The Fourth Sunday of Advent is December 24 — Christmas Eve — 2023.

Readings for Year B can be found here.

The Gospel is as follows (emphases mine):

Luke 1:26-38

1:26 In the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,

1:27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

1:28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

1:29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

1:30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

1:31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.

1:32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.

1:33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

1:34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”

1:35 The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.

1:36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.

1:37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”

1:38 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur (as specified below).

In my post ‘Christmas history and trivia’, I cited a John MacArthur sermon for this reading which highlights how the Gospel accounts of the virgin birth and Nativity differ in emphasis:

The writer John in the gospel of John approaches the birth of Christ from the divine side, while Matthew and Luke approach it from the human side.  Matthew looks at it from Joseph’s side particularly.  Luke looks at it from Mary’s side; Matthew recording the message of the angel in a dream to Joseph; Luke recording the message of Gabriel to Mary.  But John looks at it not from the human side through Joseph or Mary, but from God’s side.  And so John records the coming of Christ with these words, “In the beginning was the Word,” meaning Christ, “the Word was with God and the Word was God.”  He starts with a pre-incarnate identification of the Messiah as the Word who was with God, who was God.  “He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”

In other words, he sees the Messiah pre-incarnation as God Himself the Creator.  He was the source of life, life which was the light of men.  Verse 14, “When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” and that’s John’s perspective on the birth of Christ, it was the Word who was eternal, becoming flesh and dwelling among us, we beheld not His humanity, John says, but His glory, which was glory that belonged only to One begotten by God, full of grace and truth.

So, John looks at the conception as God coming down and entering human flesh.  Matthew views the same thing, and so does Luke only from the human side, while John looks at it from the divine.  Matthew records very specifically that the child would be God and Man.  In Matthew, you remember, verses 18 to 23 of chapter 1 Joseph is basically amazed that Mary has become pregnant, he doesn’t know why, how this could happen, it’s contrary to her character.  And he has never known her and he only can imagine that she is worthy of either death or divorce.  At that point an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream, tells him that Mary is with child but by the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a Son, and it will be the birth of this Son that will fulfill Isaiah 7:14, the virgin shall be with child, says the angel, shall bear a Son and they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means God with us.  So Joseph was told the child would be conceived by the Holy Spirit and would be God in flesh.

And that’s exactly what Gabriel tells Mary. 

Luke begins the first chapter of his Gospel by telling us about the conception of John the Baptist. This, too, was miraculous as both Elizabeth and Zechariah were elderly. Elizabeth had been barren. This account is in my Forbidden Bible Verses series for the New Testament:

Luke 1:1-4 – Theophilus, true account

Luke introduces his Gospel as being a credible and an orderly account.

This post also gives some history of the authorship of Luke’s Gospel.

Luke 1:5-17 – Zachary, Zechariah, John the Baptist, Nazirites, incense, Aaron’s lineage, priesthood

Luke relates Zechariah’s — John the Baptist’s father’s — encounter with the angel in the Temple.

This post also includes background on the Jewish monks — Nazirites — among them, John the Baptist, Samson and Samuel.

Luke 1:18-25 – Zechariah’s punishment from Gabriel, John the Baptist

The archangel Gabriel punishes Zechariah for his unbelief about the upcoming birth of John the Baptist.

Luke then moves on to Mary’s more miraculous story.

In the sixth month God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee called Nazareth (verse 26).

The sixth month refers to Elizabeth’s time in pregnancy.

There is much to look at in this verse.

Matthew Henry’s commentary discusses the role of angels:

We have here notice given us of all that it was fit we should know concerning the incarnation and conception of our blessed Saviour, six months after the conception of John. The same angel, Gabriel, that was employed in making known to Zacharias God’s purpose concerning his son, is employed in this also; for in this, the same glorious work of redemption, which was begun in that, is carried on. As bad angels are none of the redeemed, so good angels are none of the redeemers; yet they are employed by the Redeemer as his messengers, and they go cheerfully on his errands, because they are his Father’s humble servants, and his children’s hearty friends and well-wishers.

