Last updated on October 23, 2024
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 descendent 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” (Luke 1:28). Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
With such a familiar story, I’m struck by the specifics of it.
Remember how we discussed complexity yesterday. This story is a lot of things, but it’s definitely complex. Mary is a young woman who is pledged to be married to Joseph. They live in Nazareth, which was a part of the region of Galilee. She and Joseph were very average people. Joseph wasn’t a priest. Neither of their parents were rulers. No one would have ever guessed that they would be the human parents of the Messiah. Yet God did. Note that this is one of the many reasons why people thought John (the baptizer) might be the Messiah. At least his father was a priest.
One day Mary is minding her own business, and an angel appears to her. She is greatly troubled by this, which tells me that this wasn’t something that she had ever experienced before. But then things got really weird. The angel (Gabriel) told her that would conceive and give birth to “the Son of the Most High.” This was very confusing since Mary was a virgin.
What happened in the coming hours and days and weeks? There had to be SO many questions. Was the angel real? What would her parents say when they found out she was pregnant? More than that, what would Joseph say? How would she explain this to him? Yet in this moment she believes and she trusts what the angel has said. So her response is, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.”
That’s beautiful.
So another theme…God doesn’t often act in the ways that we like him to. It’s not a comfortable life, but it’s a good life, and God is looking for ordinary people who will step into that beautiful and complex life with him.