Sermon for the Annunciation
Isaiah 7:10-16 + Luke 1:26-38
This evening, March 25th, we’re taking a break from Lent. We’re also taking a break from fixating on the pathogen that has been introduced into the world. You know the word “virus” comes from a Latin word that means “venom”? As in a serpent’s venom. You see how it all goes back to the Garden of Eden, how the devil first introduced the venom of sin into our race through our first parents, who then passed on that sickness to their children. That’s why the devil was allowed to introduce other forms of venom, like disease, into our cursed world. But on this day we celebrate a much more important thing that was introduced into the world, the only truly healthy, holy thing that has been introduced into the world since the fall of Adam and Eve. On this day, nine months before Christmas, we celebrate the conception of Jesus in the womb of the virgin Mary, also known as the Annunciation.
The Annunciation transports us out of New Mexico for a little while, back to the region of Galilee in northern Israel, to the city of Nazareth, some 34 years before Jesus was crucified. It was a world that knew its share of pestilence and filth, war and injustice and oppression and poverty. Into that world stepped the angel Gabriel—a holy spirit-creature, untainted by sin. He only stepped in for a moment, though, to deliver a very important message. Then he stepped back out again. He wasn’t the one who coming to live with us in this dark place.
What do we know about Mary? All we really know about her ancestry is that she was descended from King David. It may be that Luke gives us her ancestry, while Matthew gives us Joseph’s ancestry, since they’re different from David on. Then again, some Church Fathers explained how both Matthew and Luke might give different sides of Joseph’s ancestry. Either way, Jesus is called the “seed of David according to the flesh,” according to His human nature. So we conclude that Mary, like Joseph, was a descendant of David.
We also know that she lived in Nazareth in Galilee, and that she was somehow related to Elizabeth, Zacharias’ wife, who lived down in Judea. Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph, but they weren’t married yet, they weren’t living together yet, and they had never slept together. Mary was a virgin.
The angel Gabriel startled her with his greeting: “Greetings!” Ave, Maria! Hail, Mary! (Ave means “Greetings!”) But not, Hail, Mary, full of grace. That has always been a poor translation. He calls her “favored one,” one who has been shown grace, who has been favored or given a gift by God.
The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women! To this day we still sometimes refer to Mary as the blessed virgin, not because she has any blessings to give us, but because, above all women, she was given a special blessing. She would play a unique and special part in His plan to save sinners. Not that she would save anyone, but she would carry God’s Son in her womb for nine months, give birth to Him, take care of Him until He was an adult, accompany Him at various points of His ministry, accompany Him at the foot of His cross, become an early witness of His resurrection, and find a place among the early disciples in the early Church. No other woman in history has had a blessing or a gift like that.
Of course, Mary knew none of that. She was confused and frightened by Gabriel’s greeting and by the very sight of an angel.
But Gabriel quickly explained: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” What do those words tell us?
First, they tell us that Mary was one of those believers in the God of Israel and in His promise to send a Savior, the Christ, to redeem Israel. Many of the Jews had given up waiting for the Christ by that time. But Mary hadn’t. She had faith in God; she trusted in God, “her Savior,” as she would later sing in the Magnificat. And by faith in Him, she had received grace and favor and the forgiveness of her sins.
That faith had also produced in her a willingness to submit to God’s Word and to God’s will. That’s already demonstrated in her proper behavior with Joseph, her “fiancé.” She is engaged to a man, but doesn’t come together with him or with any man, until after they’re married. Seems so simple, and yet the rest of the world outside of Israel was just as promiscuous as our world has become, and even within Israel there was plenty of adultery. So we shouldn’t dismiss Mary’s chastity. She is held up for all young women (and young men) as an example to be followed, an example of faith, humble obedience to God, and chastity.
Then the angel told Mary the amazing plan God had for her: See, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a Son, and you will call His name JESUS. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom there will be no end.
This is the wonder Isaiah had prophesied: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son and will call His name Immanuel.” Note several things about Him. He would be the Son of God as well as the Son of Man. He would be born with a pre-determined name that would characterize His entire life: Jesus, Savior. He would be a “King,” the Son of David, but His kingdom would be so much bigger than David’s kingdom ever was. David reigned over the physical nation of Israel. Jesus would reign over the true “house of Jacob,” the Holy Christian Church, made up of all whom He would bring into His kingdom through faith. And His kingdom would have no end, either in space or in time. It would stretch throughout the universe, and it would last forever and ever.
Mary then asked the obvious question: How will this be, since I do not know a man? There are two ways to ask a question of God. There’s the Zacharias way when the same angel told him that he and Elizabeth would have a son in their old age. “How can this be?”, for which the angel scolded him. Or like Mary, trusting that God is not lying, knowing He can do whatever He wants, that He will do whatever He says, but wanting to know how? After all, in Zacharias’ case, it was very unlikely Elizabeth would conceive a child because of her age and her barrenness, but not unheard of. Even Sarah, Abraham’s wife, had a son in her old age. But Mary’s case would be unique in all of history. It was a reasonable question, “How?”
The angel told her: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy thing which will be born of you will be called the Son of God.
Here we see the proper role of the Holy Spirit: to bring God’s Word to the world. He did it first in creation. He did it through the words of the prophets. But now He will bring the very Word who was in the beginning with God and who was God, into the world through a great miracle, so that the eternal person of the Word took on human flesh. And Gabriel calls Him, not just a holy person, but a “holy thing.” Something brand new and unique, in two ways: First, as a one-of-a-kind person who was fully God and fully Man. Second, as a Man who was conceived of a sinful woman, and yet who was holy, untainted by original sin. The phrase “immaculate conception” is used by the Roman Church falsely to refer to Mary, which is why we never use that phrase. But it does describe well the conception of Jesus.
Mary gives us another beautiful example of submission to God’s will: Here I am, the Lord’s maidservant. May it be done to me as you have said. She could only begin to imagine the hardships such a pregnancy would create in her life. She couldn’t begin to imagine how challenging it would be to raise the Son of God, or one day, to watch Him die on a cross. But whatever would come, whatever the Lord’s will was for her, she was ready to accept it. And for that, we give thanks to God. Her words are a model for all Christians of all times of what it looks like to simply believe the seemingly unbelievable promises of God. Nothing is impossible with Him. If He promises, He will fulfill.
Nine months from today, Lord willing, we’ll be gathered together again, celebrating Christmas, almost certainly in a world that looks quite different than it did last Christmas. So hold onto the things that don’t move, that don’t change. Hold onto the introduction of the holy thing that is Jesus into the world. Because no matter how unholy the world around you is and becomes, no matter how unholy you are by nature, it’s your connection to that holy thing, to Jesus Christ, the Son of David, that will be your salvation, both now and in eternity. Whatever He wills in this world around us, whatever He does, it will be for the best. Learn from Mary always to respond, “Here I am, the Lord’s servant. May it be done to me as you have said.” Amen.
