Unexpected: Scared and Submissive

Scene 2: Luke 1:26-33

Six months later…Gabriel is once again on assignment with the most urgent of messages for the most unassuming of women in an unassuming town. She was young, pure.—and pledged to be married to a man named Joseph from the lineage of David—a royal blood line.

He was a righteous and respectable man, Joseph.  She knew that she would grow to love him. He had shown her kindness already. There was something about his eyes that let her know that she was safe with him and that there was a depth in him that she didn’t see in others.  He was mysterious, yet knowable. She sat dreaming of the coming wedding.  He would parade into town with his bridal party before him—she would hear him coming before she saw him. She was lost in her thoughts when the angel appeared.

“Greetings!”  The resonating voice that sounded like a chorus of men startled her, but his appearance made her bow in awe.

“Greetings, you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you.”

At the hearing of those words her mind began to race and her heart began to flutter. What did this mean? She could feel her anxiety level climbing. How quickly had the day dream about Joseph vanished!  She had been so relaxed and now all of her senses were on high alert.  Then he spoke again:

“Do not be afraid, Mary.” (He called her by her name!) “You have found favor with God.”

[Well, at least that’s a relief…I’d hate to hear that I was about to feel his wrath!]

There was no dialogue and Gabriel, the messenger that he is, spoke directly and concisely. He didn’t try to ease into what he had to say.  Before Mary could even collect her thoughts, perhaps, he says: “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.” 

Wait, wait, wait!  What did you just say?  I thought you just said, ‘Don’t be afraid’, and ‘You have found favor with God’, and then you say, you know, that thing about a child, a son, and that I am to name him Jesus.” 

“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Mot High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Was there silence at this point?