Mary, Now You Know
(Edited from a sermon preached December 8, 2024 at New Hope Baptist Church, Fulton, MO. This is not an exact transcription).
Introduction: Mark Lowry’s Christmas song, “Mary, Did You Know?” has been a blessing for several years now. It’s a song which, I think, captures the whole of the Christmas spirit from the perspective of a Jewish virgin whom God chose to be the mother of His Son.
Having said that, I for one (and maybe others) don’t really know how much Mary really understood once she said “Yes” to be the mother of the Messiah. We do have a record, in Luke’s gospel, how she received news that would change the world! Mary, now you know.
Here’s the text, taken from the King James Version of the Bible:
Text: Luke 1:26-38, KJV: 26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing shall be impossible. 38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
1 The People Who Mary Knew
Verses 26 and 27 tell us three of the main characters in this first Christmas story. First, of course, was Mary herself. We don’t know much about her except she was Jewish, born of the tribe of Judah and a great-great-whole lot of greats-granddaughter of King David (her genealogy is in Luke chapter 3); she lived in Nazareth, a city of Galilee in north Israel, which was a long way (maybe a week’s journey traveling on foot) from the original land given to Judah in Joshua’s days; and as we’ll see in verse 34, she was a virgin. This means she was a pure girl who had never taken part in the act of marriage.
Virginity was very important for Jewish girls and the Law—still in effect at the time—had some very severe penalties for girls who willingly had relations with men before she was married. No problem for Mary, though; she was willing to wait until she was married.
2 The Promise Mary Had Made
And speaking of marriage: she was “espoused (verse 27)” to Joseph, also living in Nazareth and a direct descendant of David through Solomon. Reading Matthew’s genealogy of Joseph, I believe Matthew showed that Joseph was the crown prince to the throne of Israel but because of an ancestor, Jeconiah, none of that king’s line would ever be king again (Jeremiah 22:24-30).
To add to what “espoused” means, think of it like this: Joseph had asked Mary to be his wife and she had accepted. That was step 1. There may have been other things taking place—I haven’t found all of what may have been necessary in terms of paperwork. Most American states require only a marriage license, good for a certain amount of time from the date the license was issued (where I live, it’s 30 days from date of issue).
Now, in these days, an engagement can be broken by either party, but in those days, an “espousal” required a divorce (according to Clarke’s commentary, found online at https://biblehub.com/commentaries/clarke/matthew/1.htm). Matthew Henry even observed that Joseph had thought about divorcing Mary (“put her away privily”, Matt. 1:19, KJV) by giving her a bill of divorcement in the presence of two witnesses (this was also found online at https://biblehub.com/kjv/matthew/1.htm).
And besides Joseph and Mary, there was one other important person in this first Christmas story. He was the angel Gabriel. He isn’t mentioned often in the Bible, but when he was sent to a human being, he brought God’s message clearly. He had given Daniel the prophecy of the seventy “weeks” of years in Daniel 9 as a clear indication when the Messiah would appear. Sir Robert Anderson wrote a book called “The Coming Prince” which proves Gabriel was right! One online source is https://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Voice/The.Coming.Prince.html which is a new one to me but I encourage all of us to learn as much as we can!
3 The Proclamation to Mary
Now let’s take a brief look at what Gabriel had to say. Gabriel’s message, like the one to Zacharias six months before, was brief and to the point. He greeted Mary with the words, “Hail (greetings! Peace!), thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee.” My guess is that Mary was frightened; at the very least, I wonder what kind of thoughts were going through her head at this time. I mentioned in last week’s message that if an angelic being were to appear physically (they’re here but we can’t see them) we’d be in a rush to get out of here as fast as we could! None of us are expecting to see an angel!
Mary, and this was likely a natural reaction, was scared half to death, we might say. Luke says she was “troubled” at what Gabriel had said and that word “troubled” means thoroughly disturbed” or “troubled deeply (https://biblehub.com/greek/1298.htm)”. Not only was this the case, she was just not sure what Gabriel was really trying to say. She was debating or pondering these words (https://biblehub.com/greek/1260.htm) but I’m not sure it all came into place, or how she put the puzzle pieces together here.
