“‘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; his kingdom will never end.’
‘How can this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’
The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon 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.’“
Luke 1:32-35
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NOVEMBER 27, 2024
The angel’s message continued: this child would be called Son of the Most High. He would be the Messiah! He would have the power of a king like David but would rule forever.
Mary was being called to mother the Messiah! Yes, being pregnant in this circumstance was unthinkable, but the significance of this child gave hope. This was the beginning of what the people of Israel had desperately sought for generations, and she was to be part of it! Fear, yes, but also the beginning of unbelievable anticipation: “How could I be given the incredible privilege of bearing the Messiah?”
Mary did not beseech God to use someone else. She did not ask for a sign from heaven to confirm the message she had heard. Her response was merely a reasonable question. Gabriel answered her query forthrightly: the child would be conceived of the Holy Spirit by the power of God. Could she believe that God would perform such a miracle in her own body? The history of her people was replete with supernatural interventions by God on their behalf, but it had been hundreds of years since a prophet of God had appeared in the land. Moreover, things had not been going well for God’s people as they struggled under the heavy, violent boot of imperial Rome.
Yet God was about to do a new thing. His redemptive plan was being set in motion through Mary. The Messiah was coming and would bring salvation to all who placed their faith in Him; not just to Israel but to the whole world.
Mary was integral to the gospel’s initiation. Her great privilege of being the mother of the Messiah would be accompanied by the anguish of watching the rejection, suffering, and finally death of her son on a Roman cross. Mary was not perfect, but she was faithful, and she lived to see hope realized in the resurrected Jesus. Mary’s agonizing grief would be turned to boundless joy.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
- What gives you hope?
- Where in the gospel is hope to be found?
- How has the hope of the gospel sustained you through challenges and difficulties?
- How would you communicate the hope within you to someone else?
Church Reading Plan: Micah 2; Luke 11