Everyday Christmas #5

Now that the shepherds have found Jesus, we will leave them for now.  What a night they must have had!  Now let’s go back to the beginning, well not the very beginning, because God has been working up to this since before Genesis and the Garden.  Jesus was there then too you know (John 1).  Let’s just go back to when the angel appeared to Mary.

Luke 1:26-30

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.  And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”  But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.  Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 

This was an important event.  God didn’t just send just any angel, but Gabriel to bear the news. God sent Gabriel to Nazareth.  If you had lived in that day, you would have said, “Nazareth, where is Nazareth?”  Of 204 towns and villages in Galilee, Josephus fails to mention Nazareth.  We all know what Nathaniel thought of Nazareth.  “Can anything good come out of Nazareth”, was his question.  (John 1:46)

Gabriel went to Nazareth to tell Mary that she would be the mother of the Messiah.  Who is Mary?  Why did God choose Mary?  Her name means “bitter” and she seemed to be poor and from an unknown family.  Even when they presented Jesus at the Temple in Luke 2:24 they offered the sacrifice that was allowed for the poor.   I think the answer lies in how Gabriel greets her.  He says, “Rejoice, highly favored one”.  The Greek word for “favored” is also from the word for “grace”.

So Mary was chosen out of God’s grace.  Not because she was important at the time, or Rich or of the royal class, although she and Joseph were of the lineage of David. She was chosen out of the ordinary so that God could do the extraordinary, thus again our everyday Christmas.

Next Time: “Mary’s Song”

God Bless!