Angel-visits

A book, a writing space, a longing

We are well into Advent, with each of my evenings finishing with Tsh Oxenreider’s Shadow & Light. It’s a journey of looking back and remembering, while simultaneously anticipating what’s to come, where we are caught in the thread of the now and not yet.

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Monthly Musings: Angel-visits

I’ve been thinking about angel-visits of late. In Luke’s gospel, chapter 1, he writes…

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

Do you ever wonder what that was like for Mary? Luke reveals to us that the angel Gabriel visited her with a message; a crazy up-side-down, confusing message. It says that Mary was confused and disturbed, which seems to be a bit of an understatement to me! Imagine what it was like for this teenage Mary… much more emotionally mature than most teens these days, but still… I imagine that it was both wondrous and overwhelming, an act of salvation and shame-filled, glorious and the material for gossip. What was that moment like? Was Gabriel surrounded by a warm glow? Did he just pop up out of nowhere? Did he have a deep, soothing voice? Did he even speak words as we know it?

Or on a broader scale, did words of worry flit through Mary’s mind? “I’ll be ruined. I’ll be exiled. I can’t do this. Joseph won’t want me.”

Mary may have been confused, disturbed… but she was also something else. She was hopeful - hope-filled - filled with a greater hope that stretched beyond herself, out into the world around her. Was she always this steadfast, or was this level of faith, or hope, also a gift from God for that time?

Because in that moment the Holy Spirit leaned forward and powerfully and yet gently dropped the seed that was to become Jesus into Mary’s womb, doing it in a way so holy and pure that it would honor the Father, creating a safe space for Jesus’ formation into humanity.

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Imagine Joseph’s response when he found out. (Did Mary tell him directly? Did it happen through their parents? The text doesn’t give us an inkling.) We know from Matthew’s account (1:19) that he was a good man:

Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

What was that moment of finding out she was pregnant like for him? I imagine it was filled with sorrow, disappointment, disbelief. But, kindly, he didn’t want to hurt or dishonor her. Their marriage would have been arranged, probably between their parents, or at least Mary’s father and Joseph, depending on his age and situation. Joseph would have paid a partial dowry at the engagement and the rest at the final ceremony when the groom came to retrieve the bride. Their community would have been small. It would have been difficult to not go ahead with the marriage and may have included some legal maneuvering. Eventually people would find out. Joseph may not have believed Mary at first, but he still wanted to care for her. Imagine for a second what that was like for him.

And then he got his angel-visit.

As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

And what a dream it was!

They were both given gifts in their visits - Mary… the seed-dropped gift of Jesus. Joseph… the gift of assurance, where he traded his human fears of what others thought or his fear that his future wife had now known another man, for peace and faith and hope. When he heard the words, “the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit” did his heart constrict? Did his skin tingle with that sense of something other happening, something so beyond himself that he didn’t know how to respond? Did he start to weep silent tears? Did his heart fill with hope for the promised salvation? Even in his dream-like state?

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In Luke, Mary is given something else - Jesus’ name. In Matthew, Joseph is the recipient.

And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Jesus – God saves. God saves. That is what the Jewish people had been waiting for. For the Messiah – God’s Anointed One – to come, to take political control and save the Jewish people from the Romans, just like He did long ago in saving them from the Egyptians. But the coming of Jesus was different. He came to save, but in an entirely different way.

Matthew continues…

All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”

Immanuel. God with us. In The Message, John 1:14 reads – “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind-glory, like Father, like Son…”

Immanuel. God with us. God, grown from a Holy Spirit planted seed, wrapped in the soft baby flesh, come to save us into relationship with God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three in one.

When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

I love how Matthew’s story finishes with a simple yet powerful act of obedience. Joseph’s behavior reflected his heart attitude to God and His ways. Jesus’ act of saving us for Himself, into authentic relationship with Himself wouldn’t come for many years. But in this moment, Joseph said a big YES to this angel-visit and all that it held.

What are you saying yes to this Advent?

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Needing some resources for your Advent journey? Explore BibleProject’s wonderful set of Advent videos and readings.

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Book News

Looking for a Christmas gift? Check out Koorong’s Spiritual Growth section, where Shaped by the Spirit has found a home, or find it where you look for books.

Until we meet again, have a truly hope-filled and peace-full Advent.

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