Possible

And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. ³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God. Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Luke 1:36-38

 

Nothing is impossible with God.  This is the fundamental truth about the story of Christmas.  The birth of Jesus, the story of Mary, Zechariah and Elizabeth, the shepherds and the wisemen, Herod…it is an amazing and miraculous story.  That God would enter into this world and live among us; that God would be so humble by taking on flesh and blood for the sake of humanity. This is nothing less than the impossible becoming possible.

 

Mary was a teenage girl who was inconsequential.  She was no one from nowhere.  She was engaged to be married to Joseph the carpenter, but it was an arranged marriage that she had no say about.  And yet, God chose Mary to bear the Christ child.  God could have picked a queen or a princess.  God could have picked a priest or well know leader’s family to have the child.  God could have done anything, but God chose Mary.  This of course says a lot about Mary.  She was faithful and obedient to God.  She says yes when she had so much to lose.  Yet the story is remarkable not only for what it says about Mary, but more importantly what it says about God.  God chose to come into this world as an illegitimate son.  God chose to come into this world as a child born into to poverty from a family with few prospects.  God chose to live among us in obscurity and incognito for 30 years.  God could have chosen otherwise but did not.

 

God’s decision reveals a lot about God’s heart.  God has a heart for the oppressed and marginalized.  God has a heart for the nobodies of this world.  In Jesus, we clearly see that God is up to something powerful and miraculous.  God is fulfilling the promises made through Moses and the prophets.  God’s kingdom is entering into the world to transform it.  Mary understood God’s big plans and signs the beautiful Magnificat which ends thusly:

 

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

⁵²He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

⁵³he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

⁵⁵according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever. Luke 1:51-55

 

The kingdom of God, ushered in through the birth of Jesus, it is a great reversal.  God’s work in the world is to bring peace and hope and love to a dark, troubled, and broken world.  God will humble the exalted and exalt the humble.  God will bring justice and mercy into this world.  God’s kingdom makes the impossible possible.