Advent, the third week - The How and the Who

 The Holy Child

Advent Sunday - the beginning of the third week of Advent – and we listen to the Angel Gabriel tell Mary HOW, and WHO is going to be birthed by God in her.  The passage below describes their encounter:

Luke 1:26-35
 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

 This encounter between the angel Gabriel and Mary was as sudden as Zechariah’s encounter with Gabriel six months before.  Since Elizabeth had retreated is might be safe to say that Mary didn’t know about Elizabeth’s surprise pregnancy.  Yet, even if she did, it would be far-fetched to assume she would think she was also going to get an Angelic visitation. 

Gabriel’s work is to announce, not ask.  She is going to conceive in her womb and the son born to her is the Son of the “Most High” – the words used by God. 

Mary’s response – in most nativity plays I’ve seen – seems to be a quick reply, as if it were said in seconds - “How will this be since I am a virgin?”   Yet, I envision Mary being stunned and the words come out of her mouth slowly, deliberately, as if she has to think of every word. 

Here is where the words spoken by Gabriel need time for us to think about - “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” 

Here’s the incarnation from God’s Angel to us.  The Holy Spirit “overshadows” … he comes to Mary to do what is predestined to be, and so, the child will be birthed, but not as a  mere human being, for He  is holy.  The HOW and the WHO come into full view – Jesus is no mere human, but he is holy, the divine nature is as full as the human nature, but the human nature is not defiled by the Sin nature of every other birth.

Jesus will be human.  He will grow, eat, sleep, and play, but never sin.  He is the holy child who will grow to be the perfect Holy redeemer.  What humans could never do, God did in sending his Holy Son.  Yet we can trust in Him completely for he knows what it means to be human.  He is the Son of God sent by a loving God to redeem His people from their Sin.