Henry tells us about the history of Nazareth, a town known to Gentiles, also associated with prominent persons from the Old Testament:

She lived in Nazareth, a city of Galilee, a remote corner of the country, and in no reputation for religion or learning, but which bordered upon the heathen, and therefore was called Galilee of the Gentiles. Christ’s having his relations resident there intimates favour in reserve for the Gentile world. And Dr. Lightfoot observes that Jonah was by birth a Galilean, and Elijah and Elisha very much conversant in Galilee, who were all famous prophets of the Gentiles. 

John MacArthur says this was the first time in four centuries that God had intervened significantly in the lives of the Jews:

We start with a divine messenger, verse 26, “Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth.” This is the second time in this chapter a holy angel appears. It’s the second time that holy angel, of course, has been Gabriel. A monumental reality … nobody had seen an angel in over 400 years and even then it was only one person apparently who saw him. Nobody had heard a word from God in over 400 years, and there hadn’t been a miracle in over 400 years and there hadn’t been a sequence of miracles in over 500 years. That was the unmiraculous tedium that was broken by this supernatural event. God hasn’t sent an angel, God hasn’t done a miracle and God hasn’t said a word for centuries.

Then an angel appeared to a man named Zacharias, and he was just a humble priest from the hill country of Judea doing his duty down in the temple a couple of weeks a year. An angel appeared to him and launched the great saga of redemption in the Messiah, announcing to him that he would go home and have a son with his wife. And both of them were either in their 70s or 80s, they were old, she was barren. A miracle would happen. They would be given a son, that son would be born to be the forerunner of the Messiah, the announcer, the herald of the Messiah. And God broke in to that unmiraculous tedium with the first great miracle, a miracle birth in a couple that couldn’t have a child. Not just any child would be born, a child chosen by God to be the forerunner of the Messiah.

This verse tells us, “Now in the sixth month.” What is that, the sixth month of the year? No, it’s the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. Go back to verse 24. The promise of God to Zacharias came true. After his duty in the temple was complete he went home. It says in verse 23, “After the days of his priestly service were over, he went home and Elizabeth his wife became pregnant. She kept herself in seclusion for five months.” Verse 26, “In the sixth month,” that’s the sixth month of her pregnancy, the angel Gabriel came back.

MacArthur tells us more about the archangel Gabriel, one of two archangels, the other being Michael:

Back in verse 19 Gabriel is identified as the angel who spoke to Zacharias. He’s a special angel. Only two are named in the Bible, only two holy angels, Michael who is associated with power and strength, sort of super-angel, and Gabriel. And Gabriel is messenger, the supreme messenger. He brought great, glorious, massive, critical announcements from God. It was Gabriel who brought the announcement to Daniel in Daniel chapter 9 of the rest of redemptive history as he unfolded the incredible vision of Daniel’s seventy weeks. And it is Gabriel… This message is so critically important that it is Gabriel who comes to bring it again.

… Let me tell you something, folks, this…this is the first real invasion of life from another world. This is the only real extra-terrestrial whoever came down to walk among us. There aren’t any little green men flying around meeting people on hills in New Mexico.

Here’s the beginning of the greatest moment in human history, a moment all generations in Israel and the world have awaited. Gabriel comes with the most astounding and significant birth announcement ever made. Amazingly Gabriel comes right from God. Back in verse 19 it says, “I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God.” That’s where Gabriel stands, to be dispatched by God Himself to this duty. He comes down out of heaven to a city in Galilee called Nazareth.

MacArthur tells us that Nazareth, whilst insignificant, was located near but not on the trade routes with Gentile nations:

It wasn’t an important place at all. There were east and west roads that ran from Europe across the Middle East into Asia. There were north and south roads that ran from Africa through that narrow band of land called Palestine to the land to the north, but all those roads missed Nazareth. It was about sixty to seventy-five…sixty to seventy miles north of Jerusalem, depending on what point in Jerusalem you begin at, which was quite a ways if you’re walking. It was fifteen miles, still is, fifteen miles west of the north tip of the Sea of Galilee and about twenty-two miles from the Mediterranean. So somewhere in the middle between the tip of the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean sits this town, located at the very tip of the Jezreel Valley on the southern slope of the foothills of the Lebanon Mountains to the north. And it’s right at the north of the plain of Esdraelon, also called Megiddo where the battle of Armageddon will be fought.

