God’s Gifts Have Thorns
Matthew1:18-25 and Luke1:26-56 & 2:1-39
Today is Sunday, December 24, 2017. A day known around the world in many different languages as Christmas Eve. This is an exciting time of the year! There are those that love the holiday but hate what this day represents. There are Muslims that refuse to go to the company Christmas Party, because Christmas is a Christian holiday. Atheists love Christmas, but they demand we say happy holidays instead of merry Christmas because they hate the thought of a Christ. Then there are also some Christians that hate this holiday because of some of the pagan rituals, like the Christmas tree and the knowledge that Christ would not have been born during this time of the year. Of, course there are many that love to rejoice in celebration of the birth of their king, even if the day is unknown.
I love the holiday, because no matter if you hate Christ or love him as your savior and king, the world knows. The world knows! It is an annual reminder that there is a King, there is God With Us! What an exciting time of the year, where the world is confronted with the reality of Jesus of Nazareth. And what an opportunity we have to share the Good News of Jesus.
So today, I want us to look at Mary as we look into this incredible history, where God came down and began dwelling with us. Turn with me to Luke 1 and we will start in verse 26.
26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.28 And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. 36 And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
39 Now [ac]at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”
46 And Mary said:
“My soul exalts the Lord,
47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
48 “For He has had regard for the humble state of His[ah]bondslave;
For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.
49 “For the Mighty One has done great things for me;
And holy is His name.
50 “And His mercy is upon generation after generation
Toward those who fear Him.
51 “He has done mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.
52 “He has brought down rulers from their thrones,
And has exalted those who were humble.
53 “He has filled the hungry with good things;
And sent away the rich empty-handed.
54 “He has given help to Israel His servant,
In remembrance of His mercy,
55 As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and his [am]descendants forever.”
56 And Mary stayed with her about three months, and then returned to her home.
Mary – God’s gifts have thorns.
Scripture does not explicitly tell us how old Mary was at this time. We do know that she was a virgin. Therefore, she would not be a widow. We also know that girls who married for the first time would have been from as early as 12 years old to around 16 years old. Since bearing children was so highly valued, girls were married young, soon after reaching the age of childbearing. The scenes we typically see is a Mary in her mid-20’s, but this is probably inaccurate for the time period. So we have a girl more than likely in her mid- teens, engaged to be married to a man named Joseph. Then Gabriel enters the scene and Mary’s life takes a huge turn.
Here the Angel Gabriel comes and pays this young girl a visit. As any polite Angel would do he greats her with a salutation. said to her, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary is perplexed by this greeting. The greeting would be unusual, especially to a person of low status. Here she is probably in her mid-teens, a female, and being a lowly Galilean villager in the town of Nazareth would have given her very little in the way of social standing. But, she receives a greeting that would be reserved for a person of high standing!
The next part of the greeting, “The Lord is with you.” Is a statement used to show that God was “with” the hearer, especially when God was calling the person to do a difficult task. An example of this is in Judges 6 where God calls out the Judge Gideon. Starting in verse 11.
11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.”
When an angel of the Lord appears to you and tells you the Lord is With YOU, WATCH OUT! He has a difficult and special task in store for you to accomplish. I just love the story of Gideon. Here he is beating out his wheat in a wine press because he is fearful of the Midianites and the angel calls him a valiant warrior. Who says, God does not have a since of humor!
Then Gabriel tells her what her task is going to be. She is going to conceive and bear a son who will be named Jesus and will be a very special son for he will become a king taking his place upon the throne of David. Mary then interrupts Gabriel and asks how this will happen since she is a virgin? Her question is very different than Zacharias question because Zacharias was doubting where Mary was inquiring. Mary asked a very practical question since one cannot conceive without first having relations with a man and she knows she has not had relations with any man. Then Gabriel explains that this is not just any male child, but she shall conceive by the Holy Spirit and the child will be the Son of God. Then Gabriel tries to convince Mary that this is true by telling her about Elizabeth.
36 And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Mary being very polite herself, tells the angel, “Hey, I am just a bondslave of the Lord. Do it according to your word.” We would say amazing faith Mary must have had, but not so fast. After Gabriel leaves, she immediately plans a trip to visit Elizabeth. Scripture does not say, but I’m pretty sure what is going through this young girls mind. This is pretty weird, so I am going to go make a trip to visit my relative Elizabeth to see if she is pregnant or not.
Off she goes to Judea to visit. Sure enough, when she gets there Elizabeth is six months plus pregnant. Elizabeth at the first meeting prophecies about the child that Mary is now carrying in her womb.
41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?
Then Mary prophecies as well in her greeting and she apparently stays with Elizabeth helping out until after the birth of John before going back home. We can assume this by the fact that Elizabeth was six months pregnant when Gabriel talked with Mary and that Mary stayed with Elizabeth 3 months before going home.
Now I want you to think about this for a little while. Here you have a young woman who is met by an angel and told that she was going to have a baby. She is betrothed to a man and is a virgin. After the visit, she takes off to Judea and spends three months away from home. From the language used in Elizabeth’s greeting we see that God did not waste time and Mary was pregnant during her stay with Elizabeth. So, when Mary went home she would have been close to the end of her first trimester of pregnancy. Mary knows that she is still a virgin and that she is carrying a very special child. What do you think Mary’s parents and Joseph are going to think?
Parents, what would you think if your teenage daughter came home from an extended stay with relatives and she was pregnant? Can you imagine Mary coming home all excited and saying, “Mom, Dad, I met an angel of the Lord and he told me that I would become pregnant and bear a child and that Elizabeth our relative was pregnant in her old age and it is all true. Elizabeth bore a son just as the angel had told Zacharias. By the way, I am pregnant.”
