You know what really grinds my gears? The “Happy Holidays” greeting. This is Christmas. The entire point of the season is to celebrate the birth of Christ. We decorate our homes with Christmas lights because Christ the light of the world has come into our world of darkness. We sing Christmas carols because, when the angel announced to the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks at night that Christ the Lord was born, the heavenly hosts sang a Christmas carol. We exchange gifts at Christmas because at Christmas God gave us the gift of Christ. This is not just some random holiday like National Ding-A-Ling Day (which by the way is today). This is Christmas!

I don’t know why it bothers me so much, but when a sweet little old lady in the check-out line or a polite young waiter at a restaurant, or a well-meaning neighbor walking down the street wishes me a “Happy Holidays”, I cringe. I know they mean well, and I don’t mean to imply that they don’t understand Christmas is a celebration of the Christ but for some reason I am simply unable to stop myself from responding to the “Happy Holidays” people with an emphatic, “Merry Christmas”. And If I am feeling exceptionally irritable, I might even over emphasize the Christ in Christmas and wish the happy holiday people a “Merry CHRISTmas”. I don’t know what it is I think I am accomplishing with my unreasonably aggressive response to the happy holiday people. It is rather unlikely that my obnoxiously articulated “Merry CHRISTmas” is going to make them suddenly understand the real meaning of Christmas. I know berating people for hoping that I have a happy holiday instead of wishing me a Merry Christmas is not an effective evangelism strategy, but I can’t help myself. I just can’t stand seeing Christmas become a generic holiday. And that is why the “Happy Holidays” greeting really grinds my gears (by the way don’t get me started on the pagan yuletide people).

This time of year, I prefer to greet and be greeted with a “Merry Christmas” and I have very little patience for sub-par greetings. But you know who has a really good Christmas greeting, the angel Gabriel. Gabriel didn’t greet the virgin Mary with a “Happy Holidays”. Instead, Gabriel said, “28… Greetings, you who are highly favored!” Gabriel takes the Christmas greeting to a whole new level. Gabriel’s Christmas greeting attaches us to our Savior, invokes a response inside us, and makes a lasting impression on us. Let’s take a closer look at Gabriel’s Christmas greeting and I will see if I can explain what I mean.

In English, Gabriel’s Christmas greeting is six words long, “Greetings, you who are highly favored!” but in the original Greek, Gabriel speaks only one word twice. The word is χαίρω. You know this word, if not in the Greek, you know it in the English. It is the word that often gets translated as grace, as in “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”[1] In catechism class you were taught to define this word as “God’s undeserved love”. In Luke 1:28 (and then again in verse 30) χαίρω is translated with the word favor. A clunky translation of Gabriel’s Christmas greeting would be “Grace to she who has been graced” or “favor to she who has been favored”.

What makes the word “favor” such an ideal Christmas greeting is it cannot properly be understood without a source from which it comes or a substance to which it is attached. In verse 30 Gabriel identifies the source from which our favor comes when he tells Mary, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.” Our favor comes from God. This Advent during our midweek services we are taking a closer look at Mary’s Magnificat (the song Mary sang as she contemplated today’s text). I began that series by calling Mary a nobody from a nowhere kind of place. I said that because Mary was a peasant from the village of Nazareth and not a palace princess from the holy city of Jerusalem. Further I pointed out that Mary was a sinner who sang her song to a Savior. I said these things about the blessed virgin because I wanted to make sure we all understood that Mary had not earned or deserved God’s favor any more than you or I have. It is important for us to be reminded that our favor comes from God because if the sinner was the source of favor than Gabriel’s greeting would not be a comfort but a condemnation. We would have to demonstrate how we have earned God’s love and prove why we deserve God’s forgiveness. But when we think about the foul way we treat other people, or our lack of faithfulness to God, it is not love and forgiveness that we have earned and deserve. Thankfully, Gabriel’s’ Christmas greeting reminds us that God, not the sinner, is the source of favor.

