Amy C Walters

The Birth of Jesus Foretold – Luke 1:26-38

When the angel Gabriel is sent to announce the coming of the Messiah, he doesn’t go to someone who is rich or famous or influential. God sends him to a teenage girl in a backwater town, showing us that God uses all kinds of people for his plans.

This story has a lot in common with the story of the angels’ visit to Zechariah. Maybe you noticed some of it.

Those similarities are intentional for two reasons: first, they connect the babies that the angels tell about in both stories, John and Jesus–their stories, their purposes, their roles are intentionally connected through those similarities. Secondly, it highlights the differences between those two men.

So as we dive into this story and draw out our key truths, we’re going to be looking at those similarities and differences.

Our story starts “in the sixth month.” The “sixth month” refers to Elizabeth’s pregnancy. She is now six months along in her pregnancy with John, and that marks the time.

God then sends the angel Gabriel, not to Zechariah this time, but to Nazareth in Galilee. And Nazareth was this little, podunk town. In fact, Luke also includes Galilee as another reference for where this is, similar to if you live in a small town and you refer to the closest big city that people would recognize for context of where you are.

So this little, insignificant town of Nazareth in Galilee is where God sends this angel. And he goes to “a virgin who is pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.” So we find out more about Joseph right at first than we do about this virgin named Mary.

Virgin first tells us, of course, that she’s not married. She’s pledged to be married, but it’s also a synonym for a young woman. In fact, Mary was probably a teenager.

So we have this insignificant town and we have this insignificant teenage girl.

I say “insignificant” because that’s how the culture viewed her. She did not have a great deal of importance in her own society.

If we contrast this to who the angel Gabriel visited in the Zechariah and Elizabeth story, there the angel visits Zechariah, a man and an older man, and age has great significance and importance in that society. And he’s the head of his household. He is also a priest, a man in ministry serving at the temple. In fact, when the angel visits him, he has been chosen by lot to go in and offer incense, which is a great honor as well.

So in that story, the angel is sent to this great man, an important man, someone that the society would highly value. And in contrast, in this story, the angel is sent to Mary, someone who seems insignificant from an insignificant place.

And yet, the job that she’s given through this angel’s visit is not insignificant at all. In fact, this is a moment that God has been preparing his people for. This is a moment that every book of the Bible up to this point has been pointing to this messiah. The Israelites have been looking forward to the coming of the messiah for centuries.

So here the time has come, and God is giving this huge responsibility of being the mother of the Messiah to this little girl. This is a huge moment, and God is entrusting it to someone who seems insignificant.

If you’re a parent, have you ever left your children in the responsibility of someone that you weren’t sure you could trust? That is scary.

We’ve done it before, gone on a date with my husband while somebody watched our children, and as wonderful as it is to spend time with my husband, I was so distracted with the stress and anxiety of worrying about my children and if they were okay and if the person who was watching them could handle it.

And yet here we see the God of the universe enacting his redemptive plan to save the world and he entrusts it to Mary.

The angel in speaking to her twice mentions the word “favor.” He says, “Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you.” 

He also tells her, “Do not be afraid. You have found favor with God.” 

What a beautiful concept of God’s favor being on someone. There is nothing more that you could ask for than God’s favor.

But this story does not give us a reason for God’s favor. There’s no, “Mary, you have God’s favor because….” There’s no because.

The angel doesn’t follow it up with, “Because you come from a good family, or you have excellent character, or maybe you have great influence and a lot of followers, and so people will notice you and follow you and listen to you.” 

It’s none of that.

In fact, what the angel is referring to here is the favor of being chosen to be part of God’s plan. That is his favor, and it’s not based on anything about Mary, who she is, who her family is, where she’s from. It’s based on God’s grace.

You see, our key truth from today tells us that God uses all kinds of people for his plans.

He uses great people, honored people, respected people like Zechariah, and he uses unknown small town teenage girls like Mary.

He uses old and young.

He uses loud and quiet.

He uses important and insignificant.

And he wants to use you.

You have a part in God’s plans. He wants to use you in his work of drawing people to himself.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, who you’re related to.

God uses all kinds of people, and he can use you.

In later blog posts, we’re going to look at how Mary responds to God’s call in her life and how important that response is. But for today, I want you to just dwell on this idea that God uses all kinds of people, and specifically, he wants to use you.