Friday, December 9

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Friday

It’s interesting to note that Mary does not doubt the angel’s word, even though it must have sounded incredible. She believed what the angel said. Her only question had to do with how it would happen. In essence she says to Gabriel, “All right. I’m willing to do my part, but you need to explain how we’ll handle this one little problem.”  That’s real faith.  That’s believing the impossible.  That’s trusting God even when the facts argue against it.

In verses 35-37, the angel answers Mary’s question. First he deals with the biological issue by saying that the power of the Holy Spirit of God will overcome Mary – and this divine activity will result in conception. The last phrase of verse 35 deals with something that Mary did not ask, “…So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

There are two important truths held in tension in verse 35.

1. It was necessary for the Savior of the World to be born of a woman, so that he would be of the same nature as those whom he came to save.
2. It was just as imperative that he should be holy, sinless, and blameless.

In this one verse Gabriel is making clear the glorious fact that both of these requirements are fulfilled in the life of Jesus.  He is fully man, yet fully God.  Here the mystery of the incarnation and the virgin birth are held in tension. As C.S. Lewis has said with penetrating insight, “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.”

In verse 36, the angel explains that God’s power has already impacted Mary’s elderly cousin Elizabeth, who is already 6 months pregnant. God is not restricted to the natural order.

Verse 37 is really a summary, a benediction, the bottom line, if you will, of all that he has been saying to Mary, “For nothing is impossible with God.” This literally means, “For no word from God shall be void of power.” God can and will do anything that He determines.

I think there should be a long pause between verses 37 and 38.  In his powerful book called, Peculiar Treasures, Frederich Buechner describes the moment between these two verses as the angel Gabriel waits for the answer of Mary:

Mary struck the angel Gabriel as hardly old enough to have a child at all, let alone this child, but he’d been entrusted with a message to give her, and he gave it.

He told her what the child was to be named, and who he was to be, and something about the mystery that was to come upon her.

“You mustn’t be afraid, Mary,” he said. And as he said it, he only hoped she wouldn’t notice that beneath his great, golden wings he himself was trembling with fear to think that the whole future of creation now hung on the answer of a teenager.

In the history of the church Mary has often been portrayed as a kind of lofty, otherworldly figure.  If you look at some of the great paintings of Mary, they make her look so peaceful and serene that you almost forget she was a real person. That’s a shame because the Bible makes it clear that she was very real, with very real doubts, very real questions and very real faith.  Nowhere is this seen with more clarity than in verse 38: “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

Without exaggeration, we may call this one of the greatest statements of faith in the entire Bible. She recognizes that she is not in charge of her life, she belongs to God.

Mary said that she was Available. She said YES to the impossible, and YES to the plan of God for her life.

Did her heart skip a beat when she said YES?  You bet it did - but she said it. Her response is a thoughtful, obedient response to God’s revelation.  Mary believed God, with a single-minded, unwavering commitment. She was Available. With her head tilted high, her hands trembling just a bit, wide-eyed, nervous, open-mouthed, questioning but not afraid, wondering but not terrified, unsure but not uncertain...when the angel said, “Nothing is impossible with God,” Mary took a deep breath and said, “May it be to me as you have said.”  And with those words Christmas came to the world.

Jeff Frazier