The
biographer Luke records the events surrounding the birth of Jesus. These
include two Annunciations, or messages from God announced by the herald angel,
one to an older man named Zechariah and the other to a girl named Mary, these
two being distant relatives. Each will become a parent, to a son. Zechariah’s
son, John, will prepare the way for Mary’s son, Jesus. For John, this will
include living much of his adult life in the wilderness, having taken flight
from the powerbase of Jerusalem. It will also involve standing up to a ruler –
a calculated fight – that will result in John’s execution by beheading.
Luke
tells us that Mary visits Zechariah’s wife, Elizabeth, while they are both
pregnant. And while there, Mary sings a song which has been passed down to us
as the Magnificat. It is, in fact, her cover version of a far-older song, sung
by Hannah, another woman who had a miracle pregnancy and bore a son who would be
appointed by God to rule over his people, the prophet Samuel. Mary sings, of
God, ‘He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the
thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent
the rich away empty.’
Yet
the library we know as the Bible also testifies that the rich exploit the poor
with impunity. God will not tolerate injustice indefinitely; but would appear
to bide his time and choose his moments. When the time is right, when, perhaps,
the odds would seem in God’s favour – on account of having won the hearts and
minds of allies from among those living on the edges – then God acts
decisively, to turn the world upside-down.
God
chooses flight to flee from concentrated power in search of allies from among
the relatively powerless. And God fights against the powerful, such that – as
Satan ultimately flees from Jesus in the wilderness, when Jesus wrestles with
him, withdrawing until a more opportune moment should arise – they scatter, like
Herod running first to Cleopatra and then to the Senate in Rome, then looking
to Mark Anthony, then Octavian (Augustus).
God
fights, by turning the world on its head, through the least-likely of human partners.
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