Luke 1:26-38
Why Mary? In a simple sense I want to offer this explanation: In Jesus’ humanity, Mary is his mother, but in Christ’s divinity, Jesus is her deliverer. It was a unique relationship. Mary’s son is her personal Savior but at the same time Mary took care of His physical needs in His younger years. But in a deeper sense why Mary? Why did Mary become Jesus’ mother? I want to give you 3 biblical reasons why, and the first one is that it was because God wants…
1. To grant favour to His people.
“26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Luke 1:26-28.
When I think of Christmas, I think about the nativity story. God sent his angel named Gabriel in Nazareth to announce to this Jewish teenager named Mary that she would have a son. Some bible scholars say, she could not be more than 16 years of age, when Mary was betrothed with Joseph. And Joseph was no more than 19 years old. Did you know that in that day and culture, teenagers, as young as 12 years old can get married? This is not acceptable in our present culture but in Mary’s Jewish culture, it was practiced. In her culture, engagement usually takes about a year, and then the wedding must take place.
Aside from being in their teens, both Joseph and Mary were also peasants. And both were from Nazareth, which had a very bad reputation as the Romans had a garrison there. But God determined and decided to chart the course of Israel’s history and the world at large, through these humble young peasants. She will conceive and deliver God’s Son Jesus at her young age. Highly favored means given much grace. This is a term that is also used to all believers, God’s chosen people, according to Ephesians 1:6-8.
So why Mary? It’s because God is generous in giving His grace. God operates from grace, so it was his generous grace that moved Him to choose Mary to become Jesus’ mother. It wasn’t her humility. It wasn’t her strong belief in God, though these qualities of Mary are highly commendable and worth emulating. But there were other virgins who may have also displayed such qualities. Having said that, it was purely the glorious rich grace of God that was freely given to God’s people through her.
The second reason I want to offer to you, why God chose Mary is…
2. To fulfill the promise of a Messiah.
“34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
As with any other Jewish girl, Mary knew from their scriptures that a Savior would come. Most probably, she never thought that she would be the one to deliver him to this world until the angel appeared to her. Judging from her humble spirit, she might have thought that there could be someone out there whom God has chosen to conceive and deliver the Savior of the world. Allow me to guess here, Mary did not even know that it would happen in her lifetime. But nonetheless, Mary believed the message of the angel that she would conceive God’s Son.
Friends, God does not choose people randomly. God did not choose Mary accidentally, nor purposelessly. God did not just happen to bump into Mary and say, “She looks pretty, young, humble, obedient, and morally pure. I think I should choose her to deliver my Son Jesus to the world.” Nope. God planned this a long time ago.
The Bible gives us an idea on how God planned things. “4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” Ephesians 1:4.
So, Mary was chosen “to be holy and blameless in his sight” for Jesus, even before the creation of the world. Even before she can demonstrate humility, kindness, and faith. It is evident in our Bible, that God already chose Mary when she was still incapable of deciding for herself. The Bible also said that God prepared those whom He had chosen to walk in His ways. “10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
So, what work did God prepare for Mary to do? God would use her to fulfill His promise of a virgin birth. That’s her task – to be a virgin, humble, faithful and ready to conceive Jesus. The Bible said, “14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14.
About 700 years ago before the first Christmas event, God, through the prophet Isaiah predicted that a virgin would conceive in Israel and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.
Immanuel means God with us. We know that Jesus is God born to us. In the Bible, we are told, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind… 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-4;14.
Thus, God chose Mary to fulfill His promise of a Savior.
Now let me go to the 3rd reason for Mary.
3. To show God’s greatness.
35 “The Holy Spirit will come on 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. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.” Luke 1:35-38.
When the angel Gabriel told Mary she would have God’s Son in her womb, and his name would be Jesus, she could not fully comprehend how it was going to happen, since she was a virgin. Her mind cannot simply understand how she could conceive a child without a husband. So, the angel explained that the Holy Spirit would bring the miraculous physical conception of Jesus. The Holy Spirit’s participation was necessary because of Christ’s divine nature. So, Jesus can’t be conceived from sexual relationship, otherwise it would have been just a natural conception.
So, the Bible said, the Holy Spirit will overshadow her. Jesus must come from a supernatural conception. Nothing is impossible with the Holy Spirit. The MacArthur commentary said, “This was a creative act of the Holy Spirit, not sort of the divine-human cohabitation sometimes seen in pagan mythology.”[1]
Moreover, the supernatural conception was meant to highlight the greatness of Jesus. Notice what the angel said about Jesus – “32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High” we are told about this in Luke 1:32. Jesus is great because, He is the Son of the Most High God. In Jewish culture, a son bears his father’s qualities. In here, the angel was saying, “Mary, you will have a Son equal to your God in heaven!”
Further to his divinity, Jesus will be the King of kings. Jesus will one day reign over the nations. It will be perpetual. His kingdom will have no end. It will be eternal. No power on earth will overcome his kingdom. No force can defeat Jesus. And all those who belong to His kingdom, you, and I, we will rule the nations with Him for nothing is impossible with God. (See Revelations 19-21).
So, dear friends, Christmas is really about God and His wonderful and mighty work on earth. God is indeed the reason why we can make our Christmas shine brighter this year. I hope you meditate in these things so that you can truly have a merry and meaningful Christmas!
[1] MacArthur, Unleashing God’s Truth, 1273.