Advent Trail December 8th - Luke 1:26-27

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. (Luke 1:26-27)

So the scene is set and all is now ready for the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies which we have been reminded of already in this Advent Trail. The story of the birth of Jesus is told in most detail in Luke’s gospel and it’s that account which we will primarily focus on as we continue our journey towards Christmas, beginning with today’s two verses

In these two short verses we meet for the first time with two central characters in every Nativity play, Mary and Joseph, to whom Mary was “pledged to be married”. We learn too that Mary was a virgin (it’s mentioned twice, a reminder of Isaiah 7:14) and that Joseph was “a descendant of David”, another important aspect of the prophecies about the Messiah (Isaiah 11:1). The angel Gabriel is another familiar character in this part of the story.

But of all the characters mentioned in these two verses, it’s the first one who is the most important – “God”. The story of Christmas is the story of God actively working in our world. It was God who sent John as a witness to the light (John 1:6) and God who sent Gabriel to Mary with this announcement. And in particular, God sent Jesus, his own Son, as the message about to be delivered to Mary will spell out loud and clear (Luke 1:26-38).