Luke 1:29-31

The birth of Jesus and the events that led up to it are so familiar to us that it takes some adjusting to realise that it was all a complete surprise to those who were involved. We know exactly what’s going to happen next but, for them, it was all astonishing. We need to remember it had been 400 years since there had last been a prophet in the land, and the Jews were not generally expecting the imminent arrival of the Messiah.

We shouldn’t, therefore, be surprised that, time and again, the key characters in this amazing account were told not to be afraid. Zechariah, an elderly priest, was shaken to the core when he met an angel while he was offering incense in the temple. He was just about to be given the incredible news that his equally elderly wife was going to give birth to John the Baptist (Matthew 1:8-25). And then in our verses today we meet Mary. She was probably a teenager, and she certainly wasn’t expecting the angel Gabriel to turn up and greet her. It’s no wonder that Luke records that she was confused and disturbed, and she was just about to get an even greater shock when she heard that she was going to bear the Son of God.

In Matthew’s gospel we meet Joseph who, having learned of Mary’s pregnancy, had decided that the appropriate course of action was quietly to break off their engagement. As he was considering this, an angel came to him and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife because the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit and would save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:18-25).

After Jesus’ birth, the first people to be informed of this momentous event were a group of shepherds who, to their astonishment, were confronted with an angel. We read that they were terrified and the angel’s first words to them were: “Don’t be afraid!” (Luke 2:10).

Each of these people were facing the unknown. When we trust ourselves to God, he will often give us new and surprising experiences. We may feel out of our depth and uncomfortable. But he says to us, as he said so long ago: “Don’t be afraid!”

Questions
Has God led you into any situations that have made you fearful? How did you overcome your fear?

Prayer
Lord God, thank you for the reassurance and security that you give us when we hand over our fears to you. Amen

Released on 13 Dec 2023