The Disruptive Jesus – Luke 1:26-38

He prided himself in being a non-conformist and when week after week he saw an unchanged church sign that read, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” he couldn’t believe that was really in the Bible.  But it was, he discovered, and he ended up reading the Gospel of Matthew and falling in love with the true non-conformist, Jesus Christ.  He says, “I did not have anyone there with me to teach me the sinner’s prayer or tell me my next step – but I did not need that.  God had disrupted my seemingly non-conforming, tragically truly conforming life and showed me the only real non-conformist, Jesus Christ, His son who laid down His life for others instead of claiming His right to it – because he loved us that much.”

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.  (Luke 1:26-38 ESV)

Besides Michael, this is the only angel named in Scripture.  An angel is a messenger, a unique creation of God.  Some rebelled with Satan, but the majority remained faithful to God.  Gabriel announces to a frightened, perhaps cowering, Mary that despite her betrothal to Joseph God is going to use her to bear the Messiah.  As such he will be called Son of the Most High, ruler on the throne of David his ancestor, and ruler over all Israel forever.

Mary works up courage to ask the obvious question, “How can she have a child when she is still a virgin?”  The social implications are huge and the potential for rejection by Joseph, her family and her whole community is great.  The angel’s answer is that God will do a miracle, the Holy Spirit “overshadowing” her to cause the conception of the Son of God.  She is consoled with the knowledge that her relative Elizabeth has also conceived miraculously and with the knowledge that nothing is impossible with God.  She submits obediently.

So here the eternal Son of God, second member of the Trinity, is taking on human nature in addition to divine nature.  He is taking on our limitations for the purpose of ruling over Israel.  But why could God not rule through a fallen member of humanity?  We are not told yet that this ruler must die before he rules. 

Would we, like Mary, be so obedient to having our lives so disrupted?  Jesus disrupts normal, world-centered living.