Luke 1: 31-33
” You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 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, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to receive a message from God? Sometimes it is tempting for me to want God to explain things in terms that I can understand. Sometimes I have wanted God to give me a message.
Fortunately for me, the kind of messages God has had for me have been messages of hope and encouragement. Sometimes they come through God’s Word, sometimes through brothers and sisters in the faith, and sometimes it feels like God is talking to me directly. In Mary’s case, God sent a very special message and sent it by messenger.
The Messenger, as noted yesterday, was a bit intimidating. Yet The Messenger conveys a sense of respect to Mary that must have puzzled her. Not because she was young or not because she was female, but because she was a nobody from an earthly perspective. She did not have political standing or wealth or any kind of authority. She was simply a small town girl minding her own business and looking forward to being married soon and maybe having a family of her own. Into the humble world of this unassuming girl steps The Messenger of God.
The message itself is concise and complete. It tells Mary that she will have a son and instructs her on what name to give the boy. The rest of the message tells her who the boy is, what will happen to him, and what he will become.
Q: If you had been alive in Mary’s day and she had told you what the angel had said, how would you understand the part of the message where the angel says, “… he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever…”?