Good News Of Great Joy: Lessons From The Gospel Of LukeSample

"Third Sunday of Advent: Mary's Belief"

In the opening chapters of Luke, the stories of John the Baptist and Jesus are laid out side by side: two cousins, two pregnancies, two hymns of praise, and two deliveries at the beginning of two great lives. The similarities are striking. Both John and Jesus were born to godly women who apart from divine intervention were unable to bear children. The births of both were announced by the same angel, who told people not to be afraid, proclaimed the birth of a son, gave each child his name, and explained his mission in life. 

It is doubtful whether Gabriel could have found a more unlikely person to visit than Mary anywhere in Israel. Mary was among the lowly. She was young—possibly as young as twelve or thirteen, in that awkward stage between childhood and womanhood. Like many people in Israel, she was a poor, uneducated peasant living in a small country town far from the center of power. Yet Mary was given the greatest honor that any woman has ever been given. She was chosen to be the mother of Jesus, and her lowly estate was part of God’s plan. By choosing Mary, God was beginning to show what humiliation his Son would have to endure for the salvation of sinners. 

More and more, as the story unfolds, we see the strange juxtaposition of meekness and majesty that define the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. 

Gabriel told Mary that the Holy Spirit would “overshadow” her in language that echoes the Old Testament and reminds us that the Holy Spirit has been actively involved in everything that God has ever done. No work of the Spirit is more miraculous than the work he did in Mary’s womb, enabling the virgin to give birth to the Son of God. 

Only the virgin birth preserves the humanity and the deity of Jesus Christ. His conception by the Spirit points to his deity. His birth from a woman points to his humanity. One person, two natures—a divine nature and a human nature. And because he was conceived by a unique creative act of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was not corrupted by the guilt of Adam. Fallen humanity could not produce its own Savior; he had to come from somewhere outside, by way of divine initiative and intervention. 

What needs in your life—the forgiveness of sin, restoration after heartbreak, physical and financial struggle—sometimes seem impossible for God to fulfill?