Christmas Day, 2011

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, . . . "You will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus." . . . Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.” Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:26 - 38)

We serve a limitless God for whom nothing is impossible or too hard for Him. Nothing is beyond the realm of His knowledge or power. He is Almighty God. That’s the God of the Bible and that’s the God we see at work in the Christmas story.

No one was more involved in the Christmas story than Mary. Christmas is all about the birthday of the King. Joseph helped her; Elizabeth, the mother of John encouraged her; the shepherds worshipped her baby Boy; the wise men rewarded her. But the real work was on Mary!

The angelic messenger lays some pretty heavy stuff on such a young maid. What must she have thought? Including the fact that her senior citizen cousin Elizabeth was with child! What about Joseph? Will he think I’ve been unfaithful? What the town folks? How will they take it? I’m going to bring the “Son of God” into the world? How in the world is all this going to work (Luke 1:34)? Questions, questions, questions. Our Father knows our frames that we are but dust, so He does not get angry when we ask faith question.

Let’s move forward about 33 years. No where was Mary's faith tested more than at the cross. In John 19:25-27 we read about her grief. Jesus looked with eyes of compassion on Mary and knowing his mother’s grief called out her, “Women, behold thy son.” This was not a put-down, demeaning, or disrespectful. It was an expression of honor and love. Jesus never broke or even came close to breaking one commandment. God said “Honor thy father and mother” and Jesus was honoring his mother.

Think of the grief Mary was experiencing as she watched her little boy die. The prophet Simeon had told Mary that “A sword shall pierce through thy own soul.” As she stands at the foot of the cross, the sword of grief was buried to the hilt! The brow she sweetly caressed now bore a crown of thorns; the cheeks she so carefully kissed were now bleeding where the hairs had been plucked out and the hard hands of the Roman soldiers had struck him; the little eyes she had gazed into in wonderment on the first Christmas night were now blurred with blood, sweat, and tears; the hands she had washed before Jesus sat down to eat were now nailed with crude nails; the feet she had watched take those first teetering steps likewise are bleeding and nail pierced. The boy she had watched grow and mature; the Son she had seen do miracles; the Son she had heard preach powerful message was now the object of ridicule and shame. “Women behold thy Son!”

In John 19 Verse 27 Jesus gives the care of Mary to the Beloved Disciple. “Behold thy mother,” He says to John. Why? Joseph is dead. The other disciples are nowhere to be seen. Jesus' family were not believers. Ps. 69:8 reads, “I am become a stranger to unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.” John 7:5, speaking of Jesus' brother and sisters, says, “Neither did His brethren believe in Him.” So John took her to his home in Jerusalem. The gospels seem to imply that he did it right away. Perhaps, Jesus, knowing the anguish of her heart, did not want her to suffer any more. Oh what compassion; Oh boundless love! What a Savior! What a Savior! Mary believed the Lord, but it did not excuse her from pain and sorrow. When one takes Jesus as Savior it's not a silver bullet that forever exempts from pain. No. The way of the cross leads home.

Do you believe God? Are you trusting Him? Well, that’s how we begin the Christian life and that’s how we live it. Trusting God. Trust Him to save you and keep you saved. One of the marks of the people that God uses is faith. Mary believed God (Luke 1:38,45).

Who is Jesus? Isaiah, seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, wrote, “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.” “A Child” speaks of the humanity of Jesus, and “a Son” refers to His Deity. God clothed in human flesh; Diety wrapped in humanity. Jesus Christ did not have His beginning in Bethlehem. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus). And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He who spoke the worlds into existence comes into the world He created as a babe! The baby boy nursing Mary’s breast in Luke’s gospel is the Creator Elohim in Genesis 1:1. God became flesh.

Think of Jesus' special relationship to his mother:
1. He picked his mother;
2. He picked the place she was to give birth to him;
3. He picked his own birthday;
4. He picked his own name;
5. Jesus was older than his mother and the same age as his Father.

Mary was a choice vessel from ages past. In Gen 3:15 she was “the seed of woman.” In Isaiah she was “the virgin who would conceive, and the “dry ground” from which a root would spring. She was the chosen instrument that every Godly Hebrew girl hoped she would be – the mother of the Messiah. Satan tried to destroy her line, disgrace her people, and silence the message, but greater is He that is us than he that is in the world. And “when the fullness of the time was come God sent forth His Son made of a woman.”

Mary is truly blessed among women!

May this Christmas Day night be filled with the presence and power of Jesus Christ, our soon returning Lord.