Three mountains are famous in the area, Mount Tabor, Mount Hermon and Mount Carmel where Elijah met the priests of Baal. It’s a little geography, but I think the important thing to know is that Galilee was not the seat of Jewish culture. Galilee was not the seat of Jewish religion. Galilee was the seat of nothing, is what it was. And Galilee tended to be more Gentile in its orientation. When you get into Judah in the south and you get in Jerusalem and that area, to the north, of course, was more of the land of Israel. To the south was a vast, barren, almost uninhabitable desert except by nomads. To the east was another desert and to the west, of course, was the sea. And so the southern part of Israel was somewhat isolated. But in the north there was Gentile population surrounding that area, that’s why it’s called Galilee of the Gentiles and it’s wonderful to think of the fact that when God sent the Jewish Messiah, the promised Jewish King, when salvation came first to Israel it came in a place that was intersected by Gentiles almost as if to say, “This one will be the Savior of the world,” obscure little town.

It’s amazing to go there. I’ve been there many times. It’s remarkable for its plainness. When I have a vision of Nazareth in my mind, I see rough, little bumpy streets, this is modern Nazareth, I’ve been there, with people working on cars stuck half way out in the street from little garages. It’s just a plain place. The only thing that makes it notable is in the middle of it is a church devoted to Mary because it is to her that the angel came. Apart from that it’s just a plain, non-descript town, a little larger now than it was then.

MacArthur calls our attention to the earliest prophecies of a Messiah in Genesis 3 and the woman who would bring Him into the world:

Genesis chapter 3, you know, is where the Fall of man is recorded. Living in the garden in the paradise of God, Adam and Eve, enjoying the full blessing of God in holy innocence, fell into sin and immediately upon that sin they were cursed as was the whole human race.

Genesis chapter 3 verse 15: Comes a promise that there will come a seed of the woman.  A woman has no seed, man has a seed.  But there will be a woman who will have a seed.  She will bear a child who will bruise the serpent’s head.  There’s the first prophecy that the Messiah would come, that the seed of the woman would destroy the one who had destroyed the human race, bruise his head. A human offspring of Eve would be born of a seed in a woman and some day deliver the fatal blow to Satan.

Later on in the book of Genesis another prophecy of the coming child:  Genesis 49:10 says, “Shiloh will come.”  Shiloh means in Hebrew, “the one to whom it belongs,” the rightful one, the rightful ruler, the true King, the true monarch, the true Lion of Judah,” as he’s called in Revelation 5:5. The true King of Judah will come to establish His great and glorious kingdom and reign.

Gabriel appeared to a virgin named Mary; she was engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David (verse 27).

Henry reminds us that Mary, too, was of the house of David (Luke 3) and tells us:

1. Her name was Mary, the same name with Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron; the name signifies exalted, and a great elevation it was to her indeed to be thus favoured above all the daughters of the house of David.

2. She was a daughter of the royal family, lineally descended from David, and she herself and all her friends knew it, for she went under the title and character of the house of David, though she was poor and low in the world; and she was enabled by God’s providence, and the care of the Jews, to preserve their genealogies, to make it out, and as long as the promise of the Messiah was to be fulfilled it was worth keeping; but for those now, who are brought low in the world, to have descended from persons of honour, is not worth mentioning.

3. She was a virgin, a pure unspotted one, but espoused to one of the same royal stock, like her, however, of low estate; so that upon both accounts there was (as it was fit there should be) an equality between them; his name was Joseph; he also was of the house of David, Matt 1 20. Christ’s mother was a virgin, because he was not to be born by ordinary generation, but miraculously; it was necessary that he should be so, that, though he must partake of the nature of man, yet not of the corruption of that nature: but he was born of a virgin espoused, made up to be married, and contracted, to put honour upon the married state, that that might not be brought into contempt (which was an ordinance in innocency) by the Redeemer’s being born of a virgin.

