Luke 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 30And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 34Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 35And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. 36For with God nothing shall be impossible. 37And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
Second Verse, same as the first…another telling of essentially the same story, because, scholars tell us that the writers of Matthew and Luke drew on the same source, something called “Q” which is short for the German word for “source.”
But it doesn’t hurt to look at it again from a slightly different perspective. This one goes into a little more detail and tells us absolutely, positively, that Mary was “troubled” by this angelic appearance.
Far from Cupid-like cherubs, the angels that appear to people in the Bible seem to be rather more frightening (remember, the shepherds were “sore afraid,” or as some translations put it bluntly, “terrified.”)
Well, I mean really, here you are, barely in your teens, about to be married to a very nice man and suddenly this…this….CREATURE is telling you that you’re pregnant and…ouch, ooh, it’s time to wake up…
And then, fully awake and aware, Mary realizes exactly what the angel is telling her…she knows the ancient prophecies and she knows it is past time for that Deliverer to show up.
And so she bows her head and accepts what she is being given to do…little knowing that down the road she will again be bowing her head, this time over the broken body of her crucified son…
As we light candles and exchange gifts we tend to forget what an old time radio commentator used to call “the rest of the story.”
Prayer: Stand with us, Lord, and guide us even when we don’t know exactly where this road is taking us.
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