Trusting Mary

Good morning,

Today we will be in Luke chapter 1 and we will be looking at verses 26-38, last week we saw who John the baptists parents were and how Zechariah reacted to the announcement of the coming birth of his son. This week we will be looking at the birth announcement given to Jesus’ mother Mary. Before we begin let us open with a word of Prayer.

Pray 3+

If you haven’t already please turn in your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 1 and starting in verse 26, it reads:

Luke 1:26–33 “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.””

I will stop there for now, but the first questions we have to ask ourselves is...

Who was Mary and why is she favored?

Early in our passage today we see several things about who exactly this Mary was. She was betrothed to a man named Joseph, she was also a virgin, which means she has not ever been married before and is also likely a young adult. When Gabriel came to her she was living in the city of Nazareth in Galilee. Galilee at this time was not well thought of and scripture seems to hint at the fact that many from Galilee were rabble-rousers. We see this first in Luke 13.

Luke 13:1–2 “1 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?”

But also in Acts 5 in a warning from Gamaliel:

Acts 5:37 “37 After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered.”

This area was thought of so lowly, it is connected more with the Gentiles than Jews Matthew 4:15 “15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—” Even the town in which Mary lives is despised by Jews of the time, Nathanael before meeting Jesus asks if anything good can come from Nazareth.

John 1:46 ESV

46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Beyond all of that the only other thing we can glean about here from this particular passage is that she is a relative of Elizabeth and that is in verse 36 of our passage. Which this means she is somehow connected to the line of Aaron as that was Elizabeth’s heritage, though how we cannot be sure.

In just about every way at least superficially she is the opposite of Zechariah. He was a male, she was a female. He was serving as priest in the Temple and would have been in Jerusalem the most honored city. She isn’t renowned in any major way and is living in a place that is despised by nearly every other Jew. She is likely young and he is advanced in years. Where Zechariah and Elizabeth are barren; she is a virgin and betrothed but not yet married. We will come back to this point in a minute because it is an important one.

Yet, look at the way Gabriel first addresses her.

Luke 1:28 ESV

28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

Like I said last week, the infancy narrative of Jesus is in many ways like God’s Overture, building the introduction as to what Jesus’s ministry would be like. Where the forerunner comes through a couple with a high pedigree, the fulfillment comes through someone who would be rejected by the religious elite of the time in nearly every way. Jesus was not coming just for the religious, he was coming for the lost and rejected. Those outcast by society, those in need of a savior, and even His birth is a picture of that future. He was coming to save all of mankind not just those who were superficially righteous.

Yet here in verse 28, there are a couple of textual concerns that we must address. I don’t know how many if anyone in here is using a KJV or a NKJV, or another older translation, but there is a major difference in these translations and newer translations. But I will put up the KJV up on the screen for comparison.

Luke 1:28 KJV 1900

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.

It is from this very verse that the “prayer” Hail, Mary finds it’s root. The opening line goes, “Hail, Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee.” On the surface this does not seem to be that big of an issue, except if you know the prayer it goes on to call her Holy Mary and asks for her to pray for us sinners. While we won’t get into the whole of the conversation we will at least address the translation error that began to lead to that doctrine. It comes from the Greek words translated in the ESV, O favored one. What in the Greek was a passive verb, meaning she was the recipient of God’s Grace or Favor, was translated by Jerome, an early church father, into Latin in the active tense. This means she was the source of the Grace and it flowed out of her. Then as time went on she then became nearly as important to salvation as Jesus himself was in certain traditions.

This is not to say she wasn’t favored, but this is a similar way that any of us are favored by God. He bestows His grace upon us. Turn with me to Ephesians 1:6 which is the only other time in the Bible that this particular word is used.

Ephesians 1:6 ESV

6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Here in verse 6, where it says he has blessed us, we find our same word. It then goes on to tell us how He blessed us in the beloved, in verses 7-10

Ephesians 1:7–10 “7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

Just as we are blessed because of the gift of redemption and the forgiveness of sins and that is because of God’s working out His plan of salvation through Christ, so to is Mary favored because the Lord is with her and in his plan he chose to use her. It is not because she has some extra measure of grace that originates within her. She is just like all other people, a sinner in need of a savior. And yet there is a difference, in her that we cannot ignore. Which brings us to our next textual concern,

Why does one version say blessed art thou among women and others do not?

