Luke 1:26-27 (ESV)
[26] In the sixth month the angel
Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, [27] to a virgin
betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the
virgin’s name was Mary.
Nazareth was a small agricultural
village north of Samaria. Mary was a young woman from Nazareth who was betrothed
to be married to a man we later discover was a carpenter. Neither the place nor
the person speaks of greatness and yet the angel Gabriel came to her in that
place saying that she would give birth to the King of the Jews. Luke 1:32-33
says,
[32] He will be great and will be
called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne
of his father David, [33] and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
The Son of the Most High! From a
virgin in a small agricultural village north of Samaria? That doesn’t sound
right. But isn’t that how God often works? Jesus said, “the last will be first,
and the first last” (Mt 20:16). He said that to be great one must serve. In
fact, Mark 10:45 says that “even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
I was watching a television show
last night and a young man was introduced to an older man. He called him Mr. ________.
The older man corrected him, “It’s Doctor ________.” Too often we feel the need to impress people
with our titles, our position, our experience. We want people to know that we
are important. And if we don’t have titles, we brag about not having titles. I
once heard a preacher brag about never having been taught. I’m not sure that’s
something to brag about, but we all feel the need to be important. Yet Jesus
said that we should take the lesser seat; we should seek to serve instead of being
served; we need to be less in order to be great.
Humility is at the heart of the
gospel. It started with an obscure young woman in an obscure village getting a
message from an angel. It culminated with the King giving his life for those who
didn’t deserve it. Maybe we should listen to him and stop posing and posturing
for significance. He died for us. Isn’t that enough?
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