Mark Bradford's Bible Blog

The Resurrection

¹On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” ⁸Then they remembered his words.

In my post on the accounts of the resurrection in Mark and John, I wondered why the women went to the tomb alone, with no one to help roll the stone away. The stone which covered the entrance to the tomb was a heavy, circular shaped stone, running in a groove and settled down into a channel, so it could not be moved except by several strong men. This was done to ensure that no one would disturb the remains. Mark tells us that, on the way there, the women wondered to themselves who would roll the stone away for them (Mark 16:3). The disciples must still have been afraid to go there for fear of arrest by the Roman guard, which should still have been there, guarding the tomb. They had placed a Roman seal on it, which only they had the authority to remove. So the women must have been hoping the soldiers would move the stone for them, so they could complete the anointing of Jesus’ body. These were the same women who had witnessed the crucifixion and Jesus’ burial.

When they arrived, the stone had been rolled away, and the Roman soldiers were gone. As I also mentioned in my Easter blog, the stone was not rolled away so that Jesus could get out. We know from John 20:19 that Jesus in his resurrected body could pass through solid walls. The stone was rolled away so that others could get in and see that he was risen. The women walked in and saw that Jesus’ body was missing. At first, they were puzzled, as anyone would be. As it says in verse 4, while they were wondering about this, two angels appeared to them. Mark only tells us of one angel in the tomb (Mark 16:5). I believe there’s enough Biblical evidence to indicate that Mary, the mother of Jesus was present at this scene. She may have been the “Mary the mother of James” that Luke names in verse 10, since Jesus had a brother named James. We know she was present at the crucifixion (John 19:25), and many Biblical scholars believe that the myrrh the Magi left as a gift when Jesus was a child (Matthew 2:11) was intended to anoint his body for burial, so it makes sense that she would have been there to use it. Biblical scholars also believe that Luke got a lot of his material from interviews with Mary. I say all of that to say that I can’t help but think it was Mary who told Luke that it wasn’t just one angel, but two. When Mary Magdelene went back to the tomb, she also saw two angels (John 20:11-12).

The angels were dressed in “clothes that gleamed like lightning.” The word used here is similar to the description of Jesus at the Transfiguration (Luke 9:29). The implication is not of a light shining on them, but a brilliant light shining out from within them. They literally shone with the Shekinah glory of God. The angels essentially asked the women why they did not take Jesus at his word when said he would rise on the third day. If they had, they would not be looking for him in a tomb. How good are we at taking Jesus at his word?

⁹When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. ¹⁰It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. ¹²Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

The women ran back and told the disciples what they had seen and heard. The disciples didn’t believe it, because “their words seemed to them like nonsense.” Of course a story like this would seem too good to be true. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is, right? But these women were literally telling the gospel of the resurrection of Christ. The Gospel always sounds like nonsense to those who don’t believe (1 Corinthians 1:18). At that point, the women were believers, but Jesus’ own disciples were not.

Then Peter decided to investigate for himself. After hearing the women’s story, he at least believed them enough to accept that it was safe to go there because the Roman soldiers were gone. We know from John’s gospel that John went with him (John 20:3). But where Peter saw the strips of linen lying there, but still went away puzzled, John saw and believed (John 20:8). I have my own theory as to why this is, which you can read in my post on the accounts of the resurrection in Mark and John. But one thing is clear. From the appearance of the grave clothes, it was obvious that the body had not been stolen. If it had been, the thieves would not have unwrapped the body first, nor would they have taken the trouble to fold up the cloth “by itself, separate from the linen,” as John  describes (John 20:6-7).  We don’t know the actual details of Jesus’ resurrection, but we know from the evidence and testimony in the gospels that he is risen. He is risen indeed!

Mark Bible Jesus, Luke, Mary, Peter, resurrection

The Boy Jesus at the Temple

⁴¹Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. ⁴²When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. ⁴³After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. ⁴⁴Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. ⁴⁵When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.

The first two chapters of Luke’s gospel are probably entirely comprised of accounts given by Mary. As I’ve been saying in previous blogs, these interviews that Luke conducted with Mary happened decades after the resurrection. So it’s interesting to me to note which events early in the life of Jesus Mary thought were important to make sure Luke knew, or had her perspective on. She mentioned nothing about the visit of the Magi, or the escape to Egypt, which Matthew had already covered. So many aspects of the birth of Jesus that are so familiar to us today appear only in Luke. The accounts of John the Baptist’s birth, Gabriel’s appearance to Mary, the birth in Bethlehem, no room in the inn, the manger, the angels and shepherds, Simeon and Anna, they all come from Mary. We wouldn’t know about any of these things but for Luke’s interviews with her. None of these events appear in any of the other gospels. So these were the things that Mary most remembered, and the things she thought it was important for us to know.

