Luke 1:26-38
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Luke 2:1-21
2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
21 On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.
Matthew 1:18-25
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
When Jesus was born and grew up in and around Bethlehem, Galilee, and Nazareth, there were two people who absolutely knew that He is our Savior...Mary and Jesus both knew one-hundred percent that He was the One to come...They would know that He is our Messiah...She was a virgin and she knew something different was about to happen...When the angel Gabriel came to her and greeted her with the words, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”, we are told that Mary was troubled...She was more than troubled, St. Luke writes that she was greatly troubled, by these words of Gabriel...She must have thought many things...What does this angel mean?...What does it mean that the Lord is with me?...She was at first greatly troubled with all her thoughts...
But then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God...You will conceive and give birth to a Son, and you are to call Him Jesus...He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High...The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His kingdom will never end.”...Surely she must have thought, how can this be...What will my future husband think?...My life will change forever...The Messiah our nation and the world has awaited will soon be here, and I will be the one who helps bring Him into this world...What must and can I do for Him?...
And her new husband knew that this was confusing, mysterious, and quite strange...Joseph when he found her to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit, was faithful to the law, and yet he did not want to expose her to public disgrace...So, he had in mind to divorce her quietly...Joseph understood that births do not happen this way...But an angel came to him and told him that she was conceived of the Holy Spirit, as she probably had explained to him...And no doubt, the angel of God was convincing...And when the angel told him that “(Mary) The virgin will give birth to a son, and you(Joseph) are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” ...Joseph must have been quite shocked...
What a strange thing to happen in the world, a virgin will have a Baby, and not just any Baby...This is a rather odd way to bring a Son into this world...But if God had a Son on earth, one would expect Him to be brought into this world completely unique and probably mysterious, and strange to our way of thinking...After all, He is the Son of the Blessed One, the Son of the Living God...There would be this miraculous Immaculate Conception and Hope would be born for our world...As one thinks about this birth, how would God bring His Son into our earthly world?...
This birth would be one for the ages...No other child would ever be born like this One...Gabriel tells Mary that her Son would be the Son of the Most High, and His Kingdom would never end...This miraculous conception gives rise to much controversy, and the One who was born of this miracle and controversy, brings even more controversy to this world...His teachings would be quite extraordinary, and He would say such unique things that One does think He comes from heaven and from above...This miraculous birth was controversial then, and two thousand years later this pregnancy, this Virgin Birth, this Baby, this Son of Mary, this Son of the Most High continues to generate debate after debate even today...This Boy, this Son would not be born of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God (John 1:13)...This is a story that the early writers wrote and stuck to, because that is the way it happened...Hope was born on His day of birth...And when we believe in Him, His name Immanuel, means God will always be with us...