Then the angel told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.”
(Luke 1:30-33 CSB)
Some of the key words that must have stood out to Mary in this announcement about her coming son might have been the words “throne,” “reign,” and “kingdom.” Her son was to be a great king, of which it was also said that He would be called the Son of the Most High God.
For much of my life with God I have been captivated by the message of the Kingdom. The gospel that Jesus preached was all about the Kingdom of God. The first words out of His mouth, as recorded by Mark were, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.” (Mark 1:15) He also told His disciples to “seek first the Kingdom of God.” (Matt. 6:33) This subject deserves more attention than I am able to give here, but to the best of my knowledge up to this point, the Kingdom of God is basically equal to the sphere over which God rules. A modern audience might more easily understand the word “government” in place of Kingdom. The difference in function, though, is that a Kingdom is a monarchy under a King. First and foremost this Kingdom represents a people but it does also involve geographic space. And the space occupied by the Kingdom of God will ultimately encompass the whole earth. For now, though, the visible manifestation of the Kingdom is the people of God. And what characterizes these people as different from others is that they follow the same King. This King is Jesus. This is why, upon the launch of His ministry, Jesus was able to say that the Kingdom had come near. The Kingdom is near in the person of Jesus.
I write all of this to say that we can see the theme of the Kingdom of God in the announcements of Jesus’s birth. We will look at some of the details soon but first let’s focus on what Gabriel had to say to Mary and what her role would be.
This passage can be found in Luke chapter one. I want to camp on verses thirty to thirty three, although the immediate context of this passage is rich with important detail and can be seen in verses twenty-six through thirty-eight. I will make reference to a few more of these details in sharing some of my reflections on verses thirty to thirty-three.
“…the angel told her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God…’”
The first thing that Gabriel says to Mary is: “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 2:28) This greeting is remarkably similar to the greeting to Gideon in Judges chapter six by the Angel of the Lord. (See Judges 6:12.) She is deeply troubled by the words.
It is here that he then says, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”
The appearance of the angel was most likely, in and of itself, pretty terrifying. What he was about to tell her might also evoke fear. But he says she does not need to fear. And he gives a reason. He says that she has found favor with God.
That word “favor” is normally translated “grace” in the rest of the New Testament. And that is a pretty big theme in Luke’s writings, especially in the book of Acts. It is used twice in this section in reference to Mary.
One common, modern way of explaining grace describes it as unmerited favor. Grace is used of an indescribably good gift that is entirely undeserved. However, one thing this definition lacks is that In other places in the Scripture, it is accompanied, and sometimes even analogous, with the word “power.” (See Acts 6:8, 2Cor. 12:9, and Eph. 3:7 for examples.) The grace, or favor, of God not only gives us access to unmerited privilege, but power to walk in the great purposes that He created us for.
The Apostle Paul summarized his life’s purpose as being to “testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24) Luke describes followers of Jesus as “those who by grace had believed” (Acts 18:27) Luke wrote that it was the grace of God that enabled Paul to see wonderful results in his missionary journeys. (See Acts 14:26 and 15:40)
Grace is not given to the deserving. In fact, if a person views themself as worthy, they have entirely missed it. (See James 4:6 and 1Peter 5:5.)
The angel said that Mary was covered in the grace of God. He described her as one who had been “graced” by God. The Lord was with her. She did not need to be afraid.
He saw her. He chose her. He was pleased to gift her with this incredible calling.
“‘Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.’”
God then announces, through the angel, His plan for Mary. She would conceive and give birth to a son. This is just a statement of what was to come. Of course, giving birth and raising a son, any son, is no easy task. And Mary was to conceive and give birth to this child as a virgin. This call would not be easy, especially in a culture that took premarital relations very seriously. But as we saw above, she had no reason to fear because she had found favor with God and He would give her the power she needed to walk the path in front of her.
She was given the name of this baby. His name was to be Jesus. Her story was intimately linked with the story of Jesus. He is the real hero of this narrative. But she was to play an important part.
Generally speaking, to align ourselves with Jesus is to align ourselves with the purposes of God.
Mary’s response is pretty impressive. She asks one important question about her role. “How can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?” (Luke 1:34) The angel tells her that this conception would take place by the Spirit of the living God, and then she says, “I am the Lord’s servant…May it happen to me as you have said.” (Luke 1:38)
Mary would have, minimally, faced judgment from her community for being pregnant before her wedding day. The prescribed punishment for this would have been steep. But she receives her commission with great faith and resolution.
This story relays for us God’s message to Mary through the angel Gabriel. Dr. James Edwards points out in his commentary on Luke* that her story, along with Zechariah’s story where Gabriel visits him to announce the coming birth of John the baptist, contain all the elements of angelic birth announcements in the Old Testament. And although these two stories are told separately, they are both ultimately “by the one divine purpose of inaugurating God’s eschatological kingdom. The two annunciations are thus narrative elements of a single story…”
What conclusions might we draw from this story for ourselves, as those who have decided to follow Jesus as Lord and King and who are looking back on Mary’s story with the insight that we now have into His story?
First and foremost, it is a simple reminder that we have been graced by God. We have received the Lord’s favor in more ways than we may ever be able to wrap our minds around. He is with us. And He will give us everything we need to walk the path laid out for us.
Secondly, as those who have been graced by God, I believe that we can look confidently into the future and say that this very grace will empower and carry us through the great although taxing works that He has called us to.
I believe God still calls people to specific tasks. There are too many examples of this in scripture to ignore. I don’t think most of us can expect an angelic visitation. Some of the callings in Scripture were lived out as people simply compared the reality of the world around them with the world that could be (or would become) as described in the Word of God. (See Nehemiah’s story for an example.)
There is nothing to fear in these pursuits. In fact, facing these fearful expectations can actually place us in a position of being able to receive greater help from God.
Mary’s main action point was to remember these words. Later Luke tells us that she treasured the words spoken over her son. I assume that it was Mary who relayed the details of this story of Gabriel’s visitation. And the details seemed pretty clear. She remembered.
And she faced her charge with confidence and faith.
In light of the affirmation that Mary receives and how they apply to us as subjects of the Kingdom, we could stand to be way less afraid than we are prone to be.
In my next post I will explore a bit more of the detail we see in Gabriel’s message to Mary about this coming King.
*Edwards, James R. The Gospel According to Luke (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (p. 41). (Function). Kindle Edition.
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