Luke 1 — Gabriel

19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.”

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The Lord sent his angel Gabriel to earth several times before the birth of Jesus so we would not be completely clueless as the greatest love story of all time unfolded. True, hindsight is 20:20, but Gabriel did tell us — and more than once.

In Luke 1:5-25 Gabriel appeared to a Jewish priest descended from Moses’s brother, Aaron. Gabriel told old Zech, who was understandably gripped with fear, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous — to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

But alas, Zechariah and his wife were very old and well past usual child-bearing years. Understandably, he had his doubts. I love Gabriel’s firm and logical reply: “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.” (Imagine Mr. T’s voice speaking this sentence, in a no nonsense manner.)

Gabriel punished Zech’s unbelief by striking him dumb until Elizabeth gave birth to little John —just as God planned.

In Luke 1:26-38 during the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent Gabriel to Nazareth to have a chat with Mary, a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph. According to scholars, they were both descendants of David. Luke traces Jesus’ lineage back to King David through the Line of Nathan (Mary’s ancestor), while the gospel of Matthew traces it through Solomon, the line of Joseph, his legal father on earth.)

Mary was greatly troubled when Gabriel appeared before her — perhaps in her living room. He said, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of this father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Shocked about how this could possibly happen to a virgin like herself, Gabriel explained further: “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.” Then he adds firmly, logically, simply, and faithfully: “For no word from God will ever fail.”

Although a bit incredulous I’m sure, Mary understood and accepted her role in the Father’s mighty plan. “I am the Lord’s servant,” she answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then Gabriel flew on home again. Message delivered.

After a sweet passage in Luke 1 where the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaped with joy when Mary came to visit (cousins are indeed, our first best friends), Mary is inspired to compose and sing a beautiful song on the spot. Stop and read it now in Luke 1:26-56, and imagine how amazing some day in heaven when we can ask Mary to sing it for us and hear the melody to the first gospel song that has been lost to the ages!

Mary stays with Elizabeth for three months. Perhaps things were getting uncomfortable at home, with the neighbors  gossiping about an unmarried, young, mysteriously pregnant woman.

On the eighth day after John the Baptist’s birth at his circumcision, the family asked Zechariah what the child would be named. He still couldn’t speak, so he wrote, “His name is John,” and immediately “his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God,” Luke reports. Folks were awe struck and word got around. The consensus was that the Lord’s hand was on this little baby, John. Zechariah prophesized on the spot eloquently, praising the Lord God of Israel for coming to his people and redeeming them. To his son, Zechariah repeated the message of Gabriel: “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace. And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.”

And somewhere in heaven the angel Gabriel smiled and said, “I told you so.” Because to him, Jesus was Gabriel’s clear message.

– Mrs. Nancy Cardwell Webster