Gabriel identifies God as the source from which our favor comes. In verses 31-33 Gabriel identifies the substance to which our favor is attached. Gabriel tells Mary, “31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” Our favor is attached to our Savior. Every phrase Gabriel speaks to Mary directs our attention to God’s promise to send us a savior from sin. Gabriel told Mary, “31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. because the Lord promised, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”[2] Gabriel told Mary . 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. because the Lord promised He would be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”[3] Gabriel told Mary “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end” because the Lord promised “Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Every phrase that Gabriel’s speaks to Mary is attached to God’s promise to send a Savior because Gabriel wants us to understand the substance of our favor.

Gabriel’s Christmas greeting focused on God’s favor because he wants to attach us to our Savior, the source and substance of Christmas. Another reason why this is such a great Christmas greeting is it invokes both an emotional and rational response. If we were not a German church body, I probably wouldn’t have to say this, but it is O.K. to be happy and sappy about Christmas. Conversely it is O.K. to be quiet and contemplative about Christmas. It is O.K. to have an emotional response to Christmas. Gabriel’s Christmas greeting invoked an emotional response from Mary. In verse 29 Luke writes, “Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.” Mary was “greatly troubled”, she was shaken to her core. She, like everyone else, was understandably filled with fear in the presence of one of God’s holy angels, But Mary’s reaction seems more intense than that of say Zechariah’s. Perhaps it is because Mary was not a respected priest performing duties in the temple, but rather she was a simple peasant struggling to pay the bills. Or perhaps Mary’s conscience was more tender than others. Perhaps she confessed the words of her ancestor King David who wrote, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.”[4] I have noticed the more we are troubled by our sin the more we are shaken by God’s favor, especially during Christmas.

In addition to an emotional response, Gabriel’s Christmas greeting invokes a rational response from Mary. First Mary seeks guidance from Gabriel, “34 How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” A very practical question to which Gabriel gives an rather ambiguous answer, “35… The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Even though Gabriel’s explanation was seriously lacking in detail and explanation Mary still responds, 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” …“May it be to me as you have said.” Though Mary was understandably curious about the details, she put her confidence in the Lord’s favor. Mary knew she did not need to understand a thing for a thing to be true. Mary trusted in the Lord who said, “8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”[5] Mary put her confidence in God’s favor and rational complied with His plan.

Gabriel’s Christmas greeting was focused on God’s favor because he wants to attach us to our Savior and invoke a response in us. Finally, one more reason why Gabriel’s Christmas greeting focuses on God’s favor is so that he might make a lasting impression on us. Gabriel’s Christmas greeting made an impression on Mary, but we need to go beyond our text to see what sort of impression it made on her. Just one verse beyond our text we are told Mary “39 got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.” Immediately Mary wants to share Gabriel’s Christmas greeting with others. Upon arrival at Elizabeth’s house Mary sings her Magnificat, “46 My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior”. Nine months after Gabriel’s Christmas greeting, shepherds bow before Mary’s newborn baby and she “treasures” and “ponders[6]” God’s favor in her heart. Twelve years later Mary finds her Son teaching in His Father’s house and we learn she is still “treasuring”[7] the Lord’s favor in her heart. I could go on, but I think you get the point. Gabriel’s Christmas greeting focused on God’s favor so that long after Gabriel, Elizabeth, shepherds, wisemen, and Rabbis had come and gone Mary would still have a reason to celebrate Christmas. Gabriel’s Christmas greeting focuses on God’s favor in order to make a similar impression on us.

Gabriel didn’t greet the virgin Mary with a “Happy Holidays”. Instead, the angel said, “28… Greetings, you who are highly favored!” “Favor to she who has been favored”. Gabriel’s Christmas greeting focuses our attention on the favor of God to remind us of our connection to our savior, and thereby invoke a reaction inside of us, and making a lasting impression on us. Why would you ever settle for a generic “Happy Holidays” when a greeting that focuses on God’s favor says so much?

Merry CHRISTmas, my friends! Favor, to you who have been favored! Amen.

[1] Ephesians 2:8

[2] Isaiah 7:14

[3] Isaiah 9:6

[4] Psalm 51:3

[5] Isaiah 55:8-9

[6] Luke 2:19

[7] Luke 2:51