What Child Is This? -Mary

Imagine for a moment that you are Mary on the morning she finds out she is pregnant. 13 or 14 years old. You awaken to the sun rising over the Galilean countryside. Possibly saying a prayer of thanks to God for His covenant reflected in another day. But as you thank God for the day ahead of you, you have no idea that God has special things in store for this day on His calendar.

You are the virgin daughter of a Jewish father, so you have draped your veil over your head and crossed it over your shoulders for the duration of the day. Along with that, you dress in typical fashion, a simple tunic draped with a cloak. A sash around your waist which allows you to walk without tripping.

Ok you have that visual?

You are engaged to be married to a young man named Joseph. Now marriage and engagement in this time were TOTALLY different from what we experience today. At that time, marriage consisted of 2 distinct stages. Engagement, followed by marriage. Well that doesn’t sound all that different right? Well engagement was not taken as lightly as it is taken now! Now-a-days some people use engagement time as a test time to make sure they really want to marry this person. And it is very easy to call things off and pretend like the engagement never happened. Well not in Mary’s time!

Engagement was a formal agreement initiated, not by the future husband, but by a father seeking a wife for his son. The family of the future husband would then pay the bride’s family a purchase price.

They did this because the bride’s family was losing a worker and the husband’s family was gaining one.

Then a written agreement was made and the couple was engaged.

This engagement was legally binding,

But still, the engaged couple were not permitted to have any kind of sexual relations.

and any sexual contact by the daughter with anyone else was considered adultery.

The only way out of an engagement was through divorce.

And during this time, the husband to be would be working hard to prepare a place for he and his bride.

This is the stage Mary and Joseph were in.

So back to imagining us as Mary...

As you are preparing for the day, An angel appears before you and listen what he says to her in

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

28 And the angel came to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this could be. 30 Then the angel told her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.”

Her response is the same as any of our responses would be in this situation…

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

34 Mary asked the angel, “How can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?”

Luke 1:35–37 CSB

The angel replied to her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. “And consider your relative Elizabeth—even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless. For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Luke 1:35–37 CSB

The angel replied to her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. “And consider your relative Elizabeth—even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless. For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Mary’s Response -

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

34 Mary asked the angel, “How can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?”

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 1

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary. “May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.

What kinds of things do you think was going through Mary’s head at this time? What would you be thinking?

I know what my thoughts would be...

“Am I losing my mind? Did this really just happen? What if I tell someone and it was all in my imagination and everyone sees me as absolutely nuts?”

or

“What is Joseph going to think? There’s no way he will ever believe me! I am going to lose my husband and probably my life over this! and even if Joseph does believe me, everyone else is just going to think I made this whole story up just. People with think Joseph and I have slept together before our appointed time!”

You may even think “I am not telling anyone about this” and just go into hiding. But what did Mary do?

She had faith in what the angel said and she hurried to her relative Elizabeth’s house who was miraculously pregnant with John the Baptist.

She hurried to her relative Elizabeth’s house who was miraculously pregnant with John the Baptist.

Luke 1:41–45 CSB

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she exclaimed with a loud cry: “Blessed are you among women, and your child will be blessed! How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside me. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken to her!”

So when she arrives the Holy Spirit affirms what the angel told Mary through Elizabeth and Mary continues to have faith and responds with these beautiful words that are sometimes referred to as Mary’s song or the Magnificat.

Luke 1:46–55 CSB

And Mary said: My soul praises the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, because he has looked with favor on the humble condition of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed, because the Mighty One has done great things for me, and his name is holy. His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear him. He has done a mighty deed with his arm; he has scattered the proud because of the thoughts of their hearts; he has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has satisfied the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering his mercy to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he spoke to our ancestors.

