The Real Mary and the Real Jesus

Birth of Jesus Foretold

(Luke 1:26-38, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 9, 2018)

[26] In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, [27] to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. [28] And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” [29] But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. [30] And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. [31] And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. [32] 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, [33] and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

[34] And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

[35] And the angel answered her, “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. [36] And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. [37] For nothing will be impossible with God.” [38] And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Mary, Greatly Troubled

Young Mary of Nazareth, betrothed to Joseph, was God's “favored one,” according to the heavenly ambassador sent to her. Yet she was “greatly troubled” by the news she received. This was not her plan for life. What would it all mean?

Whatever the future might hold, Mary could be comforted by the angel Gabriel's message. She need not “be afraid,” for she had “found favor with God.” What can a human being lack if she has the favor of the Lord? Yet that way of thinking about life can be hard to come by when a person faces the shock of the unexpected. We can meditate upon these famous words: “The Lord is with you,” and take them as our own.

Jesus, Son of Mary, Son of the Most High, Eternal King

Who would this child be? Mary would “bear a son,” so to state the obvious, the baby would be a real descendant of a woman and therefore a real human being. His Name, Jesus, had the meaning “I-AM Salvation,” with the “I-AM” being the personal Name of the Lord from the Old Testament. Was this to be taken literally, that the human being inside her would also be the I-AM Himself? That would certainly explain why He would be “great” and would be called “the Son of the Most High.”

What else was said concerning Him? He would be the eternal King descended from David and promised ten centuries before in 2 Samuel 7. Jesus would be the God/Man who would rule over the Lord's family “forever.” Therefore there could be no doubt that “His kingdom” would have “no end.” This being would be at the very center of God's eternal purpose. Without Him, there would have be no point in creation at all.

What a child! What a message for humble Mary to receive!

Nothing Impossible with God

Still, this all seemed impossible. Mary was not married. She had not been with a man. She was a maiden.

All we know is that the baby would be conceived by the agency not of Joseph or any other human being, but by God Himself. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Yes, this “holy” child with no stain of original sin would be son of Mary and “the Son of God.”

Mary had a “relative” (which may just mean a fellow Israelite) named Elizabeth who was now in the sixth month of her pregnancy. A “barren” woman had conceived a son “in her old age.” This news was to be an encouragement to young Mary. The point for all of us to remember: “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

According to Your Word

And so it begins. Mary humbly yields herself to God as a “servant of the Lord.” She is ready to do whatever God wants as she makes this promise which should be ours as well, “Let it be to me according to Your Word.”

One note: Today's passage and the one next week are the source of a prayer that many of us learned as Roman Catholic children. If we take Luke 1 seriously regarding Mary, it should be obvious that her focus is on the person she later calls “God my Savior.” You might miss that she submits herself to the Word from heaven. The biblical Mary is not the Mary of tradition. She is a humble young lady who knows that she needs a Savior, loves God's Word, is soon married to Joseph, and has children with Him as part of their normal relationship together as husband and wife.

What an experience she went through before she was united with her husband! The mysterious appearance of an angel was deeply troubling to this young Hebrew maiden. Nonetheless, she accepted the astounding truth concerning the coming of Jesus who would be both her son and the Son of God. What seemed absolutely impossible was in fact the settled eternal plan of the Almighty. Just as Mary so long ago, we are the servants of a great eternal King. May everything that God has predestined concerning Jesus and us happen according to His own perfect will.

Last week we thought about growing in Christmas hope within the context of the Old Testament prophets and the story of a godly elderly couple who had never been able to have a child. Today we want to go further back in time to the eternal counsels of Yahweh. Christmas hope is not a second best plan after His first plan for a holy Old Testament Israel failed. The coming of Jesus has always been on His heart.

Believing God's Word should be a natural by now, but we need all the help we can get. Mary needed help too. God gave her the gift of Elizabeth's pregnancy to assure her in the midst of the strange events that would soon change her life forever. May our experience of Christian hope be strengthened by those around us who have looked to God for help and have discovered that He is able to surprise them with joy.

God has always known about His own eternal purpose. The rest of us have learned about His plans little by little over the course of the history of God's speech to His people. We cannot insist that we know and understand everything before we yield our lives to God. It should be enough for us to hear the Word of the Lord and to yield up our lives in heartfelt obedience. Let all mortal flesh keep silence.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 87 – This one and that one were born in her