ADVENT: The Doubting Faith of Mary

Luke 1:26-38

Advent means “coming” referring to the first coming of Christ in Mary’s pregnancy. This
Christmas we are taking four Sundays to consider major Christian themes in the Christmas
story: Hope, Faith, Joy, and Peace. Last Sunday we considered Hope. Today we’re thinking
about faith and doubt, the faith and doubt of Mary.

Mary’s Doubt: Credulous Inquiry

In Luke 1:26-38 we find the story of a virgin named Mary. We find a young girl, probably around
age fifteen, who would become the most famous woman in the world. Some make too little of
Mary, Christians who downplay her significance. They seem to ignore the constant refrain of
Gabriel to Mary as “favored one”, and the epithet “generations will call me blessed.” Mary
received a unique grace from God, to bear his very own Son! This took, as we’ll see, an
extraordinary woman. On the other hand, other Christians make too much of mary, elevating
her to co-redeemer with Jesus. They misread this narrative too. They mistake Gabriel’s refrain
of “favor” as something that Mary earned by bearing Jesus, but what we see is that the favor,
literally grace, is not something she earned; its something she received. There’s a big
difference, and Mary was in need of God’s grace as much, if not more, than all of us. With this
in mind, we come to see that although imperfect, Mary is held up as an example. And there she
is, unsuspecting, and all of a sudden an angel, Gabriel, the choice angel of God, appears. Can
you can imagine her teenage fright. And Gabriel says: “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is
with you!" The Lord is with you! How do you take such a greeting? The text tells us that “she
was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.”
How was she feeling? Afraid? Not exactly. The word “troubled” actually means perplexed or
confused. Now why would she be confused? There’s an angel in her room! Why does Luke tell
us that she was perplexed? As if there was some riddle to figure out? And then he tells us that
she “tried to discern” the greeting. I don’t know about you, but I’m trembling if I am Mary, but
she’s trying to discern! The word discerning is actually an accounting term that means “to
weigh one column against another”, to look at the facts and figures and weigh them out. Mary
isn’t cowering; she’s reasoning. Something about this particular announcement has her puzzled,
thinking, questioning. And then the angel tells her she will bear the very son of God, who would
rule on Israel’s throne in a kingdom that never ends. An angel. A greeting from God. The pledge
that God would be with her. And she will carry the son of God, the eternal king of Israel. Wow.
And how does Mary respond to this remarkable spiritual experience? Does she take a leap of
faith and embrace it all? No, instead Mary doubts. She didn’t jump ahead in blind faith; she
puzzled through God’s announcement. She worked it over and says: “How will this be, since I
am a virgin?" She questions God. How will this be?

Zechariah’s Doubt
Now, this questioning could be taken a couple of ways. It could be incredulous, a disbelieving,
faithless inquiry. A kind of ‘prove it to me’ attitude. That’s the attitude that Zechariah had. Just
a few verses earlier, Zechariah responds to Gabriel’s announcement that, in their old age, he
and Elizabeth would have a child (1:18). How did Zechariah respond? “And Zechariah said to the

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angel, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." He
questions. He doubts. A very similar response to Mary, it appears. But Gabriel responds to him
by striking him mute v. 20 “And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that
these things take place because you did not believe my words.” Zechariah’s doubt is rewarded
with being struck mute! Don’t doubt God! That’s like my old Sunday school teacher you say.
Whenever I would ask questions they would tell me to stop doubting and just believe. Religious
people do this a lot. They sneer at skepticism, its of the devil. Religious people don’t doubt.
Instead they insist on a leap of faith. Don’t use your head just lead with your heart. Just believe.
And there’s Gabriel striking Zechariah mute for his doubt. UNLESS there’s something else going
on here. Let’s think about Zechariah and Elizabeth’s circumstnaces. For decades they were
unable to have children. This was resulted in social scorn, sometimes associated with divine
judgment. And Zechariah and Elizabeth had lived with that social scorn for years. It’s likely that
Zechariah had grown bitter, cynical, by keeping his eyes on what he didn’t have. And he became
incredulous, disbelieving, faithless cruising along in his religious life. He let his circumstances
get the better of him, so he snapped at Gabriel in incredulous inquiry, bitter cynicism. How shall
I know this?! That’s one way to take Mary’s response—how will this be—yet another instance
of incredulous inquiry. OR there was something different with her question. After all, she
wasn’t struck mute! She was blessed. Held up as an example!

