Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-december-15-2023
Luke 1:26-38
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.32 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, 33 and he will reign over the House of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
One of my favorite works of Christian art is a painting of the Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner, who is regarded as the first African-American painter to become genuinely famous for his work. Turner painted this work in 1898, and it hangs today in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It’s his imagining of the Annunciation, the event recounted in the passage we’re thinking about today.
I love this painting because it’s not an extravagant tableau with some strange winged angel talking to a gorgeous young woman with a beatific expression on her face. Instead, it shows a young woman in ordinary clothes, sitting on her bed looking intently into a glowing light that has appeared before her. It seems to me this is a lot more realistic portrayal of the event than most of the Christian art about the Annunciation.
Here’s a link, in case you’d like to have a look:
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/henry-ossawa-tanner-the-annunciation
We’re also projected this painting during our service last Sunday when we sang a hymn about the Annunciation entitled “No Wind at the Window.” Here’s a link to a video of the hymn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D0rfF_Lc18
It’s a well-known story – the announcement to Mary that she will give birth to a child. We know that child as the Messiah, but the word ‘Messiah’ doesn’t appear in the passage, and neither does its Greek equivalent, which is ‘Christ.’ The angel Gabriel tells Mary that the child to be born to her will be called “the Son of the Most High,” and that he will be given the name Jesus. Actually, ‘Jesus’ is a Greek form of the name; the actual name would have been ‘Yeshua,’ which is Hebrew for ‘God saves.’
The angel tells Mary that her son will be given the throne of his ancestor, King David. Even though Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus, the fact that he was born into Joseph’s house would have made Jesus a descendant of David in the minds of ancient Jews. For centuries, there had been prophesies that said that the Messiah, when he came, would be born into the line of David. So if Mary knew about the scriptures of her people, and we assume she did, then she probably understood the angel’s meaning: that her son would be the one who had been foretold.
Gabriel also told Mary that her child would “reign over the house of Jacob forever.” You might remember that Jacob was renamed by God and given the name ‘Israel.’ So he would establish an everlasting reign over God’s people.
As this story is told, we have three indications of Mary’s reaction to this strange news. First of all, we’re told that she is “greatly troubled” at the words of the angel. It’s always seemed to me that the actual words of the angel were the least ‘troubling’ aspect of the whole encounter. It seems to me that having an angel (or a glowing presence) appear out of thin air and start talking to you would be fairly “troubling” no matter what the angel says. But the angel assures Mary there’s nothing to fear.
When she has heard the angel’s message, Mary asks how this is going to work, considering that she’s a virgin. Obviously, it’s a reasonable question, and apparently she asks it without expressing any doubt or skepticism, because the angel goes on to describe what will happen. And as if to deal with any question about God’s ability to bring about a miraculous birth, the angel points out that her relative Elizabeth, who was thought to be beyond childbearing age, is also pregnant.
The Protestant tradition has probably failed to fully appreciate Mary’s role in salvation history, mostly because we believe that our Roman Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters go too far in venerating her. But it’s entirely possible to appreciate Mary’s inspiring trust in God without buying into all of the questionable theology that has been attached to her throughout history.
The fact that should never be forgotten from this story of the Annunciation is this: When the angel Gabriel showed up and told Mary what would happen, he was telling her about events that had the potential to expose her to a lot of scorn and humiliation in her culture. In fact, a woman in her circumstances could even wind up being stoned as an adulteress. But Mary’s trust in God was so strong that she could say the equivalent of ‘Whatever God wants, I’ll do.’
And for that alone, Mary deserves to be regarded with great admiration.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the great faithfulness your servant Mary showed, and for the example of courage and steadfastness she would show throughout the life of her Son and yours. Let that example inspire us each to play our part in the building of your kingdom with the same faithfulness and courage. Amen.
Every Blessing,
Henry
(The listed readings for today are Psalms 122 and 123; Haggai 1:1-15; Revelation 2:8-17; and Matthew 23:27-39. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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