Mary's 2 Questions

Wonder

Christmas is a time of wonder.

The night is filled with an attitude, an aura, a feeling we don’t have to conger up ourselves.

The season is wonder-full.

We decorate, anticipate, and ideate.

Dim the house lights, raise the Christmas lights. Candles, colors and carols coming from iTunes.

Christmas is a time filled w/ another kind of wonder. It’s the kind of wonder that is defined by questions.

What do you wonder?

I wonder what I’m going to get for Christmas.

I wonder if we’ll have a white Christmas.

I wonder if our family and this community will experience Peace on Earth this season.

What do you wonder?

Do you remember wondering if there really is a Santa Claus then wondering if you’ll get everything you asked for.

Then, you grow up and your thinking gets a little deeper and wondering if a baby really was born in a manger in the middle east so many years ago.

Mary and Joseph rolled into town to prepare to be counted. They arrived as duo but would leave as a trio.

We romanticize Mary’s encounter w/ Gabriel, the angel, when he first showed up to tell her she was going to have this baby.

We’re going to dive a little deeper into her interaction w/ Gabriel and get real w/ what she had absolutely no time to prepare for.

If she had time to think, I’m sure she would have thought of a lot more to say, a lot more to ask.

But, Gabriel caught her off guard one day. And, if she realized it or not, she only asked 2 questions. But these questions were real and significant. And, they will challenge us today.

The answers she got to these questions enabled her to say ‘yes’ to God and they are the same answers we get that enable us to say ‘yes’ to God when He calls us to something hard.

The passage we are looking at today is and it describes the interaction between Gabriel and Mary.

Mary’s 1st Question

Luke 1:26–33 NIV

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Mary would have been around 15 or 16 years old. Living at home w/ her parents. Her mom and dad were faithful, practicing Jews. They lived by faith and obeyed the law.

She was engaged to be married. So, she was old enough to be as independent as any Jewish woman would ever be.

Just a few months from her dream wedding to the love of her life, Joseph.

They had done everything right. Her parents had raised her right. And, she and Joseph had handled their relationship right.

Like any young woman preparing for her dream wedding her head would have been filled plans and dreams.

She’s been thinking about this since she was a little girl.

She knew what the perfect wedding would look like. And, she was well on her way to producing, directing and starring in it.

Her dress, her attendants, the invitations, caterer, cake, reception hall, band, and the bills all go to daddy.

And, again, just thinking like a normal teen-age girl engaged t/b married, she’d have kids right away, a lot of them, but not too many. Joseph would be successful and happy, well, at least as successful and happy as a carpenter can be.

Plans. She can see them. They are coming true right before her eyes.

That is, until Gabriel showed up.

Gabriel started out flattering her. Buttering her up.

“Highly favored. The Lord is w/ you.”

“Have I got a deal for you!”

“You’ve been chosen to win a wonderful grand prize. All you have to do is give me your SS# and pay me $215 and I’ll send you the key to the deal.”

So, when someone starts out a conversation w/ you like this, like a phone solicitor, someone who’s never met you, what’s your first thought?

Run! Too good t/b true. Don’t believe a word you’re about to hear.

Or, your kids flatter you, “You’re the most gracious, forgiving dad in the world.”

Okay, son, what’d you do?

Mary listened to his intro, and whether he simply read it on her face or the words fell out of her mouth, Gabriel knew what she was thinking.

She had a serious question on her mind as she heard him tell her what was about to happen.

v.29 “Mary was greatly troubled and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.”

Mary’s first question:

Is having this baby going to be worth what it’s going to cost me?

IOW: Is Jesus worth my life?

As the thought is being formulated and the words being formed Gabriel goes on to give her more information and answer her question.

You’re about to conceive and have a baby.

Her mind begins to swirl. She had a plan and it’s blowing up as he speaks.

The other shoe has fallen.

Her dreams of her wedding, marriage to Joseph, a large family are all seemingly coming to an end.

She would be crushed.

She knows she and Joseph have not been intimate.

Stoning is the punishment for adultery.

This will not be his baby.

If she can avoid the death penalty, how will she support herself and this baby? Begging? Prostitution?

Her father would most likely excommunicate her.

And, Joseph, it would take an act of God for him to marry her now. What will he say?

Mary has been issued a call by God that has difficult ramifications.

This kind of call comes on all of us. Maybe not to have a baby, but, to give up your life, your plans, serve, follow, suffer w/ grace.

She wondered in her heart, what would make it worth seeing her plans totally disrupted and her dreams destroyed.

She could get stoned for this, divorced for this, kicked out of her family and out of her house for this.

We have the same question when God calls us to something hard that we didn’t plan for.

Suffer w/ grace. Forgive the one who hurt you or hurt someone you love.

That sensitive man you fell in love w/ as a teen became an abusive addict.

Or, you wife, your mom, slips deeper into her dementia.

Or, the doctor tells you it’s malignant.

