What we read today is one of the most-loved
Bible passages of the Christmas season. It’s one of my favorites, too.
It’s a story of a miracle, of course. It’s a story of an ordinary
woman being called to do something extraordinary. But at its heart, this
is a story of great faith and of great trust.
Let’s look at Mary. Now, you will read in some places
the unequivocal statement that Mary was a young woman, really still a girl,
barely into her teens. And that’s possible. It would not have been
uncommon for a young, teenage girl to be engaged to be married at that time.
But we have no real way to know that. She certainly was not
elderly, because she was still alive more than thirty years later when Jesus
died on the cross. But there’s nothing that says Mary could not have been
in her twenties or even in her thirties. We simply do not know.
But regardless of her age, here she is. For all that
we can tell, she was an ordinary person. We’re not given any indication that
her family was wealthy or important or special in any way. The one thing
we’re told is that she was a relative of Elizabeth, who was about to become the
mother of John the Baptist. But that’s it. Again, as far as we can
tell, Mary was simply an ordinary person, with nothing at all remarkable about
her.
So she’s going about her daily business, and suddenly an
angel appears in front of her. And the angel says, “Greetings, you who
are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
We’re told that Mary was greatly troubled at his words, and
wondered what kind of greeting that might be. I would think she was all
that and then some. Can you imagine how you’d feel? You’re doing
whatever you do every day, and all of a sudden an angel appears? And
apparently there was no doubt in Mary’s mind that this was an angel. We
don’t know how she knew, but she clearly knew. Her mind must have been
spinning. What in the world is going on? What does an angel want
with me? Why would I be highly favored? What does that even mean,
that I’m highly favored? What’s this all about?
The angel apparently knows what Mary’s feeling, because the
angel goes on to tell Mary not to be afraid because she’s found favor with God.
And the angel then says the words we hear every year around this time.
“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him
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; his kingdom will never end.”
Mary’s head must have still been spinning. Can you
imagine how you’d feel? An angel comes along, out of the blue, and tells
you that you’re going to have a son. And not only that, but your son is
going to be incredible. He will be called great and the Son of the Most High.
He’ll have the throne of David. He will reign forever.
Now, if Mary believed this--and since she apparently knew
she was talking to an angel she probably did believe it--this had to be
incredible news. But still, imagine it. How would you feel if you
were told that your son, who was not even born yet, was going to be called
great, the Son of the Most High? That he’ll have a throne and will reign
forever? Angel or not, you’d have to wonder how in the world this was all
going to happen.
And Mary wonders about all that. But she goes a step
before that. She says, hey, wait a minute. You’re talking about me
having a son, and I’m a virgin. How is this going to happen?
The angel, of course, answers with some more familiar words.
“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.”
And then comes the part that always amazes me. Mary
answers, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me according to your
word.”
To me, this is more amazing than the virgin birth. I
mean, the virgin birth is a miracle, and it is amazing. But as
Christians, we know that God can do amazing things. God can do miracles.
I don’t mean to take anything away from God, but God’s in the miracle
business. It’s what God does. It’s who God is.
But Mary. Mary was an ordinary person. And she
is told all these incredible, unbelievable things by an angel. And I
don’t know that she really understood any of it. She almost certainly did
not understand how all this stuff could possibly happen. I don’t imagine
she knew all the hardships that awaited her, either. And yet, she goes along
with it. And she does so willingly, obediently, with no complaint
whatsoever. She says, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me
according to your word.” That’s pretty amazing. That’s an amazing
faith.
What if Mary had said no? Have you ever thought about
that? Because I assume she could have. There’s nothing in the Bible
reading that indicates God was going to force Mary to do this even if she did
not want to. What if she’d said no? Would the angel have done more
to try to convince her? Would the angel have crossed Mary’s name off the
list and gone on to a second choice? What would’ve happened?
Well, we’ll never know. And while I do believe Mary
could’ve said no, I also believe she was chosen by God because God knew she was
not going to say no. God knew that Mary was the right choice. And
while I’m sure Mary had all kinds of good qualities that made her the right
choice, one of the main one was the amazing faith Mary had. Mary, this
ordinary person with extraordinary faith, would be willing to say yes to something
she did not understand. And she would never regret her choice. No
matter what happened to her, no matter how hard the road was, no matter what
other people thought or did, she would still do what God wanted her to do.
She would trust God enough to follow God down any road God wanted her to
go, no matter where that road might lead.
And it was probably not an easy road. We know the
story of Jesus’ birth in a stable, but there’d have been a lot of tough things
before that. How’s Joseph going to react to this story? Is he going
to believe it? Would you? If you were a guy engaged to a woman, and
she tells you she’s pregnant, and you know the child cannot be yours, would you
believe that she had never been unfaithful to you, that this was a child that
was being born of the Holy Spirit?
And what about the rest of your family? What about
your friends? What about all the people in town? Every time you
walk down the street, hearing the whispers, being shunned by all the so-called
“respectable” people. Maybe even telling some of them your story, and
having none of them ever believe you. Basically being an outcast among
people you’d known all your life. That would be an incredibly hard thing.
But Mary did it. She put up with all of it. And
as far as we can tell, she never regretted her decision to do it. She had
put her complete faith and trust in God. She knew that this was all
happening because she was following God’s will. And she knew that God
would take care of her, and make everything work out the way it was supposed
to, no matter how hard things might get. Through it all, Mary continued
to put her complete faith and trust in God. She continued to have her
amazing faith.
But when you think about it, what Mary did is what each of
us is called to do. We may not have a conversation with an angel.
But we are called to follow God’s will. We are called to put our
complete faith and trust in God. You and I are called to have amazing faith,
too.
And we’re called to do that no matter what God’s will is.
We’re called to do that even if God’s will is something incredible,
something that seems impossible. We’re called to do that even if we don’t
really understand what God’s will is. We’re called to do that even if we
don’t understand how hard things are going to be. We’re called to do that
even if things get really, really hard. We’re still called to follow
God’s will. We’re still called to go down whatever road God leads us
down. And we’re still called to trust that, if God is leading us down a
road, then it must be the right one. We’re called to continue down that
road as long as God wants us to, no matter where that road takes us.
We’re called to put our complete faith and trust in God. You and I
are called to have amazing faith.
It’s not an easy thing to do. Because God sometimes
does call us to do some hard things. God never promises that our lives
will be easy if we follow God. Mary’s life was not easy. Jesus’
life was not easy. Most of the greatest heroes of the Bible led lives
that were not easy. But no matter how hard it got, they continued to
follow God’s will. They continued to put their complete faith and trust
in God.
Mary was an ordinary person. But she had an amazing
faith. She put her complete faith and trust in God. She followed
the road God led her down, no matter how hard it got. And she did so
willingly, never regretting her choice to say yes to God.
You and I are ordinary people. But we can put our
complete faith and trust in God, too. We can follow the road God leads us
down, no matter how hard it gets. And we can do so willingly, too, never
regretting our choice to say yes to God. You and I can have what Mary
had. We can have amazing faith.
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