Luke 1:1-25, 1 Peter 1:10-12.

We often start thinking about our Advent journey with the angel appearing to Mary, but there is so much that happened before that! In 1 Peter 1:10 we noticed the comments about “the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come”. Peter did that to enable his readers to compare the huge sense of expectation that had begun back in the Old Testament, with the incomparable greatness of Christ that far exceeds all that was first imagined. Luke builds his narrative in a similar way. He refers to those who “from the first were eye-witnesses and servants of the word” (Luke 1:1), then uses the example of Zechariah and his son, John the Baptist, who would prepare people for the way of Jesus (Luke 3) and declare: “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”.

Don’t be too hasty to jump ahead to the baby in the manger before noticing again the bigger context of a promise given long before. What will help us, and how can we in turn enable others, to fully experience and be transformed by Jesus above all else that will fill our time in the coming weeks?