Our Constant Star: Advent Day 9

Read & Journal

Today, read Luke 1:26-38. Take a moment to meditate on what you’ve read. Let these journal prompts guide you:

• What does this passage teach you about Jesus? Explain.

• Reread verses 32-33. What do these verses reveal about Jesus? Why are these truths important?

• Mary didn’t seem to question God’s ability to do what the angel has said, but she did ask about how it will happen. Look at verses 36-37. How is Elizabeth’s pregnancy a symbol of God’s power?

• A miracle is something only God can do. What examples of miracles do you see in this passage?

• Read 2 Samuel 7:11-16. How do you see these verses reflected in today’s reading in Luke? Explain.

• How have you seen examples of God’s power in your own life? In the lives of loved ones or friends? In your church family?

• Thank God for how he has worked powerfully in your life, in others’ lives as well as in your church to make the gospel known.

Ponder

One baby, small, and it’s going to be early.

Those are the words my mom’s obstetrician said just a week before my twin brother and I were born. Ultrasounds and sonograms weren’t as common in the late 70s, so my parents got the surprise of a lifetime when they found out that one baby was twins.

I know the story of my birth backward and forward. A difficult pregnancy filled with sickness, a midnight race to the hospital, the announcement of unexpected twins. In today’s passage, we get to read some of Jesus’ birth story. Scripture doesn’t tell us that this ever happened, but I sometimes like to imagine Mary retelling the story to Jesus as he grew, so often that he could recite it phrase for phrase.

The angel’s announcement to Mary is full of beautiful details that teach us about Jesus as well as his reason for coming. Reread verses 31-33, taking note of all that it reveals.

• Mary is to name her son “Jesus,” which Mary would have been aware means “Yahweh is salvation.” This is why Mark included the phrase “for he will save his people from their sins” (Mark 1:21).

• He will be great: Jesus would be different from the rest of humanity.

• He will be called the Son of the Most High: Elizabeth’s son would be a prophet of the Most High, but Mary’s child would be the very Son of God. This phrase stresses Jesus’ divinity.

• The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David: Jesus would fulfill the Messianic promise that God had made to David in 2 Samuel 7:11-16. This was a declaration, then, that Jesus, a direct descendant of David, is the Messiah and his kingdom will never end (v. 33).

• He will reign over the house of Jacob forever: “The house of Jacob” was a traditional term used to describe Israel, and the usage here again points to Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. Unlike earthly kings and kingdoms, Jesus’ kingdom will last forever.

Mary undoubtedly had questions—how would this pregnancy happen since she was a virgin?—but she didn’t seem to doubt that God was able to do what the angel declared. As a Jewish woman, she would have recognized every statement of the promise God had made to David. She would have known that she had been chosen as the mother of the Messiah, the Savior she and all Jews had been waiting for.

While the Jewish people may have had a mistaken idea of the type of salvation the Messiah would bring, the clues about what Jesus was coming into the world to accomplish were all there. He would save his people from their sins.

As the divine Son of God, his sinless life would set him apart from everyone else. The kingdom that he initiated on earth would never end.

Remind us, Lord, of life and grace

How once, to save our fallen race,

You put our human vesture on

And came to us as Mary's son.