God Has Left the Building: Luke 1:26-38 The Annunciation

read the Bible story here 

The story of Mary’s encounter with God via the angel Gabriel, and her “Yes”, is very familiar to us. If you read the longer version, Luke 1:5-2:21, you’ll notice a parallel with last week’s story: the lives of two women are inextricably bound together in this promise of a son to be born, an older and a younger woman receiving the same gift at the same time (healing in Mark’s story last week, pregnancy in Luke this week).

Mary lives in Nazareth, in Galilee. 


She is engaged to Joseph, who is a descendent of King David (that’s why they’ll go to Bethlehem for the census, remember). Joseph’s credentials are listed at the opening of this episode, while Mary remains unnamed: The angel was sent to a virgin who was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. Already in this introduction we’ve been tied back to the covenant in Luke’s name-dropping: Joseph, one of Jacob’s sons—not the one the genealogy passes through, but the one who has the most recorded about him in the Bible—and David, long-revered warrior king of a united Israel. This Joseph is somebody special.

Almost as an afterthought, the narrator tells us, “The woman’s name was Mary”—more covenant; the name Mary is derived from Miriam, as in Moses’ sister. And in this short statement, “The woman’s name was Mary”, Joseph, who carries Jesus’ credentials and ties to the covenant, falls out of the story and Mary, unknown until now, becomes the focus.


As we saw with Hagar (Gen 16:1-16) the angel speaks directly to Mary, not to a man who intercedes for her. It is she who has found favor with God, she who will collaborate with God for the impossible: a virgin who conceives, and brings the messiah to birth in the world. Joseph has good credentials, but they probably aren’t known by very many people. This is not a power couple, not celebrities, probably known only within a rather small geography by friends and family. Yet there is something about Mary that has won God’s favor, and she is chosen for the (rather dubious) honor of fulfilling this long-term Divine promise.

One more covenant piece: the baby will be named Jesus, which is Greek for the Hebrew Joshua, which means “he saves”. And Joshua, in the book bearing his name, is the one who succeeded Moses and  ended  40 years of wilderness wandering by crossing the Jordan and seizing Jericho, the first conquest for the takeover of the promised land, which was, unfortunately, already inhabited.                            Annunciation by Patricia Brintle 

When I tell this story, I let Mary receive this news as an honest question: will she say yes, or will she say no? It’s been declared by the angel that she will conceive, which is not the answer to any prayer she has prayed; she isn’t married yet. So I allow her a bit of agency. Even though it isn’t really a question from God, I still let her consider her response. Spoiler alert: she says yes.


Questions to ponder, following Mary’s example:

  • What does this story teach us about who finds favor in God’s sight?
  • How has God asked you to carry the Good News into the world?


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