MacArthur reminds us of how betrothal worked in that era (more fully described in my exegesis on Matthew 25:1-13, the Parable of the Ten Virgins):

“Virgin” is the word parthenos. It means “one who has had no sexual relation.”  That’s exactly what it means, one who has had no sexual relation.  This word is never used of a married woman.  According to Roman law, listen to this, the minimum age for girls to be engaged and married was twelve.  That’s right, twelve.  For boys, whom we all know develop slower, it was fourteen.  Augustus, the emperor, had set the minimum age at ten; that would be the age for engagement.  And Jewish practice basically followed that.  Girls were usually engaged around 12 or 13 and married after the engagement or the betrothal was over. And the reason they did that was because they therefore would guarantee their virginity.  As soon as they had reached puberty they would be engaged and then soon married.  In that way they didn’t have to live five, ten, who knows how many years, trying to restrain their normal adult passions.

So, here was a girl, I mean a girl, 12 or 13, engaged to a man.  Literally the word engaged is betrothed, it’s more than engagement.  It’s not the same as our engagement.  Betrothal was a binding, legal relationship and it was arranged by parents which is the way all marriages should be done; and not only should they be done by parents but by grandparents as well, and if I live long enough, by great-grandparents.  Betrothal was binding.  It was a legal document, parents agreed that their children would marry and it occurred soon after puberty.  Probably was planned for in the community. When they were younger they were saying, “You know, I would like him for her, or her for him,” and the parents kind of worked that through until the time was right to make the official betrothal.  There was no sexual relationship during the period of betrothal which usually lasted a year.  The couple did not live together, but only death or divorce could sever the contract.  And if the man died, the betrothed girl would be considered a widow.

Betrothal, as I said, lasted about a year.  And during that year the girl would prove her faithfulness by not giving herself to anyone else.  She would prove her faithfulness.  She would prove her purity.  And during that same year the boy would prepare a home for her, a place for her, usually with an addition to his father’s house.

At the end of that year when they were 13 or 14, there would be a wedding feast that usually lasted seven days when everybody came together and celebrated for seven days, the kind of thing that Jesus was at in John 2.  It’s recorded that He was at a wedding, remember, and they ran out of wine because it lasted so long.  At the end of the seven days the friend of the bridegroom handed him his bride and everybody left and the marriage was consummated.

Well, Mary was betrothed.  Her husband had paid a dowry, a price to her father. The actual wedding was still in the future.

As for the Infant Christ’s lineage:

Joseph was David’s descendant, and Mary was David’s descendant. Both of them gave to Jesus’ royal heritage. Mary gave it to Him through blood by birth. Joseph gave it through the right to rule by adoption.

Therefore, Mary was the seed of the Messiah, as foretold in Genesis 3:15.

Gabriel came to Mary and said (verse 28), ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you!’

Henry’s version of the Bible expresses the verse in the more traditional language most of us recognise:

28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

Henry explains Gabriel’s greeting:

II. The address of the angel to her, v. 28. We are not told what she was doing, or how employed, when the angel came unto her; but he surprised her with this salutation, Hail, thou art highly favoured. This was intended to raise in her, 1. A value for herself; and, though it is very rare that any need to have any sparks struck into their breast with such design, yet in some, who like Mary pore only on their low estate, there is occasion for it. 2. An expectation of great news, not from abroad, but from above. Heaven designs, no doubt, uncommon favours for one whom an angel makes court to with such respect, Hail thou, chaire—rejoice thou; it was the usual form of salutation; it expresses an esteem of her, and good-will to her and her prosperity.

(1.) She is dignified: “Thou art highly favoured. God, in his choice of thee to be the mother of the Messiah, has put an honour upon thee peculiar to thyself, above that of Eve, who was the mother of all living.” The vulgar Latin translates this gratiá plena—full of grace, and thence gathers that she had more of the inherent graces of the Spirit than ever any had; whereas it is certain that this bespeaks no other than the singular favour done her in preferring her to conceive and bear our blessed Lord, an honour which, since he was to be the seed of the woman, some woman must have, not for personal merit, but purely for the sake of free grace, and she is pitched upon. Even so, Father, because it seemed good unto thee.

