When it comes to Christmas, we turn our eyes to the first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke, for this is the Gospel which gives the fullest treatment to the events surrounding the birth of Jesus. (Matthew is the other Gospel account which covers the birth of Christ, and he has stories unique to his account, such as Joseph’s anguish, the visit by the Magi, and the escape to Egypt).
We are familiar with the events of Luke’s first two chapters: Zechariah’s meeting with an angel in the Temple, Mary’s Annunciation, Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, the birth and naming of John the Baptist, the census requiring Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem, and ultimately, the birth of Jesus Christ accompanied by the praise of angels and the visitation by shepherds.
Yet we tend to give less notice to the two songs in the first chapter of Luke–one by Mary and one by Zechariah–though these two songs provide the necessary sinews of meaning and context for the celebrated events.
Mary’s Song
Mary’s song is reported right after she visits Elizabeth and hears the elderly, pregnant Elizabeth prophesy about the child in Mary’s own womb:
My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior (σωτήρ),
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors. (Luke 1:46-55, NIV)
For the first time in the New Testament, Mary calls God a “Savior.” In fact, “Savior” or “salvation” are not mentioned in the other synoptic Gospels, and the terms are only used once each in John, in the story of the woman at the well.
What kind of salvation is Mary expecting? It is a salvation much like that experienced by the once-barren Hannah, who after dedicating her son Samuel to the Lord’s service, saw her own story of barrenness to fulfillment as a reflection, simply, of the way God works: “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor” (1 Samuel 2:8a)
Mary sings of a similar salvation to be accomplished by the mighty arm of God on behalf of the lowly who have suffered at the hands of the rich, the proud, and the rulers. The Mighty One, drawing upon his great mercy, will accomplish a this-worldly salvation in the form of reversal: the humble will be lifted up, the hungry will be filled, the rulers will be brought down, the rich will be sent away empty. Throughout his life, as Luke recounts, Jesus will prove himself to be Mary’s Son by placing the marginalized at the center of his vision of the Kingdom.
“Salvation is much more than a ticket to heaven. Biblical salvation is an integral salvation.” —Justo González
Zechariah’s Song
But Mary’s is not the only song in Luke’s first chapter. On the eighth day after his son’s birth, Zechariah, after writing that his son’s name would be John, has his mouth unsealed and bursts forth with prophecy:
Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation (σωτηρίας) for us
in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation (σωτηρίαν) from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation (σωτηρίας)
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:68-79)
Like Mary, his wife’s kinswoman, Zechariah also speaks of salvation, using the term σωτηρία, in its noun or verb form, three times. The first use of σωτηρία places it as a prophetic concept, harkening back to the line of David. The second use is wartime in nature: salvation from enemies. Still very this-worldly, and frankly, very Old Testament. But as Justo González wrote: “if the way in which we understand salvific events…makes it incompatible with the great salvific actions of God in the Old Testament, then we, like the shepherds, have an incomplete and deficient understanding of salvation.”
The third use, though, introduces a new dimension to the concept of salvation: forgiveness of sins. This foreshadows such scenes as Jesus forgiving the sins of the paralyzed man who was lowered on a mat through the roof (Luke 5:17-26) and Jesus forgiving the sins of the woman who anointed his feet with perfume (Luke 7:36-50).
This very other-worldly salvation—forgiveness of sins—is, however, of one piece with the previous uses of the word salvation. It is still tied to God’s mercy. It is still the salvation prophesied from of old, with the phrase “shadow of death” linking it to David’s 23rd psalm.1 And the last line of Zechariah's song, regarding guiding the feet of his people into a path of peace, seems to imagine a large and comprehensive salvation involving peace inner and outer, a peace between human and God, between Israel and its enemies, a peace in this world and in the world to come.
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Source:
Justo L. González, The Story Luke Tells: Luke’s Unique Witness to the Gospel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015.
The same wording is using in Luke 1:79 and Ps 23:4 in the Septuagint (LXX).