The weeks leading up to Christmas are what Christians call the season of Advent. Advent literally means “arrival.” Specifically, the arrival of Jesus. So during the season of Advent, Christians remember and celebrate and ponder the arrival of Jesus Christ.
But in order to do that well, we have to understand who Jesus is. Your response to Jesus is determined by who you believe he is. That’s true of anything. For instance, there was a movie that came out last year. Interestingly enough, it was called Arrival. A bunch of alien spaceships show up and dock themselves at different places all over the world. The big question in the movie is, “Why are they here? What do they want? Are they here to attack? Are they here to help?” The aliens are attempting to communicate. But nobody can understand what they’re saying. So they call in a character played by Amy Adams. She’s a language expert, and her big job is to try to find out what the aliens are saying. The basic problem is: They don’t know how to respond to the arrival of the aliens unless they understand who they are and why they’ve come.
In the same way, we can’t possibly know how to respond to the arrival of Jesus unless we understand who he is and why he came. That is a deeply contested question in our culture. And that’s where Mary’s story helps us. The passage we just read is one of the most famous stories in the Bible. It’s called the Annunciation, and it’s all about how the angel Gabriel came to announce to Mary the arrival of Jesus. When we understand the message Mary heard, we’ll know how to respond the way Mary did.
Mary’s response is a picture of what it looks like to come to faith in Jesus. There’s a whole progression here. In fact, there’s so much to see here, we’re going to spend the next three weeks looking at it. And this week we begin by seeing that Mary does not just begin with complete understanding and wholehearted acceptance. She begins with doubt. But it’s a very particular kind of doubt. Let’s find out more by asking three questions.
What was the angel’s message? First, we need to understand the message Mary heard. Who is Jesus? The angel begins by telling Mary that she will have a son. But not just any son. The angel says he will be the son of the Most High. That means God. Now, in those days, to call someone a son of God could mean different things. It could just mean someone who had a special relationship with God. But the angel goes on to say that this son will sit on the throne of his father David. That means that this son of God is going to be a king.
But not just any king. He says he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And just to make sure Mary gets the point, he repeats himself. “Of his kingdom there will be no end.”
So who is this? He’s a son, but not just any son. He’s the son of God. He’s a king, but not just any king. He’s an eternal king. But amazingly, the angel goes even further than that. In verse 34, Mary asks how all of this is going to happen. We’ll get back to that in a moment. But for now, here’s what the angel says to Mary about Jesus: “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.”
That word “overshadow” is a word that was used to describe the Shekinah glory of God that filled the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple in Jerusalem. In other words, the very glory of God himself is going to fill Mary’s womb, and the child that is born will be the very holiness of God himself come into the world as a human being.
That’s who Jesus is. This is a heart stopping message. It’s mind boggling. But not only does the angel tell Mary who Jesus is, we even get a hint of what Jesus comes to do. The angel says, “You shall call his name Jesus.” That literally means, “The LORD saves.”
Do you realize what all of this means? Christianity is a religion unlike any other because Jesus is a being unlike any other. And listen, I understand and completely support the fears and concerns that people have when they say that any claim to have exclusive, absolute religious truth always ends up excluding and oppressing people who don’t share that truth. That happens. We’ll talk more about that in just a moment.
But none of that erases the fact that on every page of the New Testament, we encounter a Jesus who is no mere human, but God in the flesh, and the savior of the world. He is unlike any other religious leader the world has ever seen. Because every other religious leader - Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius - everyone of them came saying, “Here is what you must do to connect to God; here is what you must do to achieve salvation. I am here to point you to the way.”
Jesus came saying, “Here’s what I am doing to connect you to God; here’s what I am doing to achieve salvation for you. I’m not here to point you to the way. I am the way.” No one ever put this more brilliantly than C.S. Lewis. In his book Mere Christianity, he wrote: “The popular idea of Christianity is that Jesus Christ was a great moral teacher and that if only we took his advice we would establish a better social order. It is quite true that if we took Christ’s advice we should soon be living in a happier world. You need not even go as far as Christ. If we did all that Plato or Aristotle or Confucius told us, we should get on a great deal better than we do. And so what? We never have followed the advice of the great teachers. Why are we likely to begin now? Why are we more likely to follow Christ than any of the others? Because he is the best moral teacher? But that makes it even less likely that we shall follow him. If we cannot take the elementary lessons, is it likely we are going to take the most advanced one? If Christianity only means one more bit of good advice, then Christianity is of no importance. There has been no lack of good advice for the last four thousand years. A bit more makes no difference.”
