Advent: December 5th
Luke 1:24 Tells us that Elizabeth concealed her pregnancy for 5 months before she could hide it no more. Luke 1:26 Begins with “In the sixth month…”. This would seem to mean that we are still referencing Elizabeth’s pregnancy when an Angel, Gabriel, the very one Zechariah had seen in the temple, is sent to Mary in Nazareth with this greeting, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.”
Mary is obviously bewildered. Not only is an angel standing before her but she is being told she has found favor with God! One can only imagine what was running through her head. What have I done? Why am I important? The angel tells Mary she is going to have a son and his name is to be called Jesus. She is told He will be great and called the Son of the Most High.
“ He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Luke 1:32-33
This is definitely speech reserved for the prophesied Messiah!
Mary would have known these prophecies and known some of what this meant. But she could not have guessed how God’s plan of salvation would be accomplished. More than likely, she would have thought like other Jews during this time and would expect that one day, her son would be a reigning military leader who would depose of the Romans and any other ruling authorities. But there was another ‘problem’ first.
Mary was a virgin. She was engaged to be married, sure, but she was not married and had no natural way of being pregnant.
So, Gabriel tells her what will happen. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy-the Son of God.”
How is this going to happen? We are told that God is going to do it, and because God was going to place His son in her womb “Therefore”, he says, the child would be holy. The virgin birth is a miraculous part of the Christmas story but so little is really said about it I fear we might miss its importance. In many ways, this part can be quickly ran over. We can be too subtle or cursory in our explanation out of fear our children will ask MORE questions about what it means for Mary to be a virgin. There is a need to apply wisdom in this area, and engage in the right age-appropriate dialogue for the child and situation. However, don’t let your anxiety push you into missing an opportunity to understand and explain in greater detail our problem of sin.
Sin did not stop with Adam and Eve. Every baby ever born to woman has been born in sin. Babies are ‘innocent' in the sense that they will have to grow and mature before they are accountable for the things they do, but they are still sinful in that we are born with a heart problem that we cannot escape. We are born sinful and, if given enough time, by our own volition choose to act sinfully. It is in us. How, then, can a human being be perfect? The first thing that must happen is he would have to be born outside of this cycle of sin. That is impossible, unless it is something that God does. And that is exactly what God did. Jesus truly is God’s son; he was implanted by God, to take on the form and image of man, being born as a baby. Jesus was also outside of the corrupted cycle of nature because as the angel said to Mary, “The power of the Most High will overshadow you.”
Mary was the woman who was chosen by God to carry Jesus in her womb. A son who was not her biological match, that is, not one who would inherit her sin nature, but who was uniquely of God and perfect.
Wow.
Then Mary is told something else. Her cousin Elizabeth is six months pregnant despite being advanced in years. “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Mary humbly accepts all the angel has spoken saying, “Behold I am the bondservant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Mary responds with a heart of surrender to God’s plan. She has to know this would be incredibly difficult to explain to her betrothed and that she may have to bear judgement from others in their community, yet she humble accepts God’s will.
May we also be willing and courageous in following the will of God. Mary’s concerns were not tied up in the details of God’s plan but in pleasing her Heavenly Father. "Behold I am the bondservant of the Lord,” is the most freeing way to live life.
