The Annunciation of Our Lord – Pr. Faugstad homily
Text: St. Luke 1:26-38
In Christ Jesus, who is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true Man, born of the Virgin Mary—our Savior and our Lord, dear fellow redeemed:
Like all faithful Jews, Mary looked forward to the coming of the Messiah promised so long before by the LORD God. She may have even wondered what sort of woman it would be who would bear that Seed, the One who would crush Satan’s head (Gen. 3:15). But she would never have imagined it would be her. Who was she? Nothing but a poor woman betrothed to a poor man from a poor town.
But God does not see as man sees. 1 Corinthians 1 says, “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (vv. 28-29). He sent His holy angel Gabriel with a history-altering message for lowly Mary. She was chosen to be the mother of the Christ-Child.
The angel’s appearance and greeting frightened and troubled Mary. He told her that she was highly favored, and that the Lord was with her. As she tried to process the angel’s words, he addressed her personally: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” Not only did the angel speak words of blessing, but he even knew her name! There was nothing about Mary that God did not know.
In His plan to send His Son to redeem the world, He had chosen Mary to give birth to the Christ. Just as He prepared John the Baptizer to be the forerunner of Jesus, He chose Mary to be Jesus’ mother. He did not choose Mary because she was perfect. Some say that Mary was conceived without sin—an “immaculate conception”—that she lived a life without sin, and that is how her Son Jesus was without sin. But the angel clearly stated how her Child would be holy: “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.”
Mary was not chosen because she was better than everyone else. She was chosen because God is gracious. She agreed. In her song, called the Magnificat, she sang, “For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name” (Luk. 1:48-49, NKJV).
Mary must have felt unqualified for the task God had given her, but she trusted that if He chose her to do it, then He would give her the strength for it: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord,” she said to the angel; “let it be to me according to your word.” This is the very day that the Christ was conceived in Mary’s womb. The Holy Spirit worked through the message of the angel both to give Mary the faith she needed and to conceive the Child within her.
Traditionally the date of the angel’s announcement to Mary and the incarnation of Jesus is March 25. This day was selected in the early church because the early Christians thought it coincided with the date of Jesus’ death. Back in 2016 just after I got here, Good Friday fell on this day—March 25—so we heard at that time about both His incarnation and His death.
It is fitting that the incarnation date for Jesus falls during the season of Lent. This is the season that shows us why God took on flesh, why the Christ was born of Mary. He came to offer up His holy life in payment for all our sin. That Child of Mary lived a perfectly holy life from womb to tomb by fully keeping and never deviating from the righteous commands of God. And He freely poured out His precious blood to cleanse us from every sin.
The name given to this Child indicated what He would do. The angel said, “you shall call His name Jesus.” The angel who appeared to Joseph said the same thing: “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mat. 1:21). That’s what the name Jesus means: “the Lord is salvation,” or “the Lord saves.” God sent His only-begotten Son to save.
All of this is difficult to comprehend. There are many questions we might ask: Why this point in history? Why did the Savior have to be born; why couldn’t He just appear? Why Mary? What if Mary had said “no”? Perhaps the last question has never crossed your mind. Why wouldn’t Mary want the honor of bearing the Christ-Child? For one thing, maybe she wouldn’t want the awesome responsibility of being the mother of the world’s Savior. Or maybe she would hesitate because this didn’t fit her plan. This is not how she pictured her future.
There are probably a good number of things in your life that have not gone according to your plan. Perhaps you are not living the dream you had in your younger years about what you would do and where you would go. Does this cause you disappointment, frustration, regret? Maybe you remember wonderful opportunities that passed you by, and you can’t help but imagine how much better or more successful your life would be today.