Friends, Jesus Christ is not simply a human being who came to give us good advice on how to live a good life. He’s the God of the universe who came to live the life we should have lived, and die the death we should have died, for us. That’s the message of the Bible. And it’s the message of this angel to Mary. It’s the first thing we see. But secondly,
What was Mary’s response? We’re looking at her response over the next three weeks. As we do we see certain stages that she goes through. When people come to faith in Jesus, it always looks a little differently for everybody. It may happen in a moment, or it may happen over the course of years. It looks differently for everyone. We need to be careful. It’s not a one-size-fits-all. But I want to suggest that many people go through similar stages when they become a Christian.
We’re just looking at the first stage this week. And as I said earlier, you could call this first stage doubt. But it’s a particular kind of doubt. I would call this kind of doubt exploratory doubt. What does that mean? Well, let’s take a look.
In verses 28-29, it says the angel came to Mary 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.” The very first thing that happened to Mary is it says she was “greatly troubled.” This is important.
One of the first things that happens when you become a Christian is something comes into your world, something comes into your experience, and it troubles you. It disturbs you. It challenges you. And it’s different kinds of trouble. For a lot of people, it’s personal trouble. Whether that’s depression or loneliness, or the loss of a relationship or health or money or career, whatever it might be. Maybe all your life you’ve always had the resources to deal with whatever happens to you. But now, for the first time in your life you’re faced with something that overcomes you and you realize that you aren’t enough for it. It troubles you. It shakes you.
Other times, it’s personal failure. Maybe you’ve always prided yourself on being a certain kind of person. But then you find yourself doing something that you never thought you would do. It shatters your self-conception. And you realize, “I am not the person I thought was.”
Sometimes it’s intellectual trouble. Something happens in your world that your worldview can’t account for. So for example. Many people say that orthodox Christian belief makes you intolerant and hateful toward others who don’t share that belief. That’s an intellectual position that many people hold.
But what happens to that position when you look at the families of the people who were murdered at Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, NC, two years ago? One by one, family member after family member got up and publicly, lovingly, and mercifully forgave the killer of their loved ones, and explicitly said that it was their Christian faith that both commanded and empowered them to do that. What do you do with that?
When you have a worldview that leads you to certain conclusions about the world, and then something happens that shows you that your conclusions are wrong, when that happens, you’re faced with a choice. You can either hold on to your old worldview, in spite of that fact that it can no longer account for everything in your experience, or you can change your worldview.
That’s what happened to Mary. She met an angel who told her that she was going to give birth to the physical incarnation of God himself. And it’s really interesting what she did next. Not only was she greatly troubled, the second thing is it says she tried to discern. That phrase “tried to discern” is an interesting word. It means to use logic, to think or reason carefully. A lot of times people say, “You know, religious people just blindly accept things that have no basis in reality. They turn off their minds and refuse to be rational.” That’s not what Mary does. Instead of getting less rational, she’s getting more rational.
And that really shows up in verse 34. The angel has just told her she’s going to give birth to this divine King, and what does she do? Does she say, “Oh, how wonderful. Of course, that makes perfect sense!” She expresses doubt. She says, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
A lot of times it’s easy to think, “Ancient people were less intelligent than we are. They were more gullible, and willing to believe stupid, silly things, because they didn’t have access to to the kind of knowledge we have nowadays, things like science and technology.” Not only is that an intellectually snobbish thing to say, it’s not true to historical reality. Mary’s no fool. She shows us right here that she knows perfectly well that virgins don’t give birth to children.
In fact, Mary would have had just as many reasons to doubt the virgin birth as we do. It’s just not true that ancient people were more willing to believe in the virgin birth. For instance, ancient Greeks believed the physical world was corrupt and dirty, but the spiritual world was good. The idea that God would take on a physical body would have been repulsive to them.
