Why He Came

12-13-04

Why He Came

Luke 1:26-1:38

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.

As she made her way along the road she wondered if it all made sense.

Although she had agreed she still couldn’t understand why.

She lived in a poor country that was occupied by a foreign army, violence was never far away and often during the night you would hear soldiers entering the home of neighbors looking for the patriots they had called terrorists.

Even as she made the trip with her husband she was shocked with the conditions that lay outside the small village they called home.

The poverty she saw on her travels was an eye opener for a young woman who had never wanted for food.

Her family was not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination but her hard working father had always provided the food and shelter the family needed.

Occasionally she would see lepers in the distance, scorned by society and pushed far away from those they loved, and there were the beggars who lined the busier sections of road, men and women who couldn’t see or couldn’t walk, dependent on the kindness or pity of strangers just to survive.

On their journey she even saw a crucifixion, she had heard about the horrors of the executions the Romans performed, but to see those victims left hanging on the primitive crosses was horrible.

So much despair and sadness; could anything ever change the way her world was.

She wished that there was something she could do to make a difference.

It wasn’t that many months ago that her life had been simple, engaged to be married, she dreamt of the life that lay ahead of her, and this wasn’t it.

An angel had appeared to her one night with a story that she couldn’t believe.

She was told that she would have a child, a son.

And she knew that wasn’t to be, after all she had never been with a man, had not even held the hand of her fiancé because it just wasn’t done.

And now she was being told that she would be a mother.

The messenger explained that it would be a miracle, that the Father of her child would be God himself and the child would be the Son of God, in fact God himself.

What could she do?

She knew that she was a virgin and if she became pregnant then what the angel had said must be true, she believed him, but would anyone believe her?

How could she explain this to her parents, her friends?

What would she say to the man she was engaged to?

“Hi Joseph, guess what? I’m pregnant, but don’t worry I’ve been faithful, God’s the Father.”

Joseph might just be a carpenter but he certainly wasn’t a stupid carpenter.

Why did God choose her, as a matter of fact why did God have to do this?

Come as a child to this cruel and hostile world.

I’m sure that question would surface time and time again as she raised this child she would call Jesus.