Bible Study - The Christmas Story Part 6 - Luke 1:26-38

Last week, we heard in Luke 1:5-25 of Zechariah and Elizabeth and the promise in their old age of a child, John, who would prepare the way for the coming Savior. This week, we hear in Luke 1:26-38 of the promise to Mary that she would give birth to that promised Savior, Jesus. Watch for similarities and differences in what we hear in these two stories.

It was the angel, Gabriel, who was sent from God to talk with Mary, as he had to Zechariah, about six months earlier (Luke 1:26). Gabriel went to the small town of Nazareth, in Galilee, in the northern part of Israel, where Mary lived and was betrothed (engaged) to Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. She was still a virgin, as they were not yet married and living together. Gabriel came to Mary with the words, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.” Mary was confused and perplexed at these words, and was pondering, reasoning within herself, about what the angel’s greeting meant (Luke 1:27-29). (We get the English word for “dialogue” from the Greek word used here.)

Mary must have also been afraid, having an angel suddenly appearing to her, for Gabriel said to her, as he did to Zechariah, “Do not be afraid,” (literally, “Stop being afraid”), “for you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:30). The word for “favor” in verses 28 and 30 is related to the word ”grace.” The Roman Catholic church understands these words to mean that Mary is “full of grace” and “a fountain of grace” who is sinless and is so good that she has extra grace to bestow on others who call upon her. That is not at all what this passage says, though.

Mary is a “favored one,” not as the mother, but as the daughter of grace, who has been graced, favored by God, with the privilege of being the woman through whom Jesus would be brought into the world. The particular Greek word used here is used in only one other place in the New Testament, in Ephesians 1:6. Paul is talking about how we become children of God through Christ Jesus, according to the purpose of His will (v.5) “to the praise of His glorious grace, in which He He has blessed us (literally, “graced us”, the same word for “favored” in Luke 1:28) in the beloved, in Christ (v.6). In other words, not only Mary is favored, graced by God, but all believers are, as “ones having been graced” by God, by His undeserved love and favor given to us.

Clearly, as we return to Luke 1:31-33, the important One in this whole passage is not Mary, but Jesus, for who He is and will be. Mary will be honored to “conceive and give birth to this Son, because His name will be “Jesus” (Savior, or The Lord Saves). “He will be great.”

Note that in Luke 1:15, John is also called “great,” but “great before the Lord” because of what God will do with him. Jesus will be “great” in Himself, for He is “the Son of the Most High” - an Old Testament name for God Himself. John is called “the prophet of the Most High,” preparing the way for the Lord (Luke 1:76). But Jesus is the Son of the
Most High, of God Himself (Luke 1:32).

In addition, the Son of Mary, Jesus, would receive “the throne of His father David” and “reign forever,” with an “everlasting kingdom.” The Kingdom of Israel split after David and Solomon into two kingdoms, and never again was there one kingdom with a king from the line of David. There were kings like Herod, as we have heard, but he was not even a Jew. When Jesus came, though, born of the Virgin Mary, He was the fulfillment of all those Old Testament prophecies, like 2 Samuel 7:16, Isaiah 9:7, Daniel 7:14, and so many more. His kingdom would not be “of this world” (John 18:33-37), but we are all part of this everlasting kingdom, by faith in Him. (See passages like John 17:13-20.)

Mary had been pondering all this, though, and she asked what seemed to her to be a logical question: “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34). People did not have all the scientific knowledge we have today, but they did know the basics of how a child is conceived. Literally, Mary said, “How will this be, since I do not know a man?” In those days, “to know” sometimes meant to have sexual relations with someone, to “know” in such a deep, personal way. (See, for example, Genesis 4:1, and Matthew 1:24-25, where in spite of what the Roman Catholic church says about Mary being a perpetual virgin, the Scriptures actually say that Joseph “knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.”) The virgin birth of Jesus Himself is affirmed, though, by both Luke and Matthew, as we will see.

In fact, the angel answered Mary’s question by simply saying that it would be by a miracle of God. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” One commentator, Donald Miller, points out that the word “overshadow” is also used in the transfiguration of Jesus in Luke 1:34-35. A cloud overshadowed everyone and then the voice of God the Father spoke, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him.”  

In the Old Testament, the glory of God was often shown by a cloud. God was both present and yet hidden from the people. See Exodus 40:34-38, and Exodus 13:21, 14:19-20, 16:10, 19:9, and 34:5. In Genesis, God created the first man, Adam, in a miraculous way. Here, the angel was saying, the conception and birth of the second Adam, Jesus, would also happen in a miraculous way, simply through the power of the Holy Spirit. As Miller says, “this calls for worship, not explanation.”

The Scriptures say that our own spiritual birth into the Christian faith comes also through the power of the Holy Spirit, working through the Word of God and the Word of God, connected with the water of Baptism. We are “born again of water and the Spirit” (John 3:3-6). We “have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God” (1Peter 1:23). It is a miracle of God for us, too, that calls for worship, not explanation. We do not know just when, but some think that the conception of Jesus happened when the angel was bringing these Words of God to Mary, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit worked through that Word.

What is clear is that, as the angel went on to say, “Therefore” (not because of some power or quality in Mary, but because of the miracle of God), “the Child to be born will be called holy - the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Jesus was “holy,” set apart for His saving work and without sin, from the time of His conception onward and through His whole life (Hebrews 4:15, 1 Peter 2:22, etc.) The same was never said of Mary, or any of us, in the Scriptures. (God the Son had been God and holy from all eternity before becoming man for our salvation.)

The angel then went on to tell Mary that her “relative Elizabeth in her old age had also conceived a son” and was already in her “sixth month” of pregnancy. This was also a miracle of God, but a different kind, as Zechariah and Elizabeth conceived this child, John, the normal way - but at an impossible age and when Elizabeth was seemingly barren, unable to have a child. How could all of this have been happening? The angel simply says, “For nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:36-37). God is not powerless in any way or any situation, though it is His good and gracious will that will be done, according to His wisdom, and for the ultimate good of those who are called by Him and love Him (Romans 8:28).

Mary had been graced with God’s favor, as His gift, and she responded with trust in God and His Word. She said, “Behold" (a way of saying “Look, see, pay attention!), "I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to Your Word” (Luke 1:38). That is always the goal of God and His Word  and therefore of Luke and what he wrote in this Gospel: “that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:4).

Then we simply hear: “And the angel departed from her” (Luke 1:38). Gabriel’s task had been completed. Mary had heard God’s Word, and she trusted it, by God’s grace. May the Lord lead us, also, to trust in Him and His Word, and if we are struggling, like Zechariah, wake us up spiritually, and help us to trust God and His Word more, too.

Next week, we will look at Mary meeting with Elizabeth and their encouraging each other; and we will hear Mary’s song of praise to God her Savior. A blessed Christmas celebration to you all, too, even if you are in a situation or country where few pay attention to the true Christmas story.