Or if you look at Eastern worldviews (like Hinduism or Buddhism), those views say the physical world is an illusion. The goal is not for God to inhabit the physical world. The goal is that God would help us to escape the illusion of the physical world.
Every ancient culture had huge obstacles to believing in the incarnation of God in this world. None more so than Judaism. Mary would have had the biggest difficulties of all. Because to a Jew, God is completely other, holy, and transcendent. The idea that the God who is so holy that they wouldn’t even say his name, the idea that that God would come to earth and take on a human body would have been blasphemous. If you, O modern person, think you have reasons to doubt the virgin birth, Mary had more.
Mary had reasons to doubt. And one of the most beautiful things here is she expresses her doubt. But notice this is a very particular kind of doubt. If you go back earlier in the chapter, the same angel comes to a man named Zechariah and tells him that he and his wife Elizabeth are going to give birth to John the Baptist, even thought they’re senior citizens and Elizabeth is barren. Zechariah has doubts too. But when he expresses his doubt, the angel strikes him mute and says, “Just for that, you’re not going to speak until the child is born.”
The angel rebukes Zechariah for expressing his doubt, but when Mary expresses her doubt, the angel encourages her and gives her more information. What’s up with that? The answer is, there are different kinds of doubt. There’s what we could call cynical doubt. Cynical doubt is doubt that’s not really open to an answer. It’s not looking for more information. Cynical doubt is doubt that already has its mind made up.
So for instance, I mentioned a bit ago that many people get very concerned about any claim to have absolute religious or spiritual truth. They say, “Those kinds of truth claims always lead to oppression and marginalization of others.” Those are valid concerns because the truth is, that happens. So very often, people will suggest a solution that says, “We should avoid absolute religious truth claims. All religions are equally true, and no one religion is more true than another.”
In other words, we should always doubt absolute religious truth claims. That view has the appearance of being very neutral and very tolerant. But if you really think about it, that view itself is an absolute religious truth claim. It says, “My view of religious truth is the true one.” Listen. I want to affirm the motivation behind that. There is always a danger in making truth claims. But you don’t escape the danger by trying to avoid truth claims. That’s just wrapping up your truth claims in wishy-washy language. There’s no such thing as avoiding truth claims. You can never doubt one thing without simultaneously believing in something else. It’s that belief in something else that causes you to doubt. Cynical doubt says, “I’ve got my truth, and I’m not really open to any other alternatives.”
But then there’s a kind of doubt that we could call exploratory doubt. Exploratory doubt is doubt that’s looking for more information. It’s far more open, far more humble, and far more willing to be challenged. That’s Mary’s doubt. Something came into her experience that troubled her. It challenged her. But instead of shutting off her mind and refusing to explore it, she opened herself up to it and said, “Tell me more. Help me understand.”
Friends, exploratory doubt is the beginning of faith. When something comes into your life that troubles you, let it. The message of the gospel is that God himself has come to earth in the person of Jesus Christ in order to save us from sin, evil, and death. That’s the gospel. Mary’s response to that gospel begins with exploratory doubt. It begins by acknowledging that this is troubling. This doesn’t fit her worldview. But she doesn’t shut off her mind, she opens her mind, and allows her expectations and assumptions about the world to be challenged. That’s where her journey to faith in Jesus begins. And very frequently, that’s where it begins for us too. And that leads to our last point.
What does it mean for us? First, if you’re a Christian here this morning, what does this mean for you? Well, already you’ve been practicing patience this morning because this whole sermon has really been more geared toward someone who’s just beginning to explore faith in Jesus. But there are important implications, even if you’ve been a Christian for years.
First, this shows us that we should be very patient and understanding with the doubts and questions of our non-believing friends and neighbors. The reason Christianity gets such a bad wrap a lot of times is, frankly, because Christians so frequently give people really good reason to doubt. There really is a harshness, and an intolerance, and an utter lack of grace in so many Christians toward the presence of doubt in others.
But think about it. If a supernatural, sinless, holy, heavenly angel could be this patient with a flawed, finite, and weak human being like Mary, how much more should flawed, finite, weak human beings like you and me be patient with others? Friends, the church should be the most patient and open place for people to come and ask their questions and express their doubts. Unfortunately, it’s often the least. Why is that?
