Headlines allude to one… so their product and services can sell.
We may try to ascribe such a scenario to this passage, with intent to gloss over and hide (alleged) inappropriateness of Jesus’ birth.
But we need to look at Jesus’ Birth Narrative’s presentation here from the view of Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection.
Luke (and Matthew) are simply reporting that Jesus did not have a father in the ordinary way, and that this was because Mary had been given special grace to be the mother of God’s incarnate self.
Scientists will say that virgin birth is in theory possible
(it sometimes happens in small animals, e.g. lizards),
and that a child thus produced would be a complete human being.
The problem is that, always supposing such a thing were possible,
the child would naturally be female.
The truly remarkable thing from the scientific point of view is
that Jesus was male.
Luke explains through the words of the angel a double explanation for the whole event.
The Holy Spirit will come upon Mary
enabling her (as the Spirit always does)
to do and be more than she could by herself.
But at the same time ‘the power of the Most High’
will overshadow her.
This is something different:
God himself, the creator, will surround her completely with his sovereign power.
God does intervene in and through Mary
But not like a pagan god intervening roughly and inappropriately in the affairs of mortals,
But appropriately like the creatures he created in his own image
And respected them fully by giving them freedom, self-determination and free will
When he takes the initiative, it is always a matter of love,
love which will care for us and take us up into his saving purposes.
Mary is, to that extent, the supreme example of what always happens
when God is at work by grace through human beings.
God’s power from outside, and the indwelling spirit within,
together result in things being done which would have been unthinkable any other way.
For Luke, Matthew and even Paul, this story is not at all out of place
Or even appears doubtful
Their faith does not start with the birth
For them it begins with Jesus’ death and Resurrection
So when they look at Jesus’ birth in hindsight,
It is only the truth for them…
Luke’s primary purpose in crafting this section is political or royal meaning Luke gives to the whole event.
The child to be born will be the Messiah,
the king of the house of David.
God had promised David a descendant who would reign for ever—
not over Israel only, but also the whole world.
And this coming king would be, in some sense, ‘God’s son’ (2 Samuel 7:14; Psalm 2:7; Psalm 89:27).
As with a good deal of New Testament language about Jesus,
this is both a huge theological claim
(Jesus is somehow identified with God in a unique way
which people then and now find it hard to grasp and believe)
and a huge political claim
(Jesus is the true ruler of the world
in a way which leaves Caesar, and the powers of the world today,
a long way behind).
Luke will go on to tie and culminate in Acts of the Apostles…
Where he proclaims Jesus is the King among us…
A resonance of Jesus’ Incarnation, which he is describing here…
Put all this together—
the conception of a baby,
the power of God, and
the challenge to all human empires—
and we can see why the story is so explosive.
Perhaps that’s one reason why it’s so controversial.
Perhaps we are afraid of the demands this puts on us.
And we may be afraid to give in to these demands.
The story seeks to underline this demand….
Zechariah before this episode… responds with unbelief
Mary seeks more information to a scenario described to her