I wonder, as many have, why she skipped straight from Jesus’ circumcision ceremony eight days after his birth to this event when he was 12 years old. Nothing notable happened in between? What this tells me is that after the supernatural events surrounding his birth, Jesus was basically a normal kid. If other events had happened during his childhood or teenage years that gave evidence of his deity, Mary would have told about them. She didn’t leave out too many details of his birth! Don’t buy into the “childhood gospels” that have floated around over the years. They are bogus, and were written in later centuries. But although Mary pretty much skipped over Jesus’ childhood and adolescence, she thought it was important that we know about this incident.

Every year, devout Jews from Galilee and elsewhere traveled to Jerusalem for Passover, as was required. They traveled in large groups for safety. Bandits were a frequent problem, and the road was dangerous. Verse 41 says that the family made this pilgrimage every year, so it was a familiar trip. Jesus had made this trip with this same group of people every year of his life. This is another example of how devout Mary and Joseph were, as I’ve been pointing out previously. They were raising Jesus to be a devout, observant Jew.

As they started back after the festival, Mary and Joseph assumed Jesus was somewhere in their large group. This group was probably largely comprised of their clan and extended family. People lived in large, extended families in that culture, and Jesus must have had many cousins and friends his own age. Since they had made this trip many times, I imagine that on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus had spent much of the trip out of his parent’s sight, but with other family members and friends. Probably the same thing had happened when he was 11, and when he was 10. So it was no big deal for Jesus not to be right there with his parents. I’ve heard several sermons on this point. Mary and Joseph assumed that Jesus was with them, and as a result, they lost him. We can’t assume the presence of Jesus. We have to seek his presence on purpose.

⁴⁶After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. ⁴⁸When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

⁴⁹“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” ⁵⁰But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

Can you imagine how frantic Mary and Joseph must have been, to lose their son for 3 days? As I mentioned earlier, they had good reason to travel in a large group. All the way back to Jerusalem, they must have been scanning the rocks, looking for a 12 year old body, the work of bandits. If you’ve ever lost track of your child for even a few minutes, you know a little of what they must have felt. So Mary’s question to Jesus is quite understandable. They are the words of a frantic, worried mother. That’s Mary’s perspective on this event.

From Jesus’ point of view, I imagine that the year before, and maybe the year before that, Jesus had sat in the Temple courts while the family was there, listening the the teachers of the law, fascinated. At age 12, boys started to become men in that culture. That’s when they began to take up their father’s trade, which is what Jesus was referencing when he said, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (or “about my Father’’s business?”). I imagine that Jesus had looked forward to this Passover festival all year with this in mind. This year, he would be old enough to ask questions and participate in the discussion. When they arrived, and Jesus got his opportunity, he went to the courts to see the teachers, and time just got away from him. Once Mary and Joseph got back to Jerusalem, I don’t think they had to search the city or the Temple grounds much. They knew exactly where he was. He was in the same place I’m willing to bet they had found him before. Jesus loved the scriptures, as we can see throughout the gospels. That love was instilled in him by his parents. They had only themselves to blame for the fact that the Temple was where Jesus wanted to be, with the teachers, discussing the scriptures. Are you instilling love for the scriptures in your children?

On a practical note, where did Jesus stay for those three days? Teachers didn’t stay in the Temple courts 24/7, discussing the law. They went home sometime. I imagine that a kind teacher took him in until his parents returned for him. Maybe one who was touched by the inquisitiveness and brilliance of this 12 year old with so much understanding of the Torah. Maybe one who was still there 21 years later when Jesus was the one teaching in the Temple courts. Was he there at Jesus’ trial? Did he remember this boy and make the connection?

⁵¹Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. ⁵²And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

It’s interesting to me that Mary admitted to Luke in verse 50 that they didn’t understand what Jesus said to them at that time. But it’s easy to read between the lines and hear her thinking, but I understand now. Once again, Luke tells us that Mary “treasured all these things in her heart”. She had kept these events to herself for decades while the gospel was preached, and stories about her son were told. We owe Mary an incalculable debt for telling Luke these things. Mary not only obeyed God at great cost to herself so that Jesus our Messiah could turn out to be who he was, she’s the reason we know what we know about the earliest events in Jesus’ life. What would Christmas celebrations be like without the accounts that Mary gave to Luke? We also owe Luke a great debt for seeking Mary out to get these interviews. The Holy Spirit inspired them, but they were obedient to his leading, and as a result, countless generations are blessed. We never know what God will do with our obedience.

