Christmas is Impossible without the God of Impossiblities. Luke 1:26-38. - My Mama’s family couldnt’t cross 50+ of age. - Sanghar Slaves needed God of Impossibilities. - It was impossible to get free from the slavery of Sin by ourselves, We needed a God of Impossibilities.
I. Favor of God Is With You - GoodNews is in You. vv.26-28
1. Gabriel came for the first time and it’s not normal that Gabriel corresponded with Hebrews instead of Raphael Angel.
2. Davidic Ancestry - Joseph.
3. Virginity VS. Barrenness in the midst of Promise Child’s birth. The virginity emphaises the magnitude of the Miraclous Birth of Jesus.
4. In Jewish girls are engaged on 13 years of age but they are allowed to fulfil the domestic purposes of marriages. But they are considered married. The following year groom can bring her to his home and sexuall relations begins once the bride goes to the groom’s house.
The virginity of Mary functions, in parallel with Elizabeth’s barrenness, as an obstacle to the production of the promised child. It is exalted neither as of value in itself (as commonly assumed in Catholic study) nor as a mark of spiritual humility (as Legrand, NRT 84 [1962] 792–93). Her virginity is repeatedly stressed (twice here and in v 34) to underline the magnitude of the miracle (and cf. the similar function of vv 36, 37). In the present text the betrothal to Joseph serves to provide (legal) Davidic ancestry for the child. In Jewish tradition a girl was normally betrothed in the thirteenth year and for legal but not domestic purposes was from that point on considered to be married. Around a year later the girl was taken to the bridegroom’s home for normal married life to begin. Sexual relations prior to this “taking home” would be considered a violation of marriage customs (cf. Str-B, 1:45–47; 2:393–98; Gaechter, Maria, 79–92).
χαῖρε, “rejoice,” can be a conventional Greek greeting (Matt 26:49; 27:29; 28:9; Mark 15:18; John 19:3; not found in the LXX)—through which, nevertheless, an actual call to joy could sound in appropriate contexts (Strobel, ZNW 53 [1962] 87–105), as would be the case in this text.
6. It is a special Statement to express the Power of God.
This is no conventional or pious greeting but announces the dynamic power of God’s own presence, the effects of which will be spelled out particularly in v 35.
II. Conceive the Son of Most High God. vv.29-33
Yahweh in your midst = to conceive in the womb.
31 συλλαμβάνειν ἐν γαστρί, “to conceive in the womb,” is not Septuagintal idiom. Audet (ScEccl 11 [1959] 414) notes its occurrence in the Corpus Hippocraticum in at least three places, so it is native Greek idiom and there is no real basis for Laurentin’s desire to make something special of the “abnormal” ἐν γαστρί (= the “Yahweh in your midst [i.e., womb]” of Zeph 3:17; Structure, 68) as part of his case for the daughter-of-Zion typology
2. Jesus Rule & Kingdom.
In vv 32–33 there is a strong affirmation of Davidic messianism, an affirmation which Luke sustains consistently (cf. Acts 1:6) despite the fact that he understands the fulfillment in terms that transcend traditional Jewish messianism (cf. Luke 19:14, 27, 38; 23:2, 3, 37–38; Acts 2:30–36; 13:34–37). A relationship between Jesus’ rule and kingdom-of-God language is established at Luke 19:11 (see there).
III. The Generational Curses has been broken by the Power of the Holy Spirit. vv.34-36.
in both cases: this is the eschatological coming of the Spirit that will cause the wilderness to become a fruitful field
“They” who will call him Emmanuel are those who understand and accept the work he has come to do. Matthew probably intends the words of Jesus at the end of his Gospel—“Behold I am with you always, until the end of the age” (28:20)—to correspond to the meaning of Emmanuel. Jesus is God, among his people to
IV. Obey the God of Omniptence. vv.37-38
In the present text (and originally) the words are to be related (as Stock, Bib 61 [1980] 484–85) to Mary’s pregnancy (future), not Elizabeth’s. The motive is, however, not apologetic (as Schürmann, 57), but rather (as Mussner, Catholica 18 [1964] 259) to call Mary, as Abraham had been called earlier, to faith in the God of wonders.