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2010 Christmas (II)

YOU WHO ARE HIGHLY FAVORED!

Luke 1:26-38
Key Verse: 1:28

“The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’”

Merry Christmas! Christmas is a joyous holiday, celebrated throughout the world. Christmas in New York City seems to start when the Christmas tree in front of Rockefeller Center is lighted. Why are we so excited about Christmas? Many of us, including myself, consider Christmas even more meaningful than our own birthdays because we know that we are born again spiritually in Christ Jesus our Lord. In fact, Christmas is our birthday in Christ because we are born again to live a new and eternal life in Christ. But we see that not all of us are necessarily joyful during Christmas. Because Christmas has become so commercialized, instead of being more joyful, many of us are more anxious and burdened during Christmas. When Dr. Luke wrote his gospel narrative, Christmas was not celebrated in the world, not even in the Christian circle.

In today’s passage, however, we find that Christmas started quietly with the angel’s visit to an ordinary country girl, Mary. The angel said to her, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (28) In the angel’s message, the word “favor” is repeated twice. In verse 30, the angel said to Mary, “Do not be afraid, Mary, You have found favor with God!” Mary was indeed a highly favored lady. She herself confessed in Luke 1:48b, “From now on all generations will call me blessed!” Let’s think about what it means to be favored by God through the story of Mary and also what this story means to us today.

Look at verses 26 and 27. “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.” Six months had passed since the angel Gabriel visited Zechariah in Jerusalem to announce the birth of his son, John the Baptist. This time, the same angel was sent to a town in Galilee, called Nazareth. Nazareth was a tiny village, located about 70 miles north of Jerusalem, with a total population of about 200 people. Unlike the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea, the Jews in Galilee were not as strict in their observance of the Law of Moses and of the traditions of the elders due to Gentile influence. So the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea despised the Galilean Jews. After all, Nazareth was one of the most infamous towns in Galilee. In fact, Nazareth was a city conquered by Rome and many Roman soldiers lived there. They said, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (Jn 1:46) To be called a Nazarene was an insult. Both Mary and Joseph were from Nazareth. Amazingly enough, however, Mary and Joseph were chosen by God to bring Jesus the Son of God into the world.

Most Bible scholars would agree that Mary was very young at that time, perhaps just fourteen or fifteen years old. Yet, she seemed to be mature enough to be engaged to a man, named Joseph. We know very little about Joseph. We don’t even know how old he was at that time. Joseph was a carpenter, yet he was originally from a noble family as a descendant of King David. We would like to think that Joseph, who was very handsome, proposed to Mary by kneeling in front of her with a beautiful diamond ring and saying “Mary, I love you so much. I don’t know if I can live my life without you. Will you marry me?” Then Mary would have answered, “Oh, my Joseph. Thank you! I will marry you.” Yet, that may not have been the case. In those days, most marriages in Israel were arranged by their parents or by a matchmaker. And we know that a Jewish engagement was tantamount to marriage, which meant a life-long commitment. I am sure that this new bride had so many dreams and plans for a happy marriage, such as “what kind of dress should I wear at the wedding?” “What kind of flowers should I pick?” “Who will be my bride’s maids?” Endless hopes and dreams and endless preparations!

While Mary was eagerly waiting for her wedding day, God intervened in her life. Look at verses 28-30. “The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.’” The angel kept saying to her that she was favored by God. Yet, Mary didn’t burst into great excitement. Instead, she felt greatly troubled and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. Even though she didn’t say a word, she probably wanted to say, “Mr. Angel, what do you mean by saying that I am highly favored? If you meant that my engagement was a favor from God, I agree. Joseph is a great guy. I truly love him. But it seems like you mean something else. Would you please tell me what you mean when you say that I have found favor with God?”

Look at verses 31-33. “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He 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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” The content of the angel’s message to Mary was totally unexpected and far beyond her imagination. Mary would become the mother of the Son of the Most High God. And the child she would bear was going to be the king over the everlasting kingdom. I am not sure how much Mary understood the content of the angel’s message at the moment. Probably, she didn’t understand much. But Mary must have had some Bible knowledge. Perhaps she even knew about God’s promise to King David concerning one of his descendants who would be king over his everlasting kingdom. In fact, the angel’s message to her seemed to be based on 2 Samuel 7: 11b-13, which was given to David by the prophet Nathan. It reads, “The Lord declares to you (David) that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” This prophecy about the Messiah was given to David around 1,000 years before the angel appeared to Mary. Isaiah also prophesied about the birth of the Messiah around 800 years before the Angel spoke to her. Isaiah 7:14 reads, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will be called Immanuel.”

