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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

Mary’s Two Penetrating Questions

What a beautiful story, what a beautiful song.

And as we open the word of God, and take a closer look at this well-known story that speaks to all of us, I invite you to bow your heads with me as we pray.

Father in heaven, today Lord we're going to reflect on a story that we have heard often, But yet we pray Lord that you would speak to us in a way that you have never spoken before.

We pray Lord that your word would be living and powerful in our hearts right now.

And we thank you for answering this prayer in Jesus name amen.

As the birth of Christ is told again and again and again I've come to conclude that Mary is among 1 of the most misunderstood heroes of faith in the Bible.

When you look upon those 3 dimensional depictions of nativity, Just 1 glimpse of Mary gives you those warm fuzzies.

Every time we go back to the story of the birth of Christ and when it was announced to her by an angel, we imagine her with this happy, go-lucky, relaxed attitude when she responded by saying, let it be according to your word.

It bothers me because when God calls me to do something difficult, I don't always have that happy and cheerful kind of response and I don't think she did either.

In fact, I will go as far as to say that the announcement made her whole world come crashing down.

Think about what the angel said to this Jewish teenage girl.

Mary, you will have a baby and you're not even married yet.

It seems to me that we've been taught all along to believe that Mary's instinctive response was a superficial, you got it Gabriel, all right let's do this.

Well if we take a closer look at the biblical account in the book, in the Gospel of Luke, we'll discover that that's not the case.

Instead, we see that Mary raised 2 penetrating questions that she must have an answer to before she can say yes, Before she could say yes.

Open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Luke.

We invite you to grab your Bibles as well.

We'll have the verses on the screen, but there's always a special blessing in handling the pages of Scripture.

So I invite you to come with me to Luke 1.

Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

Let me give you some interesting cultural context that sheds light to the big picture.

According to the Jewish customs of the time, did you know that a young woman might become betrothed to a young man as early as 12 years of age.

Years later, she would be married to the man.

And most Christians, Christorians speculate that Mary would have been around 15 or even 16 years of age when the angel Gabriel appeared to her.

So at this time, Mary is likely living at home with her parents in Nazareth and is waiting in great anticipation for her wonderful Jewish wedding ceremony.

Oh who am I going to invite to this wedding?

She's probably wondering what she's going to wear.

What food and how much food should be prepared?

Most brides have sleepless nights when thinking through all this and Mary was no exception.

She was a young Jewish teenager just giggly and bubbly about her upcoming wedding ceremony that she was so excited about.

So imagine with me that 1 day she's minding her own business and suddenly, without warning, there was no heads up, no anticipation that some breaking news is going to come.

Without warning, an angel appears to her with the words that would shatter the dreams of any young to be bride.

And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored 1!

After an unexpected greeting like this, Mary probably reacted in a similar way to when we get calls from those telemarketers.

I don't know about you, but whenever we feel like we're getting buttered up for something, our natural tendency is to hang up or run.

We don't want to hear it and I'm inclined to believe that Mary wasn't too sure about this.

Notice verse 29, but when she saw him she was what?

She was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was.

The New Living Translation puts it this way, confused and disturbed.

Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.

And it's only going to get more confusing and disturbing.

Then the angel said to her, do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus." Shall call his name Jesus.

As Mary hears these words, How do you imagine her reacting?

I will be married in 5 or 6 months but you're telling me that I'm gonna get pregnant like right now like now and Joseph is not even the father she must have thought that's it it's all off There's no wedding happening.

Will I become a beggar on the streets to support myself and my son?

Sorry if this is a paradigm shift to your idea of Mary receiving the news from an angel.

This call from God had some major ramifications as most calls do for followers of Christ.

A call to sacrifice of our time and possessions.

For His name's sake, God's calling is rarely easy, comfortable, convenient.

Mary was asked to do something very difficult.

There's no explicit question in the text, but it does say, remember, that when Gabriel greeted her, she was troubled.

And many a time when we are offered a proposal that is troubling or disturbing, we have asked ourselves the question, is it worth it?

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Mary’s Two Penetrating Questions

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