(2.) She has the presence of God with her: “The Lord is with thee, though poor and mean, and perhaps now forecasting how to get a livelihood and maintain a family in the married state.” The angel with this word raised the faith of Gideon (Judg 6 12): The Lord is with thee. Nothing is to be despaired of, not the performance of any service, not the obtaining of any favour, though ever so great, if we have God with us. This word might put her in mind of the Immanuel, God with us, which a virgin shall conceive and bear (Isa 7 14), and why not she?

(3.) She has the blessing of God upon her: “Blessed art thou among women; not only thou shalt be accounted so by men, but thou shalt be so. Thou that art so highly favoured in this instance mayest expect in other things to be blessed.” She explains this herself (v. 48), All generations shall call me blessed. Compare it with that which Deborah saith of Jael, another that was the glory of her sex (Judg 5 24), Blessed shall she be above women in the tent.

MacArthur examines this from Mary’s point of view:

So, the divine messenger comes to this girl of divine choice.  Third point, the divine blessing; this is the incredible part, the divine blessing.

Here comes the message from God.  Verse 28, “And coming in,” now that, I don’t want to beg the obvious, but obviously she was in the house doing what a 12- or 13-year-old girl would do, domestic duties, probably dominated by preparing food.  She may have been in the house preparing food at the time.  Apparently no one was there with her.  And the angel Gabriel entered the house. I like this, he said to her, “Hello.” That’s what “hail” means, it’s benign really, chairō, hello.  I mean, if an angel Gabriel out of the presence of God showed up in your house and just said, “Hello,” it would seem like somewhat of an understatement, wouldn’t it?  Where is the fanfare again?  I love the simplicity of this.  “Hello.”  And I think maybe the simplicity of that introduction was designed to prevent panic.  “Hello, favored one, the Lord is with you.”

Now I’m sure Mary knew this wasn’t a human being.  He’s not like any human being she ever saw.  This young girl who wouldn’t have had adult experiences to galvanize her, who…in the tenderness of her youth could be frightened by perhaps lots of things, hears from this supernatural being whom she can see and who speaks in a human voice, an audible voice, “Hello charitoō, favored one, blessed one, the Lord is with you.”

The Roman Catholic statement, “Hail, Mary, favored one,” they translate, “Hail, Mary, full of grace.”  That comes from the Latin Vulgate translation of this verse.  And you hear it sung in that familiar Ave Maria, gratia plena. It means “full of grace” …

What the angel said was that Mary was going to receive God’s grace which He would freely give her. She was highly graced. She was to be receiving the grace that God alone could give. This grace would come because he said, “The Lord’s with you.” The Lord’s with you. Now that’s similar to what was said to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, oh valiant warrior.” The Lord is with you, Mary, you’re going to receive grace, divine grace.

It had to be that way. It had to be grace. You know why? Because Mary was unworthy. The Lord is simply going to give you grace. And people who receive grace can be classified under one term, they’re all sinners. If they weren’t sinners they wouldn’t need grace.

Some manuscripts add, and the New King James has it, “Blessed are you among women.” The older manuscripts omit that. Whether it’s in or out, it’s true, she was blessed. She wasn’t the blesser.

Interestingly enough, on Thursday, December 21, 2023, Lord Frost — our Brexit negotiator through the exit period — wrote about this moment in Mary’s life for The Telegraph in ‘The historical truth at the heart of Christmas’, excerpted below:

Christmas Eve this year is also the fourth and final Sunday of Advent. The day’s Gospel reading, from St Luke, describes the Annunciation. The Angel Gabriel appears to Mary to tell her that she will bear a son, Jesus: “Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women” …

In the centre of the modern Israeli city, by the Cathedral of the Annunciation, sits the Convent of the Sisters of Nazareth. Under it, a remarkable discovery – or rather rediscovery – has been made in recent years. Professor Ken Dark of King’s College London, who is responsible for it, has this year written up his excavations for a lay audience in a book, Archaeology of Jesus’ Nazareth. 

In brief, what he found beneath the convent was an ancient house, partly built into caves in the rock, from no later than the first half of the first century AD. Above and around it are the remains of successive churches on the same site, the last of which disappeared with the collapse of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem after 1187.

