Last
Sunday, during our look at Jesus as a son of David, we very briefly looked at
part of the text that we just read and in doing so I said that we were going to
set aside any information about Mary and just focus on Jesus being of the line
of David. Well, today we come back to
this text in its entirety, this time with our focus being upon Jesus as the son
of Mary. Now, our last two Sundays
(Jesus as a son of Adam and of David) may have been a bit uncommon in terms of
their identity. By that, I mean that
when we think of Jesus being a son, we don’t immediately think of it being of
Adam or David. However, that’s not the
case when it comes to Mary. In fact,
many Christians throughout history, largely in an effort to distinguish one
Mary in Scripture from others, have called Mary by the fuller title of Mary,
mother of Jesus. Some other titles
include Saint Mary, Virgin Mary, and Mary, mother of God. Now, I want you to file away that she is both
mother of Jesus and mother of God for just a second.
Mary
is an interesting Biblical figure when it comes to our understanding of
her. The range of opinions and
importance that is attached to her varies from group-to-group and
person-to-person, even amongst the Christian faith. There are those who view her simply as a
vessel that God used for bringing Jesus into the world, folks who view her as
simply playing a part like any of the rest of us plays our part in the
unfolding of God’s plan. Then, there are
those that have elevated her to the level of sainthood and even offer up
prayers in her name. Now, I would
caution against the later for but one reason.
If we remember back in John’s gospel, Jesus himself stated that he was
the only way to the Father (John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.). Praying in Mary’s name
gives the impression that Mary might be another avenue that we can take in
order to come to God. Viewing her as
another means of reaching God is to contradict and go against Scripture and the
very words of Jesus himself. My
observation, however, is that most Christians fall somewhere in between these
two extremes. Most Christians view Mary
as important, but not quite to the level of being elevated above all others,
and especially not elevated to the level of Jesus or anywhere close. Whatever the level of importance that is
attached to Mary, it is undeniable that she indeed is the virgin who gave birth
to Jesus and cared for him during his youth.
Our
text tells us that Mary found herself face-to-face with the angel Gabriel, an
angel who had appeared not only to Zechariah prior to this, but also to the prophet
Daniel some 500 years prior to both of these occurrences. Now, at first, Mary is worried. She is afraid that God’s messenger has come
to her because of something that she has either done that she should not have
or because she has not done something that she should have. Gabriel calms her by saying, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found
favor with God.” Gabriel goes on to
tell her that she will conceive a child and that that child will be called
Jesus. He will be the Son of the Most
High. He will be the Son of God. He will sit on the throne of his father
David. He’ll reign over the house of
Jacob and that reign will be everlasting.
I mean, these words from the angel Gabriel are so chopped full of Old
Testament prophecy about the Messiah, where do we begin? There’s the words of 2 Samuel 7 that we
looked at last Sunday about David’s descendent being on the throne
forever. There’s the promise made to
Abraham in Genesis 17. There’s the words
of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, all of which are coming true in the person
of Jesus. And Mary is being informed by
the angel Gabriel that all of this is going to come about as a result of the
child that she will conceive.
Now,
given all of this prophecy that was coming true, it’s no wonder that Mary was a
bit taken aback by the news that she had just received from the angel Gabriel. “How
will this be, since I am a virgin?”
Notice, she doesn’t ask, “How will this be, I’m a simple, average
person?” No, her hesitation doesn’t come
from her abilities, but from the simple biological fact that it is impossible
for a virgin to bear a child (that is at least without divine intervention). This is not a matter of disbelief, but a
simple matter of confusion. She doesn’t
try and lower the power the God; she just utters the most basic of problems
that she perceives with the news of the angel Gabriel. However, that question is quickly
answered. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you, therefore the child who will be born will be called holy—the
Son of God.” The Holy Spirit will
descend upon Mary and she will have the power of God work to her and through
her and upon her and she will conceive of this child, the one who is the
long-awaited and promised Messiah.
I
want us to pay close attention to the response of Mary after Gabriel has
finished all of his words to her. Mary
said, “Behold, I am the servant of the
Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” I want all of us to see the complete and
total submission that Mary has here as it pertains to God. There are no excuses. There are no reasons given as to why she
isn’t the best choice for this task.
Mary could have pointed to the fact that she wasn’t married to Joseph
yet and that conceiving of a child without being married was opening her up to
being left by Joseph or could cause her to face some sort of public shame and
humiliation. She could have given all
sorts of reasons why she didn’t need to be the one who gave birth to
Jesus. However, we find none of
that. We find complete and total
willingness to do the will of God, no matter what that means for Mary. When you are faced with God’s calling you to
do something, do you respond like Mary or do you make excuses? Do you tell yourself, “Well, I really should
do that, but I just don’t have the time?”
Or do you say, “I know that you want me to do this God, but I don’t want
people to think poorly of me or I don’t want to lose what I have.” Mary is just a person like you and me when we
get down to it. Even though she is the
earthly mother of Jesus, she is still a person.
She is a person, however, who was willing to be used by God in any way
that He wanted, regardless of what those around her might have thought or said.
Getting
back to the title of this sermon “Jesus Christ:
Son of Mary”, I think that some connections need to be made. We saw why it was important for Jesus to be
the even greater and more complete mediator and king that Adam and David
respectively. The question that we must
ask ourselves now is: why is Jesus being
the son of Mary significant? Well, the
answer is found in the very fact that we just stated: Mary was a woman, a regular woman. She gave birth to a little baby boy who was
fully human, just like she was. This
little boy, Jesus, while he was fully human was also fully God. No, that doesn’t make sense to us, but we’re
finite beings. There is a level of
understanding that we have that cannot be crossed; we are limited in our
ability to comprehend. However, just
because it doesn’t make complete logical sense to us doesn’t make it any less
true. Isn’t it completely logical for
God (as an infinite being) to be capable of something that is beyond our
understanding since we are finite, we have limits. Not only is it possible, but it is exactly
what happened in the case of Jesus being both completely man and completely
God. Because God humbled himself, taking
the form of man (in the person of Jesus) he was able to pay the price for our
sins through his obedient life. Also, he
provided a means by which we may know God and have a relationship with him. For us to fully understand God in terms of
our knowing that we have a relationship with him, we must come to grips with the
undeniable fact that Mary is the mother of Jesus. This isn’t a text about the greatness of
Mary, although it does speak to her willingness to be used by God as an
instrument for the unfolding of his plan, it speaks to her faith. This text is about Jesus. It’s about the fact that the Messiah was
coming. It’s about the fact that God was
humbling himself to the point of taking the form of a servant in order to come
and pay the price that was owed for our sins.
Friends, this text is about the fact that our God loves us so much, that
he gave his one and only begotten for our salvation. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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