etc., Luke 1:55, 1:73 - Promises made to Abraham, promises to Abraham remembered by God in Luke.

It goes on and on, with an incredible list of parallels such as Abram's old age and Elizabeth and Zechariah "getting on in years", the eight-day-old circumcision (Gen 17) and Jesus' eight-day-old circumcision, God bringing laughter to Sarah "... everyone who hears will laugh with me", and Elizabeth's neighbours/relatives rejoicing with her.

In fact, Joel Green has 3 pages of such parallels - Luke has written the birth narratives in a way that is absolutely soaked in the language of the Abraham narrative and it should give us additional insight into what is being proclaimed by Luke about this Christmas story - God has not forgotten his tremendous promises to bless all the nations, and now he's acting in a spectacular yet unexpected way to bring those promises to completion.