Mary’s Doubt
She’s told God will be with her and that she will bear his holy Son. And she fires right back at
the angel! “How will this be, since I am a virgin?" This isn’t incredulous inquiry, bitter cynicism.
It’s healthy skepticism, doubt. Mary responds with healthy skepticism, careful inquiry, weighing
the statements. She’s credulous but not naive. Think about her circumstances. Mary, a single,
unwed teenage girl, is told that she will be pregnant. “How”, she asks? Her question tinged with
moral concern. How can I have a baby if I’m not married? What will people think? Look at her
reasoning. “How will this be, since I am a virgin?" Literally “I don’t know a man.” She’s weighing
the pros and cons, God’s baby/Social scorn. Do you see her working this through? Reasoning,
doubting. How can she have the Son of God without a moral scandal? She was really weighing it
all, stacking up the column of understanding next to the column of faith. And as she
questioned, she realized what she was getting into. For the rest of her life, she would be the
object of gossip and scorn. Either way people would speculate. Some would think Mary got
pregnant by a man other than her fiancé Joseph, which is why he attempted to divorce her
(Matt 1:19). OR people would conclude that Joseph and Mary slept together before they were
married. Sex outside of marriage was especially taboo in that culture. People could count the
months. Either way, Mary would be the subject of gossip and scandal, and instead of taking a
leap of faith, she was weighed it all out, credulous inquiry, healthy skepticism, faith seeking
understanding. Mary was credulous but not naive. And Luke puts these narratives right next to
each other, so we can see the contrast between Zechariah and Mary, between credulous and
incredulous inquiry, between bitter cynicism and healthy doubt. Mary, our example, chose
healthy doubt. Now, some Christians won’t like this. They’ll actually look down on it, mixing
doubt and faith. Doubt is of the devil. Just have faith. It’s a sin to doubt. Don’t question God.
Mary did. We should ask questions, express healthy skepticism, press into God’s word, insisting
on clarity. Faith, yes, but not naïve faith, not blind faith. Faith that seeks understanding.

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Credulous inquiry, doubting faith. Doubting faith doesn’t jump the ship of reason; it weathers
the storm through careful investigation. Read God’s Word, regularly, and wrestle through it.
Stack up the columns of faith and understanding and puzzle it through, and draw near to God.

Mary’s Faith: God With Her

Back to doubting Mary. Now when Mary was wrestling through the angel’s statements, she first
responded to God’s promise: "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" What’s the
promise? The Lord is with you. This was a promise God issued and reissued throughout history.
In the OT this promise was reserved for God’s chosen patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses,
David, and Solomon. And a 15 year old girl would join the ranks. It was the promise of God’s
presence and his guarantee to give them descendants. God’s plan of redemption hinged on a
choice descendant from Abraham. With each of these men, God promised descendants. To
Abraham he promised children like the stars, and kings from his line. This promise would be
tested over and over again, beginning with his very own wife’s barren womb! In the face of
difficult circumstances, God repeatedly assured Abraham that He was with him (Gen 15.1; 17.1-
8). And so it was with Abraham’s son, Isaac, who was continually run out of the Promised Land
(Gerar). God assured Isaac that He was with him (Gen 26.28). Skip down the line. When God’s
promise of an heir to David was challenged, even by his conniving sons who sought to kill him
and corrupt the line, God assured David He would be with him (2 Sam 7.3f). And in the midst of
difficult, unbelievable circumstances, God promised Mary the very same thing: I will be with
you! Interestingly, the Hebrew word for God with us is “Emmanuel” (Isa 7:14; 8:8). God with us.
How is God with us? In the holy son of Mary. Those who have faith in Jesus gain the promise of
God, God with us, his very own perfect, strong, might, glorious, gracious presence! What are
your circumstances this Christmas? Does this season bring the stinging memory of a lost loved
one? God is with you. Perhaps you know that when you go home your Christmas will be
Christless, full of gifts and void of Jesus. You dread the awkward, estranged feeling. God is with
you. Perhaps you will be working on Christmas day or away from friends and family? Alone. God
will be with you. God’s promise to Abraham and to Mary is his promise to you in Jesus. I will be
with you. Emmanuel, God with us.

