Advent - The Annunciation to Mary - Luke 1:26-38

And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. Luke 1:38 ESV

The Last Word from the Beatles

When I find myself in times of trouble,
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness,
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

So sang the Beatles in their last trip to the recording studio together in January 1970. Before the end of 1970, Paul McCartney would go to court to dissolve the band. "Let it Be" was Paul's song of acceptance: we've had a good run. Now it's over. Let it be.

The Beatles took the "let it be" of "mother Mary" from Luke 1:38. [Update: see comments 2 & 3 below]. When the angel appeared to her to tell her of Jesus' birth, his mother Mary said to the angel, "Let it be to me according to your word." Unfortunately, the Beatles' song does not at all capture the emotion or the meaning of Mary's words in Luke.

Even though the second stanza speaks of hope and the third stanza promises comfort, "Let it Be" is a melancholy song. In Israel's "hour of darkness," however, Mary joyfully said "let it be" to the angel Gabriel's announcement of good news: God was acting to save his people.

Times of Trouble

Israel was indeed experiencing "times of trouble" and an "hour of darkness" in Mary's day. The people of the land suffered from a complex, oppressive political situation. The common person was at the mercy of political rulers hungry for power and wealth, and at at mercy of the armed forces who sometimes abused their authority.

The pervasive influence of pagan culture threatened to destroy all that was uniquely Jewish, and sectarian conflict within Judaism further divided a people whose common life was built on a covenant with God.

Powerlessness and poverty were the common lot, and the people longed for deliverance from their lowly estate. After generations of suffering under Herod and his Roman overlords (and the Greeks, Edomites, Persians, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Syrians, Philistines, Egyptians and assorted petty kingdoms before them), it seemed to be an impossible hope. Where were the security, prosperity, strength and honor that God had promised?

Resignation

Now there's something to be said for resignation. Beating your head against the wall is a recipe for a headache, not a recipe for tearing down the wall. Alcoholics Anonymous has wisely adopted the words of Reinhold Niebuhr in its well-known "Serenity Prayer":

God grant me the SERENITY
to accept the things I cannot change;
COURAGE to change the things I can;
and WISDOM to know the difference.

The angelic messenger, however, did not bring Mary an announcement of resignation. He didn't say, "Life's tough; learn to live with it." He didn't even say, "Try harder and you will succeed." He brought a message of divine victory - a gift pure and simple.

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. (Luke 1:32-33).

The angel's words to Mary were the fulfillment of a 1000 year old promise.

The 1000 Year Old Promise

In 2 Samuel 7, King David had established himself in Jerusalem after defeating his enemies and unifying the kingdom under his reign. David wanted to build a house for God - a temple - in Jerusalem to honor God. The Ark of the Covenant - a sign of God's presence - was still housed in a tent, as it had been during the days of the exodus from Egypt and the conquest of Canaan. David believed that God deserved a temple as permanent and impressive as David envisioned his empire-in-the-making to be.

The prophet Nathan, however, told King David not to build a house for God. Rather, the prophet proclaimed that God would build a house for David. God promised eternal dominion to David and his descendants.

Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever; your throne shall be established forever. (2 Sam 7:16)

After David's death, his son Solomon reigned over an empire of sorts. At Solomon's death, however, the kingdom divided. The throne of the Northern Kingdom was wracked with violence and the Davidic dynasty fell from power. Ultimately, the Northern Kingdom fell to its enemies. Its people were scattered and its identity as the nation of YHWH is destroyed.

The descendants of David continued to reign in the Southern Kingdom until it, too, fell. The narrative of Samuel-Kings ends with the remnant of the Southern Kingdom in exile in Babylon, the temple destroyed and the stump of David's dynasty weak and powerless.

In the flow of the Biblical narrative, the pronouncement of 2 Samuel 7:16 stood as an unfulfilled promise when the Idumean King Herod sat on the throne. The announcement that a thousand-year old promise was about to be fulfilled came not to a king in a palace, but to a young, engaged girl in the back country of Jewish culture.

The Promise Fulfilled

Nazareth was a tiny town in Galilee, a region colored by both Jewish and Hellenistic influences. Nazareth sat only 4 miles from the much larger Hellenistic Roman city of Sepphoris on the major trade route from Egypt to Asia. By way of contrast, Nazareth was 65 miles (by foot!) from the Jewish center of gravity in Jerusalem. Between Galilee and Judea lay Samaria, the apostate remnant of the northern kingdom of Israel.

The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her that she would have a baby. She would give birth to a son who would sit on David's throne and rule over the house of Jacob forever. Mary's baby would be the fulfillment of Nathan's thousand-year-old prophetic words.

How this would take place is significant. As with the patriarch Isaac and the prophet Samuel, his birth would be miraculous, only more so. Even Mary's cousin was having a miraculous birth. Like David and his royal descendants, he would be a son of God (Psalm 2:7), only more so.

Mary's son would be King David's greater son, but he would exercise his kingship on earth by living in utter humility, welcoming the sinful and the needy into his presence, foreshadowing the kingdom in mighty acts of power, building a community of disciples, teaching with authority, giving his life on the cross and rising again.

He would leave behind his Holy Spirit in anticipation of the consummation as power for witness, ministry and living.

The consummation of his sovereignty awaits his return, but he has begun to reign. Jesus' birth is not the end, but it is the beginning of the end.

But Mary knows none of this at this point in the story. All she knows is found in the angel's words:

Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.

Let It Be

Now perhaps it could be said that Mary herself was "in trouble". That's a phrase we used to use about young girls who became pregnant out of wedlock. In Mary's culture of honor and shame, this would be trouble indeed. A few years ago, a Jordanian explained to me just how powerful the honor and shame culture can be as we discussed the practice of "honor killing." You catch an echo of the honor and shame culture in Matthew 1:19.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

If this was on Mary's mind, she doesn't show it in the text. She asks not, "What will I do?" or "How will I cope?" or "What will people think?" but "How can this be?" The angel's affirmation that "With God, all things are possible" was all she needed.

Mary's response was immediate and unconditional.

Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.

Neither Mary nor her son will have an easy road. There are troubles and hours of darkness ahead. Mary's faith here reminds me of a soldier who when ordered on a dangerous mission simply points his or her body in the right direction and attacks the objective. Ruminating on your fears or suffering does nothing positive for you, and it doesn't help accomplish the mission. Even the suffering servant of Isaiah says,

But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. (Isaiah 50:7)

The heroes of the faith who endure suffering never wallow in their troubles.

"Let it be to me according to your word." John Wesley's 250 year-old "Covenant Prayer" captures something of Mary's response:

Lord, make me what you will. I put myself fully into your hands: put me to doing, put me to suffering, let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you, let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and with a willing heart give it all to your pleasure and disposal.

Wesley's prayer of surrender is beautiful and moving, but his words still carry a greater air of resignation than do Mary's. Her "let it be" means "I'll take what you've promised," not just "I'll take whatever comes." The "it" to which she says "let it be" is not just her pregnancy, but the promise of the coming reign of God.

Mary believes God's declaration even in the face of seeming impossibility, as did her ancestor Abraham. When God told Abraham that he and Sarah would give birth to a miracle son of promise and blessing, Abraham "believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness." (Genesis 15:6). That's the sense of Mary's words: "Let it be."

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mary invites me to say "let it be" not to the trouble, but to God's truth expressed in his word and to his will expressed in my life. My "let it be" is always said in the shadow of God's ultimate victory in Jesus Christ. Let it be to me according to his word.

[Updated and bumped from December 2005]

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