Have someone, particularly someone who knows your parents, told you that what you know or do is something you learned from you parents?

For example, one thing we can say about Jedidiah, his talent and love for music is something he learned from his Dad, Manova. Or Jedidiah and Jerusha’s knowledge of the Bible especially love for the church is something they learned from Gladis.

We can also do some recollection and think of the things we have learned from our parents…

But it’s not only skills or knowledge that we learn from parents. There are also attitudes, views, ethics and even principles that are passed on to us.

This leads us to ask, therefore, the question ‘Where did Jesus learn his ways, his beliefs and his principles early in life?’ or more precisely, ‘From whom did Jesus learn his prophetic ministry?’

You are right when you answered from his mother Mary.

Jesus must have learned the lessons of prophetic ministry from his mother. Mary was a young peasant woman. She belonged to the oppressed classes at that time of the Roman empire.

She was the one who said,
“The Lord has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:52–53).
Jesus first heard this gospel when he was a baby, when made to fall asleep. Mary sang this message whilst swaying him in her arms, assuring him of God’s protection and care, singing to him the vision of God’s kingdom on earth. Mary taught with a song of joy – joy that is founded on the certainty of God’s saving work in humanity, amongst God’s people.

She knows who she is; her place in God’s scheme of things. She knows what God has done, not just for her but for all of humanity through her. It will mean a transformation of the world, a structural overhaul of society. The powerful will be brought down from their thrones and the lowly lifted up.

Through Mary, God’s spirit envisioned a new socio-political arrangement, which will involve the dismantling of the oppressive systems of power and the establishment of egalitarian ones. “53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”

This springs from the advent of God’s mercy that shall permeate from one generation to another generation (1:50). She sings her song “in remembrance of God’s mercy” (1:54), which has the capacity to shake and shatter the systems of injustice that terrorises, imprisons, and kills. Mercy means her liberation and ours.

Later, Luke will write about Jesus finding his own voice beginning with a quote from the prophet Isaiah saying:
18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ (Luke 4:18-19)
And Jesus concludes this by saying: ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’  Mary’s song now become realised through Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.

One lesson we take from this reflection is the importance, especially for children and youth, of listening to parents. It is not about listening for listening’s sake but being able to learn from their wisdom gained though experience. On the other hand, parents should be able to teach their children the kingdom values of love, justice, mercy and compassion. And more importantly, these values cannot be taught by words alone but by showing it in your practice. Practice means living out your faith in God and commitment to Christ.

Mary’s knowledge about the coming of the Saviour of the world, who shall be borne by Mary herself, came through an angel of the Lord. And so with the Joseph and later on the shepherds of the fields. Only a few people knew that Jesus was born.

Did John know Jesus?

John knew Jesus since when? (since they were still in their mother’s womb) In Luke 1: 39-45 it says:
39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’
(What followed this is that text we call Mary’s Song of Praise or Magnificat.)
So John “knew” about Jesus but in their grown-up years John says he does not know and have not seen Jesus in person.

It was only about thirty years later that the religious at that time, the Pharisees, Scribes, Priests and Temple Authorities began to uncover the message of the Scriptures about the coming of the Messiah.

And so with urgency, they went to ask the person who might lead them to the Messiah. They went to the so-called “voice crying out in the wilderness”, no other than who we know now as John the Baptiser.

Jews sent priests and Levites to Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing to ask John, “Who are you?” 20He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” 21And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. 24Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?”26John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.”

It is very sad that the Levites and the Pharisees did not know about or failed to understand the coming of the Messiah through a human birth. King Herod at that time tried to eliminate the baby by killing all children two years and younger because Jesus was a threat to the established political system.

As we end this year with a return to the joy of gathering together in worship and fellowship, let this inspire us to seek the meaning of Mary’s song in our lifetime, in this generation and the next generation that comes after us.

In our Elders’ conversation yesterday, where we reflected on Mary’s song of praise and prophecy, I posed the question, what in Mary’s song of praise reflect the prophetic ministry of Jesus? And what might me the forms and expressions of ministry can we develop in accordance to Christ’s ministry?

I leave these questions to you, for you to explore and discern.

Amen.