2026-Mar-22
By Reverend Martha
Isaiah 7: 10-14; Psalm 40: 5-10; Hebrews 10: 4-10; Luke 1: 26-38
If an angel suddenly appeared in front of you, how would you feel?… If you are like most people mentioned in Scripture who have been visited by angels, you would probably be overcome, awestruck, terrified. That is how Zechariah, the priest who was to become the father of John the Baptist, felt when he was visited by the angel Gabriel, in the Temple. Luke writes “when Zechariah saw (the angel), he was terrified, and fear overwhelmed him”. The first thing Gabriel said to him was “Do not be afraid”. Then he went on to deliver his message from God, that Zechariah would have a son “who would be great in the sight of the Lord”.
But when Gabriel appeared to Mary, it was different. Mary was a young girl, probably 12 to 15 years old. That was the age at which girls were encouraged to marry. She was betrothed to Joseph, but that was like being engaged in our culture; she had not yet moved into his house, and they had not had sexual relations. Mary was not in the Temple or any holy place, and as far as we know was not at prayer. She was minding her own business, when suddenly Gabriel appeared before her.
Gabriel’s first words to her were: “Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you”. Mary, it seems, was not frightened or awestruck at first—instead Luke describes her as being “much perplexed by his words, and pondered what sort of greeting this might be”. To me, this shows that she was amazingly cool and self-possessed. She was reacting with her mind, not her emotions.
While she was wondering, Gabriel went on to deliver his message from God, first assuring her “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God”. That’s a pretty astounding thing to say to a young girl, barely into womanhood. Especially in a patriarchal society where women were definitely second-class citizens, and not seen as favoured by God.
He goes on to describe what was going to happen to her. She would conceive and bear a son, who “will be great…the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end”.
What would Mary be thinking at this point? Maybe she was thinking: Wow, a king, ruling over the nation “forever”. That sounds pretty amazing, even wonderful! Why wouldn’t I want to be part of that? But then her practical side thought about it and she replied, “how can this be, since I am a virgin?” I think she was pretty brave, to challenge Gabriel—the angel, the messenger of God–in that way.
So Gabriel gave her the explanation, that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and overshadow her; “therefore the child to be born will be holy”. He tells her what is the most important thing: “that nothing will be impossible with God”. He then goes on to give her a sign, a way of proving that what he has been telling her is true. He tells her that her relative Elizabeth is pregnant in her old age, and in her 6th month. Nothing will be impossible with God! I find it interesting that the first thing Mary does after Gabriel has left her, according to Luke, is travel south to visit her relative, to verify for herself that what she has been told is true.
All this is pretty astounding information, and is a lot to take in! But Mary is willing to go along with it—it shows how deep her faith in God really is. She states “Let it be with me according to your word”. If this is what God wants, she will obey. “Not my will but thine be done”, as her son was to say years later.
Now Mary has been venerated and adored down through the centuries as the Mother of God, the Christ-bearer, the Queen of Heaven. She is a symbol of purity, and much fuss has been made about her being a virgin, and remaining so for her lifetime. The mention of Jesus having brothers and sisters got glossed over by the early Church fathers, who used Mary as a symbol of ideal womanhood—sweet, compliant, pure, virginal, and above all obedient. Personally, having been raised Protestant, and coming from a family of strong, independent women, I have always been uncomfortable with this sanitized picture of Mary.
Instead, I think this gospel reading shows a different Mary. She is courageous—not terrified or trembling when faced with an actual angel, and not afraid to argue back to him. She is self-possessed, sensible and practical—“how can this be?” She listens closely and ponders what she is being told. She probably cannot understand the full ramifications of what will happen to her yet, but she is willing to give it a try. And what is about to happen to her will demand all the strength and bravery she possesses: the shame of being an as yet unwed mother; the long trip to Bethlehem in her 9th month, and giving birth in a stable, with no mother or midwife to help. And 33 years later, watching her beloved son die in agony on the cross. Yes, Mary was an amazingly brave woman! Truly worthy of our admiration!
A lot of people in modern times are uncomfortable with the concept of the Virgin Birth, and in fact scholars have questioned this. There is no mention of it in Paul’s letters or the gospels of Mark and John, although Matthew says Mary was “found to be with child from the Holy Spirit”.
Some people have trouble with saying the Creeds because of the line “conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary”. I am not going to go into the complex theological arguments for and against, but all scholars agree that the Lord’s Incarnation is the central truth of the Christian faith. The American theologian Walter Russel Bowie says “If the birth of Jesus was not by physical miracle, Jesus himself is not thereby made one whit the less miraculous. All birth is a miracle, and the supreme miracle, in any case, was the actual entrance into the world of one who in his mind and spirit completely expressed and embodied the reality of God”.
That Jesus was born of a human mother, and was both human and divine, is the important part; the “how” is less important than that. The Anglican church does not tell us what we have to believe, and is open to those from Anglo-Catholic to Pentecostal ways of thinking. But we all worship and love the God who loves us, and we believe in the Jesus who embodied this unseen God in his words and his actions.
So I hold Mary up today as a role model for us all. of courage, sense, and informed obedience to the will of God. And if we find ourselves challenged by what the world is asking of us, remember that “Nothing will be impossible with God”.