The Obedience of Mary: Luke 1:26-38 - Fourth Sunday in Advent

Something like fireworks go off in the pit of my stomach any time someone says to me “we need to talk.” 

We need to talk because something terrible happened to someone I care about, I have offended someone, or something terrible is about to happen. 

Was Mary afraid when she told Joseph, “we need to talk?”

She, of course, needed to talk to Joseph after the conversation she had with the angel Gabriel. Incidentally, the first words he spoke were “do not be afraid.”

Image by Ted Erski from Pixabay

If someone’s telling you not to be afraid, that means you have good reasons to be afraid! For starters, Gabriel would’ve looked like a man. I don’t know if you can kickbox an angel, but that’s what I’d do if a strange man was in my house talking to my wife or daughter.

Click here to read the Scripture text

Then there’s Gabriel’s message: Mary will conceive and bear a son. Before she is married to Joseph. 

This puts Mary in an extremely dangerous position, because her engagement was legally binding. Joseph’s father had already paid the bride price, an enormous sum of money paid to Mary’s father. Their engagement was sealed in a document called the ketubah. For all legal purposes, they were married. However, they could not “fulfill” their marriage until after the wedding ceremony. 

So, when Mary gives her consent, she is putting her life on the line. (It’s significant that God permits her to consent, because God never gave people a choice as to whether they would obey.)

But I don’t believe that Mary consented on a whim. She trusted God, and I also think she trusted the man she was about to marry. Thankfully, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him also, “don’t be afraid,” because this was all God’s doing,

Yet, even with this conversation out of the way, there was still an enormous responsibility resting upon their shoulders; a responsibility they will bear in the face of enormous dangers. 

To think, in the space of a few short days, Mary and Joseph went from knowing pretty well what their future was going to be, to taking personal responsibility for birthing, raising, protecting, and educating the Son of God. So how did they do it? And why?

The moment Mary said, “let it be with me according to your Word,” Mary renounced many of the things we want most out of life: comfort, security, predictability, and control. Their lives, and the life of Jesus, would be on the line, forever. If all that wasn’t enough, Mary will witness, firsthand, her son dying the cross. No parent should ever have to bury their child. 

Nevertheless, Mary and Joseph will go on to be among the greatest heroes of the faith. But let’s not forget where their obedience of faith came from, and that’s from God.

God didn’t need Mary to bear his Son in her womb, nor did God need Joseph to be his dad. A full-grown, adult Jesus could’ve descended from heaven, begun his ministry, and done practically everything he came to do. But God wants to work with human beings and through human beings. God wants to reveal his power, his mercy, and his love through ordinary people like Mary, Joseph, and you. God wants to use your hands, feet, mind, heart, and voice to change the world. We learn who God is as God works through us.

But we love comfort. We love security. We love being in control. We love being loved. We crave material things over spiritual blessings. We want to follow Jesus on our own terms. 

When you close your eyes, ears, and mind to God’s call, God calls someone else. Then you miss out. And our communities suffer.

I don’t want to imagine what Leechburg would be like without our congregations living out their faith through service. Sure, there are big congregations along the highways and in the affluent suburbs, but our congregations have spiritual gifts the big ones do not. Hopefully, you can recall at least one significant thing you’ve witnessed God doing in your church in the last year. Our smallness and our challenges are no reason for us to doubt how mighty God can be. There’s no doubt in my mind that Jesus is calling us to newer, bigger, riskier, and uncomfortable things that our witness and impact may grow.

If we feel inadequate, if you feel inadequate, just imagine how Mary must’ve felt. But the angel said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”

If you know what God wants, if you believe in God’s power to do it, then why hold yourself back?

There will always be limitless reasons to reject, avoid, or delay what Christ is calling you to do. If you want to keep Jesus on the sidelines, he’ll stay there, but he won’t be silent. And your soul will not rest, because you don’t have forever to trust and obey God. 

God is calling you now. So do not be afraid, even though you have good reasons to be afraid. Your God is strong enough to power you through your fears. Your God is mighty enough to accomplish bigger things than you could ever do without him. You can make every bit as big an impact on the world and on other people as did Mary and Joseph, if only you will say with Mary, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”