Annunciation
Dear friends in Christ. Today, exactly nine months before Christmas, Christ’s Church remembers the coming of the angel Gabriel to Mary to announce to her that she would be the mother of the long-awaited Savior. Today, we are celebrating a bit of Christmas in the midst of the Lent.
Is this out of place? Absolutely not! In Lent we remember our sin and repent of our sin. In Lent our gaze is turned also to Eden and the first sin, that sin which brought sin and its consequences into the world, that sin which made us all guilty and corrupted all people. Already in Eden, when God pronounced judgment on Adam and Eve, He also, at the same time, announced that He would send a Savior who would rescue and save all people from their sin and the results of that sin. He promised that the Offspring, the Descendant, of the woman would crush, destroy, the serpent, the Devil. Already in Eden, when God promised to send a Savior to the world, He said that the Savior would be the Descendant of the woman. Centuries later, He announced again, and made crystal clear that the Savior of the world would be born of a virgin: Behold, the virgin is conceiving and bearing a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Today, we rejoice in the events of our text—the angel announces a virgin, Mary, that she will be the mother of the Savior. That first promise of a Savior is fulfilled as the Son of God takes on human flesh and blood in the womb of Mary. Mary’s faith shines through so gloriously as she says at the end, Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word. Eve’s unbelief lead to sin and death; but Mary’s faith procured for us a Savior. How fitting that in Lent we remember God’s coming to be our Savior.
As we remember that the Son of God became also true Man, not first at Christmas, but nine months earlier, when the angel first announced to Mary that she would be the mother of the world’s Savior, we marvel all the more at how quietly Jesus came into the world. Jesus’ human body during those 9 months was fearfully and wonderfully made… and skillfully fashioned as in an underground workshop. The world knew nothing of it. Only the principles Mary and Joseph knew, and perhaps a few like Elisabeth. All during that time the Son of God had become also true man and was in the world—yet without any fanfare.
To whom did the Son of God quietly come that day? To someone who in the eyes of the world was insignificant. Mary was probably very young. Neither she nor her family was prominent in society. To be sure, she was a descendant of David, but so were thousands of others and the royal family was no longer the royal family. She and her husband were poor, only being able to afford the poor person’s sacrifice after Jesus’ birth. She lived in a city of Galilee named Nazareth. Nazareth was an insignificant city, not even mentioned in the OT nor by secular historians. Even when the future apostle Nathanael heard that Jesus was from Nazareth, asked Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Even Galilee was not held in high regard. In the OT times, it was the first region to fall to the Assyrians. After the Babylonian captivity, it was mostly settled by returning Jewish colonists that faithfully maintained religious fellowship with Jerusalem, but was not a part of Judea. The Son of God quietly came that day in a wonderful way, to a worldly insignificant, humble girl.
But what was most wonderful is that He came to her in grace. The angel literally says to Mary: Greetings, you who have been bestowed with grace! Grace is God’s undeserved favor. Mary had received this grace; Mary was in need of this grace! That Mary was chosen to be the mother of the Savior is solely by God’s grace. What Mary is, she is by grace, not merit. She didn’t get to be Jesus’ mother because she was so holy and perfect; it was not that she was sinless. Instead, she had been given grace. The angel told her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace with God. That is, you have a gracious God Who wants to show you grace! Like all of us, Mary needed that grace of God. She herself confessed her need of a Savior: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. Mary looked to the Lord and trusted in Him with Spirit- -worked faith, faith that the Lord Himself had created in her, and He was intending to bestow this greatest of blessings of her: to be the mother of the world’s Savior.
The Son of God first came to Mary that day by the word. First, the angel tells Mary the word, the promise of God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord 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. Mary heard the Lord’s word of promise and she believed it. She believed that she would be the mother of the eternal Son of God. Despite what she knew the outward facts to be, she trusted the Lord’s Word. She believed that at once she would be a mother. It was not doubt or unbelief, but she wanted guidance. She believed, but how could it be? Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” The angel Gabriel agrees but tells Mary to look to the Lord and His almighty power: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Then, without her asking, the angel gives Mary a sign to strengthen her faith: Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing is impossible.
