20.12 2020

FAVOUR ON THOSE IN THE MARGINS

Text: Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you (Luke 1:28)

Reading: Luke 1:26-38

Hymn: Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord! (StF 186)

In his approach to the nativity, Luke presents the story of people in the margins and how their lives
are woven into the story of Jesus’ life and ministry. Unlike Matthew who makes Joseph the focus,
Luke focuses on Mary. For Luke, Mary does not see the angel in a dream, as Joseph did. Instead,
the angel visits Mary physically. When the angel greeted Mary: ‘you who are highly favored! The
Lord is with you’, Mary’s show of surprise and her question ‘how can this be’ are enough to
indicate how much she did not consider herself deserving of such favour. Also, while Matthew
tells the story of the Magi, so called kings and wise men, Luke tells the story of the shepherds, the
lower-class people in the society at that time and how they had an angelic visitation immediately
Jesus was born. Throughout Luke’s gospel we see such people in the margins prominently featured
in the ministry of Christ.
Being in the margins may not necessarily mean you are marginalized. However, there is a way in
which such people can easily skip the eyes of the world, the nation, the church, and individuals as
we run around preparing for Christmas. If Jesus’s birth were planned and executed by humanity,
surely such people in the margins would neither have been the focus nor vessels to achieving it.
Yet, God’s favour made the difference with Mary and the shepherds. As Christmas draws near,
there are many people in the margins in our communities that can easily skip our eyes. Let us allow
God to administer favour to such people through us and make them the focus of the story of his
kingdom. I pray that the favour of God will come upon you and your family and that it will stay
with you and turn your situation around. I also pray that God will use you to administer that same
favour upon those in the margins of our communities to transform their lives from the margins into
prominence. You are highly favoured to make others highly favoured.