What could this be? An early Christian pilgrim to the Holy Land, one Egeria, in 383 AD, gives us a clue. In Nazareth, she reports visiting a “big and very splendid cave in which Mary lived”. This has often been assumed to be the traditional site of the Annunciation, the first-century storage rooms and caves now under the nearby cathedral.

But another account, by Adomnan the abbot of Iona in Scotland, from about 670, suggests that it is something else. He describes not one but “two very large churches” in Nazareth: the Church of the Annunciation, but also another “on the spot where there stood the house in which our Lord the Saviour was brought up”. It’s now clear from Prof Dark’s work that this church was on the convent site, and is almost certainly the lost Byzantine “Church of the Nutrition”, that is, of the upbringing of Jesus.

Prof Dark notes that all the written sources connected with this site “agree that it was considered to be the home of Mary”. He is careful to present his discoveries neutrally and he underlines that archaeology cannot tell us one way or the other. But the house under it is an early pilgrimage site, in the right place, of the right date, and with the right associations.

So we have possible sites for both the Annunciation and Mary’s home close to each other in Nazareth. And so perhaps it is not too fanciful to imagine that Annunciation scene 2,000 years ago: Mary leaves her family’s spartan stone house on the Nazareth hillside in the grey light of early morning, enters the dank and gloomy storage chambers now hidden under the Cathedral to collect water, and is confronted, alone in the dark, by the angel: “Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.”

No one, believer or not, can know for sure. But even to contemplate it is a reminder that the Christmas story is more than just a story: it is rooted in real people, in a real place, at a real time. No one can seriously doubt that Jesus was a historical figure, the man of Nazareth, rabbi and teacher in the Holy Land, crucified in Jerusalem. 

Nor is there a real reason to question the core of the Christian story: Mary and Joseph’s winter journey to Bethlehem, Jesus’s birth in poverty among the animals, the flight to Egypt, and the eventual return to that small house in Nazareth – or, of course, the contrast that St Luke draws between the temporal power, the long arm of Caesar Augustus far off on the Palatine Hill in Rome, and the spiritual power of the tiny baby in his mother’s arms in a nothing town at the edge of the Empire, yet destined to change the world.

Christmas is our one remaining festival that has not lost that historical context … the central story of the Nativity is still there, and no one can entirely avoid reflecting on its meaning, just as Mary could not avoid the angel on that spring morning in Nazareth. 

Christians believe that, just as Mary and Joseph were far from their home, that house in Nazareth, so too in fact are all of us on this earth. We were made for something better, long for it – and still get a glimpse of it at Christmas more than at any other time …

Happy Christmas.

Luke tells us that Mary was much perplexed by Gabriel’s words and pondered what sort of greeting his might be (verse 29).

Henry points out Mary’s humility and discretion:

The consternation she was in, upon this address (v. 29). When she saw him, and the glories with which he was surrounded, she was troubled at the sight of him, and much more at his saying. Had she been a proud ambitious young woman, that aimed high, and flattered herself with the expectation of great things in the world, she would have been pleased at his saying, would have been puffed up with it, and (as we have reason to think she was a young woman of very good sense) would have had an answer ready, signifying so much: but, instead of that, she is confounded at it, as not conscious to herself of any thing that either merited or promised such great things; and she cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. Was it from heaven or of men? Was it to amuse her? was it to ensnare her? was it to banter her? or was there something substantial and weighty in it? … But her thoughtfulness upon this occasion gives a very useful intimation to young people of her sex, when addresses are made to them, to consider and cast in their minds what manner of salutations they are, whence they come, and what their tendency is, that they may receive them accordingly, and may always stand on their guard.

MacArthur continues looking at this from Mary’s perspective:

… verse 29, “She was greatly troubled at this statement.”  It was what he said that just shook her.  She kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be, what in the world. It’s just a little girl in a little obscure town, maybe preparing a little meal, all alone in a house.  And here comes a messenger from God saying God has graced her, and she is shaken by this.  Back in verse 12, Zacharias, when the angel came to him was also troubled and fear gripped him.  But here it’s not so much the appearance of Gabriel that strikes her, although she does have fear as we will find out in verse 30, but it’s what he said that shook her.  She is diatarassō, she’s disturbed, she’s perplexed, she’s confused.  It’s talking about a mental state, perplexed by what he said.  I mean, what troubled her was, “What do you mean God has graced me, the Lord is with me?”  Why would she be so perplexed by that?  Because she knew she was a sinner.

