Let It Be

Luke 1:26-56

Now that God has spoken to Zacharias at Jerusalem by the angel Gabriel, His 400 year silence has been broken. God is once again speaking to His people.

But only Zacharias knows this, and he is presently mute, so no one else knows what Zacharias knows. (Save for Elizabeth, his wife.)

Six months into the miraculous pregnancy of John the Baptist, God speaks again, for from Jerusalem, at Nazareth.

Mary’s story is quite fascinating. Again God has searched and found one whose heart is loyal to Him, in whom He may prove Himself strong. In Mary? Basically a young peasant girl growing up in a backwater town of no reputation for greatness.

Wouldn’t the mother of the long-promised Messiah be the most famous, the most special, THE most glorious of all women who ever lived in the nation of Israel? Hadn’t every girl who ever grew up in Israel longed to become the mother of the Messiah?

Who would ever consider Mary to be so favored of God? The answer: God Himself.

Consider Gabriel’s greeting to Mary, (which in essence explains ALL of what God has planned for her,) “Rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.”

Of all the women who have ever lived in Israel, or in the history of the world, God has singled out Mary to carry His only begotten Son through pregnancy, and to birth Him and raise Him in this hostile world. Think about THAT role for a moment, and allow the sense of THAT responsibility settle on your shoulders...

Of THIS role Gabriel commands Mary to rejoice! Of course Mary was concerned at this news. Of course Mary was troubled over the possibility of the all the weight of this report. Of course Mary knew that she had never known a man. But, because she IS the Mary God has known from eternity past, her response to Gabriel, (and to God,) is, “Let it be to me according to your word.”

-Pastor Bill