Mary weighed God’s promise, and counted the cost of having God’s son. The scorn, the pain,
and the promise! And because she thought it through, through the difficult, unbelievable
circumstances, Mary ’s doubt turned to faith. Not a leap of faith, but became a deep trust in
God’s promise to be with her. Through credulous inquiry God’s promise was filled up with
meaning, and through deep trust in God, she discovered that he was with her, more than she
could even imagine at the time. God would be with her in the years to come, when her faith
was tested by a wild Jesus who would disturb the status quo, by a son who would claim a family
greater than Mary’s, by a son who would be whipped within inches of his life and then crucified
before her very own eyes. Mary would come to know a God who was with her, a God who
would help her through suffering and pain Through credulous inquiry Mary came to a deep
trust in God’s promise to be with her. A promise she would need, a promise that would extend

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well beyond her need, to satisfy her deepest longings. By faith, Mary came to know God with
us, Immanuel.

God For Her

As Mary’s exemplary faith unfolded, it would turn out that God’s promise was not only to be
with her, but also to be for her. God with us and God for us. Let’s think about this. Remember
the son Mary is having. The Son of the Most High (34); the holy Son of God (35). And this son
was named, not by Mary, but by God: “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a
son, and you shall call his name Jesus.” You know the child is special, when even his own
mother isn’t permitted to name him (Keller). This is one of the things mothers love to do, name
their babies! But Mary’s baby is no ordinary child. She is bringing the Son of the Most High God
into the world, Jesus. How? Through the power of God’s Spirit, making the unborn Son of God
the born Jesus. And we see that Jesus is the very, holy, son of God. Very God of very God. God
in the flesh—Jesus—who has come to bring a kingdom that never ends. You see, there is room
for doubt, healthy skepticism, and inquiry but we must inquire honestly. We must bring our
questions to God’s truth claims, and his claim is that Jesus is his divine, holy Son. There is no
way around it. He’s not saying he is a good example or a great teacher. God is saying to you this
morning that you must either accept or reject this claim, that Jesus is the eternal King and Son
of God. But don’t just accept it (blind faith), cherish it, but allow him to be with you and for you.
Think over your life for a minute. Has it been God-glorifying service to King Jesus? Or has it been
God-belittling service to King Self? If you are king, you are in need of forgiveness. Your knees
should buckle in conviction before the one true King Jesus and cry out for his mercy and
forgiveness. You are not enough. We need God for us. In order for him to be for us, we must
confess that we are not enough, that somehow we fall short and we need him. We need his
substitute death and the gift of his resurrection life. God’s promise to be with us is ours if we
will trust him to be for us in Jesus. But how was God for Mary? Remember the scorn and the
shame? The mockery she would carry with her for 33 years as her son grew up, was mocked,
and persecuted? How was God for Mary? God was for her in Jesus, taking her scorn and shame,
all the way to the cross. As it would turn out, her Son was also her Savior, rescuing her from sin
and shame. Some of you have walked a path of shame. You have made decisions that have
brought you great scorn, and you carry a heavy burden of guilt. God wants your burden. More
than that, he wants you. And he died in his Son to prove it. God is for you this morning, he is
asking you to give him your shame and your sin. Abandon faith in self-improvement or social
acceptance, and have faith, deep trust in Him. Receive all that God is for you in Jesus. He will
take your sin and shame, and clothe you in his righteousness. In Revelation 7, in heaven we see
a multiethnic multitude of people clothed in white. Someone asks why everyone is in white.
The response: “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
Our robes are dirtied with sin and shame. God in Christ holds out to us clean white robes. How
do we put them on? By faith, careful consideration of the fact that we are not enough, that we
need the death of Jesus and the life of Jesus. Jesus is your righteousness. Believe it once and
believe it a thousand times. Wake up and run to this truth—that Jesus is your white robe, your
gleaming righteousness, your beauty, and your glory and no other. Follow the example of
Mary’s faith all the way to the foot of the cross, where she stood tear soaked and forgiven by
the blood of her own Son. And receive his costly forgiveness and stunning righteousness.

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Through questioning faith, Mary came to a deep trust in the promise that God was not only
with her, but that he was for her, in the life and death of her very own Son. Come to Jesus, by
faith, and know a glorious God who is both with you and for you, even until the very end of the
age.

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