Mark Bible Bible, Jesus, Joseph, Luke, Mary

Jesus Is Presented in the Temple

²¹ Eight days later, when the baby was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel even before he was conceived.

²² Then it was time for their purification offering, as required by the law of Moses after the birth of a child; so his parents took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. ²³ The law of the Lord says, “If a woman’s first child is a boy, he must be dedicated to the Lord.”^{[a] 24} So they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord—“either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”^[b]

Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to be circumcised and dedicated to the Lord, and for Mary to present her purification offering after childbirth, according to the law of Moses (Leviticus 12:2-3). Jesus came to fulfill the law, and he was careful to observe the law. Some of this he got from his divine nature and understanding of his mission, but much of it he got from his parents. Here is an example of how devout and observant Mary and Joseph were. From the earliest age, Jesus was raised in a devout, God-honoring home by righteous parents. Later in this chapter, we’ll see how Jesus understood the scriptures at age 12. Was this just because he was supernaturally brilliant, being the Son of God? Maybe partly, but I believe it was also because he was raised in a very godly home, and was taught to love the scriptures by his parents. If you want your kids to be serious about their relationship with God, you have to be serious about it.

The fact that they offered two birds for their offering shows that they were not rich. According to Leviticus 12:8, their offering was supposed to be a lamb and a dove or pigeon. But if they could not afford a lamb they could bring two birds.

The Prophecy of Simeon

²⁵ At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him ²⁶ and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷ That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, ²⁸ Simeon was there.

Simeon had received assurances from God that he would see the Messiah before he died. He lived in expectation. Even though he was an old man, and had waited many years without seeing what God had promised, he still expected God to do what he said he would do. Do we believe God to the point that we simply expect him to do what he says he’ll do, even after many years of not seeing it? Verses 17-18 of this chapter says that the shepherds “told everyone what had happened” and that “all who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished”. As I said in my last blog, the  shepherds probably worked for the Temple, herding sheep intended for sacrifice. so word of their story had probably spread throughout the Temple. I imagine that Simeon heard about it, maybe from one of the shepherds themselves. Knowing the date of Jesus’ birth, Simeon would have been able to count to eight, and be at the Temple on the date of Jesus’ circumcision. Verse 27 says that on that date, the Spirit led him to the Temple. But that doesn’t mean Simeon didn’t hear anything about it. God communicates with us in many ways, often through people.

He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,

²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace,
as you have promised.
³⁰ I have seen your salvation,
³¹ which you have prepared for all people.
³² He is a light to reveal God to the nations,
and he is the glory of your people Israel!”

Simeon’s prophecy is significant, partly in the mere fact that it was spoken in the Temple. The thrust of Simeon’s prophecy is that God’s salvation through Jesus was for all people, including the Gentiles. The Amplified Bible puts verse 32 this way:

³²A Light for ^[k]revelation to the Gentiles [to disclose what was before unknown] and [to bring] praise and honor and glory to Your people Israel.^(G)

Simeon references two Messianic prophecies from Isaiah (42:6, 49:6), both of which stress that the Messiah will be a light to the Gentiles. Of all the prophecies of the Messiah that the Holy Spirit could have had Simeon speak at that moment, the one he chose was this, that as Isaiah 49:6 says;

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

For Jesus to merely be a Messiah to rescue the Jews from oppression was too small a task for God to send his son. The only job big enough to warrant that kind of sacrifice was to make his salvation available to the whole world. And God reinforced this message in the Temple, the center of the old covenant.

³³ Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about him. ³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, the baby’s mother, “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, but he will be a joy to many others. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. ³⁵ As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.”

Once again, I imagine Mary as an old woman, relating this memory to Luke. This was the first “negative” prophecy about Jesus that Mary and Joseph received. Up until that point, it had all been positive. Now, for the first time, God was telling them that their son would face major opposition. I wonder if Simeon’s prediction that a sword would pierce her soul went over her head at the time, but now, decades after seeing the sword pierce her son’s side on the cross, she knows all too bitterly what he meant. So often, when we’re young, we don’t take seriously the sage words of those older than us. It’s only when we get older that we see their wisdom.