But what do these prophecies have to do with a young lady, Mary, the fiancé of Joseph, who was a descendant of David? During the last one thousand years of Israel’s history, many things had changed. King David ruled over the United Kingdom of Israel for 40 years until his son, Solomon, succeeded him on the throne. David’s kingdom enjoyed prosperity and power for a while, and then was split into two – Northern Israel and Southern Judah – at around 930 B.C. The Northern kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C. and the southern kingdom, Judah, was destroyed by the Babylonian empire in 586 B.C. The people of Israel had been scattered and exiled to a foreign land. A great number of the exiles returned to their homeland in Palestine and had longed for the restoration of the glory of David’s kingdom. But the kingdom of Israel was not fully restored. The national situation had gotten worse. It seemed that God had forgotten His promises. But when the time had fully come, God was about to send His Son into this world according to His promises. (Gal 4:4) Mary, who was a virgin and engaged to a descendant of David, was fitting to be the woman who would bear the Son of God.

But that wasn’t enough. She also had to respond to God’s call with her own faith. Otherwise, God’s will would not have been fulfilled through her. In fact, fulfilling God’s special favor and purpose was also a very risky thing for her to do. God’s favor would jeopardize her engagement, her family and her future. Her human dreams and hopes could have been completely shattered by this call. In fact, she might have felt that she had to sacrifice too much to bear God’s blessing. But what troubled her immediately was how she would become involved in this amazing work of God. If she was going to bear a child, how would it be possible for her to do this as a virgin? So she said in verse 34, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” She wasn’t asking for a sign, as Zechariah did. She was simply puzzled about the process.

The angel explained to her further in verses 35-38. “The 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 the Son of God. Even 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. For nothing is impossible with God.’ ‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May it be to me as you have said,’ Then the angel left her.” Conceiving a child as a virgin is purely the divine work of the Holy Spirit. Mary wasn’t told to do anything at this point. What the angel told her was not a command but an announcement of what God, through His Spirit, would do to bring His Son into this world. All she had to do was trust God. And that is what she did. Look at verse 30. “‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May it be to me as you have said.’ Then the angel left her”

Wow! How could she respond in such a simple and decisive manner? I am sure that Mary was a woman of faith in God Almighty. Definitely the news about her old relative Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy was a great encouragement. And the angel’s last words, “For nothing is impossible with God”, strengthened her faith even more. “For nothing is impossible with God!” Do you believe that nothing is impossible with God? Let me ask you a question. “Can we raise young disciples of Jesus in New York campuses?” No. We can’t. But God can. But we can say, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”(Phil 4:13) Do you really mean it? If you do, you are ready.

When Mary said “I am the Lord’s servant”, she meant that God has absolute authority to do whatever He wishes. Having said this, I wonder how many of us are willing to submit to God’s will if we are in Mary’s shoes. It may be hard to simply submit to God’s will and say, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said”? Why not? It’s because we all have our personal interests, preferences, tastes, hopes and dreams. Those are very important to us, but not the most important. Should we put aside our preference and dreams for the sake of God’s will? Maybe not all the time but sometimes. Why would we do this? It seems unthinkable. When our hopes and dreams are broken, it really hurts us. A lot of people want to fulfill their dreams and hopes through their marriage. That’s good. But we must see God’s divine purpose beyond our human hopes and dreams. Otherwise, we become stuck. Even when we serve the Lord, we still hold on to our personal interests, hopes and dreams. Those are really important. But if God’s will for us does not match up with them, we may need to put them aside to obey God’s will. It’s not easy to do so.