It might have been earlier in that day when she had an unholy, impure thought about Joseph who was to be her husband.  It might have been earlier in that same day that she had spoken an unkind word to someone.  It might have been earlier in the same day when she had failed to acknowledge the Lord from the heart for some blessing.  She knew her sin.  She knew who she was just like you know who you are.  Mary is one of us, folks, she’s not some quasi-supernatural being, she’s one of us.  She knew she was a sinner.  That’s why in chapter 1 verse 47 when she praises God, she says, “God, my Savior.”  She knew she needed a Savior.  She knew what all righteous people knew.

And I think this is the only little indication we have that she was a righteous lady, that she really knew God, that she was a true believer.  And the reason I say that is because she was struck with the fact that she didn’t deserve anything from God.  It’s that kind of humility that demonstrates true righteousness.  All genuinely righteous people are distressed when they come before God because they know they’re sinners.  “What would God ever have in mind in choosing to favor me with grace?”  She might have been less surprised if the angel had showed up and said, “Mary, God’s going to judge you.  Mary, God knows your heart, He knows your sin and He hears what you say and He reads what you think and I’m here to tell you you’re going to be judged.”  It might have been that she would have reacted like Isaiah when he saw God, “Woe is me, for I am done.”  But to be told you’re going to be graced by God, you’re going to be the recipient of His grace and to know you’re just a humble, sinful, lowly girl engaged to a common carpenter with all the struggles of the heart of a…of a young person?  How is it that she could be the object of anything but God’s judgment?  How could she be singled out for special privileges?

You see, it’s that whole mystery in her mind.

Gabriel wanted to reassure her and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God’ (verse 30).

MacArthur says that people in Scripture who encountered divine beings were really fearful because they felt so unworthy — another sign that they were righteous:

Continuing the conversation, breaking into Mary’s preoccupation, verse 30, “The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.’” This indicates that her confusion and perplexity also had a measure of fear. Appearances of divine persons always elicited and generated fear and called for this assurance. Chapter 13, the angel, same angel, Gabriel…chapter 1 verse 13, chapter 1:13, Gabriel says to Zacharias, “Do not be afraid.” Chapter 2 verse 10 when the angels appeared to the shepherds in the field, they say, “Do not be afraid.” Seeing a holy angel out of the presence of God is a frightening thing.

Nothing for Mary to fear; this isn’t judgment. The angel affirmingly says, “For you have found favor with God” …

The issue here is not Mary’s worthiness; the issue here is God’s choice. The issue here is not Mary’s merit; the issue here is God’s sovereignty. It was said of Noah…Why did God spare Noah? Drown the whole world and save Noah? Why? “Noah found grace in the sight of God.” God graciously chose Noah. God graciously chose Mary. She didn’t deserve it. She wasn’t worthy of it. She was just a young girl, just a sinner like everybody else.

This is not a statement about Mary’s spiritual life. There is no statement about that. Nothing is said about her. And I think it’s a good thing … God wants us to know that this grace from God came to one of whom nothing could be said to make her worthy. Mary knew it.

Later on this 13-year-old girl, or so, praised God, chapter 1 verse 46. Mary said, “My soul exalts the Lord, my spirit has rejoiced in God, my Savior, for He has regard for the humble state of His bond slave. For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.” Not the blesser; she’s the blessed. “For the Mighty One has done great things for me.” And what is amazing about it is, “Holy is His name.” How can a holy God do such great things for such a sinner as me? She knew. She was humble. She had a beatitude mentality.

So the divine messenger, Gabriel, comes to the divine choice, Mary, with a divine blessing, grace, announcing the fourth point, the divine child. To this point she doesn’t even know what the message is, all she knows is that God has chosen her to be gracious to her. By the way, as a footnote, God is only gracious to those who believe in Him, right? He gives no grace to those who refuse Him, He gives no grace to those who do not know Him. The Lord was with her and the Lord was gracious to her in a special and unique way, but that because she did belong to Him.

To be continued tomorrow.