Luke 1:26-38--Birth of Jesus Foretold

Luke 1:26-38
English Standard Version
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Birth of Jesus Foretold
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He 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 father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

35 And the angel answered 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 called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

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Six months passes by in just a few short verses and Mary's cousin Elizabeth has remained hidden and kept her pregnancy a secret.  In Elizabeth's sixth month of pregnancy, Gabriel, the same angel that brought news to Elizabeth, the one whom we always see bringing prophecy relating to the Messiah throughout the Old and New Testaments, was sent from God to the city of Nazareth to the the virgin Mary, who was betrothed to be married to Joseph, who was of the house (the lineage) of King David.  Wow!  Luke just said a lot in that couple of verses pointing out several fulfilled prophecies--first we see that the one who Gabriel is sent to is a virgin.  While the Hebrew word in the Old Testament used for the prophecy could just simply mean "young girl," the meaning of the Greek word that Luke uses here has no other meaning than the "one who has never had sex."  The Holy Spirit used the New Testament authors to point out that this was the meaning that was meant in the Old Testament all along and that this was always going to a miraculous birth since the Messiah would have inherited sin from the father if it had been a natural conception.  We'll read more about how this miraculous birth would take place in just a few verses as this was the question that Mary would ask since she was a virgin.

Gabriel gives Mary what she finds to be a strange greeting, saying "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you."  The greeting the angel gives is similar to the meaning of the name John that we talked about yesterday, "graced by God."  The text says that she was troubled by this saying because she didn't understand what it meant or why it was being said to her.  Typically people would just greet each other by saying "Shalom" which means "Peace to you, and to your house."

The angel told her "Do not be afraid," something that angels typically have to tell people when they bring them good news because the natural reaction of people to be in the presence of an angel, specifically one that stands before the throne of God and reflects His holiness, would be fear.  We like Isaiah would say, "Woe is me for I am undone" if we truly came into contact with the holiness of God.  The angel says, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God."  This repetition not only tells Mary that what the angel said the first time wasn't a mistake, but repetition in the Bible is like adding "-er" or "-est" to something in English.  It amplifies it so that if it is said two times it's important, but if it is said three times, it is of most importance (like a superlative).  It was important that Mary understand that she was being grace by God, not because of who she was or anything she had done, but simply because the Lord looked on her with favor--that's exactly the way it is with each and every one of us.  None of us deserve to be chosen by God to be a part of His plan.  All of us feel undeserving just like Mary did, because all of us are undeserving.

The angel Gabriel continued, "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He 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 father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”  As if the first part of the greeting wasn't already full of prophecies that were to be fulfilled, there are no even more here as Gabriel tells Mary that the name of her son that would be conceived by the Holy Spirit would be "Jesus" (which means "Savior," it's actually the Roman version of the Jewish name Yeshua, which we would say as "Joshua.").  Then we go into names that belonged to the Messiah from the Old Testament--Mary probably knew some or all of the passages being referred to here as it appears she knew a lot of the Old Testament when we will see her Magnificat in a little bit.  Jesus would be called "the Son of the Most High" with a capital "S," meaning that He is the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity.  He will be called the "Son of David" as "the Lord will give to Him the throne of His father David," and if there was any doubt that this was the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant where the LORD promised that a descendant of David's would always be on the throne until the time that the Messiah would come and that He would establish His throne in Jerusalem and He would reign forever and ever, Gabriel includes "and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom, there will be no end."  Well, that has to mean that this child is going to be the Messiah, the one that we've all been waiting for since Genesis chapter 3.  The one that the entire Old Testament has been pointing us towards.

​Mary is understandably confused how she is going to have a baby since she has never known a man in the biblical sense of the word "know."  This sounds like a similar question to what Zachariah asked earlier in the chapter when he was made mute.  Is Mary going to suffer the same kind of fate because of her doubt?  No, because the questions though they look the same are very different.  Zachariah's question was doubt in God's ability to overcome the natural limitations of being able to have babies in old age or when a woman was barren, but there were several stories of this in the Old Testament that as a priest he should have known and should have had confidence in that the LORD could work in the same way again--we pointed to some of those in the blog, specifically the stories of the birth of Isaac, Samson, and Samuel.  Zachariah just couldn't believe that the God that did that for those parents in the Scriptures (what we call the Old Testament now) would and could do it for him and his wife now.  That's not Mary's question though--she wants to know particulars of how this will happen.  Does she need to do anything?  No one has ever had a baby without having sex with a man before, so this is all new to her and everyone else--she needs some instruction on how this is going to work.  Gabriel's instructions are both simple and profound--it's something that is going to happen in her and through her, but she herself is going to have no part in making it happen, she is just to be a willing vessel.

​“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 called holy—the Son of God. "  There it is.  Now Gabriel isn't just telling her that this is going to be the Messiah, which most Jewish people understood to simply be a leader like Moses and David put together, but they expected someone completely Jewish of natural birth, but this baby is going to be the Son of God, that is, He would be God in the flesh--Immanuel, God with Us.  He would be holy, which means He would be separate, unique, and set apart for a special purpose from the very beginning.  He would not be "common" or "ordinary."  He was going to be sinless and perfect, and Luke is foreshadowing the end of Jesus' life a bit because we know what the special purpose was that He came for.

As if this wasn't enough news for Mary, Gabriel then adds to this, "36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”   This is supposed to be proof to Mary that God is still in the miracle-working business and that nothing is impossible for the Lord, but this is going to encourage Mary to go visit Elizabeth and hear from her about the prophecy given to them concerning the birth of John (I would hope that even though Zachariah was mute that he was still able to deliver the details of the message that he received with his wife.  It seems like he had because she knew what the baby's name was supposed to be when the baby was born).

This portion of the text will end with Mary's answer to the Lord, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her..  We won't see any more angels for a while, but we will start to see prophecy and the the word of the LORD coming directly through the Holy Spirit coming upon people--specifically Mary and Zachariah.  Their songs are wonderful to study this time of year, especially Zachariah's.  I look forward to studying both of these with you all in the coming days.