Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God."
HIS KINGLY CROWN IS HOLINESS
The Holy Spirit has enabled us to "overhear" the earth-shaking announcement that the angel Gabriel made to the future mother of the promised Savior. In fact, we've heard it so often that what Mary heard from the angel doesn't always strike us with the force it ought to and we pass right over things that should have us shaking our heads in wonder or breaking into spontaneous praise.
"I mean," Mary says, "How can I possibly give birth to a child since Joseph and I are not married and have not been 'pretending' we are?" And Gabriel tells her not to worry, she will become pregnant by a miracle of God and her firstborn will be holy, the eternal Son of God come into human flesh!
This is supposed to ease her mind? Doesn't this just present more problems? How is Mary ever going to explain this!? (And, as it turned out, this did become a "sticking point" for Joseph. cp. Mt 1:18-20). And how about the "holy" part? We can talk about the fact that our Savior had to be sinless from the start if we sinners were to be rescued, but Mary gets to ponder raising a child who literally does no wrong.
Truth be told, Mary would probably tell us that Jesus being holy -- being everything a loving Creator intended a loving human being to be -- was far from a problem in their home. That this, in fact, was at the heart of what set her Son apart from others from the start. (Isn't "set apart" the root meaning of holy?) Jesus' holiness was more like the crowning virtue that made His kindness, goodness, fairness and love shine like jewels in a royal diadem.
The King who is coming is just the king we poor sinners need (Heb 7:26) and "His kingly crown is holiness" (TLH 73:2).