It’s so amazing that Mary, a young lady, could obey God’s will even when it meant breaking her beautiful dream of having a happy marriage with her idealistic husband. It’s a mystery that she surrendered to the will of God. Her act of obedience is admirable. Erich Fromm (1900-1980), a Christian social philosopher and psychoanalyst, said in his book “The Art of Loving” that the best way to full knowledge is love. In other words, full knowledge about God and others comes not necessarily by collecting information but through love. We can know God and be known by God through love. And we can know each other and be known by each other also through love. Unless we love God, we wouldn’t know Him. And God is love. Love is the universal language for us to communicate with one another. Even though Mary was very young, she could trust God because of her love for God. Even though she would have to go through tremendous suffering and pain both as the mother of Jesus and a woman of faith, she could embrace them because of her love for God. Therefore, her response, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said,” was her confession of love for God.

One question we might want to ask is “Is God’s will worthy enough for us to give up on our hope and dreams? Is God’s favor worthy enough for us to fully dedicate ourselves, like Mary did? What do you think? I personally believe that the answer is “Yes.” When we say that we are favored by God, it does not just mean that we will be rich and famous or that we will live an easy and comfortable life in this world. That may sound attractive but it’s not realistic. In reality, no one in the world, whether he is rich or poor, learned or unlearned, cultured or uncultured, can live an easy and comfortable life. Suffering and pain are unavoidable. Sometimes we are put into a totally unexpected situation. After all, we all get old, sick and die someday. Christians are not an exception. Yet, we can say that Christians are highly favored because we have the blessing of eternal life in the glorious kingdom of heaven. Because of this glorious hope of the resurrection, we are not crushed by our circumstances. In fact, we can overcome any hardship or pain because we firmly believe that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose. (Ro 8:28)

Yet, we need to think about why we say that we are highly favored in more detail. How can we say that we are highly favored by God, even when we have to go through many difficulties and hardships? It’s because our Father is doing something truly amazing in us. He is doing in us something truly fantastic. What is he doing in us? He is creating a jewel in us, a jewel, like a pearl or genuine gold. Let me share a story I once shared about how a pearl is created in an oyster, an ugly looking shell in the mud. Just by looking at the appearance of an oyster, we don’t see anything of value or worth. Those oysters seem to be doing nothing. Yet, inside these creatures a miracle often happens. When a foreign object slips in between the oyster’s mantle and the shell, it’s kind of like the oyster getting a splinter. It’s very painful. The oyster’s natural reaction is to begin to cover the irritant with layer after layer of a hard, smooth, colorful substance. Over time, a beautiful, valuable pearl is created. Romans 8:17-18 reads, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” Also Job 23:10 reads, “But He (God) knows the way that I take, when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”

Mary’s life as the mother of Jesus and a woman of faith might have been full of splinters. But she became one of the most blessed women in history when she responded God’s favor with love and faith. Likewise, our life in this world can be full of splinters. From time to time we are deeply hurt and discouraged by things or people around us. It seems that even our struggles and labor in the Lord are in vain. Some of us might even think that what we have sacrificed is wasted for nothing when we don’t seem to bear visible fruit. But that’s a great misunderstanding. If we understand what it means to be highly favored by God, we also know that all our labor, sacrifice and struggles are not wasted. Why? God is working in us, engraving a beautiful image and glorious character, like the gorgeous pearl covered by the shell. When Jesus comes again, all the ugly part of us will evaporate and the glorious new self in our Lord Jesus Christ will appear. We will come out like jewels, pearls and pure gold. Therefore, we should not be fooled by the cheap and commercialized version of Gods’ grace and favor. Sufferings in Christ in our present time are a blessing in disguise. This spiritual pearl is much more beautiful and better than our human dreams and hopes, something we should not despise.

So what kind of life we should live? What kind of attitude we should have toward our suffering, pain and hardship in life? We should rejoice! We should rejoice! Rejoice? Yes, rejoice! 1 Peter 1:6-7 reads, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Romans 5:3-5 reads, “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” We don’t know when he will return. But we believe that he will come soon and very soon. Until then, we should not remain discouraged but rejoice greatly. “Rejoice, rejoice, Immanuel! Shall come to Thee, O Israel!” Although each of us is highly favored by God in Christ Jesus, some of us may still feel discouraged because of spiritual ignorance. May the Lord help us to remove our spiritual ignorance so that we may newly accept what it means to be highly favored in Jesus Christ! Let us remind ourselves and each other that we are the most blessed ones because God is with us and we have something really look forward to, no matter what circumstances we may be in. Let me read our key verse once again. “The angel went to Mary and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you!”
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