Bestowed with great grace
Series: Advent 2019 | Bible text: Luke 1:26–38
A prison cell is a good comparison for the Advent situation. The door is locked and can only be opened from the outside. In Jesus, God came to our world as a human being to free us from our prisons. The only appropriate response to God’s grace is that of Mary when she says: «I am the servant of the Lord and bow to his will.»
On 21 November 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from Nazi prison to his friend Eberhard Bethge: «By the way, a prison cell is a very good comparison for the Advent situation. One waits, hopes, does this and that, ultimately trivial things. The door is locked and can only be opened from the outside.«In a newspaper, Woody Allen, famous American director, confesses that he leads «a sad life without hope, scary and gloomy without a goal or any meaning». More than 70 years lie between the statements of these two men – both in prison. One locked up in a meaningless life, the other in a very real, actual prison cell waiting to die. One leads a sad life without hope because he is an atheist and simply cannot believe that anyone is able to open the door from the outside. The other can hope despite the most adverse circumstances because he knows that someone has opened the door from the outside. This is precisely the Advent and Christmas message, that God in his grace has opened the door from the outside.
In the sermon text we learn three things about grace: the otherness, the content and the response. Each of these aspects is connected to something we learn about Mary in the text.
Otherness of grace
God sends the angel Gabriel to a young woman named Mary. She is engaged to Joseph, but is still a virgin. The procedure of a Jewish wedding consists of two steps: The first step was the betrothal, the the legal agreement included that the couple will marry and commit to marital fidelity. Legally, this was sealed by the groom’s family paying a bride price for the bride. The second step followed about a year later by bringing the bride home and consummating the marriage.
The angel Gabriel comes to Mary, who was thus bound to be faithful to Joseph: «Greetings! You are blessed with great grace! The Lord is with you!»(Luke 1:28 NL). Although the angel expresses himself loudly and clearly and she hears everything acoustically perfectly well, Mary is perplexed and wonders what this is supposed to mean. Why me of all people? Have I done something special that God turns to me in a special way? No, precisely not! Mary was neither particularly holy nor special, that God should say: «Hey, she’s so great, I have to do something special with her!» The angel tells Mary that she has found God’s grace, freely, without conditions, without her doing anything. It is God’s gracious initiative. Grace is different.
From the very beginning of Christianity, at the announcement of the birth of Jesus, it becomes clear that the Christian faith is fundamentally different from any other religion, philosophy or belief system in this world. Normally, the way it works is explained to you like this: «By making an effort, by performing and doing certain things, you draw closer to God.» Even in philosophies where a personal God does not even appear, it is like this: you have to do something specific in order to break through to something higher, better and spiritual. The better life is beyond the prison and the door must be opened from the inside.
Christian grace means: God comes to do what we cannot do – open the door – from the outside. Not even Woody Allen will succeed in opening the door of his successful glossy prison. He knows it and says sadly: «Here’s my life, I don’t think it’s particularly great, but I can’t get the door open.«God opens the door from the outside. Mary experiences here what countless people have experienced after her and what you can also experience today: God comes to us out of grace.
Content of grace
The angel explains to Mary what this grace of God means: «You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, whom you shall name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will place him on the throne of his father David. He will reign over Israel forever and his kingdom will never fall!» (Luke 1:31–33 NL).
Gabriel knows the Bible and refers to the Old Testament in 2 Samuel 7:13f. Although the Davidic royal house had almost completely lost its power and influence, the hope of the eternal kingdom still existed among the Jews. In this respect, Gabriel’s message is enormously meaningful. Mary is to give birth to the eternal ruler for whom everyone is waiting. Hardly surprising is Maria’s confused reaction: «But how can I have a child? I am still a virgin» (34). Maria is confused. She knows the biological processes: no pregnancy without a man. And now it gets exciting. Many sceptics of the virgin birth of today think that the people of that time might have believed in it. In today’s enlightened society, however, this matter can be brushed aside. One should not argue quite so lightly. If there was talk of a virgin birth back then, it was just as ridiculous as it is for us today. Mary did not listen and think: «Wow, another virgin birth! And this time it’s just me. Hammer!»
Mary knew that if God went through with this plan, a miracle would happen. The miracle is not so much that a woman becomes pregnant without the involvement of a man. At the latest in modern reproductive medicine, this is also no longer a problem. The miracle of the virgin birth is that the Most High, God Himself, becomes man. Gabriel explains to her how it works: «The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child you will bear will be called holy and the Son of God.» (35). The word overshadow we know from Exodus 40:34f. The tent of God is overshadowed by a cloud and the glory of the Lord filled the inside. God is present. His glory is so physically present that Moses could not enter the tent. The glory of Almighty God comes to us. That is the grace, that is the miracle.
