THE ANGEL’S TROUBLING WORDS
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Six months after the angel appeared to Zechariah at the temple, the same angel, Gabriel, appeared to a young woman in a small village in the region of Galilee, a few days’ journey to the north of Jerusalem—far enough away that she had obviously not heard Elizabeth’s surprising news in the six months since that message had been delivered.
As startled as Zechariah was by the appearance of an angel in the temple, an angel would appear even more alarming in the everyday surroundings of a simple village home in Nazareth. But, according to the story, Mary was more troubled by what the angel said—and his announcement was the particular reason for his “Do not be afraid.” Mary had not been seeking to earn favor with God; it was simply that God had favored her.
But who was she to be so favored? She was from an unlikely town and was an unlikely person to be visited by an angel or chosen by God for any kind of task.
She was confused by the angel’s greeting, and her first reaction to his announcement that she had somehow come to God’s attention was fear.
Again, there is a larger dimension to this “Do not be afraid.” The favor or attention of God was not something from which she should hide.
As daunting and confronting as her task would be, this was a vital part of the plan to remove fear from the God-human relationship. “Do not be afraid” would be a message she would personally need to hear at key points in mothering the Messiah, but “Do not be afraid” was also the point of the entire plan in which she was being invited to play her part.
