LYRICS FOR TODAY'S SONGS
CCLI License # 1613304

December 17 | Luke 1:26-38 ISG Turning Shame Into Joy

Luke 1:26-38 (NIV)

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, 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 Jacob’s descendants 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 no word from God will ever fail.”38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

The Text in Context

“The mention of “the sixth month” in 1:26, 36 ties this episode in closely with the preceding one (note “five months” in 1:24), and the angel’s news about Elizabeth (1:36) keeps the two angelic announcements closely linked, thus preparing for the meeting of the two pregnant mothers in 1:39–56. The similar announcements to Zechariah and to Mary by the same angelic messenger prepare the reader for the parallel accounts of the births of John and Jesus in 1:57–66 and 2:1–20. But there is also a significant escalation between the two announcements, both in the status of the one to be born (prophetic forerunner as compared with Son of God) and in the scale of the miracle involved (a woman beyond normal childbearing years compared with a virgin without sexual intercourse).The direct and authoritative statement of Jesus’s supernatural origin and of his status as Son of God provides the reader of this Gospel at the outset with essential, privileged information with which to make sense of the story that will follow.”

Background

A Jewish girl would normally be pledged to be married at about twelve years old, and married about one year after that. Mary would therefore be in her early teens at this time, in striking contrast with the age of her relative Elizabeth, “well advanced in years” (1:7). Nazareth was a small, obscure hill village (cf. John 1:46) in the northern province of Galilee, far from the capital city of Jerusalem in Judea. In contrast with Gabriel’s visit to Zechariah in the Jerusalem temple, therefore, he is now visiting a person of no social significance, even though her fiancé was of Davidic descent. The names “Mary” and “Joseph,” like most of the names of characters in the Gospels, were both extremely common in first-century Palestine; nearly half of all Jewish women whose names are recorded at this period were called either “Mary” or “Salome.”

Theological Insights

The virginal conception of Jesus is not a frequent theme in the New Testament. Indeed, this passage and the “parallel” in Matthew 1:18–25 are the only places where it is explicitly asserted. All the other New Testament writers are content to declare that Jesus is the Son of God without feeling the need to “prove” it by this means. Even Luke and Matthew do not refer back to this theme as they develop their portraits of Jesus as the Son of God. It is recorded as a fact rather than as a theological argument per se, though of course it fits appropriately with the theology of a Jesus who is both human and divine. The presence of this miraculous event at the beginning of the Gospel matches the equally “impossible” event of the resurrection of a brutally executed man at the end. A theology that cannot accommodate God’s supernatural reordering of the “laws of nature” is never going to find it easy to make sense of a Jesus whose life begins and ends in such a way.

Reference: Excerpt From Luke, R. T. France

Financial Report for the month of October.

Giving: $ 13,985.30
Expenses: $ 11,075.00
----------------------------
Surplus: $ 2,910.30


Financial Report for the month of November.

Giving: $ 8,980.00
Expenses: $ 8,187.50
-----------------------------
Surplus: $ 792.50

Discussion Questions

1. Read Luke 1:26-38. People have been trying and praying to get pregnant but given the cultural and religious background of Mary (Deuteronomy 22:13-22), can you see why she was afraid of the news? How can good news be bad news in a given situation?
2. How would you feel to be called and chosen by God for a specific job? Will you feel honored even if it would cost you shame and possibly your own life?
3. Recall the incident when God himself visited Sarah and announced the birth of Isaac, what was Sarah’s response? (Genesis 18:9-15) How does this inform you of Mary’s response to God’s plan?
4. Given the initial announcement of Gabriel about the identity of Mary’s soon to be son and her main concern, would you say Mary did not really understand who she will be carrying for nine months? (Luke 1:30-35) does it look like she was more interested in the how than the who?
5. How does it work for us when we are called for Christian service? Are our objections about the why and how more than who we are serving?


Prayer
Lord, grant us the courage of obedience. We may not fully understand and see the bigger picture of your plans and the impact of our service to you, allowing us to feel honored with the privilege of serving you with our lives. Bring us closer to your will, help us see the unfolding of your kingdom on earth so that we may freely participate in submission. Amen.