December 18, 2011 Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For there is no impossibility when it comes to every Word of God.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
Christ is Coming: Do Not Be Afraid
I. Of compliments
On Judgment Day many unbelievers will be surprised when none of their works will be recognized by Jesus. They will assume that God had been smiling at all of their works throughout their lives. Jesus spoke of the Pharisee at the front of the church who wanted to remind God in his prayers about how faithful he had been with his offerings and fasting. Jesus said that his prayers and works would end up being rejected. How surprised he would be at his death.
This is the nature of unbelief and pride; people want to be seen for what they do. They demand recognition; for their whole self-worth depends on what others think of them. They get angry and upset when all of their glorious works are passed by without recognition. The religion of the flesh is constantly doing things to be noticed by God and noticed by others; get a badge for an achievement. Everyone has temptations for this; it is a weight around the souls of believers as well. It is something we struggle with in life. One of the greatest revelations God brings in the Word of God is that the greatest of our works are but like filthy rags in God’s sight. We can’t put a badge on anything.
Ironically, in spite of the fact that our works are filthy, Jesus said that He will not be ashamed to mention the works of believers on Judgment Day. Most believers are embarrassed when their works are mentioned. They don’t feel worthy of being mentioned. On Judgment Day Jesus said that believers will even ask Him incredulously, “When did we do that?” This is the nature of faith. When we are brought to a realization of what sinners we truly are and the Holy Spirit shows us how filthy our works are; attention and recognition embarrasses us. It makes us leery of compliments, for we know we are not worthy of them.
Mary responded the same way to the angel Gabriel. Gabriel had some wonderful things to say about Mary. Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” “Highly favored” is a passive word in the Greek. It can mean that she was made beautiful, lovely, agreeable or charming or just plain “graced.” The proud man would have perked his ears up and puffed out his chest at such a greeting. But “Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.” The word for “troubled” is only used this one time in the New Testament; it is a thorough type of troubling; even more so than Herod at the news of the Wise men who had come to worship the true Christ; more than Jesus at the grave of Lazarus. Notice carefully what the Word says greatly troubled Mary. It doesn’t say that the appearance of the angel greatly troubled her. It was the greeting that did it. Mary didn’t know how or why she would get such a wonderful greeting. It greatly troubled her.
When someone says to you, “You have a servant’s heart,” you might pessimistically realize you are being flattered in order to be asked to do something nobody else wants to do. My overseer on the janitor crew back in college used to say to me, “You’re number 1 at weed whacking.” I didn’t care for this compliment because it meant I was going to have to keep doing it. Mary wasn’t troubled because she was afraid to serve. She just didn’t know exactly how or why God considered her to be so graced. She had done nothing extraordinary. She didn’t feel worthy of such a greeting. She was nothing but a young servant girl. What was God choosing her for? What was she to do? It isn’t every day that an angel hands out such compliments to someone. She was deeply troubled by this, but she didn’t need to be.
II. Because of God’s grace in Christ
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found grace with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” There is only one way for fear to be relieved, and that is when we find the grace of God. Grace was the only thing that could relieve Mary’s fear. Where is this grace to be found? Mary didn’t have to go to Jerusalem for God’s grace; she didn’t have to earn it; for grace was going to grow within her womb; she would give birth to Him and hold Him in her arms. She would feed Him and raise Him and name Him “Jesus”.
Jesus is the same word for the Old Testament name Joshua. It means “the LORD saves,” or “the Lord is salvation.” He would be unlike any other child born into this world, for He would be the Son of the Most High. The words of promise to Mary are clothed in Old Testament promises that the Messiah would come through the line of David. God promised David this in 2 Samuel 7. David then wrote and sung of it a thousand years before Mary was ever born in Psalm 8. Jews were raised to know and believe that the Messiah would come through David’s line. Mary’s Son was going to be both God and king of the universe. Little did Mary know how that rule would be established through the cross; that His victory would come through a bloody death; but for now she could find comfort in the Word of prophecy through Gabriel. The Messiah was going to be her Son. Mary would be able to raise the Messiah; she would be able to raise God!
This is such an awesome concept to think about. Where can I find God’s grace? How do I know that God is on my side? Do not look to the skies. You will only find God’s power and majesty in the sky. Do not think that He can be built by your hands. No, God miraculously forms the Baby in the womb of Mary; using the reproductive system that He gave her. Grace is found by looking within the womb of Mary and seeing God’s grace take on flesh. Here is God’s Son; someone you can hold with your hands and see with your eyes. He is a human, and yet He is God! He can live and He can die for you! He DID exactly that! God sent a human to eliminate God’s wrath; to make you worthy by becoming your sin. God’s grace and his undeserved love is only found in His Son! He is the one that comforts us.
Grace is not just a concept. It is not something that we have to build and earn for ourselves. God’s grace is given to us in Christ. We are washed with Him in our baptism and given all of God’s grace. We partake of Him in the Lord's Supper as well! When God raises Jesus from the dead after His awful death it is as if God is saying to us, “Do not fear. You have found favor with God!” Jesus now rules as the King over sin, death and God’s own wrath. In baptism and the Lord’s Supper; through God’s promise in Christ we have nothing to fear, not even God Himself; for Jesus stands as the triumphant victor over death.
Mary could have the comfort of knowing that she bore this child. He was her child. This was the same message that the angels wanted the shepherds to know also. “Unto you a child has been born,” they said. When Mary gives birth to Jesus, He is not only her child. God wants us to regard Him as our child also, as if He had grown in our wombs and we had given birth to Him. When the Holy Spirit came into your heart in baptism, it is as if Christ was born within your soul. God then said to you, “He is your King too! In Him you have my favor too! I want you to hold Him just as tightly and feel just as close to Him.”
