Week 38 Luke 1-2
Compared to Mark (who seemed to be in a huge rush to talk about the Lord’s adult life) and compared to Matthew (who told a couple of fairly short background stories about the Lord’s early life before moving on) Luke spent quite a bit of time talking about what was happening long before the Lord began his public career.
Mark wrote one verse of introduction then he was off-to-the-races with John the Baptist. He was pretty clearly interested in Adult Jesus.
Matthew took about 48-verses before he launched into John the Baptist & Jesus as adults (he squeezed in the popular Christmas story about the wise men. And then about how Joseph Mary & Jesus shifted locations while they were on-the-run).
Luke seemed to have a different priority. He wasn’t in such a hurry. He filled-in a lot of gaps. Without Luke a bible-reader is missing some pretty useful information:
The story of Zacharias & the angel
The Annunciation of Mary
Mary’s Magnificat
The birth & celebration of John the Baptist
Zacharias’ prophecy
The birth of Jesus
The angels & the shepherds-in-the-fields
Simeon’s prophecy
Anna’s prophecy
Jesus in the temple as a 12 year-old boy.
Each one of the sketches (except maybe the 6th) says something unusual or unexpected. Angels appear to people. Miracles happen. Prophetic prayers are prayed. Prophecies come true. Things happen out-of-the-blue.
It takes 152-verses before Luke starts in on the adult stories of John the Baptist and the Lord. But to me it’s worth the wait.