ANNUNCIATION

Luke 1.26-38 (NRSV) (Sermon)

The Birth of Jesus Foretold

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ ²⁹But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. ³¹And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.³²He 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 ancestor David. ³³He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ ³⁴Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’³⁵The angel said to 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 holy; he will be called Son of God. ³⁶And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. ³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God.’ ³⁸Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.

My text today is written in Luke 1.37:

For nothing will be impossible with God …

When Elizabeth had been pregnant for six months, the angel Gabriel went to Nazareth and visited a young woman called Mary. There is great significance in this event. Mary was not of noble birth – she was a poor peasant woman. She lived in one of the least desirable parts of Judah, in a place which was actually despised by many. Remember the disdain evident in Nathaniel's reference to the place. We read about this in John 1:45‑46:

Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth."  Nathaniel said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

The Jews despised the people from Nazareth because they were believed to inferior because they had made friendly contact with non Jewish people and many thought Jews were to separate themselves from all others. How often people tend to think that God will only bless people who are special. In God's eyes all people are special. God is willing to bless all those who are open to Him and remain faithful to Him, no matter who they might be in the eyes of the world.

What do we know about Mary? She was of the tribe of Judah, a descendant of David and a virgin. This brings to mind the words of the Prophet Isaiah 7.14: ‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.’ She was engaged to be married to a carpenter called Joseph. They both seem to have been people of limited means. We have evidence for this in Luke 2:24: ‘... and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons."’  This is explained in Leviticus 12:8: ‘If she cannot afford a sheep, she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement on her behalf, and she shall be clean.’

I am sure we can all imagine the shock Mary must have experienced when the Angel Gabriel appeared to her. Her response reveals how she never expected anything special from God. In verse 29 we read: ‘But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.’

In the eyes of the world, there was nothing special about Mary, but she was very special in the sight of God and she appeared to have been humble and contented with her lot in life. Then Gabriel gave the good news to Mary – she was to be the mother of the promised Messiah and she was to name him Jesus which means ‘God is salvation’. Gabriel went on to describe the child in a way which is similar to Nathan's promise to David – which formed the basis of Jewish messianic expectation. Mary responded by pointing out the fact that she was a virgin. This gave Gabriel the opportunity to explain the miraculous manner in which Jesus would be conceived. Notice the words in verse 35:

The angel said to 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 holy; he will be called Son of God.

It is because the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit of God and not a human father that he could be called holy and the Son of God. According to Luke it was the Holy Spirit that brought Jesus into existence.[1] It was the Holy Spirit who came upon Mary – or as the Greek puts it – that hepiskiasei or overshadowed her. This same word is used in the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, when referring to God's presence in the holy of holies in the tabernacle as recorded in Exodus 40:35 where we read:

Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

As Warreb Wiersbe puts it, 'Mary's womb became the holy of holies for the Son of God.[2] Mary's betrothed, Joseph would not be the father – God would be the Father.

There has been a great deal of debate about the virgin birth. But as far as I am concerned, the evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of the traditional interpretation, especially when one examines the rest of the Scriptures. Of particular significance is Matthew 1:25 where it is clearly stated that Joseph ‘... had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.’ As Wilkinson puts it:

... without the support of the text in Matthew it would equally well be taken to mean that Jesus would be born by the overshadowing of God's Spirit in the same way that John the Baptist was.[3]

Wilkinson explains the difficulties associated with this passage. If we take it literally to mean that Mary was a virgin, we need to ask, "How can any being without a human father be truly and fully human?" If we take it symbolically we need to face the problem of how any ordinary human being could bring God to us completely.[4]I conclude this discussion with the words of Wilkinson:

Either way, we are left with the mystery of the person of Christ, which is the most glorious mystery of our faith: and must not God always be a mystery to us? If we are able to explain him and contain him within our human minds, he would not be God at all, but just some idol as little as ourselves.[5]

Luke points out that a person as important as this would have had no ordinary birth. Mary, his mother was a virgin. While the use of myths might have been commonplace in the writing of this time – Luke's emphasis on Mary's virginity is the statement of an extraordinary but crucial historical fact. This person who is miraculously born is to be called Jesus because he is the saviour of the world.

In order to enable Mary to grasp the magnificent truth, the angel gave her a sign to help her believe. Elizabeth's pregnancy was not yet public knowledge because she had hidden herself from public view. Gabriel tells Mary about her cousin’s pregnancy. This must have seemed incredible to her – knowing her age and her barrenness. But the angel reminded her of the wonderful truth contained in verse 37: ‘ ... For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Mary responded by yielding herself to her God as a willing servant. She had received God's word to her – even though it seemed strange.

Our minds can only comprehend something less complex than itself. For this reason, the historic Church teaches that we can know God, but we cannot comprehend Him.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem, who died in 386, explained this teaching in his Catechetical Lectures: "Is it really true that because I cannot drink the whole river I will not take water from it in moderation for my benefit? If, when going into some great garden, I cannot eat all the fruits, would you wish that I go away from it completely hungry?" St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, who died in 430, was contemplating this same topic while walking along the seashore. He saw a small boy scooping water from the sea with a seashell and pouring it into a pit in the sand. He noticed that it is impossible for the boy to scoop up all the sea, but it is possible for him to know the sea by scooping it. Kenneth W. Collins comments: ‘Scripture plainly teaches that our knowledge is not complete, and if our knowledge is not complete, it means we will always have puzzles.’

The Church also teaches that we use our reason as far as it can take us. It is never a case of not doing this because our faith is reasonable; but we do not stop there, we allow ourselves to continue to drink of the water of God’s truth even though we are not able to take in the whole river, to eat of the fruits of God’s vast orchard of truth even though we cannot consume all of it, without being able to consume the whole orchard, enjoy the refreshing of the sea of God’s truth without experiencing it all. We can know God without fully comprehending God. Like Mary and Elizabeth, God gives us signs to help us to believe and the way his love, truth, goodness and beauty pervade the world is one, and our experience of his presence at Holy Communion is another.

What about you and me. Where do we stand? Are we open to hear God speaking to us through His Word? Are we ready and willing to hear what he has to say to us – even though it might seem strange? Rest assured. Real blessing is available to all those who are willing to surrender themselves to God and His grace. As the angel said to Mary: ‘For nothing is impossible for our God.’

---

    [1] McBride, The Gospel of Luke, p. 27.

    [2] Wiersbe, Be Compassionate, p. 17.

    [3] Wilkinson, W, Good News in Luke (Collins, Fontana, Glasgow, 1975), p. 18.

    [4] Ibid.

    [5] Wilkinson, Good news in Luke, p. 20.