A Tale of Two Visitations
It must have been a terrifying and overwhelming sight. There, sheathed in the blinding radiance of an otherworldly light, stood an angelic messenger, an emissary of God Himself, sent from heaven’s courts to deliver a message to a lowly peasant girl of Nazareth.
The revelation that the angel Gabriel brought to the virgin Mary that day totally altered the trajectory of her life:
You will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end (Lk. 1:31–33).
The angelic announcement to Mary was the first major event in the story of Jesus’ incarnation. But the need for this announcement reaches back millennia to a woman in a garden. Eve, the first woman, encountered a serpent—an underhanded conniver who wished to turn the two sinless parents of the entire human race into rebellious traitors against their Creator. In short, the serpent sought to enlist them as co-belligerents in his own ill-fated coup against God, who had commanded Eve and her husband, Adam, not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And so, the serpent tempted Eve to disregard God’s explicit instruction: Go ahead and eat the forbidden fruit.
Then she looked at the fruit, she saw, she took, she ate, and she shared with her husband; and he ate also. In that one act of rebellion, Adam and Eve plunged the human race into a state of corruption, fallenness, and slavery to sin. It was from that slavery that Jesus came to Earth all those years later to redeem us by being born of a virgin, dying on a cross, and rising triumphantly from the grave.
These two visitations, the serpent to Eve and the angel to Mary, are both fascinating in their own right. But when examined conjointly, several interesting parallels emerge, providing a vital lesson that we desperately need to apply to our own lives.
1. Both involve an angelic being visiting and conversing with a lone woman. Though this parallel is more superficial than instructive, it alerts us to the fact that the announcement to Mary may be a counterpart or sequel to the earlier episode involving Eve. The text of Genesis does not explicitly identify the serpent as an angelic being; but the serpent’s behavior was unlike the rest of the animal kingdom, which indicates something unusual was happening. Later on, the Bible explicitly identifies the serpent as Satan (Rev. 12:9), who is a fallen angel (Ezek. 28:14). By contrast, in Luke 1, God sent the unfallen angel Gabriel to announce the Savior’s impending conception to Mary.
2. Both represent profound turning points in history. It was not Eve’s sin that caused all of humanity to fall but, rather, Adam’s (Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:22) because he was the forebear and head of the entire human race. But it was Eve’s disobedience that led to Adam’s failure. His rebellion irreparably severed our relationship to God and cut us off from what Henry van Dyke called the “well-spring of the joy of living” in his hymn “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.”
Similarly, Mary’s obedience in Luke 1 was not efficacious or atoning. In and of itself, it did nothing to redeem us from our sin. Nevertheless, God used her obedience as the catalyst to bring into the terrestrial realm “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29). And so, just as Eve’s disobedience led to the failure of the “first Adam” and humanity’s fall into sin, Mary’s obedience led to the triumph of the “last Adam” and humanity’s redemption (1 Cor. 15:45–49).
3. Both involve questioning God. The serpent began his duplicitous maneuver not by denying God’s command outright but, rather, by sowing doubt and confusion about it: “Has God indeed said . . . ?” (Gen. 3:1). By questioning the Lord’s command, the serpent created the permission structure in Eve’s mind to doubt God.
Years later, when Mary found herself face to face with her angelic visitor, she, too, raised a question: “How can this [pregnancy] be, since I do not know a man [since I am a virgin]?” (Lk. 1:34). But the postures of the heart in the two accounts differ radically. Satan asked with an attitude of rebellion and skepticism; Mary asked with an attitude of faith. Satan’s question was designed to undermine confidence in what God said; Mary’s was a request for further information, prompted by perplexity. In effect, Satan asked, “That’s not really true, is it?” while Mary asked, “God, I believe you, but may I please have more information?”
The former was an act of rebellion. The latter was an act of faith. There’s nothing irreverent or sinful about asking questions of God and His Word, provided the heart attitude is right. Proverbs 25:2 tells us, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”
4. Both accounts conclude with a rejection or acceptance of God’s Word. Notice the progression of the serpent’s temptation. It starts with simply questioning God’s words, creating doubt and suspicion about His trustworthiness. Then, it proceeds to an outright denial: “You will not surely die” (Gen. 3:4). Finally, it becomes an appeal to human pride: “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (v. 5).
In essence, Satan told Eve, “God’s just a cosmic killjoy who wants to hold you back and prevent you from reaching your full potential. Wouldn’t you rather do your own thing? Wouldn’t you like to achieve self-actualization? All you have to do is stop letting God define you with all His rules, regulations, and limitations; throw off the shackles of divine disenfranchisement; and speak your truth. Assert your own identity. Then you’ll be a little goddess all your own.” And Eve swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.
In stark contrast, after Gabriel answered Mary, she responded, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Lk. 1:38). By embracing and accepting the message from the angel, whom God commissioned to proclaim His Word (v. 26), Mary was submitting to the Lord. Her obedience effectively declared to God, through the intermediary agency of the angel, “I have heard your Word, I believe your Word, and I will obey your Word.”
Two visitations. Two very different outcomes. And one clear application: You and I can do what Mary did as well. The Bible doesn’t teach that Mary was born without a sin nature, lived a fully pure and sinless life, and was eventually assumed bodily into heaven. Instead, it portrays Mary as an ordinary, fallen human being, just like you and me. There was nothing in Mary that made her intrinsically better or nobler or stronger than Eve. But unlike Eve, Mary chose to respond to God’s Word with childlike faith and humble submission.
Every day, you and I have that same choice to make: How will I respond to the Word of God?
