Favor with God

Reflection

Mary, as we meet her in this story, was a teenager living in a backwater village in Galilee, a region of Judea that was, at the time, a despised province of the Roman Empire. If the three most important things about real estate are “location, location, location,” the Lord picked a pretty insignificant place to begin the saving work of his Messiah. Yet such are the ways our God.

If the setting was insignificant, so was Mary. Likely, she was little more than a child of thirteen or fourteen, probably illiterate, and living in a patriarchal society. She was already betrothed to a man named Joseph—it would have been an engagement arranged by her parents. In short, there was nothing that distinguished or qualified her to be the mother of the King of heaven. Yet, that was who God chose her to be.

Mary had found favor with God, the angel told her. Why would that be so? While she might have been a nice girl, we have no way of knowing exactly why God chose her over all the other nice girls in Judea—but God chooses as he chooses; He is the God of election. While it can be pointless to wonder why God chooses as he does, it is wise to note, as Paul would in his letter to the Corinthians, “…God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong”(1 Corinthians 1:27b).

The passage says that Mary was troubled by the angel’s greeting. Troubled? She was likely terrified and confused, as well. Gabriel’s “Do not be afraid.” still left Mary in the dark about what the visit was all about…until the angel got to the heart of the matter: she would conceive and bear a son, he would be great and would be called the Son of the Most High. She was to name him Jesus which means “the Lord saves,” and he would sit on David’s throne forever.

This would all be done by the Holy Spirit, the power of the Most High. The holy one born would be known as not only her son, but also as God’s Son. God does amazing things, improbable things, and sometimes impossible things. But nothing is impossible for God!

Mary loved God and wanted to serve him, even though she couldn’t begin to understand or appreciate the eternal implications of Gabriel’s message. His revelation called for faith. She responded, “May your word to me be fulfilled.” What God wanted, Mary wanted.

And so Mary became, for all of us, the prototype of our mission as a church: like her, we have also been called to bring the presence of Jesus, the Lord Who Saves, to the world. We are called to trust God when he calls us and follow the path he lays out for us in every action of our lives.