You now have a cross to bear that you didn’t ask for and didn’t plan for. And, God is asking you to bear it peacefully, patiently, and graciously.

That’s the opposite of how you want to react.

Anger. That’s not fair. I’ve been good, just like I was for Santa Claus. At least he would bring me presents.

In that moment you ask the same question.

“Is it worth it?”

I heard it said the 3 phrases that best summarize Christmas are:

Peace on Earth

Good will to men

Batteries not included

Why can’t it be when God calls you to something difficult He doesn’t make it easy?

Why aren’t the batteries included!

Is Jesus worth this? She needed the answer and so do I.

Gabriel said to give him the name, Jesus. He will be the Savior of the world. Everyone who turns to Him will be saved.

He will be the king of the eternal kingdom.

IOW: Yes. Yes He is worth what it’s about to cost you.

She raised Him. She knelt at the cross. And, she was overcome at the empty tomb.

She is the only one to be present at his birth, death and resurrection.

Yes, He’s worth it. And, He still is.

That wasn’t the only question she had. Her mind had t/b racing. She had no time to prepare. So, this is raw. It’s real.

Not only did she immediately wonder if Jesus would be worth what it would cost her.

She also wondered, Is God capable?

Question #2

Luke 1:34–38 NIV

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel 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. 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. For no word from God will ever fail.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Luke 1:34-

Can God do this? B/C I sure can’t.

On the surface it looks like a simple question of biology. She’s still a virgin.

But, her question goes much deeper than that.

“I can’t do what you’re calling me to do.”

I don’t have it in. I can’t.

Here’s the deal. God doesn’t make human assignments. When He calls us to something it’s going to call for more than we have to give.

Remember the big lie: God never gives us something we can’t handle. God never calls us to do something we can’t do.

Yes He does. All the time.

Mary acknowledged her weakness and limitations.

I can’t.

Can God do this? B/C if He can’t then it’s not happening.

Gabriel’s answer: The HS will come on you and you will conceive and deliver a boy. Even Elizabeth, your cousin who is too old to have a child is pregnant.

Nothing is impossible for God.

In most of this Gabriel was more than a little vague.

The HS will come on you. What?

Specifics! How? How will it happen?

How will you keep my village from stoning me?

How will you keep from have to become a beggar, or worse?

How will Joseph’s heart ever heal after hearing I’m pregnant w/ another’s child?

No. No specifics to these questions.

But, one thing was not vague.

W/ God, nothing is impossible.

That answer had to be good enough. The rest she had to accept by faith.

“I am the Lord’s servant.” His will, not mine be done.

This is where we romanticize the story. We skip right to her acceptance w/out considering what would be going on inside her head and her heart.

She didn’t go straight to acceptance. She wrestled w/ what the angel was telling her.

And, she asked 2 profound and telling questions.

Once she got the answers, she was all in.

She raised Jesus.

Taught him to walk and talk.

She nursed his skinned knees and fed his teenage appetite.

She watched him serve, listened to him teach, drank the wine he created from water, heard the stories about the storms he calmed and water he walked on. She watched him die. She was there when he came into the upper room.

Okay, he’s worth it and He can do it.

Hudson Taylor was a missionary to China. Established China Inland Mission.

He was asked once how is God used him so mightily to bring thousands of Chinese to Christ.

His answer was, God looked for a man weak enough and He found me.

We don’t have to have all the answers, be strong enough, have a high enough capacity, know the future or be confident enough.

In fact, God has made history and a habit of using people everyone knows they can’t do it.

Mary did it. We can, too.

What if she had said, ‘no’?

What if all she saw was the hardships and didn’t ask her questions? She simply told Gabriel to go tell God to find somebody else.

Be glad Mary asked her questions.

The answers she got enabled her to say ‘yes’. And they are the same answers we get that enable us to say ‘yes’ when God calls us to something hard.

If Jesus isn’t worth it, then no one is. If God can’t, then no one can.

Yes, He’s worth it. And, yes, He can do thru you whatever He has called you to do no matter how hard it may be for you.

Applications

It’s good to have a plan

Hold your plans loosely

God will show up and surprise you.

Sometimes, you will just find yourself in a situation that He has led you into and you’ll wonder what just happened.

Will it be worth what it costs you to be peaceful, patient, and gracious with the people in a hard situation?

Is Jesus worth it?

Absolutely.

How are the people around you who don’t know Jesus supposed to know how they can handle their tough situations w/ peace, patience and grace if God doesn’t give them an example they can relate to?

You may be that example.

Hold onto your plans loosely.

Weakness is strength

When you think you have all that you need to succeed you’re in more trouble than your realize.

God has made history and a habit of using people who can’t to do what only He can.

See your weakness as a strength and watch God do amazing things thru you and with you.

Be glad Mary asked her questions.

The answers she got enabled her to say ‘yes’. And they are the same answers we get that enable us to say ‘yes’ when God calls us to something hard.