A Willing and Blessed Servant

Luke 1:26–56 ESV

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name 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 father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 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. 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. For nothing will be impossible with God.” 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. In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 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.” And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

Scripture: Luke 1:26-56

Sermon Title: A Willing and Blessed Servant

           Last week we took up the beginning of chapter 1. We got to witness the angel Gabriel appearing to Zechariah. Zechariah was an older man and a priest, and the angel told him that he and his wife, Elizabeth, who was also older and had not been able to have children, were going to have a son. This was not going to be just any son, but there was a specific way they were to raise him, and he would “make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Zechariah struggled with that, and because of his disbelief and questioning, the angel silenced him for the length of the pregnancy. Verse 24 fast-forwarded the story by telling us Elizabeth “remained in seclusion” for five months.

Before we move on and pick up the story somewhere else in her sixth month, I want us to consider the big picture of what was happening. Zechariah’s fellow priests and the people who had prayed at the temple on the day when he was on duty knew he had seen a vision. We’re told that in verse 22. They witnessed his silence, and he was trying to make signs. We don’t know if he got the message across then and there. It’s possible that those people had that memorable, shocking experience, but then life went on for them.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Zechariah are back home, and they can see the proof of the angel’s message. She’s pregnant, he’s silent, this is happening. But what we’ve read so far is fairly private and quiet. When they had the child, the events capture the attention of neighbors and relatives. While this was a major deal; it wasn’t very public at this point.

           Brothers and sisters in Christ, for many expectant mothers (and fathers, too)—I think throughout history—there’s been excitement around sharing the news that you have a baby on the way. Just to be clear I’m not making that kind of announcement this morning on behalf of Christie and myself. I repeat, I am not—don’t get any ideas. There are cases where that’s not true and some of us have experienced that—whether there are troubling circumstances with the pregnancy or someone doesn’t feel prepared enough, but typically there’s a lot of joy in that time.

For my generation, sharing that news isn’t just something we do with people in person or on the phone, but we share it on and with the internet. It’s rare to find a young couple who’s had a child, and there was nothing posted on Facebook or Instagram—no announcement pictures, no gender reveal video, no newborn message. You can see up there, three of ours—we announced Addison as a new White Sox fan coming April 2015, Brooks was a Lil’ fishing buddy for Addy coming January of ‘17 and for Feya we added a picture frame to our family wall with the sonogram.

Part of why we share so much is we want to see peoples’ reactions. If you know how social media works, we want to see how many “likes” we can get; that feels good. But there’s also the reality that news like this spreads quickly, and most prefer our family, our friends, and whoever else follows us would get those significant announcements first from us and not someone else.

In Mary’s case at this point in the story, while the news hadn’t gone public yet, she was not the first one to be able to share anything. Not only was she not wondering if she should be taking a pregnancy test, but she was not married and her and Joseph’s relationship had not gone that far, nor was there some other guy in the picture. She could not be pregnant. Yet an angel shows up out of nowhere and tells her, “‘You will be with child and give birth to a son.” How’s that going to happen? “‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you.’” She was going to have a baby, and her response was simply and genuinely, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”

But then she went to Elizabeth, who miraculously conceived several months before, and just as Mary can share her news, Elizabeth’s baby is leaping in her womb, she’s filled with the Holy Spirit, and exclaimed, “‘…Blessed is the child you will bear!’” There went Mary’s surprise; the Holy Spirit had told her Mary’s secret—and yet it does not seem Mary was hurt or discouraged in the slightest that she wasn’t the one who got to say it first.

We begin today with this young, newly expectant mother—Mary, who is the image of a willing servant. Again, we have that line in verse 38, which is a line of faith, of trust, of her surrendering herself to whatever God’s plan might be. We also have verses 46 through 48—at the beginning of her song, what’s been called 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.”