And does this change our doctrine? As to the answer as to why some have it and others don’t is that some of the ancient text have this verse included and others do not. Here best as I can tell there is no clear winner as to which version is the correct version. I have interlinear Bibles, meaning the Greek is next to the English with both in them. However a large number of the oldest texts don’t have it. Which is why newer translations tend to not include it in the text. The next part of this question is does this change our doctrine? The answer to this is found when Elizabeth and Mary meet in Luke 1 verse 42.

Luke 1:42 “42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” Here we have the same statement found in the KJV or the NKJV, but unlike verse 28 all translations have this and all of the old texts contain “Blessed are you among women.” Here however it is followed by and blessed is the fruit of your womb. So whether or not it is in verse 28 doesn’t seem to matter, nearly as much as to the reason she is blessed among women. This comes down to who she will be carrying. She will be the mother of the savior of the world and no other women in all of history will have or has had that blessing. This is why she is blessed if it is in our passage and she is still blessed for this reason even if it is not. Gabriel tells her she is going to bear a son and His name will be 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.””

Then in verse 34 we see this comparison continue. In verse 34 she asks a question of Gabriel just as Zechariah did, but unlike Zechariah, Mary is not disciplined.

Let’s finish reading our passage.

Luke 1:34–38 “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.” So...

Why is she not disciplined when Zechariah was?

Here we have to look at the nature of the questions themselves to get the answer. Go back to verse 18 and look at the question Zechariah asks. His question is one of doubt, he asks how shall I know. He is asking how can he be sure that this is going to happen after all he is old and so is Elizabeth his wife. Mary on the other hand asks a question about the process. Both of them are asking faith based questions, one was how can I know the other was how will it happen. This is probably one of the two most intense comparisons we find in these passages and this is why Luke goes into so much detail when talking about these two people. In nearly every way, Zechariah was “religiously” perfect, with one major exception he should have been able to trust what Gabriel had said to him without question. He knew God, he knew what the Scriptures had said about God. Being a Levite, he was supposed to have the greatest faith of any of God’s people, and he was serving in God’s house in Jerusalem the city that is supposed to be central to God’s plan. Then here Gabriel tells him he will have a son, something that would clear the only area of cultural shame he had and he doubts.

Mary on the other hand, was in nearly the opposite in every way. A woman, which many at the time gave very little credence to, living in the worst town in the worst part of Isreal. She is culturally as far as a Jew could be from being visibly righteous before men and she is given this news that she is going to have a child; something that according to the law could have not only brought shame but more than that her death.

Turn with me to Deuteronomy 22 and we will start reading in verse 20.

Deuteronomy 22:20–24 “20 But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, 21 then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 22 “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. 23 “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.”

I just wanted us to see the potential punishment she faced because outside of God there would be no other conclusion to draw. She was going to be found to be pregnant and the father was not going to be Joseph who she was betrothed to. Yet, her response shows a much deeper level of faith and obedience than that of Zechariah. After the angel Gabriel tells her how these things were going to come to be look what she says in verse 38.

Luke 1:38 ESV

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.

There is no doubt that God will do what He says he will do, but more than that. She is willing to do it despite the potential consequences because it is God who is giving the message and He will keep His promises. In many ways it is reminiscent of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac on the alter. God mad a promise to Abraham that it would be through Isaac that God’s covenant would be fulfilled, yet God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son and Abraham says something that Mary in some ways reflects here.

Abraham sees the place they are to go and in Genesis 22:5 he says this.

Genesis 22:5 “5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”” He has no idea how but he knows he and the boy will go worship and he and the boy will return. He even goes farther when Isaac asks where the sacrifice is and says God himself would provide the lamb for the sacrifice.

Mary has no idea what will happen to her or to her future marriage, but she like Abraham recognizes she is the Lord’s servant and submits herself to what God has called her to. The Lord had proved himself faithful, time and time again to the nation of Israel and even more than that had given a child to her relative Elizabeth who was barren and is now advanced in years. She knows the Lord will be faithful in this as well, so she submits to His word.

Do we submit ourselves like Mary?

Do we have faith enough to follow what God is calling us to?

Do we submit ourselves to the will of the Lord?

What is the Lord calling you and me to do? Do we go and make disciples as Jesus commanded? Do we love those who hate us and pray for those who persecute us? Are we willing to serve our brothers or sisters in Christ when they have needs we can meet? These are things we can see we are directly called to in scripture, what else has God been calling us to do? Do we submit to His promptings?

Or do we doubt and make excuses, needing God to give us a sign before we will trust and follow Him?

I pray that we are people who like Mary trust in the Word of God and can see His faithfulness and submit to Him.

Let us close with Prayer.