GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 1:28
28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
When Gabriel appeared to Mary, she did not later recall that he appeared like a man (as when the women remembered the angel at Jesus’ grave, Luke 24:4). Mary knew he was an angel all along, and so we can guess that he let himself be seen, not in the form of a man, but as an angel, and perhaps even with wings visible the way Isaiah saw the winged seraphim (Isaiah 6:2) and Ezekiel saw the winged cherubim (Ezekiel 10:8).
The phrase “you are highly favored” is something that Gabriel seems to say to people when he brings them a message from the Lord. He says something very similar (but in Hebrew) to Daniel three times (Daniel 9:23; 10:11; 10:19). There it is the Hebrew word hamudoth, “the one (God) takes pleasure in.” Here, Luke turns to the Greek perfect tense for “highly favored,” and the tense is something we should notice since it would have stood out to Theophilus. He means that this favor began already in the past, continues through the present moment (as Gabriel is speaking) and continues on into the future. God’s favor for Mary was not a sudden, spur-of-the-moment choice. It was God’s sovereign choice with ongoing, continuous results for Mary, for her family, and for the whole family of God.
“The Lord is with you,” he said. This is also what the angel of the Lord said to Gideon (Judges 6:12). Gabriel used God’s name, Yahweh, the God of grace, faithfully, eternally, and freely given. Mary was not possessed by a devil; not tormented by some demon or nightmare. She was not visited in some obscene way like the Greek myths or Roman fictions. Mary enjoyed the presence of God and his protection. Just as when God says that a thing is “good,” he means that it is nothing else but good in his eyes (that is, completely and absolutely good, and nothing else). God is with us, too, and he is in no way in opposition to us. He is not distantly supporting us, but he is both mediately and immediately with us. “Mediately” means through other means such as our family and friends, our pastors, and the support of our church. “Immediately” means through no other means than himself and his word; he is with us personally.
In the early second century, a Christian pastor called the very blood of Jesus “the eternal and lasting joy” (Ignatius to the Philadelphians, greeting). In that letter, he makes an impassioned plea for unity in the church especially with regard for doctrine, and the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper in particular. “If anyone lives by another doctrine,” he writes, “he argues against the Passion” (3:3; by “passion” he means the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus). And again, Ignatius says: “I found mercy, making the gospel my refuge and the flesh of Jesus” (5:1). This is another way of describing the Lord’s presence with us today. In the word and in the sacrament, the Lord brings us his forgiveness again and again, so that the Christian who is worshiping regularly enjoys the knowledge of God’s forgiving and loving presence at all times. If we do not do this when the days are calm and ordinary and our hearts are full, we will forget to flee to this refuge when the days are dark and stormy and our hearts are empty or lost. Mary knew her forgiving Lord and she is an example to us all of a young person faithfully living a life of worship and devotion to God.
You have the gospel. You have the sacraments. You, like Mary, are highly favored among mankind! Do not despise God’s gifts, but embrace them and give thanks for them. Do not argue against the very Passion of the Lord, but remember that through it, you have a place with God forever in heaven. His blood is your righteousness.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Note: Some important witnesses of the text from Egypt (Codex א, Codex C, and some Coptic manuscripts), from Asia Minor (Codex Ɵ), from Palestine (Eusebius), from Syria (the Byzantine or Western text group) and from Gaul (Codex D) end the verse with the phrase Εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξίν “Blessed are you among women!” (see also the King James Version). This phrase also occurs later in the chapter (1:42), so many editors feel that it was introduced here from that verse, but I think it’s at least worth a footnote in our translations.
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota