Luke 1:26-29
Luke 1:26-29
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Our tendency when reading about Mary is to pay attention to the word “virgin.” That makes a little more sense in Matthew, who ties it to prophecy (Is. 7) and reports that Joseph and Mary had no “marital relations” until Jesus was born.
For Luke, however, this seems just another detail. Mary is a young marriageable girl so much like thousands of other girls her age. There is nothing, as far as we can tell, that sets her apart from her peers. What draws Luke’s attention is not Mary’s marital status but the fact that she is visited by the angel Gabriel. Not only that, but she is greeted with words of honor and blessing: “Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you.”
Here is the core of this scene: Mary is favored. Mary is chosen. Mary receives the attention and regard of the Lord God.
She is perplexed, Luke reports, and if we give this any more than the moment’s thought we usually do, we recognize instantly that she has good reason to be. “Why me,” she might wonder, “what makes me special?” Or maybe, “Doesn’t God – the creator and sustainer of the vast cosmos – have more to do than be concerned with one such as me?” Or, “What on earth could bring a heavenly messenger to my home?” All this and more must tumble through her scattered and perplexed thoughts.
We have heard this story so often it is easy to domesticate it, for it to seem to us the usual course of things. But of course to Mary it is beyond extraordinary: God’s messenger visiting to bring her greetings and blessing. What might we have thought should an angel have come to us? What might we have done when we heard of the Lord’s favor and blessing?
But there’s more. Because we, too, are included in Mary’s story. All we have to do is add one more question to realize it: What do we do, in fact, when we hear that Mary’s child and God’s own Son, who birth the angel is about to heralded, died so that we might have life and have it abundantly?
Perplexing indeed.
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for Mary, ordinary daughter of her time who received your extraordinary favor. And thank you for her child, born to die and be raised again that we might not fear anything in this life or the one to come. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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