A longing for the past or dreaming about the life you might have had are tools that the devil uses to distract you from the responsibilities and blessings of today. Mary might have dreamed about a quiet home in Nazareth with several kids and a simple life. Instead, God called her to do what neither she nor anyone else could be qualified for, but that He gave her the grace and strength to do. She didn’t always understand why Jesus had to do what He did, and she suffered terribly as she watched Him dying on the cross. But in the end, she learned what it was all for—her salvation and the salvation of the world.
God has in the same way called you to the good work you are currently doing: loving and serving those closest to you, working diligently and honestly, stewarding the gifts He has given you to manage. You can’t see the big picture of what lives are being impacted by your life, but you can trust that God’s will is being done as He works through you. Mary’s statement is a wonderful expression of faith that you can adopt as your own: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
God knows how to bless you. That’s what He was doing by sending His Son to be born of a virgin. The fact that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and had no biological father meant that He could be your Savior. As true Man, He was required to keep God’s holy Law and was able to suffer pain and death. As true God, His perfect keeping of the Law and His sacrificial death counted for all sinners of all time. He now declares you right with Him because of what He did for you, no matter how much or how often you have failed in your responsibilities. All of those failures are forgiven, blotted out by His precious blood.
The day the angel visited Mary changed not just her and Joseph’s life, but all of our lives. That day was the day that light entered the darkness, heaven came to earth, and God became Man. On that day—this day—, God’s promise was fulfilled, His promise to send a Savior to redeem you and me and all sinners.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room
And heav’n and nature sing. (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #138, v. 1)
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture of The Annunciation by Toros Taronetsi, 1323)
The Annunciation of Our Lord – Vicar Anderson sermon
Text: St. Luke 1:26-38
In Christ Jesus, where at the end of the season of Lent we get this taste of Christmas, an announcement of why your Savior was born for you, dear fellow redeemed:
There are many ways in which you can find information. Many surf social media. Some watch the news on the TV. What I have learned living in New Hampton is: You must read the newspaper. If you want to be in the know, you just read it. How else will you know what is happening with the county? Now the newspaper can be used for many different announcements. It can be used to announce weddings, funerals, anniversaries, and the like. How about using an angel? Now that would be a statement! And what kind of announcement comes from an angel? Well, it must be something special. When God wants to announce something important, He sends His messengers. Today we celebrate a special announcement. The time has come! God announces His promise for all, the promise of a Savior—true God and true Man.
This special announcement of the Christ’s coming is always celebrated on March 25th. There are a few reasons why that is. This is the day of Jesus’ conception in Mary’s womb. He was conceived at God’s command. A great miracle. Then do some simple math and add nine months to the date. Nine months from now we are celebrating the birth of our Savior. The date of Christmas came later, though, and this is not why the early Christians settled on March 25th. They were looking at the incarnation for a different reason. In Jewish tradition, it was thought that the great prophets died on the same calendar day that they had been conceived. The early Christian church identified the date of Jesus’ death as March 25th. That is one of the first things they celebrated and held as important. We see that important connection too. The reason that Jesus is born is so that He can die.
That reason was even tied up in His name. Mary is told the name she is supposed to give her son. She is to give Him the name Jesus. Jesus means God saves. The prophet Isaiah also prophesied the importance of today. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14.) Immanuel means God with us, and today we see it so clearly. The closest God can be with us is when He comes in the flesh. Gabriel announces God’s plan, His promise to send His son down from heaven and it is happening. “But she [Mary] was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.”
Like Mary, we would be afraid to see the power of God. The Power of God means He sees and knows all our sins. The world depicts angels as gentle people or even tender babies. But Scripture describes them differently. When angels appear, people are often terrified. God is called the LORD of Armies. This angel is bringing a message directly from God. Would we want to hear that message? We would be troubled seeing their power as we are sinful creatures. They dwell in God’s presence.
