Peace of the Lord. ( Luke 1: 26-38)

Peace of the Lord. ( Luke 1: 26-38)

 

There was a woman named Mary.  She had pledged to be married to a man Joseph.

Jewish society at that time usually decided on a marriage between households, so perhaps she hadn't even seen the bridegroom's face yet.

She would be a little scared and excited at the same time, imagining the bridegroom and waiting for the wedding. 

One day something shocking happened in her life.

An angel of God named Gabriel appeared to her and said, "You will bear a child" (verse 31).

 

She asked the angel in surprise. “I don't have any male experience yet, so how I can have a child?”

Angel replied, “From the power of the Holy Spirit”

è Did she understand what this angel was saying? Did she even know what the Holy Spirit was?

è To this woman, was the angel's message good news or bad news?

è If you were this woman and this happened to you, how would you react?

“Thanks or No thanks”  

If it were me, I would say I don't want. I would say “just No!”

There are numerous reasons to say no.

What will happen to the bridegroom, what should I tell my parents, and for people... And my future, which I have planned, expected…

 

That’s not all.

The angel's first words to the woman were a greeting.  For the Jews, the word for greeting is shalom.

Shalom is a Hebrew word meaning peace.

And the angel said, “You have found favor with God.”

The word “favored” simply does not fit in this situation. Peace? Can you be at peace in this situation?

Verse 29,

“Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be”

This verse is very natural and general respond.

This is the story of the so-called “Annunciation.” –

(아기의 탄생을 알리는 천사 가브리엘의 수태고지 이야기)  

 

We know why Jesus had to be born of a virgin.

Jesus had to atone for the sins of all of us, but at the same time, He had to be born of a virgin because He Himself was sinless.

Nevertheless, my question is, why should Jesus have been born of an engaged woman?

If Jesus had been born to an unengaged woman, wouldn't he have been born in peace, far less burdensome for many people?

Why did Jesus come from an engaged woman and cause great trouble for Mary and Joseph, and their parents and so on?

How can this situation be suitable for shalom or peace?

Being engaged means that there is a fixed path. There is a promised life.

In general, people feel security and peace in such situations.

But, God's Word sometimes breaks that fixed path.

God appears to Abram and tells him to leave his country, his people, and his father’s household,

and commands the Apostle Paul, who is preparing to leave for Ephesus, to go to Macedonia.

He tells Moses, who is living peacefully in Midian, to go back to Egypt.

Sometimes God shakes up our lives.

He shakes us with His Words, calling it peace, shalom.

 

The image of peace we desire is usually no-trouble, no-conflict, and peaceful lake image like Lake Tahoe.

However, the peace of God is to drive away the root of sin from us and give us His dream, the fundamental purpose and direction of our lives.

The peace of God is not the joy of giving Christmas presents, but the peace that is renewed through surgery to remove the source of all depression, despair, and pain within us.

That's why the peace of God sometimes comes to us as painfully as a patient undergoing surgery.

 

We can explore the meaning of God's peace through the word "rest" in Genesis chapter 1.

As we know, God creates the world with His words.

From the first day to the third he makes the borders of the world.

The first day, he divided Light and darkness, he calls them day and night.

On the second day, he divides the world from the water above the sky and the water below the sky.

On the third day he divides the waters under the sky into sea and land.

From the 4th to the 6th day, God gives life to the divided places.

On the fourth day, he sets the sun by day and the moon and stars by night.

On the fifth day, he placed birds in the waters above the sky and fish and sea creatures in the waters below the sky.

And on the sixth day, He creates the animals of the land and finally we humans.

And on the seventh day, he finally finished his work and rested.

In conclusion, God's Word creates the boundaries of our lives filled with chaos and emptiness and puts us where I need to be. That is God's work of creation.

We seek comfort, but being comfortable does not mean we're in peace.

The student should be in school, the head of the family should be in the home, workers should be in workplace, and above all, the Christian should be in the church and in Christ.

When we are where we should be, we experience peace.

The peace of God is the peace that brings our sins out, exposes them, and heals them.

We hide, turn away, and neglect our faults, but God's peace comes into the center of our weakness and pulls it out.

He brought out Peter's impatience, overturned St. Paul's false eagerness, demolished Solomon's false delusions of wisdom...

The peace of God is the fundamental peace, the peace that changes my essence, the active peace, and the perfect peace.

 

Mary’s confession

Verse 38. Mary replied, “I am the Lord’s servant, Mary your word to me be fulfilled.”

This is not an easy confession.

Abram and Sarah laughed before the word of God, Moses refused 7 times, and Zacharias also said that he was too old. But Mary confesses, "I am the servant of the Lord, and the word of God will be fulfilled."

What we need is not comfort, but the peace of God, that is, shalom.

On the second Sunday of Advent, I pray that we may have faith and hope to welcome the peace of God within us as we wait for the Lord's coming.