Sermon - Annunciation 2026 - Luke 1:26-38

The Annunciation, Tintoretto, 1563

The passion of Christ is the fulfillment of the angelic message

1. Eve’s fall to the evil angel

2. Mary’s obedience to the good angel

3. The death of Jesus’ tears the divide between God and man

A blessed feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the blessed virgin Mary! It is a bit peculiar that today we are celebrating the incarnation of our Lord, something that feels like Christmas, in the midst of Lent so close to Holy Week. Perhaps you think I’m a few sandwiches short of a Lady Day picnic, but I’m not making it up. Today, March 25th, is the Feast of the Annunciation. Today has been the celebration of the Annunciation since at least the 5th century, but its dating goes back even earlier since it has been a long-standing belief that Jesus’ death was on March 25th. And it’s believed that Jesus was conceived on the same day that He was crucified. (As an aside, this is why we celebrate Christmas on December 25th, nine months after the Annunciation.)

If that wasn’t sublime enough, it gets even richer! Not only is it believed that Jesus died on the same day that He was conceived, March 25th, but being it’s in the Spring of the year, close to the Spring Equinox, it’s also believed that God created the world on March 25th in Spring. Whether or not this is actually the case is really beside the point, although I personally see no reason to doubt it, because all of these things are interwoven into the fabric of reality. God’s creation of the world, the Spring Equinox and new growth, the Fall into sin, the Incarnation of Christ, and His sacrificial death and resurrection are all intertwined into our redemption. So let us ponder how the annunciation of the angel is fulfilled in the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Beginning in the beginning, in Genesis, God created all things, Adam and Eve, and angels. Some of the angels held a rebellion against the Lord and were cast out of heaven like lightning. One of these evil angels visited Eve, the mother of all the living, and tempted her to doubt the Word of the Lord. “Did God actually say?” Eve was deceived and doubted God’s Word. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.” From thence forth, although she is the mother of all the living, she is also the mother of all who die, “for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The fruit of the tree of which Eve ate brought death unto all the world. Immediately a death occured. God had to slaughter a lamb that her and Adam may be clothed with its skin. The way to the tree of life was cut off. Adam and Eve were dispelled from the Garden, and cherubim and a flaming sword guarded the way to the tree of life. A veil had been erected between God and man, and a division had occurred.

Yet, the Lord, in cursing Satan, left us with a glimmer of hope in the first promise of the Savior. “I will put enmity between [Satan] and the woman, and between [Satan’s] offspring and her offspring; He shall crush [Satan’s] head, and [Satan] shall bruise His heel.” In spite of Eve’s deception, and in spite of her and all of her descendents dying, she is still the mother of all the living. For from her womb One Offspring would come, one Seed, one Man, the Savior Christ Jesus.

That Savior of the world was announced unto the second Eve, the mother of Life itself, our lady as she is called, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Instead of an evil angel, Satan, the almighty God sent his holy messenger Gabriel. To Nazareth the angel came, a place name which means branch, and so from the stump of Jesse a branch has shot forth. How fitting, that the Garden of Eden has been blocked from man, but from a dead looking stump a branch has come to regrow the garden. 

The angel came to a virgin, fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Mary is her name, but the angel simply calls her the favored one, and declares that the Lord is with her. He announces: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” Mary for a moment questions, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

The angel declares the reality that is currently at work in her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Did you catch it? Her cousin Elizabeth has also conceived, inferring that the very thing Gabriel was describing was happening at the very same time! 

While the angel spoke, the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, not unlike the cloud of God’s presence descending on the tabernacle, and the Son of God entered into her womb! Mary was like the tabernacle, and her womb the holy of holies, wherein God dwelt among His people. The long awaited Savior of the World had come and stepped forth from heaven into the womb of a woman. 

She is a virgin, so His conception is miraculous, but since she is a virgin His conception is sinless of the Holy Spirit. Yet, He is born of Mary and shares her true flesh and blood, and therefore His conception is fully human, and the Lord Jesus stepped into our human flesh in all of its fullness. From a zygote to a blastocyst, from an embryo and to a fetus, the Lord Jesus became fully man while inside the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Though Mary questioned for a moment, unlike Eve she did not doubt God’s Word, incredible as that word is: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Where Eve doubted, Mary believed, and life entered into this new garden. The fruit of Eve’s tree brought death to all, while the fruit of Mary’s womb brought life to all. For the fruit of her womb is the Son of God and of His kingdom there will be no end.

The fruit of Mary’s womb is named Jesus, the same as the name Joshua, meaning the Lord delivers. For Jesus shall rescue His people from sin and death. He is also named Immanuel, meaning God with us. Because in the conception of our Lord Jesus God was no longer distant from us, but near to us. In fact, the dividing wall of hostility and sin, that great chasm between us and God, was breached in Christ Jesus. “For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility.”

So just as the Fall of Humanity took place in the Springtime of this world, so has Jesus’ entrance into the world taken place in Springtime, and subsequently so did His eventual crucifixion and resurrection, the redemption of this world take place in Spring. Beginning Sunday we will ponder Jesus’ crucifixion, and upon His death we will hear that: “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.” The dividing wall between God and man, which has been erected as a result of our sin, has been torn in two by the hands of God which were nailed to the cross. 

The fruit of the first tree of which Eve ate, although appearing lovely and good to eat, wrought death. And Jesus took up that deathly fruit and was hung upon a dead wooden tree. But the fruit of which the second Eve bore, although dying and having no form nor majesty that we should desire Him, was the life-giving fruit, and from His death brought life to all. The Lord Jesus laid down His life, but He took it back up again, and rose to life, so that all who eat of Him, who eat of the fruit of the tree of the cross, will live and reign with Him in His kingdom for all eternity. Spring time therefore isn’t just about leaves budding and flowers blooming, for these are but created reminders that our Lord has sprung forth from the tomb, restoring the Garden of Eden, and giving new life by the power of His Word. 

May this, God’s almighty work, be done in our lives as well, and may Mary’s words fill our lips: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to Your Word.”