But Gabriel told Mary not to be afraid, because she had found favor with God. Found with favor, yet she was still troubled. That is what we want to have, favor with God. The question is how do we find it? Do we look at God’s favor as something we earn, or something we are freely given? Our sinful nature likes to think that we can find favor with God by our efforts. Our pride works hard to earn His favor. Whether we are trying to move up the corporate ladder or be accepted by our friends, our ambitions might not be in the right place. As we look to serve ourselves, we forget that everything we do should be in service to God. We forget the very first commandment of what we are to do. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. Because we have failed to do this, there is no favor found here.
In our sins, it is impossible to find favor with God. We can’t have favor with the world and favor with God at the same time. We like to be of the world. We want to find favor in the world. Doing so causes us to sin in ways for us to find that favor. The world wants us to be more accepting. It wants us to accept everyone’s sins. When we give into that pressure, usually we do it because we might be engaged in those same sins. We might not realize it before it is too late. Do we give up our sins when they are brought out into the light? Do we double down to try and get our way? To find favor in the world, we find our own destruction.
When God sent Gabriel to Mary, He was announcing the keeping of His promise. This promise is THE promise made in the Garden of Eden. The promise was repeated to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The promise was prophesied about by the prophets. King David heard directly that, “your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:16.) Years and years go by, building up to this important moment. It is time for God to keep His promise, which means the child that Mary had, that she conceived, His job was to grow up, suffer and die for you.
Jesus is the promised Savior. He is conceived at the speaking of God’s Word, and then He is born. This miracle shows that all things are possible with God. We never have to doubt God. This singular date brings together both holidays that the Christian church loves. We have the joy of Christmas knowing that the somberness of Good Friday is around the corner. Jesus’ birth is only one step of His humiliation. He must be born to die for you. His death on the cross cleanses you of your sins and with His rising from the grave, another miracle assures you that your sins are gone. Your favor is found in Christ death and resurrection.
Thankfully our favor with God is not up to us. There is only one person who can have perfect favor with God. That person not only is man, but He is also God. That is who Jesus is, true God and true man. He perfectly finds favor with His Heavenly Father. We hear the Father say how much favor Jesus has. He says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17.) Jesus does His Father’s will. He knew that this is why He was sent here. Only He can willingly obey the law in our place. Only He can willingly die in our place. Jesus’ death and resurrection saves everyone because when God the Father looks at us, He sees the life that Christ lived.
We now have favor with God because Jesus lived the life that we couldn’t. This announcement comes directly to you every day. As we fall flat on our faces and the world looks to convince us that we must find favor with it in order to live, this announcement comes to you with forgiveness because you hear the Son of God comes to save you.
God announces His promise for all to hear. First Mary hears it announced directly to her. That she was picked to be the bearer of the Christ child. You hold onto this announcement by faith in the Savior. Faith that is from the work of the Holy Spirit in you. This announcement comes to you through the hearing and reading of the Word. You hear the Words of God as He announces His coming Son to save all of mankind. He is born to die for the sins of the world. He is the Word made flesh. This is the joy that you have. God keeps his promises. He says nothing is impossible with Him. Since we were condemned because of our sins, God sent a Savior. Mary conceives Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Your Salvation came down from heaven.
The angel tells you what Jesus’ job is here on earth. “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.” He will reign forever, and you inherit His kingdom because of what He did for you. You couldn’t earn God’s favor but you have God’s favor because Christ earned it for you. God announces His promise for you.
An announcement for the ages. It wasn’t found online or in the newspaper. This announcement came from a special messenger directly from God. Mary heard the ultimate news. Her Savior was sent for her, and she would be the one to give birth to Him. We see abundantly clear that God keeps His promises. This was the ultimate promise. Eve was promised that her seed would crush Satan’s head. Jesus is the promised seed. His mission was simple. He lived a perfect life to die. Today we celebrate Jesus’ incarnation. In less than two weeks we remember His death. As one of our Christmas hymns says: “Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, The cross be borne for me, for you; Hail, hail the Word made flesh, The Babe, the Son of Mary!” (145:2 Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary). Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “The Annunciation” by Toros Taronetsi, 1323)