Fourth Sunday of Advent
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In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 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 ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to 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 holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings.
God sends the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, to Mary, a teenager betrothed to Joseph.
Nazareth is not a metropolis or important town in Israel, it’s a village
It was primarily a Jewish settlement in a primarily agrarian setting
There is no evidence that it became a center of power for the new Christian movement
There is no mention of it anywhere else
Mary the mother of Jesus
fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14
Davidic descendent
Matthew and Luke provide the story of Mary
Refer to Mary as “virgin” or “young woman”
Mary and Joseph were Jesus’ parents
List Jesus as descendent of David
record an angel announcing the pregnancy
Mary became pregnant through divine conception, without Joseph
Explicitly mention the Holy Spirit’s role in the conception
The record that God named Jesus
Specify that Jesus is the “savior”
Record that Joseph assisted Mary prior to jesus’ birth
Record that Mary gave birth to Jesus during the time of Herod the Great
Record that Mary gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem of Judah
Record that Jesus grew up in Nazareth
Mark mentions Mary by name as mother of Jesus. Elsewhere he refers to her as “His mother” and “your mother”
John does not mention Mary by name, by mentions the mother in the wedding story at Cana, and that she was at the crucifixion
Matthew and Luke appear to believe that Mary became through the Holy Spirit thus God overturned natural law
NT Wright asks why would Matthew and Luke and the faithful Jewish-Christian congregations tell such an incredulous story about a pregnancy without sexual intercourse. It wasn’t like that people of that time did not know the connection between one and the other. And they had to know what kind of scandalous stories would develop out of such nonsense.
Matthew and Luke were just telling the story as they knew it: Mary conceived and was pregnant without sexual relations, and was pregnant through the special grace of God to be the mother of God’s incarnate self.
Let’s look at the angel’s explanation; The Holy Spirit would come upon Mary giving her the power and strength to be more than Mary herself could do. AND, “the power of the most High” would overshadow her. That is “God himself, the creator, will surround her completely with his soverign power.” Two different things.
Think about this. We frequently talking about how with the Holy Spirit things have been made possible. Here we have an example of how the Spirit empowered a young woman through his grace to conceive and give birth to the person that would be called Son of God, that died on the cross and was resurrected.
Jesus later told his disciples that all things were possible with God.
We should also not that Luke makes this story also a story of theological and political power. The child was to be the Messiah, the king of the house of David, not over Israel only, but over all the world, and would reign forever. This is huge for Christians.
NT Wright: Put all this together—the conception of a baby, the power of God, and the challenge to all human empires—and we can see why the story is so explosive. Perhaps that’s one reason why it’s so controversial. Perhaps some of the fuss and bother about whether Mary could have conceived Jesus without a human father is because, deep down, we don’t want to think that there might be a king who could claim this sort of absolute allegiance?1
1 Tom Wright, Luke for Everyone (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 12.
What do you say?
Once last point, one that speaks to our Christian response. Mary is approached by Gabriel. She doesn’t seem to struggle with the immensity of it, but wants to know who this could be. Asking for more information. She, considering the option that she could be the mother of the Messiah, simply responds. “Here I am, the Lord’s servant-girl; let it be as you have said.”
My friends consider your own response to this God, creator of heaven and earth, who brought Israel from slavery in Egypt, and established them as his representative among the nations to fulfill the blessing on Abraham that they may be a blessing to the nations, and through steadfast love for his wayward people, brought salvation to them through this young woman, Mary, and this child would be both true Israel, and through him salvation and restoration and reconciliation the world would be drawn to him.
What do you say?
Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.
Paul believes that through Jesus, God revealed his plan for all the nations, a secret kept for many centuries until the birth Jesus and revealed through the prophetic writings.