Very frequently, the reason people are so harsh and intolerant to those whose beliefs differ from theirs is because when your identity is grounded in anything other than Christ, then anytime that thing is threatened or attacked, you feel threatened or attacked, and you will attack back. This goes for anyone, not just Christians. If you find your personal security in your racial identity, or your political identity, or if you find it in being a good person, if you find it in your accomplishments or achievements, if you find it in your relationship status, whatever it may be, all of those things can be threatened. All of those things are vulnerable. That means that if they come under attack, your very sense of identity comes under attack.
There’s one, and only one thing, in the entire universe that can give you a source of identity and personal security that can never be threatened. If you know that the God of the universe died on a cross for you, and that the very core of your identity is that you are a sinner saved by the sheer grace of God, that’s an identity that can never be threatened because it’s not based on you or anything you do, it’s based on Jesus and what he did for you. It’s unassailable.
So when people attack you, when people criticize you, when people say horrible things about you, instead of getting insecure and hitting back, you say, “Yeah, so what? It’s true! in fact, I’m worse than you think. But none of that matters. Because my identity isn’t in who I am or what I do. It’s in Jesus and what he did for me.” Friends, that is unassailable identity. And it should make you the most humble, and therefore the most patient, person out there.
So first, Christians: you should be far more patient and gracious with other people’s doubt and questions. But secondly, for those of you here who are not yet Christians, or you’re exploring faith in Jesus, Mary’s response is an encouragement for you, first, to be honest with yourself about what your faith commitments really are. You have them, even if you think you don’t. Remember what we said: you can’t doubt one thing without simultaneously believing in something else. Do you know what it is? Be honest with yourself about that.
Secondly, Mary’s response encourages you to be courageous enough to have your worldview challenged, and to really explore faith in Jesus and look for answers to your questions. Are you willing to do that? It’s easy to scoff. It’s easy to mock. It doesn’t take any intellectual work to do that. And yet so many people reject Jesus without ever coming to a good understanding of who and what he really is. Are you sure the Jesus you’ve rejected is the real Jesus?
The real Jesus blew away Mary’s preconceptions and expectations. Are you willing to let him blow yours away? Next week we’ll start looking at what happens if you say yes. But as we close this week, do you want to know how you can make this beginning? Do you want to know how you can engage this exploratory doubt stage? Not cynical doubt. Not scoffing or mocking. But true, honest, humble exploratory doubt. The key is to see that Jesus has already made it possible for you. What do I mean?
When Jesus came to earth, he led a life of constant rejection. He was constantly misunderstood, and constantly mocked. And remember something, remember what the angel told us. This is the God of the universe in human flesh. And yet he did not come and say, “Believe in me or I’ll smite you. Mock me and I will crush you.” No. He said, “I will be smitten to the ground so that you can believe in me. I will be mocked and ridiculed and ultimately crushed so that you can see the truth about who I really am.” Right before they crucified him, the Roman soldiers mocked him and spit on him and said, “Hail, the King of the Jews.” They were mocking, but in their mockery they were confessing the truth about him without even knowing it.
And when they hung him on the cross, it says that all the people who saw him mocked him and derided him. They said, “If he really is the Son of God, if he really is the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross, and then we will believe in him.” But in clinging to the cross, Jesus was willing to be mocked so that you could know that he truly is the Son of God, and the ultimate King, not just of Israel, but of the entire cosmos. This is a God who was willing to die for you so that you could believe in him. Ponder that. Let that sink into your heart. Let it challenge you. Let it change you.
And Christians, do you want to know how you can grow in patience and grace yourself? When he was on the cross, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus was gentle and patient and compassionate towards those who didn’t just disagree with him, didn’t just differ with him over a few theological fine points, but with those who hated him, stripped him naked, and nailed him on a cross. Look at his patience. Meditate on his compassion. The more your identity is rooted in what he did for you, the more you will be able to do what he did for others.
Whether you’ve been a Christian for years, or you’re just beginning to explore faith in Jesus, Mary’s response to the angel’s message has a lot to show us. When you encounter Jesus as he really is, you’ll be able to respond as Mary did. Let’s pray.