The Prophecy of Anna

³⁶ Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. ³⁷ Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four.^[c] She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. ³⁸ She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.

Not just one holy prophet spoke to Mary and Joseph about Jesus that day, two of them did! This was added confirmation of what Mary and Joseph already knew. They had spent perhaps weeks living in a cave, and had given birth in very difficult circumstances, but Mary and Joseph had still done what the law required, and had obeyed God every step of the way. How would you like to take care of a newborn infant in a cave for 7 days? After all that, how great an encouragement it must have been to them to have not one, but two prophets speak to them about Jesus and confirm who he was? It’s easy to let difficult circumstances become an excuse for letting our walk with God become lax. But Mary and Joseph didn’t do that. They obeyed God to the letter in spite of their circumstances, and God rewarded them by confirming his word to them through two prophets on the same day.

³⁹ When Jesus’ parents had fulfilled all the requirements of the law of the Lord, they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee. ⁴⁰ There the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was on him.

I won’t talk about the Wise Men much, since Luke doesn’t mention them, but I will just say two things about them here. First, it’s apparent that they had not visited Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus yet, because if they had, Mary and Joseph would have been able to afford a lamb for the sacrifice. They could have bought one with the gold the Magi brought. Most biblical scholars believe the Magi came when Jesus was around two years old, so they don’t really belong in the Christmas story. Second, it says in verse 39 that after this ceremony, only 8 days after Jesus’ birth, the Holy Family went back to Nazareth. I’ll address this more fully when I blog on the Gospel of Matthew, but I believe that the star did not lead the Magi to Bethlehem, but to Nazareth, where Jesus was (Matthew 2:9-10). When they went to Herod to ask where the King of the Jews was to be born, Herod’s scholars said it was to be in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is just outside of Jerusalem. They wouldn’t have needed the star to find Jesus if he was still there. According to this scripture, by the time the Wise Men came to see Jesus, he wasn’t in Bethlehem anymore. His family had gone back to Nazareth two years earlier, so the star guided them there.

Mark Bible Anna, Bible, Jesus, Joseph, Luke, Mary, Simeon

Mary Visits Elizabeth

³⁹ A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town ⁴⁰ where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

⁴² Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. ⁴³ Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? ⁴⁴ When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. ⁴⁵ You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

I’m using the New Living Translation for this passage, and it says in verse 39 that Mary went to visit Elizabeth a few days later. The NIV says she went at that time. Either way, Mary was pregnant by the time she left, so Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit very soon after Mary was visited by Gabriel. Mary and Elizabeth were related, as Gabriel said in verse 36. We don’t know how they were related, but I’ve always heard that Jesus and John the Baptist were cousins. The word cousins must be a loose term, because to be first cousins, Mary and Elizabeth would have to have been sisters, or at least sisters-in-law. It’s unlikely they were sisters, since Mary was very young and Elizabeth was very old. Israel was still a clannish culture then, so they may have simply been members of the same clan.

When Mary entered Zechariah and Elizabeth’s home, verse 40 says she greeted Elizabeth. Immediately Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit when she heard the greeting. Luke doesn’t say it was when Elizabeth saw Mary, but when she heard her greeting, so I’m thinking it happened like this; Mary entered the house, but Elizabeth was in another part of the house. So Mary called out to Elizabeth, and when Elizabeth heard her greeting, the baby John within her leaped for joy, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. This fulfills what Gabriel said to Zechariah in verse 15:

¹⁵For he will be great and distinguished in the sight of the Lord. And he must drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit even ^[a]in and from his mother’s womb. (Amplified)

Notice that Gabriel didn’t say John would be filled with the Spirit from conception, but in and from his mother’s womb. I think this is when that infilling took place. It happened when he came into the presence of Jesus. When Jesus entered his house, from that moment, John was filled with the Holy Spirit, and leaped for joy. As a result, Elizabeth was also filled with the Spirit. The only way to be filled with the Holy Spirit is to get close to Jesus.

How did Elizabeth know that Mary was the mother of her Lord? Because Gabriel had told Zechariah that John would go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, and that he would make ready a people prepared for the Lord (1:17). These were references to prophecy concerning the coming Messiah, and Elizabeth knew that. But I don’t think Elizabeth knew that Mary was to be the mother of the Messiah until that moment when John leaped within her and she was filled with the Holy Spirit. I love what she says in verse 45. I chose to use the New Living Translation for this passage because of the way it puts this verse. “You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.” If we want to be blessed, we must believe that the Lord will do what he says he will do, no matter how unlikely it seems to us.

