The Annunciation

When we talk about the Annunciation of Jesus' birth, we usually concentrate on Mary's encounter with Gabriel.  But Joseph was also visited by this Heavenly messenger.  He is often the unsung hero of the Christmas classic. Mary's Uncle Zacharias, met Gabriel in the Temple at Jerusalem while performing his priestly duties.  Gabriel foretold the coming of Elizabeth's son in old age, John, who would go before the Savior as a forerunner.

GABRIEL

Who would announce the coming of the Son of God?  The Angel Gabriel was chosen.  Someone once said that Gabriel was the pre-earth name of Noah. Perhaps he was given this honor  because he lost family and friends in the flood who needed to be saved.

MARY

Mary was a young woman - much younger than we usually want to think.  Some scholars have suggested that she was perhaps 14 years old.  I have wondered if she had been nurtured by spiritual experiences her whole life.  When Gabriel told her she had been chosen to carry the Son of God, her only question was "How can this be seeing as I know no man."  Very pragmatic.  When Gabriel explained, she immediately took that responsibility regardless of any possible consequences.  Without further question, she said, "Be it unto me according to thy will."

Shortly after that, she went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth.  Elizabeth was also pregnant in her old age with her first child, another chosen son to be name John.  When Mary approached her, Elizabeth immediately recognized Mary as being pregnant with the Son of God because her baby leapt in her womb as testimony of the divinity of the child within Mary's womb.

By the time John was born and Mary returned home to Nazareth, she was very visibly pregnant.  How shocked Joseph and the others in Nazareth must have been!  Being pregnant our of wedlock was punishable by death by stoning.

JOSEPH

Joseph must have been a wonderful man to take on the challenge of raising the son of God.  Had Joseph publicly rejected her, she could have been killed.  But Joseph, "being a just man" as the scriptures say, decided to divorce her privately to save her the death penalty.  Instead something remarkable happened. As Joseph was asleep on his bed, Gabriel came to him and told him not be afraid to take Mary to wife as originally planned.  The angel explained the circumstances of the conception and genealogy of the divine child.  Joseph doesn't hesitate and immediately marries his sweetheart.

Matthew gives us his genealogy so that we know that Joseph was a descendant of King David and Judah and Israel and Issac and Abraham.  Mary was a cousin from the same heritage.  Therefore, Jesus Christ was the legitimate heir of David's earthly kingdom.   But He was destined to be more, the Heavenly King of all Creation.  Raised by a mother who knew His divinity from the first and by a good man who loved Him as a father.


The waiting of the world was almost over.  The long-promised Messiah was about the come into the world and alter it forever.

© Gebara Education, December 23, 2017 All rights reserved