Looking at this purely from a parenting perspective, when a woman finds out she’s expecting a baby and when a couple shares in that news and looks to the future, there is a massive change. No longer are you just a man and she’s just a woman, but you are now also a father and a mother. You have reproduced; you have made a new life or new lives if there will be more than one child. There are all sorts of resources out there for parents, but you have no idea what you’re in for until the child is born. Even then, each child has their own personality and quirks. There’s only so much planning and thinking ahead that parents can do—you have to be willing to adapt. Thinking especially of mothers, though, the woman isn’t just waiting to see the baby. Over the nine months or the length of the pregnancy, she experiences changes in her body—the physical, the hormonal, the emotional all get tied together. Again, every mother is different, and pregnancies can be different, too. You sometimes hear couples say they were surprised, or a baby was an “oops,” but we know how this happens.

Yet Mary legitimately had no reason to expect it, but she was willing to go along with God’s plan whatever it might involve, even the unexplainable. The English Standard Version Study Bible has a note on verse 38 that’s a great insight and maybe not always how we see it. It says, “The section ends,” the section of the birth announcement, “ends with Mary’s example of true discipleship, in submission to God’s word and promise.” This passage isn’t just about the miracle of life, that the Holy Spirit would conceive a baby in Mary. It’s everything that’s involved. We’re not told if Mary thought much about it in the split seconds or minutes of this encounter with an angel, but the timing isn’t good, the optics aren’t good. She’s engaged to Joseph, but they’re not married yet. People would talk. They’d wonder. They’d have no idea the background of this baby. Yet what Mary could do, what she could control, was her obedience to God. She was willing.

You and I may never encounter an angel in our lifetime. We may never sense a direct divine revelation from God. We may only have his Word and our faith, and that is enough. We are to be willing servants, willing to be obedient to what God calls us to as his people, willing to listen to his voice and the voices of the apostles and prophets he has provided, willing to love as he calls us to love, willing to live out the calling he has given to us. You and I have freedom to make plenty of choices, but with that freedom, we should willfully follow the Lord with the help of the Holy Spirit. As it did for Mary, following God and being his servant may entail changes in our lives, changes that we can’t even imagine all the details of, but we will adapt to his will. We are not to be servants who are first and foremost terrified of our master, because we’ve been made sons of God and brothers with Jesus. But we are to be true disciples who take up God’s call as Mary did.

           The second thing we want to look at this morning is who was her son going to be? To answer the question of the song “Mary Did You Know?” she didn’t know every last detail and action that her son would do, but she knew who he was. She knew because of Gabriel’s message. She may not have fully comprehended or wrapped her mind around all of it, but God gave her the ability to understand enough.

           So, who was her son? Perhaps most obvious, he’s Jesus—that would be his name. Similar to Zechariah’s situation, God through Gabriel gave that name; it was not picked out by Mary or Joseph. This wasn’t just a name that Gabriel liked, or God somehow liked from a list of names, but it meant something. This goes back to the Hebrew name, Joshua, which means, “The LORD saves.” There were and continue to be many boys and men named Joshua. Other people can be named Jesus. It was not wrong back then or today to use those names, but in this case it was a clear mark that the long-awaited Savior had come into the world. God gave him that name because he would bring true salvation from sin and death, not political salvation as some expected.

           Gabriel also told Mary that “He…will be called Son of the Most High,” and I’m tying that with verse 35, where he tells her, “…The holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” This is not a light title. Ancient cultures could refer to a great king or a powerful leader as a son of a god. With that, they attributed to them god-like status with mythical gods. Yet for Israel and God’s people in general, there’s a greater meaning. Israel as a nation, as a covenant people, they were called God’s son; they were his child. Jesus was connected to this body of people, but this— and Lord as we’ll come to in a moment—also points to the eternal nature of Jesus. He has always been; he is one of three persons of the Trinity, our Triune God. He’s not just another baby; this is one who is to be truly worshiped and glorified.