III. Because God’s Word works miracles
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” Mary’s question was not a question of doubt. It was a question of logistics. The birth of a child always takes place through the union of a man and a woman. Mary didn’t say she was a virgin. She literally said, “since I do not know a man.” When the Old Testament was written in prediction of the virgin birth, some eggheads got into arguing about the meaning of the word translated as “virgin.” The scholars debated that the word actually refers to a “young woman” and not necessarily a “virgin.” It is true that it can mean that. But the New Testament clearly uses the word “parthenon” which means “virgin” in referring back to it. What kind of a prediction would it be to say, “A young woman will be with child.” This would minimize the prediction down to thousands of women? It would be like me predicting that the end of the world will come when the skies are blue. Wow. Amazing. Yet even here it would appear that the Holy Spirit left no room for reinterpretation over the meaning of “parthenon” because Mary physically describes what she was. She said she never knew a man. This was clearly referring to her sexual status. She didn’t know a man; not even Joseph at this point. It was impossible for her to have a child according to nature. So she asked how in the world this could happen.
Gabriel answered her. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. The word for “overshadow” is only used in two other stories; the Transfiguration is one of them. There it describes the cloud that covered the disciples on top of the mountain. The other referred to Peter’s shadow in Acts 5 which God used to heal people. The shadow is not a physical thing. The Holy Spirit is a spirit, not a physical being. His overshadowing was not a physical union as the Muslims can’t seem to understand. It was a miraculous overshadowing. God would miraculously have the Holy Spirit overshadow Mary so that she would be pregnant. It would be a miracle; hence the VIRGIN birth.
Gabriel wasn’t done with his explanation. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. If God was able to have a woman who was beyond child bearing years have a child through a natural union of her and Zechariah, then couldn’t God perform an even greater miracle through a virgin birth? The NIV and KJV say that Gabriel then said, “For nothing is impossible with God.” But it’s interesting to note what Gabriel actually says. The literal translation is, “because there is no impossibility when it comes to any Word from God.” Isn’t that a great way of putting it? When God spoke the world into existence, it happened; through the mere speaking of God. Mary could go back to the many miracles in the Old Testament when God promised something would happen and it came to be according to His Word. Mary was pointed to the Word and promise of God as an assurance that it would be just as God said it would. This is how God works. It is how God has always worked; through the powerful Word.
Mary’s response is so simple. What she literally says is, “Behold the servant of the Lord. May it be to me according to your word.” She doesn’t even use the word “I.” It’s more humble than that. She simple asks the Lord to look on her as a servant of the Lord. She is nothing but a servant, but she is the Lord’s servant; a servant that the Lord has attached His Word to; and if the Lord wants to work through her; that is an honor and a privilege. So she was glad and honored to have the Lord work through her. Her body was not her own. It was the Lord’s, and if the Lord wanted to bring the Messiah through her, so be it.
Mary could have said, “No, really Gabriel. I’m not worthy of such a thing. I’m not a queen or a princess. You better pick someone with more money or fame.” She could have said this out of selfishness, not wanting to give up her life or her marriage plans to raise the Christ child. She could have tried to refuse it out of fear that she would drop the child or do something wrong and God would punish her for it. But she didn’t. She knew that if God wanted to work through her, then He could and He would. She didn’t look at this birth as a disruption of her plans; she looked at this Baby as the fulfillment of salvation. She was willing to be God’s slave; willing to give birth to this child; feed and care for this child; for she was God’s servant already. She knew and believed that God could work through her.
This is the true sign of faith. If God wants to save you and work through you, He can. How can this be? How could God love me and want me to be saved? We are not virgins. We are filthy prostitutes according to God’s law. Yet God’s Word promises us that Jesus came for sinners and He died for all of them. God’s Word says that Jesus came to die for the sins of the world; including yours. Remember what the angel Gabriel said. “There is no impossibility when it comes to any Word from God.” If God could bring life into a Virgin and put God in flesh, then why couldn’t He come into your soul and wash it through the waters of baptism? If God could come in flesh then why couldn’t this same flesh of God come to you in the Lord's Supper for the forgiveness of your sins? God’s Word is God’s Word.
This applies in life as well. If God wants you to be a parent, He can make you a parent. If He wants to use you to bring someone to faith, He can do it. We say, “I could never do that!” But when you regard yourself as God’s slave, and when you know and believe that God’s Word can work miracles through anyone, then why couldn’t He work through you? Why doubt that? Why cut His arms short through your own fear and unbelief? Why not be glad to have Him work through you?
This service concludes our Advent season for the year. Sometimes Advent can be wrongly viewed as a filler season; a passing of time to get things done until we get to the season of Christmas which we really enjoy. Advent is meant to be a time that we stop and really contemplate and understand what is about to happen. Had Mary not known what was happening inside her, who knows but that she would have feared a tumor or something worse? Gabriel’s words brought her to faith and let her know that God was going to bring salvation and grace to her through her own womb! God was going to take on flesh through her!
I hope and pray that you have taken the time to contemplate what we are going to celebrate this Christmas. Advent is a time that we stop and remember who is coming into our world; what a life changing event this is. Jesus didn’t come just to be someone you might think about once in a while; to take a corner of your brain. He came to get into the womb of your soul and live there; to take over your flesh and your life; giving you faith and hope and love and joy and most importantly forgiveness and grace. He came for you; sinful and insignificant you. The world may not know who you are, but God does. Your baptism proves it. Now is not a time to be shy. Now is not a time to be busy. Nor is it the time to be afraid. God has come to give you life. Reflect the words of Mary and say, “Behold your servant. May it be to me as you have said.” Amen.