The Magnificat: Mary’s Song of Praise

⁴⁶ Mary responded,   “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
⁴⁷ How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
⁴⁸ For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
⁴⁹ For the Mighty One is holy,
and he has done great things for me.

Mary is then caught up in the Spirit, and sings this song. Luke doesn’t tell us if it was spontaneous, or if Mary had written it previously. As a songwriter, I find it hard to imagine that this whole song came out of Mary whole cloth, in one moment. It might have happened that way, but it never does for me! I imagine that on the road to Elizabeth’s house, this song was going through Mary’s head. Maybe she was singing bits of it to herself as she traveled, and when she arrived, God inspired her to sing it out loud, and the pieces of song that were running through Mary’s head came out in one beautiful whole.

This song reveals a lot about Mary. First, it shows that she knew the scriptures. There are many references to the Old Testament in it. It shows that she knew how to praise God, which is something we all need to learn how to do. Her prophecy in verse 48 shows that she believed Gabriel’s statement that she was blessed among women, and that she had faith to believe that future generations would call her blessed. Mary knew that her own generation would not. They would consider her an adulterer and a sinner. She would be viewed with suspicion and scorn, and very few would believe her story about having conceived by the Holy Spirit. Can we see beyond our present circumstances and believe in the eternal impact of what God is doing through us? Mary not only believed it, it was a source of encouragement for her. Be encouraged that no matter how tough things are for you, your faithfulness to God will have eternal consequences, and people that you don’t even know will rise up and call you blessed in God’s kingdom.

In verses 48 and 49, Mary acknowledges her lowly status, and God’s greatness. Today we think of Mary as one of the heroes of the Bible, one of the greats in God’s kingdom, but at that moment, she was still a peasant girl with no social status at all. She recognizes that every good thing that’s happening to her is because of God’s blessing. May we all recognize that for ourselves!

⁵⁰ He shows mercy from generation to generation
to all who fear him.
⁵¹ His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
⁵² He has brought down princes from their thrones
and exalted the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel
and remembered to be merciful.
⁵⁵ For he made this promise to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever.”

⁵⁶ Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home.

This passage shows that Mary was also politically aware. Verses 51-55 are very much a picture of a politcal Messiah who would bring down the Romans and the corruption of Herod. Mary was poor, and much of the emphasis of her song is about God bringing down the rich and powerful and exalting the poor and humble. When you combine that with her account of what Gabriel promised her in verses 32-33, I can’t help but think that Mary expected her son to be the kind of Messiah that most Israelites expected, a political one that would end Roman oppression and become the righteous king of Israel. Even decades after Jesus’ resurrection, when she was relating all of this to Luke, it looks to me like Mary still wished that Jesus had been that kind of Messiah.

Mary ends her song by recognizing that God keeps his promises. This is important to remember for every believer. Israel had been expecting the Messiah for centuries, and now God was finally fulfilling that promise. It may seem like God is taking a long time, but remember that he always keeps his promises.

Mark Bible Bible, Elizabeth, Luke, Mary

The Birth of Jesus Foretold

²⁶In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant 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.”

²⁹Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. ³¹You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name 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, ³³and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

A few months after appearing to Zechariah, Gabriel is sent to speak to Mary. This account is one of the reasons Biblical scholars believe that Luke interviewed Mary for his gospel. Mary is the only one who could have known about this encounter. Mary would have been an old woman by the time Luke interviewed her, and if you picture her telling Luke this story decades after everything that happened to her son, I wonder how she felt about some of the angel’s promises to her.

In verse 27, Luke tells us twice that Mary was a virgin. I imagine Mary stressed this point to Luke when she told him about it. While it’s true that the word for virgin used here can also mean young woman, it’s also true that Mary would not have been betrothed to a righteous man like Joseph had she not been a virgin. And Mary’s question in the following verses also reinforces that she had never been with a man. Biblical scholars believe that Mary was probably 15 or 16 years old when the angel appeared to her. If she had been any older, in that time she would have been considered an old maid. Imagine getting this news at 16!

The depiction of angels in art has always bothered me. The thin, pale, slightly effeminate looking guys with wings, or even worse, the fat little babies with tiny wings on their backs. Angels are awesome, eternal beings who stand forever in the presence of Almighty God! That’s why every time an angel appears to anyone in the Bible, they always have to say “Fear not!” And this was no ordinary angel, this was the archangel Gabriel, second only to Michael among the archangels. No wonder Mary was afraid!

