Luke 1

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. 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.

In the middle of the 20^th century, the British poet John Betjeman wrote a famous poem about Christmas. In the poem, he reflects on his memories of Christmas: the decorations, the glow of fires, family and friends gathering to celebrate, the bustle of shops and commerce, the festivities. But after listing all of these nice memories of the trappings of Christmas and as he approaches the conclusion of the poem he pivots to a question:

And is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,
A Baby in an ox’s stall ?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me ?

And is it true ?…[1]

He goes on to conclude that if the answer is yes, and if, in fact, “this most tremendous tale” is true, then nothing can compare to that fact.

I like that. And I agree. If the Christmas story is true, if it actually happened as the scriptures say, then all the things we love about Christmas pale in comparison to the truthfulness of the story.

“And is it true?…And is it true?”

The scriptures answer Yes! And the account of the annunciation, of the angel’s announcement to Mary in Luke 1, bears this fact out.

Charles Erdman wrote in 1929 that the verses of our passage constitute “the crown of all prophecy and…reveal…the supreme mystery of the Christian faith, namely, the nature of our Lord, at once human and divine.”[2] I like that too! That too is true!

Let us consider this true and amazing story.

The specificity of the text speaks to its historical nature.

One of the first things we notice about the annunciation is that it contains a great deal of specific details. Consider:

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.

We have a specific time. We have a specifically named angel (which is unusual in scripture). We have a specific town. We have a specific young lady.

The specificity of the text speaks to its historical nature.

This passage is not bathed in fantastical elements. To be sure, there is a shocking announcement at the heart of it, but what I mean is that it reads and feels like a historical account! Luke seems to be taking pains to say, “This is not a fairy tale. This happened. Here is when it happened. Here is where it happened. Here is the one to whom it happened.”

C.S. Lewis was an atheist Oxford professor who became a Christian. He was a professor of literature who read widely. He once remarked that he was very familiar with fairy tales and myths and one thing that struck him about the New Testament was how it did not read like a myth at all. Rather, it read like history.

The scriptures present the events of Christmas as history, as something real, as something concrete, as something that actually happened. This is important to the church.

We can quibble with the numbers in this, but I have always appreciated the point of the

“Proclamation of the Birth of Christ” from the Roman Martyrology for Christmas Mass. Listen to this:

The twenty-fifth day of December.

In the five thousand one hundred and ninety-ninth year of the creation of the world

from the time when God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth;

the two thousand nine hundred and fifty-seventh year after the flood;

the two thousand and fifteenth year

from the birth of Abraham;

the one thousand five hundred and tenth year from Moses

and the going forth of the people of Israel from Egypt;

the one thousand and thirty-second year

from David’s being anointed king;

in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel;

in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;

the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome;

the forty-second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;

the whole world being at peace

in the sixth age of the world,

Jesus Christ the eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,

desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming,

being conceived by the Holy Spirit,

and nine months having passed

since his conception,

was born in Bethlehem of Judea

of the Virgin Mary,

being made flesh.[3]

Again, those numbers can be critiqued but the overall point stands: the angelic announcement to Mary and all that followed—the birth of Jesus being the most important event of all—actually happened in space and time in the midst of history and local politics and neighborhood gossip and the ebb and flow of village life and the bigger events of the wider world…none of them bigger than this event, though! The Bible is quite specific: this happened!

The multiplicity of the titles speaks to Jesus’ greatness.

If the specificity of detail speaks to the historicity of these events the multiplicity of Jesus’ titles speak to His greatness! Listen to what the angel says about this child who will be born.

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.”

Just look at those titles:

• He will be great.

• Son of the Most High

• He will be given the throne of David.

• He will reign over the throne of Jacob.

• He will reign forever.

• Of his kingdom there will be no end.

Darrell Block points out that the angels pronouncement “stresses three things about Jesus: his position (Son of God, Son of the Most High, ruler), his authority (seated on Israel’s throne forever; ruler of a kingdom that will never end) and his divine ties (the Holy Spirit will come…and…overshadow you).”

Title after title is announced along with adjective after adjective.

There is none like this Jesus! Mary surely marveled at this news! David Jeffrey writes that Mary “must have been astounded at the eschatological magnitude of what was being said to her. After all, the earthly throne of David had been supplanted by the Herodians, and the Romans now occupied the land.”[4] This is important to note. While we cannot say for certain just how much Mary understood about the true nature of Jesus as fully God and fully man, this much is clear: she knew from these titles that he was more than a mere baby and that this child was from God.

In time, the church would flesh out in creeds and confessions the full biblical teaching about the greatness of Christ and His true identity.

Consider the lines on Jesus from the 4^th century Nicene Creed:

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Consider also the words of the 5^th century Chalcedonian Definition concerning the nature of Jesus:

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable soul and body; consubstantial with us according to the manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to the manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.[5]

Consider also these lines from the 6^th century Athanasian Creed:

29. Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
30. For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.
31. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world.
32. Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
33. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.
34. Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.
35. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God.
36. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.
37. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ[6]

There is none like Jesus! He is King and Lord and God!

