Obedience to Arrival: Mary

So it is that time of year - my wife will be forcing me to watch the Hallmark Channel Christmas movie lineup.  Now before some of the men here demand that I turn in my man card, let me just say that I am doing this for her – I have no interest in these highly predictable plot lines. I don’t get sucked into these stories - no matter what she says.

Anyhow – the following plot line might sound at first to be from a Hallmark movie – but we will quickly see that this actual event was anything but predictable.

An angel walks into a small town to speak with a young girl.  But this is not just any angel – this is Gabriel – and not just any girl, this is Mary – soon to be mother of Jesus. 

Gabriel is one of the few angels in the Bible we know by name.  When Gabriel speaks in the Bible, it is always to reveal something amazing that God is going to do.  The word Angel means Messenger – and Gabriel certainly lives up to that title. He is first mentioned by name in the Old Testament when he appeared to Daniel to explain a vision that God had given the prophet – some 500 years before Jesus.

Dan 8:15-17

While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there before me stood one who looked like a man. And I heard a man’s voice from the Ulai calling, “Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of the vision.” As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. “Son of man,” he said to me, “understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.”

In the Gospels, Gabriel first appears to the priest Zechariah to announce that he would soon be a father and his son would be named John (more commonly known as John the Baptist) – we will hear about that account in two weeks. 

Most important to us today, Gabriel strolled into Nazareth and shared some exciting news with Mary.

Now before she was The Blessed Virgin Mary, revered by many around the world for the past 2000 years, she was simply Mary.  A young girl, probably between 12-14 although we do not know for sure, betrothed to man named Joseph whose family was from Bethlehem – a prearranged marriage that had not yet been consummated.  Mary’s hometown of Nazareth was a small village, home to farmers, tradesmen and servants, no place special.  In the world’s eyes, Mary was not of any significance.  She had no standing in society; she was no different than any other girl living in some remote village in the world today.  

So what was it about Mary that made her special?

She was a nobody, and yet God sent Gabriel to go and find her, of all people, and share with her something incredible that He was about to do.

Luke 1:28 “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

We are told that Mary was greatly troubled and wondered what kind of greeting was this.  Highly favored? 

I can picture her looking behind her to see if this man was speaking to someone else. 

“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God!31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” Luke 1:30-33

Wait…what? Me? I’m nobody - why would the Lord choose me to deliver the long awaited Messiah?

I wonder what Gabriel thought as he delivered this message. To see the quizical look on this young girl’s face - the shock of such an encounter, yet knowing that God favored her for a reason.

“Excuse me sir, how is this possible, I am a virgin?”

35 Gabriel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

Why Mary? Her reply is the first clue as to what made her special. 

Luke 1:38 ESV

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Young Mary possessed a faith so strong that her immediate response is to be obedient to her Lord.   “I am a servant of the Lord.” 

She says she is God’s servant - the actual Greek word is doo-LAY - a female slave. Slavery was commonplace in the ancient Near East and Roman world - usually in the form of indentured servitude. One would enter into slavery to pay off a debt or because of poverty - and there were moral guidelines that both sides had to follow. It was not the race-based chattel slavery of the American south that we often think of. Coming from a poor family, Mary likely knew people who were slaves - she understood that a slave was to be obedient to their master and take on whatever task was assigned to them with sincerity and without complaint. Whatever a master commanded, the slave was obligated to do - barring any illegal activity or immoral activity. Of course, like every human institution, there were abuses.

But Mary was not responding to the whims of a human master. She was responding to God, the Master of the Universe. What he desires supersedes anything she has going on in her life.  And because He is God, what he requires, no matter how difficult, is going to be for her good and originate out of love. Her response is the expression of the purest form of faith.  

Luke 1:38 “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

It is the same type of response that Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before he was to be crucified: “Yet not my will, but your will be done.”

Is there a part of you that recoils at the thought of being the Lord’s servant? If the answer is no, Why?  Is it a lack of trust?

Wouldn’t anything your Creator desires be more important and fulfilling than what you could come up?

The problem is – we all want to be in charge of our own lives and we fear that if we trust God too much, he is going to make us do something we don’t want to do.  We want God to remain safely in second place in our priorities.  We want to have final say.

“let it be to me according to your word.”  Mary is willing to accept whatever may come her way as long as she is fulfilling what God has spoken.

Why Mary?  She was special because she was obedient to her Lord.

Sometime shortly after this encounter with Gabriel, Mary found a way to travel a great distance to visit her cousin Elizabeth, wife of the priest Zechariah.  At this point, Elizabeth is 6 months pregnant with John.  

Our story continues Luke 1:40-45

Luke 1:40–45 ESV

and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

If anyone tells you a fetus is not a human life, remind them that the first person to worship Jesus Christ was an unborn baby.  Baby John was praising the Lord in the womb.

Now we hear the second reason why Mary was special.

“Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Mary was special because she believed.

Not only was she obedient to her Lord, she believed He would do what he said he would do.

Have you ever said yes to God, but still harbored doubt that He would do his part?

I think Mary believed God would fulfill His Word because she remembered all the times He had been faithful in the past (in her own life and in the life of her people).  Moments when he provided what she needed at just the right time. Moments in her life when she faced difficult, maybe impossible, situations and she was able to move forward because He answered her prayers. She remembered the stories of her faith – of the Lord who parted the seas in order to free her people. And she knew he would do it again.

Mary is special because she believed.

But also notice that Elizabeth, the elder of the two, and the woman of greater means, she is the one bowing down and lifting up the younger and poorer Mary – a complete role reversal.  “But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

It would be easy to receive this kind of praise from her cousin and begin to think highly of herself.  “That is right – I am blessed! I am highly favored – the angel even told me so.  I did submit to God after all and I am carrying the Messiah.  I should get a movie deal with Hallmark.”

How easy is it for pride to slip in when we are being obedient to the Lord?  When people are reminding you of how good you are?  How much of a blessing you are to others?

Mary does not claim honor for herself as if she had a hand in it.  This young girl knows who deserves all credit – and it is not her, it is the Lord.

Listen to her response to Elizabeth’s praise as captured in Mary’s Song, the Magnificat:

“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.

What makes Mary special is her humility and her worship. 

Why will all generations call her blessed? Because of what the Mighty One, God – has done. 

She then reminds all of us, people of faith:

“His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.”

The mercy and grace that Mary received is available to all who fear the Lord.  This is a reverent fear – a deep knowing that God is the One who must reign in our hearts.  He is the One who Created us – and it is He who loves us completely. 

Her song goes on to announce the great reversal of God’s Kingdom, of the poor and the humble being lift up while the haughty and powerful are brought down and scattered. 

This is the hope of her people.  The Jews were under constant oppression – but one day God would rescue them and the powerful would fall.

And then she concludes her song with vv. 54-55

“He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”

She remembered, and believed that he would do it again.

What made Mary special?  She was obedient to her Lord.  She believed that He would fulfill His promises.  And she demonstrated true humility and worship.  This made her the perfect vessel for God to do something totally unpredictable and incredible. 

And generations have called her blessed.

And God is still looking for disciples that are obedient, who believe he will fulfill his promises, and who are humble and worship Him. 

King Jesus has not returned yet, which means there is still work to be done.  Will generations call you blessed because you are the Lord’s servant?

May your word, Lord, to us be fulfilled!

Amen.