Sermon Text: Judges: Judges 13:2–7; Luke 1:26–38
“The Child Who Is a Virgin’s Great Son”
Dear fellow redeemed, gathered in anticipation of the festival of the Nativity of our Lord: We see our Lord’s intervention in history in many ways. Think of Sampson, the hero from our reading out of the book of Judges. He was born of a barren woman, as were others from Isaac to John the Baptizer. Through providential use of natural means, those who hadn’t been able to bear children became pregnant and their children were instrumental in God’s plan for His people.
Sampson helped to keep the Philistines at bay so that eventually under King David they were pushed out of Israel for good. We have already seen how John was the forerunner of Christ.
But in today’s gospel lesson, the angel Gabriel announces something unique. It isn’t that the natural processes of conception and birth were repaired so that the natural course of marriage and procreation could occur. Something utterly different and unique came to pass. Mary didn’t have difficulty conceiving; she wasn’t barren. She was a virgin, a point that Matthew emphasizes, quoting Mary, 34Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
The Lord used people born to unlikely mothers, like Sampson, to carry out His special purposes. They were instruments in His hands to save and preserve His people. And as history itself is a tapestry woven by the providence of God, they foreshadow in so many ways the work of the one, true Savior of all the world.
What is announced by the prophet Gabriel is the coming of God to become man. In answer to her question of how this would be, considering her virginity, 35The angel answered her, “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.
The word “overshadow” there is used in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) when speaking of God’s presence entering the sanctuary. So God Himself would enter Mary to be born. The Most High will become the Most Low. But none other than the Most High could be born of a virgin.
This brings us to our lesson from Philippians. 6Though he was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, 7but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant. When he was born in human likeness, and his appearance was like that of any other man, 8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. What child is this? The child is the Most High, who became the Most Low to be born of Mary. The eternal God, without beginning and without end, perfect and infinite Spirit, Wo was there to call the universe into being now becomes a helpless baby, who nurses and wets and cries.
And He does all the things we do as well. He grew up and learned and was subject to His parents. He became a carpenter and a teacher. He was poor and depended on the generosity of others. He learned the Hebrew Bible and taught it. As Hebrews says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been
tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15, EHV)
Uh oh. There is that sin thing. We were all born in sin, and that sinfulness has brought forth actual sin in our lives. Either way we have not place with God by ourselves. Even the heroes like Abraham and Moses and Sampson and David were without the holiness of God. Sampson and David could fight the Philistines, but they could not be holy. They were self-indulgent, self-serving and compromised the truth.
But being born of a woman Himself, this child could live as a man, and being God, He could live out our righteousness. Being born of a woman, He could take our place to save us. 4
“God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21, EHV)
Surely God Most High became Most Low to save us.
AMEN
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