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.
And the angel came in to her, and said, Hail, [thou] favoured one! the Lord [is] with thee [blessed art *thou* amongst women].
In Luke's Gospel, the birth of Jesus opens with an angel greeting a young woman in Nazareth. Two questions follow. What does the greeting say about Mary? And what does it say about the God who sent it?
The place had no standing. The household had no wealth.
This was the last place man would have chosen for God's purpose. In the world's eyes, the name of the town was enough to condemn anyone who came from there. There a young woman, unknown to everyone the world recognised, was engaged to a poor carpenter. Her name was Mary. But everything was in confusion in Israel: the carpenter was of the house of David. God never forgets His promises, and He never overlooks the people they concern. Here was the place where they would be fulfilled. Whether Nazareth was small or great made no difference. It only showed this: God expects nothing from man; man expects everything from God.
Gabriel had brought news of the Messiah before.
It was Gabriel who was sent to the prophet Daniel long ago, to make known the Messiah's coming and cutting off in the famous prophecy of the seventy weeks (Daniel 9:26). Now he comes to Mary, the one engaged to Joseph, and announces to her — "the virgin" of an even older prophet (Isaiah 7:14) — the birth of that Messiah. No wonder he greets her as a favoured one, with whom the Lord was… She is the chosen channel of the wonderful purposes that would yet fill her own people, and the whole world, with blessing. She is the appointed mother of One in whom God was about to solve every difficulty sin had brought into the world, and to do it by a righteous triumph over it. He would even make it possible for God to bless those who believed, sinners though they had been.
The words are not a random compliment. They move outward in three steps, and the first word carries the theme of the whole Gospel.
Gabriel's greeting speaks of great grace given to Mary. ("Favour" and "grace" translate the same Greek word.) It speaks of the Lord's presence with her, and of her being blessed among women. So her personal blessing comes first: great grace given to her. Then comes her relationship to the Lord: His presence with her. Then her relationship to others: blessed among women.
Older translations render the greeting "highly favoured"; the ESV has "O favored one." A moment later Gabriel tells Mary she has found favour with God.
The expressions "found favour" and "highly favoured" do not mean the same thing at all. She herself had found favour, so she was not to fear. But God, by His own choice, had given her this grace — the immense favour of being the mother of the Lord. In this she was the object of God's sovereign favour… Finding favour with God refers to Mary's own spiritual state. Being highly favoured refers to her being God's chosen vessel for the birth of Jesus. But the two are truly connected.
Gabriel's praise is high. His wording is also measured.
The angel tells her she is "highly favoured" (Luke 1:28). Could any woman have a higher favour than to be the mother of our Lord in His human birth? "Blessed are you among women" (Luke 1:28) is the angel's greeting. "Blessed" she certainly was. Note, it does not say "Most blessed." The language is restrained. There is no room there for the worship of Mary.
There is also a question about the text. Some manuscripts add a second clause here and others do not, and the ESV ends the greeting at "the Lord is with you!"
"Hail, favoured one!" said Gabriel to Mary. The words "Blessed are you among women" belong to the meeting with her cousin Elizabeth. The Revised Version agrees, following the best authority. The Latin Vulgate leaned towards heaping honour on Mary, and many followed it.
There is an opposite mistake.
Humanly speaking, Mary was most highly favoured. God singled her out by a supreme distinction. It is even possible that, in a right desire to keep clear of Roman Catholic error, Protestants have overlooked the remarkable honour God gave her. If that is an error at all, it errs on the right side.
- Favour, not merit. "Favour" and "grace" translate the same Greek word. The greeting names a gift to Mary, not a wage she earned.
- Favour lands low. God chose a despised town and a poor carpenter's home. Man expects everything from God; God expects nothing from man.
- Favour has two senses. She had found favour with God herself. She was also chosen as the vessel for the Lord's birth. The two are linked, but not the same.
- Favour flows outward. Grace given to her, then the Lord with her, then blessing reaching others.
- Favour keeps its measure. The wording is restrained: "blessed," not "most blessed." The best manuscripts leave out the second clause. Yet the honour God gave her is real.