The God Who Enters History

On the first day of the Gospel readings in the Bible Recap plan, host Tara Lee Cobble opens with a striking claim: the angel Gabriel tells Zechariah that John the Baptist will be "filled with the Spirit of God even when he's in the womb." This is not a small detail. As Cobble notes, "At this point in history, God the Spirit doesn't really dwell in people. For the most part, he moves around a lot resting on people to empower them for specific tasks or callings." Something new is breaking in.

Two Gospels, Two Lenses

Cobble frames the day's reading by explaining that each Gospel writer has a distinct perspective on who Jesus is. Luke's primary lens is Jesus as man; John's primary lens is Jesus as God. Since Jesus was fully human and fully divine, starting with both books on the same day is fitting. Luke writes roughly 30 to 55 years after the resurrection, addressing a Greek man named Theophilus who likely was not familiar with Jewish tradition. Luke functions less like an eyewitness and more like "an investigative reporter who goes around interviewing all the other eyewitnesses in order to tell the story well." John, by contrast, was almost certainly one of the apostles, though he never names himself directly—he calls himself "the disciple Jesus loved."

The Angelic Announcements