Mary and Jesus—God with Us - Luke 1:26-38

              

Advent is over, Christmas is here! This year we’ve joined the people around a manger in a stable in the small town of Bethlehem a little over 2,000 years ago to get to know the child in the manger. Jesus is born into a world not all that different from ours. Here are some of the headlines that could have been in the Jerusalem Gazette at that time:

Grain Ships Dock, Rome Riots End; Supply Chains Stabilizing;

Olympic Wrestler Still in Coma;

Report of Angel Sightings in Judea.

 

There were wars going on, sickness, poverty, injustice, people struggling to just get by, often with no real sense of purpose or meaning in life. It was a world just like ours, filled with people just like us, but God’s about to burst onto the scene of humanity. Jesus is born and the world has never been the same since. There are still wars, poverty, injustice and more; however, there’s the hope of God with us, Immanuel. Through Jesus, God brings new life and hope to the world.

Luke writes the story of Jesus' birth from Mary's perspective. Mary is introduced to us as a young maiden, a virgin pledged in marriage to a man called Joseph. There's no mention of Mary's family however; she seems to come from a family with little status. This is the young girl God has chosen to move his plan to redeem the world forward. Luke gives us a deeper glimpse into who Mary is.

The angel Gabriel comes to the town of Nazareth to bring Mary a message from God. As Gabriel greets Mary, he uses the Greek word charis in 3 different ways to give us a glimpse into why God chooses Mary. Charis means grace, to rejoice, and favour. This word has the notion of sweetness, charm, loveliness, and delight. Another way to translate the first words of the angel is, "Rejoice, you who are full of grace! The Lord is with you... Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found grace and favour with God." Mary is called to give praise to God! Why? Gabriel recognizes that she’s a grace-filled woman, a woman whose natural response is gratitude. We’re given a glimpse here into Mary's character; there’s a delight and loveliness in who she is as a young woman. Mary has been taught to trust God because he’s faithful and trustworthy. God now fills her even more with grace and favour.

People who are grace filled and grateful always seem be happy and filled with joy, and the people around them get filled with the same joy they have. Wherever they are, no matter who they’re with, they bring light and life into the people and situations around them. Most grace filled people I know are regular people who live simply and yet are generous and loving. They express their gratitude to God in their relationships with others. In the Bible, God often seems to use people who are grace filled because they trust God more and are open to God working in them and through them. God gives his favour to this young grace filled woman, raising Mary up to a central role in salvation history.

What’s God doing here, choosing Mary to have this child? He’s calling Mary to be the mother of Jesus, but if Jesus is the Son of God, then Mary will be the mother of God, in Greek, theotokos. In seminary, we had a discussion in our classes about who Jesus is, and some students had a difficult time with this thought, and yet it’s important because it addresses both Jesus' divinity and his humanity. Mary’s the mother of God in the sense that she carries in her womb a divine person, Jesus Christ, God "in the flesh," contributing her human DNA to Jesus. John writes, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus comes to be God with us as one of us!

Jesus is born of Mary; affirming Jesus as a real flesh and blood person set into history. The Church Father Ignatius writes, Jesus was "truly born, truly lived, truly died," all important if Jesus is who he says he is. Jesus' humanity is important in order to fulfill God's promise to Satan in Genesis 3:14–15 "So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.  And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

This is a lot to place on a young woman. Here we see how our relationship with God affects our response to the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives; Mary responds, "I am the Lord's servant, may your word to me be fulfilled." Mary chooses to trust. Life is about to become harder. She knows that people will talk about an unmarried girl being pregnant. She knows it will be hard to tell Joseph and he may doubt her. Yet Mary also knows who God is, raised on the stories of God's faithfulness. Mary knows that when God works, things often become much more difficult before they become better, life gets messier as God uses his people to bring hope; injustice and hurt often come before freedom and redemption. Mary knows God never promises easy, but he has promised to be with us.

Mary asks, “How will this be since I’m a virgin;” kind of a practical question. Mary doesn’t blindly accept this astonishing news; the Greek word here means “to make an audit” to think about this rationally. Our faith is not blind, it’s a reasonable faith. Tim Keller writes about what healthy doubt looks like, “Some doubt seeks answers…. There are people like Mary who are open to the truth and are willing to relinquish sovereignty over their lives if they can be shown that the truth is other than what they thought.” The angel responds, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." We hear echoes from the Old Testament of when God came down in a visible way so that Israel would know that he was there. In Exodus 40 we read about the finishing of the tabernacle and when it was done, we read, "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle."

In 1 Kings 8, when the temple was built and the ark brought into the new temple, "the cloud filled the temple of the Lord.  And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple." Mary hears that this child will be created in her through an act of God and will be God’s son, even though she’s still a virgin. It’s Luke, a doctor, who gives us the how-to of Mary getting pregnant.

Trust is a big part of our faith in God. Do you trust God? Is there something preventing you from completely trusting God and recognizing his blessings in your life? Trust and faith are not always easy to give because life's circumstances bring so many experiences that we find hard to explain or process. Trust comes when we learn to place our work, our success, our family, and relationships in God's hands, learning what Jesus calls success. Trust comes as you begin to recognize how the Holy Spirit is blessing you right now in your present circumstances. Jesus loves you and is working out everything for your good; this is why the manger and the cross are so important, they’re signs of his love and trustworthiness.

Trust comes as you learn forgiveness and grace; experiencing Jesus' forgiveness and grace in your own life. The bes4062t place to start is in God's word, in the stories of his relationship with humanity. Mary learned trust and faith from her parents and her synagogue; practicing her faith in daily life. Mary teaches Jesus the stories of God and his relationship with his people, teaching Jesus to have faith in his heavenly father. Mary teaches Jesus the ways of the Lord while looking after his needs, nursing him, nurturing him, and teaching him the things mothers teach their sons; like trust and grace. We see Jesus' trust in God played out in the Garden of Gethsemane when he tells God, "Your will be done," and then walking the path to the cross on our behalf. We see Jesus’ grace play out in his relationships with the people. Trust and faith in Jesus, God with us; may you hold on tightly to both as you come to the manger to see the son of Mary, the Son of God this Christmas.