As parents, the first thought after the shock would be, was it Joseph? Or Who is the father? No. No. I am still a virgin. Sure you are! You wouldn’t believe such a story. We all know what it takes two to become pregnant.
Then you have Joseph. Can you imagine how nervous Mary would have been? Think about how difficult it would have been to let your parents know let alone how difficult it would be to let your betrothed know. Things didn’t go so well for Mary. Let’s look now at Matthew 1 starting in verse 18.
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.
Joseph didn’t buy her story either. Here is poor Mary who had told the angel Gabriel, “Behold, the [ab]bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” Wondering what in the world is going on. She is doing what God wants but, her entire world is falling apart. Her husband to be, who is a good righteous man does not believe her and is going to leave her. Oh how her heart aches. The pained expression in the man she loves eyes when she told him. “Why, Mary? Am I not good enough for you?”
Her parents have to be all upset although scripture does not discuss them at all. No one believes her. Only she and God knows it all to be true!
Everyone else believes they know what is true. From past experience they know for a fact that you don’t get pregnant without having relations with a man. They know for a fact that Mary has to be lying. She has to be covering up for someone. And she seemed to be such a good girl.
The tears, pain and heartache that she endured. She is going to be a single mother. An outcast in her already lowly circumstances.
Why do you think God chose to send Gabriel to just Mary? Here you have this young woman and you have this incredible news to give her and you only tell her. Wouldn’t you think it would be much better if God sent Gabriel to the whole group? Mary, gather your family and Joseph because we are going to have a meeting. Everyone is going to hear the same information and be on the same page. By doing it this way it will save everyone all the pain and sleepless nights. It would be so convenient wouldn’t it? But God in His infinite wisdom hardly ever does things as we would expect them to be done in our little brains.
God always wants us to grow and to grow requires our faith to be challenged. It is in these times where we are trying to do God’s will but everything is falling apart that we are challenged to grow. Job certainly found that out. His friends convinced he had done something wrong and Job sitting in his miserable state having to take the ridicule of his friends, while all along he knows he has been righteous.
God gives incredibly good gifts but they have thorns by design. Thorns to challenge us to grow. Thorns to bring to the forefront of our minds how we are totally dependent upon our God. Thorns to force us to grapple with sin that is in our lives. Let’s take children for an example. Psalm 127:3-5 says:
3 Behold, children are a gift of the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
5 How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They will not be ashamed
When they speak with their enemies in the gate.
Oh what a precious gift are children. I remember our first little girl coming out into the world for the first time. She stole my heart, but when she took her first breath, she let the world know she was very unhappy on the journey she took to get out into the world. Sleep ended. Nurses kept bringing her back to Arlene saying there is nothing they can do to calm her down. Oh the sleepless nights. The worries we have as we watch them grow and start making decisions on their own. The pain and heartache when they disappoint and do things that hurt them and others.
But. Yes, there is a but here, we would not trade them in for the world! Each one is unique and precious and we love them. They challenged us to be on our knees in prayer, because we knew that we were terribly hopeless and inadequate in our own strength for the endeavor. We have to rely upon God and to put into practice the parenting principles that He lays out for us in scripture.
Salvation is another gift from God. Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Of course, I don’t really need to discuss this one. Accepting that free gift seems easy so easy. But then your old friends don’t like you so much anymore. In fact there are those that hate you because you are a Christian. Families disown you. How many people have been martyred with the most horrific deaths just because they accepted this free gift. But, again, we would not trade in that gift for anything! What a precious, priceless gift God has given to us. Easy? Certainly not. But how we cling on to that special promise of God. Eternity with Him as our father. WOW! So we pick up our crosses and follow him. Stumbling along under the weight of the beam. And as we grow, we see the incredible blessings he has given us which challenges us to continue and to grow even more.
You see God could have told Gabriel to gather everyone together and have a family meeting to discuss this idea of using Mary to bear and raise the savior, but in so many ways it would have diminished the value of the gift. It is in the struggle that we begin to see the priceless beauty of what God has done for us.
Young Mary, in her tears weeping before God. How am I a young girl going to raise this special child alone? After the struggle, God sends another angel. Still not to the family, not to the community that I am sure is by now is spreading rumors all around Galilee, but to Joseph in a dream.
Matthew 1:20-25
20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for [u]the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife,25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.
I am sure the ridicule was not over, but Mary was not going on this journey alone. She would marry this righteous man. I am sure that everyone then thought that Joseph was the father. Some would think that he loved her too much to take her as a wife and raise a illegitimate child. Yes there were still thorns. Still sleepless nights. Like when Jesus was 12 and was missing for days. But the priceless gifts of God are so worth it! Mary and Joseph raised Immanuel.
Brothers and sisters in Christ. The journey on this earth seems long. We endure many trials in life as a Christian. But the free gift of God is worth it. Even if it means being a martyr. If you are seeking and thinking about accepting that free gift of salvation. Know this. God’s gifts have thorns! But His thorns are for our own good, to challenge us to grow and mature. To show us how much we have grown in our faith. This priceless gift is free of charge although it will cost you everything in this world. But in the end you will cling to this gift and won’t give it up for all the treasures this world has to offer. If you are seeking, I wouldn’t delay another moment. Take that free gift and begin the journey of sweet surrender.
We all need to have the heart of Mary who simply said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.”
Give the invitation.
