Luke 1:26-38 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Fourth Sunday in Advent Sunday, December 20, 2020 “The Promise: Jesus”
Over the past three weeks in our worship services, we have considered words from the prophecy of Isaiah. We have heard and focused on promises that waited for centuries to be kept and fulfilled. On Wednesdays in Advent, we have heard about children born according to special promises and in unique circumstances, each playing a role in bringing God’s great promise to others. We have heard about and discussed how that great promise was first revealed and shared thousands of years before it was kept. Today’s lesson, our Gospel from Luke chapter one, carries us into a new era and a new place. It transports us to a small town, Nazareth, in the northernmost portion of what was once Israel’s territory, Galilee. By that time, all of Palestine was under Roman rule. Galilee itself was a mix of Jews and Greeks. It sat to the north of Samaria, a region populated with people of mixed descent whose religion somewhat resembled that of the Jews, but were considered by none to be a truly Jewish people. Even farther south was Judea, home to familiar cities like Jerusalem and Jericho and the small town that was made famous by its hometown hero, King David. That town was Bethlehem. The very mention of the towns of Jerusalem and Bethlehem bring to mind the rich history of God’s interactions with his chosen people. The Temple was built in Jerusalem according to God’s direction and instruction. The prophet of God anointed King David in Bethlehem. And many other prophets served God by sharing his Word and his promise all throughout the region of Judah and Israel. But by the time of our Gospel, the situation had changed. We know of no prophet that spoke God’s Word to God’s people for about 400 years before that time. To be sure, there had been a rich history of prophetic words, revealing various details about the promise and about the center and focus of the promise, the Messiah. But for centuries the repetition of the promises and the unfolding of the details had gone quiet. That was until an angel appeared. God used his created spirit-messenger to bring once again the special word of the unfolding of his plan and his promise. The fulfillment was nearer that day than ever before. God had already used an angel to announce the coming of the Messiah’s forerunner. He had already revealed the name of John who would later be called the Baptist. John’s mother was already six months into her miraculous pregnancy when the angel came to a young woman named Mary. And the promise was shared one more time with a new imminence and immediacy. And the promise was given a name. The promise was Jesus. And as wonderful and as amazing as the promise was, as wondrous as the announcement by a holy angel messenger was, the promise was impossible. Mary was a young woman. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph. The wedding tradition of the day was a bit different than ours now, and this engagement pledge meant something more than what many think of engagement today, but this couple was also more chaste than many who approach marriage today. They honored God’s institution of marriage and they were waiting for the time when they would come together and share a bed and share a home and live together as husband and wife. There was no reason for Mary to expect that she would be the mother of a child any time soon. It was impossible. But that’s what the angel said: “Listen, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus.” Mary didn’t need an angel to tell her that after her marriage and her wedding night that she might conceive, that she might have a child. That was the natural course. That was expected and anticipated. That was wellknown and well-understood by those who were of marrying age and who were entering that blessed union. But the angel came because this news was unusual. This news was impossible. I will conceive a baby? How can this be? I am not married. I have not done anything that would result in this. I am a virgin. This was an impossible promise shared with a virgin girl. But God is the God of the impossible. Just as God had seen to it that Elizabeth, Mary’s relative, who was well past the expected age of childbearing and who had been barren all her life had conceived a child, God would be responsible for accomplishing the impossible for Mary. The angel explained in response to Mary’s confusion, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of
the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God…For nothing will be impossible for God.” How hard it is for people, sinners, to remember this glorious truth. Nothing is impossible for God. From an earthly perspective, how was it possible to carry a promise through thousands of years, through generations? How was it possible to reveal detail after detail and to have every detail fulfilled? And how is it possible that God can work through the mess that is my life, the selfishness that dwells in my heart, the challenges that are too big for me to face and sometimes to even consider? God is God. For the almighty, there is nothing impossible. For the one who created and ordered the universe, there is nothing that can stand in the way of reordering any aspect of that universe that needs to be reordered to accomplish his purpose, not even having a virgin mother give birth to a baby boy whose name was to be Jesus. That name is so familiar to us today. That name is on our lips every week here in our worship and hopefully every day in our prayers and in our devotions. But here it was for the first time as the name of Mary’s baby boy, such a special baby boy. The promise of Jesus was impossible, but it was amazing. This is an amazing promise for a world of sinners. Just how amazing is built into the name itself, which means Savior, literally, “the Lord saves.” “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.” The angel’s announcement contained unmistakable language for those who knew the promise. They had heard it before. A king like David. A Son of God. Ruling and reigning forever. The Messiah. This Jesus, this Savior, “the Lord saves,” would rule forever because he would crush the head of the ancient tempting serpent. He would live a holy life beginning with his miraculous conception. He would not only teach righteousness, but he would be righteousness, perfection for the imperfect, sinless for the sinful. He would die and rise and all who follow him with trusting hearts would follow him into eternal life. This is Jesus. The promise is amazing. It is amazing for you and for me. It is amazing for anyone who thinks honestly about himself or herself, who in doing so is forced to admit that I am a poor and miserable sinner. If any part of my life was left up to me alone, it would fall to ruins. If any part of my eternal existence is left up to me, it will result in misery and loss and pain and suffering. That is what is so amazing about this promise. The promise says that it does not depend on you. It depends on God. It depends on Jesus. And that amazing and impossible promise deserves only one reaction: it is to be received in faith. Here Mary, a sinner herself, moved by God’s Word and filled with his love, serves as a wonderful example. In the face of an angelic announcement too wonderful to bear, she says this: “See, I am the Lord’s servant. May it happen to me as you have said.” Mary believed the impossible. She believed the amazing, and she trusted in the one who had made the promise. Here we are, now just days away from celebrating Christmas once again. It is often a time of frenzy and excitement. Perhaps that has been a bit different this year, but not necessarily so. Perhaps this Advent season has been unique for you in the way that you have pondered and prepared. Perhaps you have found new challenges and questions that have filled your mind and cluttered your heart. This is how you prepare to meet Christmas, no matter how you feel right now: by listening to the impossible promise and knowing that God does the impossible, by contemplating how amazing that promise is for sinners like us, and by trusting in the one who has given the promise and the one who has fulfilled it: Jesus. The Lord saves. And that is how you are prepared for the same Jesus to come back again, this time not as a tiny baby but as a powerful and glorious judge. That is how you are prepared to live for him now and to live with him forever. That is how you are prepared to share the true joy of sins forgiven with those who need to hear it. May God bless these last days of Advent for all of us. May he strengthen our faith to believe the impossible and the amazing news. May he prepare us for life and for eternity thorough his greatest promise to us, the promise of Jesus.
The Text: Luke 1:26–38 (EHV) 26In
the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee named Nazareth, 27to a virgin pledged in marriage to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.” 29But
she was greatly troubled by the statement and was wondering what kind of greeting this could be. angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, because you have found favor with God. 31Listen, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. 33He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.” 30The
34Mary
said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
35The
angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36Listen, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age even though she was called barren, and this is her sixth month. 37For nothing will be impossible for God.” 38Then
Mary said, “See, I am the Lord’s servant. May it happen to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.