3. Mary
Luke 1:26-38
God could have come any way He wanted. Superman came as an infant needing parents and the Terminator arrived as a man needing your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle. God chose to be born. And that’s where Mary enters the picture. Not Princess Mary or Dame Mary. Just plain Mary. She was young, she was poor and she was likely uneducated. But, again, that’s the sort of person God loves to use.
And she was female. Obvious, I know, but still the point has to be made that God’s entry into humanity was through a woman. There were women with Jesus throughout His ministry; there were women who stayed at the cross to the bitter end when most of the men fled; there were women at the tomb when He was in it; the first person to see Him on resurrection day was a woman; and the first person to proclaim the risen Christ was a woman (John 20:11-18). The church needs to take this seriously.
Realising that he scared the wits out of Zechariah, Gabriel has worked on his techniques when it comes to approaching humans. “Greetings!” That’s better. Knowing that the experience will still engender fear, Gabriel gives Mary the antidote to fear – the presence of God. “The Lord is with you” is surely the most reassuring thing any fearful human being can ever hear.
Gabriel’s message is a lot to take in. Whereas John the Baptist was described as “great in the eyes of the Lord”, this child surpasses that: “He will be great.” In fact, He will have a throne, He will reign and His kingdom will never end. If the gospel could be summed up in a single phrase it would be this: the Kingdom of God has come (Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:15). Every other thing that tries to rule humanity is to be overthrown by God’s perfect, loving, life-giving rule.
“How will this be?” Good question. It’s not like Zechariah’s doubts – Mary didn’t get silenced for nine months.
“I’m a virgin.” We’ve already seen that when God moves in an unusual birth story something big is going to happen e.g. the birth of Isaac, Samson, Samuel and John the Baptist. But in Mary’s story we have the silver tuna of all birth narratives. Not a barren woman. A virgin. This is going to be bigger than Isaac, etc. The one who is to be born of Mary won’t just be a patriarch, a judge or a prophet. He will be the Son of the Most High.
So, how’s it going to happen? Mary might have been uneducated but she’s bound to have had a basic grasp of biology and so far it looked like something wasn’t quite right with what the angel was saying.
A miraculous conception will take place. The incredible life that is going to be placed within Mary will be the result of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High. If you’ve read on in the New Testament you might notice the connection with the second half of Luke-Acts which also begins with of the Holy Spirit and power. What’s born in Acts is the Church and the similar language used in Luke 1:35 and Acts 1:8 would lead me to conclude that the Church is very, very important in God’s sight. Is it important to you?
God stills births incredible things in unusual places by the power of His Spirit. He needs people who will count the cost yet rise to the call. Mary might lose her fiancé; she will lose her reputation; she will be called horrible things; she will witness people questioning the circumstances of her son’s birth (John 8:41).
She counts the cost and responds: “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.”
Ponder how God’s presence with us dispels fear and how His Spirit and power bring forth new life in strange places.