           We also find Jesus was going to receive David’s throne and continue to reign over Jacob’s house forever. This also ties into that covenant reality that Israel had. God had promised David that his family would always have a king on the throne. Not only can you trace David’s lineage down to Jesus, but his lineage can be traced all the way back to Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, who God had promised to bless and bless all the nations through them. God was fulfilling those promises by sending his Son, who would be exalted as King over all after his death and resurrection when he ascended back to heaven. He continues and will forever reign. That promise was made to a young woman who had Israelite connections in her and her husband’s families—but they were by no means considered royalty; they were normal people. So, too, their son Jesus would not take a throne on earth; yet God chose them to raise this King.

           Finally, from this part of Luke 1, Jesus is labeled as Lord—not by Gabriel, but we heard it from the mouth of Elizabeth in verse 43. This is not an introduction to this word, this label, this term in the book of Luke. Already there have been 10 times where the Greek word, “Kyrios” has been used. Zechariah and Elizabeth were said to be “observing all the Lord’s commandments.” The temple Zechariah went to was “the temple of the Lord.” Gabriel was “an angel of the Lord.” Mary, again, considered herself “the Lord’s servant,” but Elizabeth takes all of that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and recognizes this baby in her relative’s womb is her Lord. Mary’s son was going to be God in the flesh.

           If any question remained that God was at work in this time, that he had broken silence as I talked about last time, those questions should be gone. The sovereign Creator of the universe had sent his Holy One in human form, even in the womb of a normal Jewish girl. Jesus was coming, fully divine and fully human, being the only perfect mediator for our sins and our salvation. He alone had the power to do this, and there is no one else that any person should be looking for, to be believing in. Mary’s son is the hope of the world. As we hear elsewhere in the New Testament, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. You’re not just believing in a man—though he was fully man; if you believe in Jesus, he is God in the flesh, God sent to save us from our sin, and he continues to rule forever.

           That brings us to our final point, which really isn’t new, but it summarizes all this: Mary, and all who believe, are blessed through Jesus. We heard that word “blessed” four times in this passage and it’s actually two, kind of three, different Greek words. First from Elizabeth in verses 42 and 45, she says to Mary, “‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!...Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” Then from Mary in verse 48, “‘From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name.”

           Mary was overjoyed. She was grateful for what she was going to experience. What was perhaps already starting was a blessing in that she was bringing God’s greatest gift into the world. It wasn’t something she did or earned or deserved; it was a gracious act of God. It’s important we recognize that. Mary did not take upon herself that she should be exalted apart from the work of God. She was not asking anyone to bow before her or treat her as if she was like Jesus in any way. The blessing is very simply that she believed the Lord could do what he promised and he “the Mighty One has done great things for me.” She was not the primary figure as other traditions and Christians might make her out to be. She was still a humble servant. grateful to be used by God.

           Her song testifies to a fuller understanding of what this was all about. Whether she knew the Scriptures this well or was filled with the Spirit like Elizabeth, she knew what God had been up to. He’s at work from generation to generation with mercy and might. He lifts up the humble—that’s the family of Abraham, that’s the freed slaves that were brought to the Promised Land, that’s a barren old woman, that’s a virgin girl. He lifts them up and can use them to defeat the proud, the rulers. We know what’s going to happen later in the story—we know Herod will try to find and kill this baby king who he’s threatened by. God continued to bless a people who on their own would amount to nothing. He chose them to send to the world our Savior.

           That continues to be true for Christians and for the church as a whole today. As discouraging as declining statistics of Christians in our part of the world may be; as depressing as it is to see young people in particular leave churches and even leave their faith behind; as ridiculed and persecuted as Christians and God’s name are—God’s blessing has not run out. This same Holy Spirit is placed in all who God has redeemed to know and persevere in the truth. We have the blessings of justification and sanctification and eternal life. We may never be rich or powerful here on earth, but those things are not what matters. Our treasure, our goal, our prize is not here. Our faith looks to the blessing that is to come when Christ returns.

           All of this is because Jesus was sent to this world, born as a baby to a young woman, was raised and ministered and was crucified, but he rose again and lives. Mary is an essential part of the story, but she is not the primary character. She looked for God to do what he had long-promised, and what she trusted him to fulfill. He would not and he will not forget his own. Amen.