Overshadowed by Grace

 

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Scripture for Sunday, December 4:  Luke 1:26-38 

Additional Scripture:  Psalm 91; Exodus 40:34-35

For most people, the news that a baby is on the way is life-changing even in the best of circumstances.

Faced with raising a child alone, on the margins of society, and without adequate resources, it’s downright overwhelming.

And yet God’s presence in Mary’s life leads her into just such a daunting situation. 

Gabriel’s address to Mary is life-changing.  It is inconvenient.  It should call off her upcoming marriage and consign her to life under a cloud of stigma and disgrace. 

Yet Luke’s telling of Gabriel’s announcement makes clear that although Mary plays a major role in the coming of God’s Son, Jesus, Mary is not center stage.

Mary’s spoken words total 21 in our English translation of this passage.  God’s message given by Gabriel totals 145 words. 

Consider, too, how many circumstantial details Luke gives before even mentioning Mary by name in Luke 1:26:

1)      In the sixth month (of Elizabeth’s pregnancy)
2)      God sent the angel Gabriel
3)      To the town of Nazareth
4)      In Galilee
5)      To a virgin
6)      Pledged to be married to a man named Joseph
7)      From the house of David

Only after all this careful background do we finally get the virgin’s name:  Mary.

Evidently the story isn’t primarily about Mary.

“Grace to you, favored one.  The Lord is with you,” Gabriel says.

“Do not be afraid, Mary.  You have found favor with God.”

“You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High….” 

And for Mary, blessed with equal parts courage and self-forgetfulness when faced with God’s plan, there is only one logical question.

“How will this be?  I am unmarried.”

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you….  Nothing will be impossible with God," Gabriel says.

 

"Yes," Mary says.  “I am the Lord’s servant.  Let this happen to me as you have said.”

Reflect

With Gabriel's unanticipated appearance, Mary is willing to relinquish her own imagined future.  She places herself squarely in the shadow of God’s surprising, inconvenient, powerfully present grace (see Exodus 40:34 and Psalm 90:1-4) for the sake of God's purpose in the world:  sending Jesus. 

Where are you already following God in ways that cost you something--perhaps in terms of convenience, social standing, comfort?

As you prayerfully reflect or talk with godly people who know you well, how might you sense the Holy Spirit asking you to follow Christ in a new way?