But in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent of God to a city of Galilee, of which [the] name [was] Nazareth,
Luke's account moves from the temple in Jerusalem to a small town in the north, and from a priest to an unknown young woman. The same angel carries both errands. Why did God choose this place and this person to announce the Messiah's birth?
The setting of this second visit says as much as the message. One writer draws out what the change of place means:
The angel Gabriel is sent from God in the sixth month (of Elizabeth's pregnancy) with a more important message. After the long silence of centuries, heaven speaks again. In Luke it speaks in a more familiar way than in Matthew, where Joseph receives the messages, but in a dream. Here we have open, face-to-face speech. And the most important message comes not in the temple, but in a private home. God is coming near in His grace; and He always reveals Himself more fully the nearer He comes.
Gabriel is not a new figure in Scripture. God had sent him once before with a message about the Messiah:
It was the angel Gabriel who was sent to Daniel to make known long ago the Messiah's coming and cutting off, in the famous prophecy of the seventy weeks (Dan. 9:26). Now he comes to Mary, the one promised in marriage to Joseph, and announces to her — "the virgin" of a still older prophet (Isa. 7:14) — the birth of that Messiah.
Every detail of the address points downward. The angel passes by the religious centre of the nation, and the royal line he reaches has fallen:
The angel's mission now is not to the temple, nor to Jerusalem. It is to Galilee of the Gentiles, and to Nazareth. It is to a virgin promised in marriage to a man named Joseph, of the fallen house of David. The virgin's name is Mary, or Miriam ("exalted"). All is in ruin here, when God comes in to revive and raise to higher glory.
How far that house had fallen shows up in Joseph's trade, and how little it mattered to God:
In Nazareth, that despised place, there was found a young virgin, unknown by the world, whose name was Mary. She was promised in marriage to Joseph, who was of the house of David. But everything in Israel was so out of order that this descendant of the king was a carpenter. But what is this to God? Mary was a chosen vessel; she had found favour in the eyes of God.
Nothing about the town or the woman explains the errand. That mismatch is the point:
What was there in Nazareth and what in Mary that led the angel there? The city was small, obscure, and belonging to Galilee. The virgin was unknown, and, as she says, "of humble estate" (v. 52). There was no match between the place, the person, and the promise. But we must remember that grace owes nothing to what it finds here. And He whose coming is now announced comes to lowly circumstances and to humble, repentant hearts. He did not despise the virgin's womb.
This is not an accident of history but a settled pattern in how God works, and it fits the whole tone of Luke's Gospel:
Luke records the visit of Gabriel to Mary, a lowly virgin, at Nazareth in circumstances of the greatest poverty, but rich in faith… This is in perfect keeping with the Gospel, which sets out that surpassing grace that has come down to the very lowest in the eyes of men. Mary might be poor, and Nazareth despised, but these are what God will take up to accomplish His purposes.
The priest in the temple and the young woman in Nazareth answered the same angel in opposite ways:
The priest under the law did not believe the message of grace that Gabriel brought. So this representative of Israel could not speak until the day when God fulfilled His promise in grace. Then he could praise the Author of his salvation, as the faithful remnant will one day. Mary was not only godly, but humble and simple — an object of grace, and not a representative of the law. "You have found favour with God," said the angel. She was submissive: "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord." Her confidence was in the word of God, for she added, "let it be to me according to your word."
- Sent by God. The silence of centuries breaks with open, face-to-face speech, not a dream. The nearer God comes, the more He shows of Himself.
- Sent through Gabriel. This same messenger told Daniel long ago when the Messiah would come. Now he announces that the time has arrived.
- Sent to Nazareth. He passes by the temple and Jerusalem for an obscure town in Galilee. There David's royal line has sunk to a carpenter's trade.
- Sent to Mary. There was no match between the place, the person and the promise. Grace owes nothing to what it finds here.
