What we don’t like about the story of Jesus

Luke 1:5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah,… his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.

Luke tells a humble story. He mentions King Herod, but only to fix the date. In Mathew’s Gospel Herod is a sinister character, but for Luke he’s not a character at all. Luke’s story starts with two nobodies in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire; a priest and a descendant of Aaron to be sure, but just old, worn out nobodies. This couple has a problem, but it’s an everyday human tragedy. Who cares about a childless old couple? Well, God cares, and he is about to act.

Elizabeth and Zechariah will have their child, but if we see this as a simple, feel good story of answered prayer we miss the point. God is blessing these people, but he’s doing much more. He is drawing them into the circle of his work. God is raising up John the Baptist, the greatest and last prophet of the Old Testament, and he will do it through Zechariah and Elizabeth. Though the angel says John will be a joy and delight to them, being the parents of a prophet is a bitter thing; their boy will be an outsider, a rebel, beheaded in the end. But God is not their servant, they are his.

And this is why the story is so humble. It’s not about people who took what they wanted, but people who gave what was needed. Every character who really matters in this story matters because he or she is an instrument of God with a part in a story that’s far more important than they are.

One day Jesus sat with his disciples and explained, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." (Mark 9:35) It’s the unrelenting humility of this story that’s hard to love. But this is a story about real love. And ask any mother or father, ask any lover; real love is humbling and bittersweet. Everyone, of course, loves love, but real love is quite another thing, a humble thing. And humility is an acquired taste.