A good and wise Persian king loves his subjects and shows great interest in knowing how they are doing. He wants to see with his own eyes how they live, how they are doing and what their joys and needs are. That is why he mingles incognito with the people. He puts on the clothes of a worker or a beggar and visits the poorest of the poor. One day he comes to his very poor husband in a gloomy, cold cellar. Although he does not know him, he eats his food with him. He talks to him and has a good time, is kind to him, encourages him and then leaves. After a few days, he returns to the man and reveals himself to be the king. He expects that he will now be confronted with one or other of the poor man’s wishes. But the poor man says to him: «You left your palace and your glory to visit me in my dark and dirty cellar hole. You ate the food I have to eat every day, and you spoke kindly and graciously to me. You have brought joy to my soul. You know, you have given great gifts to many people, but to me you have given yourself!»
The King of glory leaves his glory in heaven and gives us himself. The Holy Son of God becomes man, he comes from outside and opens the doors of our prisons. This is the content of grace.
Response to grace
Mary becomes our role model with her reaction: «I am the servant of the Lord and bow to His will. May all that you have said come true and happen to me»(Luke 1:38 NL).
Mary expresses impressively that she accepts what God intends to do with her: If you want to act on me in this way in your grace, then I am with you. I can’t imagine the consequences, but you are God and I am the servant. What you want shall happen. Here is my life, I give it to you! This is not a spiritual or romantic knee-jerk reaction in the face of an angel. Mary was very aware that she was putting her reputation on the line. Joseph will say: «If you’re unfaithful to me, then that’s the end of our relationship.» She will be a single parent, which was a disaster at the time. Although she could hardly foresee the consequences, she says: If you, God, turn to me in your grace, then I cannot help but say: Here is my life!
A woman comes to a church and says to the pastor: «You know, until now, all I’ve heard is that I have to make an effort. If I am good, God accepts me. That’s the message I’ve heard for years – in churches, at home, everywhere. And now here I am hearing the gospel of grace, I am hearing about the otherness of grace, I am hearing about grace in Jesus Christ and it confuses me. It even frightens me. If I am redeemed by my good works, then there is a limit to what God can ask or expect of me. Just as a taxpayer earns certain rights. I have done my duty and now I have a right to get something out of life. But if I am a sinner redeemed by grace alone, there is nothing God cannot ask of me.»
The gospel of grace can be frightening. Mary realises this immediately when the angel has spoken to her. She realised that there is nothing God cannot ask of her. Mary knew precious little at that time what would become of this story. We have the full picture and know that Jesus came – left his glory for us. We know that Jesus died on the cross to open your prison and mine from the outside. He lived the life that we should have lived. He died the death we should have died. He gave himself. How much more are we challenged to give ourselves completely to Jesus! If we have received the grace of God and live by that grace, it must be clear to us that there is then nothing that God cannot ask of us. If God in his grace has opened the door in your life from the outside, then there can only be one response to that, and that is Mary’s response. That is not an achievement, but a reaction to grace. Mary could not do anything to make what the angel announced happen. The only thing she could do was: «Okay God, if you turn to me in your grace, then I place my life at your disposal.«Francis Schaeffer calls this active passivity. We receive God’s grace passively, completely undeserved and without our doing. We actively respond to this by saying: «Lord, your will for my life shall be done.»
Whatever my history, whatever my present circumstances, you know it all, you own my life. I serve you. I serve you with my marriage. In my marriage, let your will be done. I serve you with my time. In my priorities, let your will be done. I serve you with my thoughts. In my thoughts, let that which is important to you come to fruition. I place myself at your disposal, I serve you. I make myself available to you even in all my weakness, in all my doubts, in all my limits, with my brokenness, in the middle of my prison. You are the Lord. And because you are a gracious Lord, there is only one response to your grace: Here is my life. I am the servant of the Lord. Whatever you want shall be done to me. If that is your honest passive active response to God’s grace, then God can do amazing things in your life – like Mary.
Possible questions for the small groups
Read the Bible text: Luke 1:26–38
- Try to understand and tell each other how Mary might have been in this situation. How would you have reacted?
- Has God already opened the door in your life from the outside?
- Based on this sermon, how would you explain the gospel of grace in a few words?
- What is the appropriate response to God’s grace in concrete terms for you? Have you already surrendered your life to Jesus? What is preventing you from doing so?
- What is the difference in living life fully surrendered to Jesus or only partially?