I wrote a song based on this passage several years ago called Fear Not, from my CD Sin No More. The message of that song, and to me, one of the messages of this passage, is that just like God was saying “Fear not, the Lord is with you” to Mary, no matter what we’re afraid of, he wants to say the same thing to us. Fear not, the Lord is with you!

But Mary wasn’t just afraid, she was perplexed, and not just about the whole virgin birth thing. When Gabriel first greeted her, before he told her anything about what was going to happen, she was puzzled by the mere fact of his greeting. Gabriel told her she was highly favored, and that the Lord was with her. Mary, as a poor peasant girl, probably never thought of herself that way. At that time there was no middle class. There were the rich, and royalty, and everyone else was pretty much dirt poor. If I lived in the circumstances that Mary probably lived in, I wouldn’t think of myself as especially blessed by God.

Though Mary was a witness to the resurrection, she probably still wondered about Gabriel’s promises to her in verses 32-33. As Luke interviewed her decades after her son was gone, what must she have thought about the promises that God would give Jesus the throne of David, that he would reign forever, and that his kingdom would never end? Those things are still in the future for us 2000 years later. As Mary related that quote to Luke, Herod Agrippa was on the throne and Jesus had ascended into Heaven. I can’t help but wonder how she felt about that.

The other thing about this passage that I wonder about is how Luke stresses over and over that Jesus was descended from David, but at the same time, he never says that Mary was. Mary’s lineage is never revealed in the Bible. There are two genealogies for Jesus listed in the New Testament, but both are Joseph’s. Luke tells us in verse 27 that Joseph is a descendant of David, but then goes on to say that Joseph will not be Jesus’ father. If Luke and the other writers of the Bible want to communicate that Jesus was born of a virgin, but also descended from David, why do they give us Joseph’s lineage but not Mary’s?

³⁴“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

³⁵The angel answered, “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^[c] the Son of God. ³⁶Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. ³⁷For nothing is impossible with God.”

³⁸“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

Mary asks essentially the same question that Zechariah asked, but Gabriel answers her question rather than striking her dumb. In the Amplified Bible, her question goes like this:

³⁴And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I have no [intimacy with any man as a] husband?

That makes it pretty clear about Mary’s virginity. If she and Joseph had “been together” before that time, how much worse would her punishment have been than Zechariah’s for claiming she was a virgin? In fact, if she had not been a virgin, some other girl who was a virgin would have been chosen instead, so that Isaiah’s prophecy could be fulfilled. And Mary was already pregnant when Joseph found out about it. There was no opportunity for Joseph to be Jesus’ biological father.

Gabriel’s answer to Mary is revealing. We probably all have some mental image of what Jesus’ conception might have been like, and some of those images may be embarrassing and crude. But the image Gabriel gave to Mary was very clear to her. She knew exactly what he meant. Look at the Amplified Bible’s version of Gabriel’s answer.

³⁵Then the angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you [like a shining cloud]; and so the holy (pure, sinless) Thing (Offspring) which shall be born of you will be called the Son of God.

The power of the Most High will overshadow you like a shining cloud. What Gabriel is describing is the Shekinah glory of God, as in the way God spoke to Moses from within a cloud (Exodus 16:10, 19:9, 24:16, 34:5, 40:34). This was also the sort of cloud that appeared at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7, Luke 9:34). I imagine that as soon as Gabriel left her, the cloud of the Shekinah glory of God descended upon her and surrounded her. What an amazing experience than must have been. What did God say to her during that time? What did she see and feel? I’ve heard that women can sometimes immediately tell when they have conceived. After that experience with God, Mary would have known without a doubt that she was pregnant.

Then Gabriel says, “But wait, there’s more!”, and tells her about Elizabeth. When Mary heard that Elizabeth was pregnant, she must have believed, if hadn’t before, that anything was possible. One more time, look at the Amplified version of this passage in verse 37.

³⁷For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.

When Gabriel told Mary that nothing is impossible with God, he more literally said no word of God shall be powerless. When God tells us something, we can count on it (Isaiah 55:10-11).

Mary’s response is what your response or mine should be to what God tells us; I am the Lord’s servant, and may it be to me as you have said. May we be as quick to submit to God and to obey him as Mary was!

Mark Bible Bible, Gabriel, Luke, Mary