Georg Friedrich Handel’s oratorio, The Messiah, is a staple of the Advent and Christmas season. Presentations abound, especially in a place like New York City. The words sung are a compilation of scriptures that attest to the unfolding narrative of redemption found in the Bible. Between the score and the libretto, the composer produced a powerful artistic expression of what the apostle Paul declares: “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). Handel’s Messiah is an ode to “the fullness of time.”
In his own way, Luke, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, by including the events surrounding Jesus’ birth in his “orderly account,” also produced an ode to “the fullness of time.” We learn from him that the birth of Jesus was something planned before the creation of the universe, for he was God’s Son entering into the world in the womb of a virgin. “Born of a woman,” he was the promised seed who would crush the head of the serpent. He was the evidence of God having remembered the covenant he made with Abraham, the one through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. He was the promised eternal inheritor of David’s throne. He was the one to come out of Bethlehem “who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.” He was the one before whom would go the one sent “in the spirit and power of Elijah . . . to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” He was the “light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to . . . Israel.” He was the Anointed One, the long-awaited and longed for Messiah.
Having Luke’s “backstory,” there can be no guesswork as to what we are dealing with when he records for us, “Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age . . .” (Luke 3:22). And we understand with greater depth the pronouncement of Christ, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’’ (Mark 1:15).