The coming of the Son of God to Mary was a quiet coming. The almighty, eternal God, Whom the heavens cannot contain, became also true man in the womb of Mary, going through every stage of human development that we do, from single cell to billions. This coming in her womb was so quiet that the angel had to announce it to Mary and this word about Jesus worked faith in Mary’s heart so that she believed it and placed herself in the Lord’s service as a willing instrument: Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.
Mary was insignificant before the world, but the Lord showed her grace; the coming of the Son of God was quiet, but it was anything but insignificant. Here is the greatest miracle and most unfathomable mystery: the true, holy, almighty, eternal God became also a true man, born of a woman. In the quiet of Mary’s home, in the quiet of her womb, the greatest miracle was taking place: God becoming man.
Gabriel told Mary: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. The angel doesn’t tell Mary all the hows; he leaves the mystery. But what he does do is assure her of the Lord’s almighty working. The Holy Spirit would come upon her and some how, some way, purify and cleanse the substance from which the holy body of the Messiah would be built as a pure and holy temple. By a special, divine power, He would work it so that Mary would become pregnant without the participation of a man. Mary’s virginity would be preserved during conception and birth. Such a tremendous miracle and only one that God Himself could do. Only a divine working can separate sin from the human race. That’s what the Holy Spirit had to do in Mary to have a pure, holy substance, free from the taint and curse of original sin. From the sinful nature of Mary, the Holy Spirit had to produce the holy human nature for Jesus. That’s what we confess in the Creed: Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Notice that the angel calls Jesus that Holy One who is to be born. That means that He has no stain and guilt of sin; He has no original sin. His human nature is sinless—He is the Holy One. Jesus’ complete holiness and the fact that He is conceived by the Holy Spirit go together. The very fact that He is called the Holy One who is to be born, shows that this working of the Holy Spirit, separating and cleansing a human nature for the Son of God to assume in the womb of Mary, was going on then at that moment Gabriel was speaking.
That Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. That Jesus will be called the Son of God means that He will be and people will recognize Him as the Son of God. What a glorious mystery we have here: that true Man born of Mary is also God, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Jesus is both true, almighty, eternal, holy God and also a true Man, an offspring of the woman. To put it differently, Mary is the mother of the sinless, divine Savior.
The angel also says of Mary’s Son: He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and 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. Jesus is and is recognized as the Son of the Highest, as the true God in His supreme majesty. If Jesus is not God, then Christmas is nothing; then Lent and Easter are folly. Only because Jesus is true God, the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, who became also true Man do Christmas and Good Friday mean anything. If only a mere man was born and died, what would it matter? But, in fact, Jesus the God-man was born. Not only was He born, but also He kept God’s Law for us perfectly so that His righteousness can be our righteousness. Not only was He born and live a holy life for us, but He took all our sins with Him to the cross and there He suffered God’s wrath over them; there He paid the price. The only reason He could do all this for us is because He is both God and man. As man, He could be our Substitute under the Law and endure our punishment. As God, He could live a holy life without sin; and it was the fact that it was the blood of God that was shed on the cross that gave His sacrifice infinite worth for the sins of all. His Easter resurrection showed Jesus to be the very God Himself, who is also true man born of Mary.
It was this Jesus whose quiet coming to Mary we remember today. May we remember that He also comes to us to dwell in our hearts and may we, renewed and strengthened in faith by the Holy Spirit, welcome Him anew in our hearts and say with Mary, Here I am, the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. We do this as we repent of our sins and in Spirit-worked faith receive Jesus’ righteousness and the forgiveness He brought us. Rejoice dear Christian! Because we are, like Mary, insignificant in the eyes of the world; because, we, like Mary, were in need of God’s grace, Christ came to us in grace and mercy. He came to us at our baptism; He continues to come to us in His holy Word; He comes to us in a very special way in Holy Communion giving us His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of our faith. He, the true God dwells in us and gives us every heavenly and spiritual blessing. Christ’s coming to us today may be quiet, but it is anything but insignificant. INJ