Holy Boldness

A Place to Sow the Seed

The pre-incarnate Jesus was the word, a seed that needed to be sewn into the race of men. God found this perfect soil in the humble hearts of Mary and Joseph. Though it might have been a great honor to have been the parents of the Messiah, the task of being Jesus’ parents and raising him was fraught with unforeseen difficulties and consequences. From the very beginning Joseph’s and Mary’s lives were filled with contro versy, peril, and adventure as they embarked upon the journey into one of the greatest mysteries of the world: the mystery of God becoming flesh. Their stories are told in the early chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Though this story is one of the most famous and beloved of all the stories of the Bible, I want us to read it again to discern the significance of the fear of the Lord manifesting in Mary and Joseph’s actions and decisions. Throughout their story, one can see that Mary and Joseph’s journey was one of profound trust amid great trial and risk. Both were required to trust God implicitly to walk out their journey of obedience. Without their profound cooperation, there would have been no story to record. Matthew’s account gives specific details of Joseph’s journey and Luke focuses more on Mary’s. I intend to walk through this story as if you had never heard it before. Come with me. Our story begins in the rural setting in the rural region of Galilee in a humble Jewish city called Nazareth where the angel Gabriel was sent with a message to a young unmarried and yet betrothed (engaged) virgin maiden named Mary. We get a hint of who Mary was very quickly through the greeting she received from the angel, Gabriel, in the first chapter of Luke, “Hail, favored one, the Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28) This is not a general greeting of goodwill but specialized favor and honor. It was an extraordinary greeting, made all the more so by the fact that it was delivered by an angel. When Mary pondered the angel’s greeting, he restated it even more strongly. “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.” (v.30) This time, Gabriel calls Mary by name, a rare occurrence. 6 The announcement that Mary had found favor with God 6 In contrast, in the story of Samson in Judges 13, the name of his mother is never given even though she also conceived him after being prophesied to by an angel. Mary’s Side of the Story from the Gospel of Luke

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