A reading from the prophet Isaiah (7:10-14)
The Lord spoke to Ahaz again and said:
‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign,
either in the depths of Sheol or in the heights above.’
But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask. I will not put the Lord to the test.’ He then said:
‘Listen now, House of David!
Not satisfied with trying human patience,
will you try my God’s patience too?
The Lord will give you a sign in any case.
Look, the virgin is with child
and will give birth to a son
whom she will call Immanuel.
This celebrated messianic text announces a son and heir for king Ahaz, even though his faith is weak, and he prefers to trust in alien gods rather than in the God of Israel. The ‘sign’ announced, the birth of a son, guarantees the continuation of the dynasty of David, despite the king’s faithlessness. The original Hebrew text uses the word ‘almah , which means ‘young woman’. It is the Greek translation which has provided the rendering ‘virgin’ (parthenos). In any case, what is given here is a natural conception of a son for the king. This conception and birth demonstrate God’s continuing faithfulness, that ‘God is with us’, which is the meaning of the Hebrew name ‘immanuel.
Psalm 24(23) The person who ‘desires not worthless things’ will receive the blessings of the Lord.
O key of David, sceptre of the House of Israel,
you open and none can close, you close and none can open,
come to free from prison the captive
who lives in darkness and in the shadow of death.
Eliakim receives the key of the palace, so that, as ‘father’ to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, he may open or close (Isaiah 22:21-22). Apocalypse 3:7 presents Jesus as ‘the holy and true one who has the key of David’ to open and close.
A reading from the holy gospel according to Luke (1:26-38)
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice full of grace! The Lord is with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and pondered what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. Look! You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I have no knowledge of man?’ In answer the angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. And see, your cousin Elizabeth also, in her old age, has conceived a son, and she who was said to be barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.’ Mary said, ‘Here I am, the Lord’s servant, let it happen to me as you have said.’ And the angel left her.
The annunciation stories, to Joseph in the gospel of Matthew, and to Zechariah and to Mary in the gospel of Luke, allow the evangelists to proclaim the identity and greatness of the child to be born. While Joseph is told simply that the child he is to call ‘Jesus’ will ‘save his people from their sins’, the annunciation to Mary carries an even richer set of statements about Jesus. He will be ‘great’ and will be called ‘Son of the Most High’. He is to receive the throne of ‘his ancestor David’ and his ‘reign will have no end’. While in Matthew’s gospel the work of Jesus is summed up in the concept of salvation, here in Luke there are features of the messianic promise given to David in 2 Samuel 7. Mary’s question leads to the explanation that she is to conceive ‘by the power of the Most High’, a daunting revelation which Mary accepts in humility with the words ‘Here I am, the Lord’s servant, let it happen to me as you have said’.
What might the words ‘full of grace’ mean?
Both Luke and Matthew are clear that the conception of Jesus is ‘from the Holy Spirit’ and by ‘the power of the Most High’.