God makes a deal with Moses: you build me a holy nation, and I will keep part 2 of my covenant with Abraham, I will give your great nation a homeland. Moses keeps his part of the deal. So God keeps his part of the deal. Then they live happily ever after?
Nope.
God makes a deal with David: you build me a holy kingdom, and I will confirm part 3 of my covenant with Abraham, I will finally give you Eve’s Son, the Messiah you have been waiting for. David keeps his part of the deal. So God promises to keep his part of the deal — but not quite yet.
God the Father makes a deal with his Son: you redeem the earth like Adam was supposed to do, and through you I will fulfill all my previous eternal covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. The Son keeps his part of the deal. So the Father keeps his.
As Zechariah the Priest contemplates the first Christmas ever, he begins to realize that the Roman empire is not the enemy — he is. And then he realizes it doesn’t matter, because God is a “me for everyone” kind of God.
Luke describes the prince’s birth and early years, a story featuring migrant workers, a few shepherds, and some old people. The reader is told to wait: it’s going to get better!
A crazy prophet shows up in the desert and announces that a new Prince Joshua is coming to conquer the land, defeat the dragon, and bring on Judgement Day. Some people ask how they can join the prince’s army when he arrives. Other people throw the prophet in prison.
John the Baptist anoints a guy named Joshua (Jesus, in Greek), announcing that he is the prince everyone has been waiting for. The prince visits the dragon’s desert stronghold to announce the coming war. The dragon tries desperately to negotiate.
Jesus officially declares war on the dragon. Launching an attack, he wins the first battle easily. The people start to think he is the greatest exorcist ever! Then disappointment sets in when they realize he is actually more interested in preaching than in doing miracles for them.
Jesus recruits his first followers and performs three miracles, proving that he has power to control animals, power to cleanse the body of sickness, and power to cleanse the spirit. Some people begin to wonder if he might be more than just a great exorcist.
Jesus starts to break local religious rules. The Pharisees confront him. In response, Jesus makes a joke, asks a riddle they can’t answer, and then gets them to admit that they are totally uptight jerks. No one laughs.