And when Gabriel added to his greeting a number of prophecies, no wonder she was so confused. Gabriel first told her that A, she would conceive; B, her child would be a son; C, she was going to give Him the name “Jesus”; D, He would be great and would be called “The Son of the Highest”; E, the Lord God would give Jesus the throne of His father (ancestor) David; and F, He—Jesus—would reign as King forever.
Now she was likely more perplexed than before!
4 The Perplexity Mary Felt
Mary might well have been stunned, we could say, when she heard all these prophecies which Gabriel had told her. Needless to say, she was likely perplexed or wondering “How’s this all going to work?” And she expressed these concerns—well, one of them—directly to Gabriel.
She said, “How can these things be? I’ve never ‘known’ a man (paraphrased).” She knew that to conceive, she would have had to take part in the act of marriage or procreation; in other words, she knew she would have had to “know” a man in that beautiful marriage relationship. Further, it seems she and Joseph were both poor people and the idea of a common woman, especially as young as she was, to be the mother of a King was maybe more than she could take in.
Let’s remember that girls were married young in those days. When she was able to bear children, then that seems to be what she was expected to do. True enough, life was hard, entered young, left at a young age (the Lord Jesus was once accused of being 50 years of age when He was only about 32! See John 8:57) and plenty of struggles along the way.
Some of us may remember, or remember our children, playing “The Oregon Trail” computer game, very popular in the mid-90’s. As a reward for finishing their work, I’d let my 7th graders have some “trail” time. Needless to say, I gave them “The LOOK” when they asked before the work was done. It worked! Anyway, I was watching those 13-14 year olds talking about hunting (and what boy would turn that down!) and surviving (ah, how the girls would wonder how they’d ever make it to Oregon when their guy would want to do nothing but hunt!). And, it’s true: it’s anybody’s guess how many very young couples got hitched and hitched their wagon to hit the trail. Some made it, others didn’t, but that was life back then.
Mary had expressed her perplexity (“How can this be?”) and now Gabriel was going to give her a number of promises.
5 The Promises Mary Needed to Know
Gabriel knew just how to reply to Mary and her concerns. He was aware she was a virgin (chaste and pure) and the dilemma she faced if she agreed to God’s plan for her. He spoke some of the most comforting and most discreet words ever spoken. Verse 35 has this first promise, just as Gabriel related it to Mary.
Yet even after promising that her Child would be known as “The Son of God”, Gabriel gave her another promise: Elisabeth, her “cousin” or fellow-Israelite, was six months along in her pregnancy, even in her “old age”! How well these two ladies knew each other is anybody’s guess but all Gabriel had to do was mention Elisabeth and Mary knew exactly whom Gabriel was talking about.
Finally, Gabriel’s last words must have been a comfort to Mary as well as to us: “with God, nothing shall be impossible”. We, every believer, would do well to remember this promise!
Gabriel seems to have waited for Mary’s response. What was she going to do after hearing all of this from the angel?
6 The Presentation Mary Knew She Had to Do
We’re never told how much time there was between Gabriel’s promises and Mary’s presentation of herself to accept this challenge/privilege/opportunity. A challenge? Yes, because she would be an unwed, yet virgin, mother. Who really would believe this? True, I remember reading or hearing somewhere that every Jewish girl dreamed of being the mother of the Messiah but now that this was really happening, who really would think Mary was being honest?
Was this a privilege? Absolutely! She had remained chaste and pure before marriage, and she seemed willing to accept God’s plan. No other woman ever had this privilege, to be the true mother of the Messiah! Mary would later praise God for all He had done for her (Luke 1:46-56).
And was this an opportunity? Clearly! Paul would later write that “in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, born of a woman (Galatians 4:4). Mary, alone among all other women, had the opportunity to see the very Son of God born like any other baby. Luke 2 tells how Baby Jesus was born and how Mary wrapped Him in “swaddling clothes” or strips of cloth to keep Him warm.. And Mary had the opportunity to see her Son grow into the Prophet He was meant to be; later to be the Great High Priest (much of the Epistle to the Hebrews); still later, as Gabriel promised, her Son would be the King!
How much Mary knew about all this is something we may never know. But we believe that after hearing Gabriel’s message, she knew exactly what she needed to do. And she agreed! Oh that all of us would be willing to serve the Lord even as Mary did.
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