The humility of Mary’s response speaks of saving faith.

If the specificity of detail speaks of historicity and if the multiplicity of titles speaks of Jesus’ greatness the humility of Mary speaks of saving faith. Many have observed that Mary is presented as a kind of model Christian in this text, and, indeed, she is! Watch her amazing faith:

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.”

Mary wonders aloud how these things can be. The angel reveals that though she is a virgin she will bear a child from God. Verse 37 can be seen as a summary statement of the heart of this amazing miracle: “For nothing will be impossible with God.” What a word! What a promise! What a truth! Nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is impossible with God!Christmas is specifically when we see this truth in most startling display! The 17th century Austrian poet and Protestant Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg waxed profound and eloquent on this verse when she wrote:

Every impossible thing that can be imagined is possible with God. What is more impossible than walking through the sea? Still he made it come to pass. Than a rock giving water? Still he made it flow forth. Than to stop the sun? Still he made it stand still, indeed, made it go back to where he wanted it to be. Nature can have nothing and the sharpest mind think of nothing that would be impossible for God. He who set limits to nature holds sway in complete freedom outside of the bounds of nature. Nothing is impossible for him except finding something impossible for him…He could make the mountains into pearls, the stars into tinsel; in contrast, sand into stars and the sea into flames. He could make jewels grow on trees and in mussels, cherries. He could make it so the rocks gave forth oil and the grain bore ore. He could make nature turn around or create a new such thing in which what is now unnatural would be natural.[7]

How beautiful! But more beautiful still is our final verse, verse 38:

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.

Surely this is one of the most beautiful verses in all of scripture! “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to the word.”

Oh my. Let us just take a moment and praise God for this kind of faith! Let us ask Him to give us this kind of faith! The great reformer Martin Luther wrote of this:

This virgin had a faith of which there is no equal in the entire Bible…[Mary] believed, and closed her eyes, although reason and all creatures were against it: her heart clung alone to the Word.[8]

Yes, this is a model for us: Mary’s faith.

How beautiful.

How powerful!

How convicting!

It must be understood that Mary’s answer is ultimately to God. She puts her faith and, indeed, her very life in the hands of God. She takes the step. She kneels before His will. She dares to believe.

The Van Dyck brothers made this point in a beautiful way in the paintings on his Ghent Altarpiece.

The Ghent Altarpiece (or the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Dutch: Het Lam Gods) is a large and complex 15^th-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. It was begun c. the mid-1420s and completed by 1432, and is attributed to the Early Flemish painters and brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck. The altarpiece is considered a masterpiece of European art and one of the world’s treasures…

A couple of panels on the back of this altarpiece capture the scene of our text, the annunciation.

But there is a little detail that we dare not miss. In one of the panels we see the angel Gabriel. His words are written in Latin: AVE GRACIA PLENA D(OMI)N(U)S TECU(M) (“Hail who art full of grace, the Lord is with you”). And then, across the way, we see Mary and her response. She answers: ECCE ANCILLA D(OMI)NI (“Behold the handmaiden of the Lord”). But here is where the Van Eyck brothers do something brilliant.

As in van Eyck’s Washington Annunciation of c. 1434–6, the letters of Mary’s reply are inscribed in reverse and upside-down; as if for God to read from heaven, or for the holy spirit, as represented by the dove, to read as he hovers directly above her. She answers ECCE ANCILLA D(OMI)NI (“Behold the handmaiden of the Lord”).

Now beautiful! In this painting she is not answering the angel. She is answering ultimately to God above!

This is faith: a human heart crying out to God in faith and humility: a heart daring to believe, a heart willing to submit, a heart eager to allow God to do whatever it is He wants to do in our lives, trusting that He will always do what is best.

Have you, like Mary, yielded to the call of God on your life? Specifically, have you, like Mary, embraced the promised Christ in faith? Have you agreed to let Jesus disrupt your life with His coming…all for the glory of God?

Have you said with her, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word”?

Do so today.

Do so now!

 

[1] https://allpoetry.com/poem/8493411-Christmas-by-Sir-John-Betjeman

[2] Charles R. Erdman. The Gospel of Luke. (Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1929), p.23.

[3] RJN, “While We’re At It,” First Things. January 2006.

[4] David Lyle Jeffrey. Luke. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2012), p.27.

[5] https://www.theopedia.com/chalcedonian-creed

[6] https://www.ccel.org/creeds/athanasian.creed.html

[7] Beth Kreitzer, ed. Luke. Reformation Commentary on Scripture. Gen. Ed. Timothy George, Assoc. Gen. Ed., Scott M. Manetsch. New Testament, vol. III (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015), p.20.

[8] Beth Kreitzer, ed. Luke. Reformation Commentary on Scripture. Gen. Ed. Timothy George, Assoc. Gen. Ed., Scott M. Manetsch. New Testament, vol. III (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015), p.19.