The Angelic Announcement: Imparting the Impossible

Sermon Text: Luke 1:26 In the sixth month, 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 be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name 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 the house of Jacob 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 upon 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 barren is in her sixth month. ³⁷ For nothing is impossible with God." ³⁸ "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.

There are a lot of things in this world that we might have once thought were impossible, but history has proven that they are possible. For example, it seemed impossible that a ragtag militia of farmers, trappers and townspeople could defeat the well-trained British soldiers, but it happened. It seemed impossible that NASA could put a man on the moon with less computing power than you have in your iPhone, but it happened. And for my good friend, Pastor Roekle, it may seem impossible that the Detroit Lions will ever win a Super Bowl … and that probably is impossible.

“It’s impossible!” That may be the thought that is racing through your mind as you try to get your house decorated and the food made before your family comes over for Christmas Eve. Or is it your reaction to someone’s well-intended “Merry Christmas!” greeting? How can it possibly be merry when you’re still out of work, you’re in danger of losing your home and you have a mountain of medical bills to pay? Or does it seem impossible that our nation will ever regain its moral and Christian standards or will it keep sliding into the abyss of immorality and debauchery?

Mary had her own “It’s impossible!” to deal with. The angel Gabriel had been busy making the rounds. He had already visited Zechariah and announced that he and his wife, Elizabeth, were going to have a child in their old age. Gabriel’s second stop was to Mary. Then he was on his way to make his announcement to Joseph, who would become the foster father for the baby Jesus.

How was it possible that Mary would be pregnant with the Son of God? The angel made an announcement. He said God would impart the impossible for nothing is impossible with God. There was no human father? That’s not a problem for God, either. The Creator Spirit who hovered over the earth throughout creation would come to hover over Mary. By His almighty power, God’s Son would be conceived within her. He would not come from a human father. His only Father would be God the Father Himself.

Mary doesn’t ask how this can happen. She doesn’t ask for a sign like Zechariah had (Luke 1:8). She simply asks, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Isaac’s mother, Samson’s mother, Samuel’s mother, John’s mother – all miraculous births – but all of them had husbands. All those boys who had been announced by an angel had human fathers. But Mary’s Son would be even more special than those miracle babies, for in Mary’s Son, God would be imparting the impossible.

The angel announced, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name 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 the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end. … The Holy Spirit will come upon 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. … For nothing is impossible with God.” The angel’s words to Mary remind us of the familiar words of the Nicene Creed: “… who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, and was made man.”

It was the custom in the medieval church that at the phrase, “and was made man,” the people bowed the knee. The story is told that the devil once visited a church at Christmas and noticed a worshiper who did not bow the knee. Satan hit the man alongside the head, saying: “What’s wrong with you? If he had become one of us, I would bow the knee.” It’s only a story, but it reminds us of the majesty and miracle and condescending mercy of the incarnation – of God taking on human flesh.

The angel announced that in the child within Mary’s womb, God would be imparting the impossible. This Child would be given a very common Jewish name, Yeshua, Joshua, Jesus. But He is the unique Child who split history into B.C. and A.D. – Before Christ and Anno Domini, the Year of Our Lord. The birth of this unique Child did not mark His origin, for He had always existed from eternity, but it marked only His appearance as God who also took on human flesh. Jesus was the meeting place of eternity and time, the perfect blending of deity and humanity, the junction of heaven and earth.

In Jesus Christ, the impossible was made possible. For in Jesus, God became man. He who was eternally begotten of a Father without mother, was now begotten in time of a mother without a father. (Think about that one.) He whom the heavens cannot contain was held within the womb of a woman. He who nourishes all creation, was fed with His mother’s milk.

God did not impart the impossible on us because we are worthy, but rather because we are dead in our trespasses and sins. The Great Descendant of David came to release us from the kingdom of Satan. He did not come because we were seeking Him or because we wanted Him. He did not enter our world because we asked for a Savior. Rather, He came because He saw the crown of His creation falling into decay. He came because He was the Word through whom all of life came into being, and He now saw that life being crushed by death. He who is the very image of God, came because humanity had lost the image of God.

Jesus accomplished the impossible by becoming the impossible. He remained 100% God, while at the same time also becoming 100% human. He accomplished for us what we could not accomplish for ourselves. He became a man so that He could live under God’s Law. The other day I found a book on dinosaurs in our Lower School library. It had a few sentences about the dinosaurs living millions of years ago, so I took a black marker and crossed out the offending false doctrines. My younger girls were shocked and said, “Dad, you can’t do that!” I assured them, “I’m the pastor, I can do whatever I want.” Of course, I was kidding. I’m not really above the law, even the law of Lower School library books. However, since God created His divine Law, He is over the Law. But by becoming a man, the Son of God placed Himself willing under His own Laws. That’s why the Bible says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5)

Yet Jesus was also true God so that He could keep that Law perfectly. That’s why He was born of a woman, so that He could be a man. But that’s why He was also born of a virgin, without a human father, so that He would not have the taint of sin and could be a perfect man.

As much as I love my daughters, I would be willing die to save their lives, but I cannot die to save their souls. In His love for God’s sons and daughters, Jesus had to die. However, God cannot die. Unless He becomes a man. Now as the Son of God and the Son of Man, Jesus can die to save both our lives and our souls.

Jesus, as true God and true Man, made the impossible possible. He won us for Himself with His active, patient love. He took our guilt and sin upon His perfect body. He endured the eternal wrath of God poured out on Him, so that He could pour out only God’s love and mercy upon us. He could not be held by death’s strong bands. He rose from the dead, trampling down death by death and bestowing life to those in the tombs. He ascended into heaven to rule over a kingdom that will never end.

Jesus did not suffer to make us happy, to give us our “best life” now or to fill our stockings with goodies and put presents under our tree. He did not die to give us an excuse to wallow in sin and self. He did not rise to give us this life, extended out forever. He endured the cross, so that we might live under His cross. He died so that we might die to sin. He rose to give us His own divine, indestructible life.

You may well feel as if you are facing impossible tasks today. But nothing is impossible with God. Listen again and again to the angel’s familiar announcement. Do not take it for granted. For in his words, God is imparting the impossible. The Almighty God became a helpless human baby. The infinity of the deity fit within the womb of a virgin. The mystery of the Trinity is conveyed in a promise to a teenage Jewish girl. The more you think about it, the more amazing it becomes. But once you can grasp this divine reality, then your other difficulties will pass away. Then the impossible suddenly becomes possible. Amen.