Luke 1:38 – I AM THE LORD’S SERVANT

Introduction

Most of us are looking for a purpose in life. That’s no different for the Christian. When we make a decision to follow Jesus we begin to ask the questions, “What is my calling?” We seek to find what God is calling us to do. To attempt to get an answer to this question we consult with our Pastors and Christian friends. We also spend time in prayer desperately seeking and answer. However, we can learn a valuable lesson from Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The Angel Gabriel Sent to Nazareth

The angel Gabriel gave the prophecy of Jesus’ birth to both Joseph and Mary. We see the story told from Joseph’s perspective in Matthew 1:18-23. Here we have the story told from Mary’s perspective in Lk. 1:26-38. 

The angel visits Mary to announce the coming of Jesus the Messiah.

The Sixth Month

Gabriel visits her in the sixth month (Lk. 1:26). This doesn’t mean he visited her in June according to our calendar. This passage is a continuation of the previous passage where, despite her barrenness and advanced years, Elizabeth would become pregnant with John the Baptist. Lk. 1:24 tells us that Elizabeth remained secluded for five months. In context it becomes clear that two versed later we have a reference to Elizabeth’s sixth month of pregnancy.

Galilee

Nazareth was located in Galilee which was north of Judea and Samaria. In the first century, it was a place of modest means and low reputation. It wasn’t a place where one would expect greatness to come from. An example of this is when Jesus began calling His disciples. When Phillip finds Nathanial to tell him about Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanial asks in a rhetorical way, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”.

This demonstrates the lowly view that they had of this area at the time. This is another example of Jesus first coming as one from a lowly and humbled background as a suffering servant instead of as an elite and a conquering king.

A Descendant of King David

Lk. 1:27, 32 indicates that the child to be born to Mary was of the house of David. This fulfills the Old Testament Messianic prophecy that a descendent of David would sit on the throne forever (2 Sam. 7:16, Is. 11, Jer. 23:5-6)

Mary Favored

What does it mean for Mary to be “favored”? Some argue that Mary was conceived and lived without sin (the Immaculate Conception). Others might say that it was something she did that merited favor in God’s eyes. Many of these views assign a divine nature to Mary.

However, there’s no evidence of this in the scripture. We should view Mary in the same way we view the other heroes of the Bible. They didn’t received favor because they were perfect or did good works. They received favor because God was with them. Ultimately, they submitted to the will of God and all that they accomplished was through His power and not their own. This will become clear in the subsequent verses.

Mary Perplexed

Mary was perplexed when Gabriel announced that her son would be called Jesus and would rule on the throne of David forever. She asked how that was possible because she was a virgin. The proverbial “elephant in the room“ at this point is why was Mary’s question treated differently than Zechariah’s question regarding the conception of John the Baptist in Lk. 1:18? I believe the context reveals why the two questions were treated differently.

Zechariah Doubts

When confronted with the seemingly impossible news that he and Elizabeth would have a child in their advanced years, Zechariah responded with a challenge to the trustworthiness of the message that Gabriel brought. In essence, he responded with “prove it”. This was not just a challenge of the angel, but it was a challenge to the trustworthiness of the Word and power of God. Therefore, God humbled him by taking away his speech until John the Baptist was born.

Mary Submits

Mary, on the other hand, asked a question of clarification. She questioned how this would work since she had never had relations with a man and was not permitted to until marriage. In this case Gabriel simply explained what would take place. Here we find out that Jesus’ father would be none other than God , Himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit. He would be “Son of the Most High”, fully human and fully God.

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Available to God

What Mary did next gives us the contextual proof that the two questions were different. Mary didn’t go study anatomy or embryology. She didn’t demand answers from God before she would do His will. She humbly responded as follows:

“I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary. “May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.”

LK. 1:38

Mary wasn’t favored by God because she was sinless or had a righteousness of her own. She wasn’t favored because of her works spending “x” amount of time doing “y”. She was favored because she was available to God. When in this moment God called her to service, she humbly accepted even though she didn’t fully understand it and didn’t have all the answers. She’s a hero of the Bible because, despite all her normal human short comings, she trusted in God and humbly accepted His invitation to service.

The Lesson for Us

This is the lesson that the Holy Spirit has to teach us through the story of Mary, mother of Jesus. We are to make ourselves ready and available to the service of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. God doesn’t call us to have all the answers or to even know or see the outcomes. We are called to submit to the Lordship of Christ. We are called to put our trust in Him because He has proven Himself to be trustworthy.

Conclusion

So, continue to nurture your relationship with Jesus through prayer and Scripture reading and study. All followers of Jesus have a built-in purpose for our lives. We are to commit to living our lives with the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission (Mt. 28:19-20).

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We are to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is within this pursuit that we make ourselves available to God so that He can lead us to the location and setting of His choosing so we can accomplish His will.

Blessings