It began with a star and the first to come into the Light of the star was Mary.  What do we know of Mary?  From our Gospel reading this morning we see that she was a virgin to betrothed to Joseph.  But other than that there is little to glean from the text as to who she was and where she came from.  Other text refer to her as the Husband of Joseph or the mother of Jesus, but where she came from and her background, there is nothing to be said. 

We can come to know some of her character from the scriptures.  Our text this morning says that she was “favored” by God.  Now the Hebrew word for favor is “chen” which means “approval” or  “affection” as it relates to the idea of grace.  It is also used in the context of “gracious”.  So, we can see she is a woman of grace and God saw she was of such “chen” to be the mother of His Son Jesus Christ!

We see other characteristics of Mary in other stories.  Remember when they were in Jerusalem for the Passover and when they left, they thought Jesus was with other relative and then discovered He was missing. They returned back to Jerusalem and found him, yet Mary was portrayed as calm and marveled at Jesus response to their concern for Him. 

In Acts, after Jesus death, she is with the disciples and the other women of the group and the last mention of her is being in prayer with the other women as they chose the replacement for Judas.

Mary shows herself to be a women with a quiet spirit, humble piety and self-controlled.  She was not boastful of who she was and the mysteries of her experience.  But kept them hidden in her heart.

Who was Mary?  She began her entrance into the scriptures with concern and doubt when the Angel Grabriel spoke to her. ²⁸And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" ²⁹But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, 

Angels don’t make a habit of appearing to people in the middle of nowhere. There are actually very few examples of it happening in Scriptures. Jacob was visited by angels several times in his life - on his way from and back to Israel. The angel of the Lord appeared to Moses to tell him to set his people free. One appeared to rescue the three men from the fiery furnace. Usually when they did appear, it was at crucial moments in the history of the Israelites - when God’s select few needed assurance and protection. Therefore, when Luke starts out his narrative with a story about an angel appearing - both to Zechariah and then ALSO to Mary, we know something special is about to take place - something that has never happened in the history of the world. Seemingly out of nowhere, God was about to announce his eternal plans in specific detail to one young and insignificant lady living in Nazareth. God told Mary - I’ve Got a Surprise for You

 Remember the promise made long ago through the prophet Jeremiah “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.” (23:5) I am about to fulfill this through you. Even though Mary was a seemingly insignificant young lady living in a small village, God was going to use her womb to turn the whole world upside down.

The angel had literally told Mary that she was about to be the recipient of an undeserved gift of God. What kind of a gift would this be? Why was this angel appearing to HER, a simple and sinful servant of the Lord? Something big was about to happen - but she didn’t know what.   So Gabriel went on . . You will be with child and give birth to a son. Gabriel was telling Mary - a virgin - that she was going to have a son. That right there would be enough to absolutely put any woman into shock. But this news of Gabriel was far beyond that. You are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. Jesus. This is the Greek transliteration of the Old Testament name Joshua - which is a shortened form of two Hebrew words meaning - “the Lord saves.” This son that she would have - God - would be the Savior of the world - long foretold!

 What an unbelievable surprise this was! God was going to send His Son to come into this world and take over this world through the womb of Mary - a lowly virgin from Nazareth! You would expect him to come in with both guns blazing - a mighty and powerful army of angels - overthrowing governments and throwing evil people out of this world. But instead, he comes in the flesh and blood of a helpless little boy!

 
Mary never asked “why,” if you’ll notice. As a descendant of Jacob, she knew why. She had read of the curse that mankind had been under from the fall of Adam and Eve. She knew that the world was under a curse of sin. She knew from the religious rites and regulations of sacrificing sheep and the Passover - that a Savior had to come to save them from their sins. God had promised Abraham that “through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 22:18) She knew WHY this had to happen - because she was a sinner and the world was full of sinners in need of a Savior. She wasn’t even in awe over what her Son would be - the eternal King of the universe!

What she didn’t get was the question “how”? “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” It just wasn’t natural. Mary was about to experience the fact that God doesn’t always do things NATURALLY. He does do them SCRIPTURALLY, however. Isaiah had promised 700 years before that - the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14  So the angel Gabriel explained to Mary , “The Holy Spirit will come upon 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. So Gabriel basically said, “it’s going to be a miracle - plain and simple.”

Should that have surprised us? From the fall of Adam, the world was locked by NATURE into sin. It is naturally passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, the only way that God could BREAK OUR NATURE would be to miraculously cause a BREAK IN NATURE. God had broken nature before - in order to give the Israelites a victory - he made the sun stand still for Joshua. In order to give Gideon assurance that he would win the victory, he withheld dew from the ground one morning. But in order to save the WORLD, a much greater break in nature would have to take place. The Savior - as the substitute for sinners - would have to be born WITHOUT sin and die for the sins of the world. The only way that this could be done is if God became flesh. God would have to put on skin - something that was not natural or even seemingly feasible. He couldn’t inherit this sin of man, so he couldn’t have a human father - it would need to be a VIRGIN birth. What a miracle indeed!

 But notice Mary’s simple yet faith filled response to this miracle. At first she was startled, confused, and troubled at the angel’s greeting. Yet in the end she said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” She was created for one purpose - to serve the Lord. So if the Lord wanted to make a miracle happen through her womb - and through her womb bring about the Savior who would rescue the world from it’s sins - she was glad to have it happen. She didn’t worry about how to deal with Joseph or her family or what this pregnancy would do to HER body or HER reputation. Why? Because she knew that this baby that she was giving birth to was the fulfilment of what God had promised to Abraham and her forefathers - who would one day save HER from HER sins. (Luke 1:46-50)

But that’s not why God chose her. The angel simply said she was “highly favored” - which literally means that she was “graced”. To be “gracious” to someone means to show them a favor they DON’T deserve. Mary realized that she didn’t deserve God to choose her, but she was thankful that He did. When we compare ourselves to Mary, we thank God that he is also GRACIOUS to us. We don’t deserve for God to choose us. Yet the whole message of Christmas is about God’s generosity. The Son that Mary bore did a lot more than what she did. This God and man spent his WHOLE LIFE - every waking moment - obeying God’s laws in our place. He took the time to preach to the poor and heal the sick - not just Christmas time. When He was then called upon to go to the cross, He took the time and the effort to die for Mary, for me, and for you. Instead of taking a baby in his womb, he took the world on His shoulders, and carried it to the cross. That’s why we celebrate Christmas. Not to see how we can emulate Mary - but like Mary to thank God that this baby came to save us from our sins. Jesus came to remove our guilt from our shoulders and make us righteous in God’s sight - in spite of our sins. This is what gives us HOPE at Christmas. It’s not about how much we give - it’s about how much GOD GAVE for us - His only begotten Son.

It began with an Angel of the Lord standing before Mary telling her the Light of the World is coming through her.  We know The Light has come into the world and my hope for you this Advent season, is that you can experience the light coming into your life as if it where the first time.  Full of wonder and surprise. Amen.