These beautiful words give us insight to several facts about Mary

Mary’s Excitement

Once God used Elizabeth to confirm what the angel said, we see that Mary gets excited. The original word used for rejoice in verse 47 is agalliao which means “to exult, leap for joy, to show one’s joy by leaping and skipping denoting excessive or ecstatic joy and delight. Often spoken of rejoicing with song and dance.” Mary may not have been physically jumping around, but we know her spirit did! And what an appropriate emotion to respond to the work of God. I believe God was delighting in Mary’s ecstatic joy over what He was doing.

I think sometimes we are afraid to get excited about the work of the Lord. Maybe because we don’t want people to think we are weird. But the Lord is pleased in our excitement over what he is doing.

I can’t imagine to joy and excitement Mary was experiencing! She knew the Messiah was coming and God had chosen HER to be his mother!

the second thing Mary’s praise reveals to us is

2. Mary’s Love of the Scriptures

Mary’s song references 12 different old testament scriptures! Mary was a woman who had not only heard the Word but KNEW it and held it close to her heart. And this was extremely rare for a woman in that time! Because girls were not taught the scriptures the way boys were.

But can you imagine her seeing Jesus grow up! Can you imagine her awe and wonder as she began to see Prophesy fulfilled in her little boy? I’m sure all the scriptures she held so dearly before took on new life as she sat in amazement of the messiah growing up in her home. Wow! When you really sit and think what Mary experienced, it is truly amazing!

The third thing we learn about Mary is

3. Mary’s Experience

I think sometimes we can lose focus on how plain, simple, and ordinary Mary was. And here she was… Fully aware of God’s promise of a Savior being fulfilled right in front of her. This ordinary woman was used by God in a mighty way and her world was turned upside down as she witnessed the world changed forever by the God of all creation.

We can learn a lot from Mary. I think of Megan Boudreaux, the missionary who spoke to us last week, and I think of how she and Mary have so much in common.

Megan was a normal girl, with a normal job, just living her life when she heard the call of the Lord. She followed that call and has had her own amazing experiences of seeing God work miracles and seeing lives transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit! She values the Word of God and not only that, she also teaches others to learn, value, and love God’s Word. And as she sees God work and do wonders, she knows exactly where the miracles, wonders, and blessings are coming from… Why? because she knows the Word. She knows that she can pray for the needs of the Haitian kids she cares for and that God hears her. She knows that when those needs are provided that it is not a coincidence but that God has intervened. And most importantly, she knows the truth of the gospel. That anyone who believes in Jesus as the source of their salvation will be saved!

Megan is going about life in Haiti and she too is seeing scriptures unfold before her eyes as she and her team live out the great commission.

And as she does so, she lives in amazement and excitement of all that God is doing.

I don’t know about you, but that is how I want to live life! I want to live in excitement and amazement at what God is doing! I want me and my family to know His Word and treasure it in our hearts and be able to fully recognize when God is on the move. And I want us to live a life of excitement as he uses us to do His work.

I absolutely love C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia! And I can not wait till my girls are old enough for me to read it to them. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these books, Lewis parallels a fictitious world with the scriptures to illustrate God’s work and character. In these books, the character central to the entire story is Aslan, a mighty lion who represents God. And in the story, when things are all going wrong, you begin to hear whispers of the animals in the forest full of hope saying this one phrase, “Aslan is on the move.” And it never fails, when I read this phrase, my heart flutters as I think of who Aslan represents. And I think of the hope we have because God is on the move!

And I can’t help but think that this is what Mary thought as her baby boy was born, as she found him in the temple as a young boy teaching religious men that could have very well been his grandfather, as he rounded up a group of 12 men to do ministry, as he performed his first miracle, all the way to when He was crucified on the cross. Mary’s whole life after her miraculous encounter with the Savior of the world… I can image these words going through her head almost daily… God is on the move!

Oh to live in that kind of wonder about the things of God!

We can learn a whole lot from what the scriptures say about Mary, but the question that is more important than who is Mary is “What Child Is This?”

What child is this who laid to rest on Mary’s lap is sleeping.

