Luke 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth.
It is all too easy to miss out on the literal when reading about the supernatural. Certainly that is true in the Christmas story. In Luke 1 we have the account of God’s angel coming to Mary to tell her of the small part of God’s plan that He was revealing at this point. The angel tells Mary, “Fear not… thou hast found favor with God. And…thou shalt…bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He will be… the Son of the Highest …and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
Now this may be silly, but the thing that just grabs me is who was announcing the story. His name is Gabriel. I just finished reading the book of Daniel, and it is amazing to realize that this messenger of God to Mary was the exact same messenger of God to Daniel. Daniel and Mary lived 500 years apart.
Now when I said we miss the literal when we read of the supernatural what I mean is this: this is not an account about the ghost of Christmas past. This is a literal messenger who was in Babylon 500 years previously speaking to Daniel and now was in Galilee talking to Mary. Did Mary have any idea that this messenger had talked to Daniel in history long ago?
How much had Gabriel changed? How much had the message changed? When he came to Mary, Gabriel told her that this Christ child would reign over the house of Jacob forever and that there would be no end of His kingdom. That is very reminiscent of the language in Daniel 7:14 which says, “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”
Seven hundred years prior to the moment when Gabriel came to Mary, Isaiah 9:6 says, “For unto us a child is born…his name shall be called… The everlasting Father…of the increase of his government there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.”
The point is that the Christmas story is ongoing. It is not like Charles Dickens, written in the 1850s, old and dusty. You can think what you want of his story, but it is done. God has given us His eternal Word which is finished, but the Christmas story is not static; it is ongoing. God spoke of His purposes way back, 700 years prior in Isaiah and 500 years prior in Daniel, and He spoke of it here in Luke. So much of what is spoken of is still in our future. The Christmas story is ongoing, and you are part of it.
There are two implications for us today. First, trust the promises. The story is much bigger than we realize and can comprehend. We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. Verse 45 says of Mary, “And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.” Trust the promises. God has never made a promise He has not kept.
Secondly, share the story. Luke 2 says that when the shepherds had seen the Christ child, “they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.” Do not merely relate the story, but invite people into the story and to trust the Christ child.
The Christmas story is a supernatural story. It is a literal and ongoing story, and it is one in which we find ourselves and to which we should invite others.