- Received by faith. The priest doubted and fell silent. The unknown young woman answered, "let it be to me according to your word" — the fitting reply to a message of pure grace.
to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name [was] Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name [was] Mary.
God sends the angel Gabriel to a small town in Galilee, to a young woman nobody had heard of. She is promised in marriage to a man from David's royal line, and both facts shape the rest of Luke.
One writer weighs the gap between the messenger and the address:
What was there in Nazareth and what in Mary that led the angel there? The city was small, obscure, and belonging to Galilee. The virgin was unknown, and, as she says, "of low degree" (v. 52). The place, the person, and the promise did not match each other. But we must remember that grace owes nothing to anything here. He whose coming is now announced comes to lowly circumstances and to broken and humble hearts. He did not despise the virgin's womb.
Another writer reads the ruin of the nation into the address:
The angel's mission now is not to the temple or to Jerusalem. It is to Galilee of the Gentiles, to Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the fallen house of David. The virgin's name is Mary, or Miriam ("exalted"). All is in ruin here, when God comes in to revive and raise to higher glory.
"Of the house of David" sounds like a title of honour. In daily life it had sunk very low.
In Nazareth, that despised place, there was found a young virgin, unknown by the world, whose name was Mary. She was betrothed to Joseph, who was of the house of David. But everything in Israel was so out of order that this descendant of the king was a carpenter. But what is this to God? Mary was a chosen vessel; she had found favour in the eyes of God.
Both Mary and Joseph came from David, but by different branches. One writer sets out which line each of them belonged to:
Mary is the principal figure of the two in Luke, and there, I believe, the genealogy is hers… There were two lines that came down unbroken to those days — the house of Solomon and the house of Nathan. Mary was the representative of Nathan's family, as Joseph was of Solomon's.
Betrothal in Israel was not an engagement in the modern sense. It carried the weight of the marriage itself.
The Jews looked on this as being as binding as marriage. Only a divorce could end it… Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus, was betrothed to Joseph. He thought about divorcing her quietly, but the angel of the Lord told him the truth about her condition.
A claim to David's throne could not rest on Mary alone.
The Messiah had to be born not merely of a virgin, nor of a virgin daughter of David, but of one legally united to Joseph — in the eye of the law, really his wife… Let people slander as they might, Mary must be betrothed to Joseph. Otherwise the Lord Jesus would not have a proper title to the throne of David.
There was a further obstacle. The royal line running through Joseph lay under a prophetic curse:
A curse struck the direct line of descent, yet the line kept its legal title. So it could hand on to another what could be of no use to itself. The marriage of Joseph and Mary was, in the wisdom of God, the means of accomplishing this. The Lord's birth from Mary made Him the real Son of David (Luke 1:32) while the marriage of His mother made Him David's legal heir.
Luke twice calls Mary a virgin. That word guards a truth the gospel cannot do without:
We may be the 150th generation from Adam, but we are simply "after his kind". We could go on reproducing ourselves and push the first man and his race endlessly into eternity. We should still only have fallen man… There never was a real and original second man until Jesus was born, and that broke the inherited chain of sin and death. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit's power. Discard the virgin birth, and you have lost this great foundation truth of the gospel.
The verse names her and gives her no title. One writer marks the limit:
She was a woman, uniquely favoured because God chose her out of all the virgins of Israel to be the mother of the Lord. Yet the more we make of Mary, the less we make of the divine miracle of this holy birth.
- Place — Nazareth was small, obscure and in Galilee. The angel went there, not to the temple or Jerusalem.
- Person — an unknown young woman of humble estate, betrothed to a carpenter who came from the royal line.
- Promise — the place, the person and the promise did not match — grace owes nothing to anything here.
- Proof — betrothal was as binding as marriage. So Jesus was Mary's real Son and Joseph's legal heir, and His title to David's throne stood up in law.
- Purity — "virgin" is not decoration. Without conception by the Holy Spirit we have only Adam's fallen race again, and the foundation of the gospel is gone.