Who was Jesus to Mary?

Jesus was her baby boy.

Mary loved Jesus like any mother should love her child. And Mary never forsook him! We see her motherly love for Him all the way up to His death on the cross. But Jesus was much more to Mary than her son!

2. Jesus was the promised Messiah.

The Jews had been waiting for their Messiah for MANY MANY generations! And here he was… Not exactly how everyone expected he would arrive… They were expecting a king, a mighty ruler! And here was their Messiah… a baby boy… And as we said earlier, Mary knew exactly who He was. This baby was the one who would redeem mankind. The salvation of the entire world rested on the shoulders of Mary’s baby boy.

And many doubted that Jesus was the Messiah because he was not this big political figure. He was not the earthly king that reigned on earth with power that they expected. But He was a humble servant. Even the disciples had moments of doubt of who Jesus was.

But the thing that amazes me is that Mary was the one person who truly knew who Jesus was from beginning to end. She knew her boy was the messiah even when all others doubted.

But Jesus was more to Mary than the fulfilment of prophesy and the hope of her people. Jesus was HER hope.

3. Jesus was her salvation.

You see, Mary was just like me and you. She was a sinner. Scripture says ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And Mary herself identifies herself as a sinner in when she says “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Because no sinless person is in need of a Savior.

And today, Mary is in the presence of her Son because He was her salvation.

You see Mary is not in heaven because she bore the Savior. She is not in heaven because she raised him. And she is not in heaven because she was perfect or sinless… because she wasn’t.

Mary will spend an eternity in heaven with her Son Jesus because she believed that He died for her sins. And she believed that when He died, he received the punishment that she deserved. You see, God could have chosen to use Mary as the vessel to deliver His Son even if she did not believe the Angel. Even if she would have never believed that her Son was the Messiah, God could have still chosen to use her if He wanted, because He can do whatever He wants… He’s God. And had Mary NEVER believed that her salvation came from Jesus, She would not be in heaven. WHY? Because there is only one way to eternity with God! And that is Jesus being our salvation the same way He was Mary’s salvation.

But more important than the question of who Jesus was to Mary is who is Jesus to you?

At Christmas time, it is so easy to lose focus on what Christmas is really all about. But this time of year should truly be an exciting time, a time of joy! And not because we are getting gifts and spending time with loved ones… although those things are nice, it is not what Christmas is all about.

Christmas is about God the Father sending Jesus to this earth to live a perfect, sinless life and to DIE for us. Before coming to earth, Jesus lived in the glories of heaven in the presence of God the Father! and He stepped out of that glory onto earth the live as a servant.

Paul paints this picture in his letter to the church of Philippi in

Philippians 2:6–11 CSB

who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:6-11

At Christmas time, we sometimes focus on the cute little baby Jesus being born in a manger, but a big part of the Christmas story is the reason He was born in the first place. He was born specifically to die for us.

So What Child Is This?

He is the savior… Our Savior when we believe that He is the one who has paid for our sins.

So for those of you who are believers here this morning, I encourage you to allow Mary to be an example for you. Live a life of excitement over the things God is doing. Have a love for the scriptures and let God use you in whatever ways He wants allow yourself to experience the wonders of seeing God move through you!

If you are not sure if you are a believer today and want to be certain that God is your savior, I encourage you to pray this prayer with me in your own words and truly mean it.

God, I know that I am a sinner. and I believe that you sent your Son Jesus to die on the cross for my sins. I know that there is absolutely nothing I can do to earn my way to right standing with you, but Jesus has made a way for me to be made right in your sight. I fully believe that I am made whole and clean through Jesus’ sacrifice and I give you my life. All that I am is yours. I devote myself to follow you all my days. Amen.

If you said this prayer this morning for the first time, I encourage you to mark on your connect card “I have accepted Jesus as my Savior today”

We would love to get in contact with you to give you some great resources to help jumpstart your relationship with God.

Let’s close in prayer.