Nothing Is Impossible With God

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Mary is a highly favored lady. The Church has even given her the title Theotokos, Greek for “Mother of God.” Some Christians get upset at that title, thinking it means Mary gave birth to God in His divine nature. But the Church simply confesses what Scripture teaches: Jesus is God in the flesh—Emmanuel, God with us—and Mary is the mother of Jesus.

It is a night of impossibilities. By every earthly measure, Mary should not be pregnant. She is betrothed, not married. She is a virgin. So she is troubled when the angel appears and says, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.” Perhaps she remembered how things usually went for the prophets—hard lives, heavy callings. Maybe she wondered, “What am I being called into?”

Gabriel continues: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus.” Jesus—“The Lord saves.” Gabriel tells her that this child will be great, the Son of the Most High, and that God will give Him the throne of His father David. He will reign forever, and His kingdom will have no end.

Mary could have thought the angel was out of his mind. She is not famous. Joseph is not famous. The closest he gets to fame is being from Bethlehem, David’s hometown—distantly related to David and Solomon, but that’s all ancient history. And yet Mary’s child will inherit David’s everlasting throne.

Her mind must have been spinning. And when we get to heaven and ask her how she managed to say, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” I imagine there were many pauses, stutters, and restarts. She was speaking to an angel, after all.

Gabriel explains that the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and the power of the Most High will overshadow her. Therefore, the child will be holy—the Son of God. And if she doubts, she need only remember her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth, well beyond childbearing years and barren her whole life, is now pregnant with John—the last Old Testament prophet, John the Baptist.

“For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Our reading ends there, but if you continue in Luke, Mary goes to visit Elizabeth. And John leaps for joy in Elizabeth’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice—the voice of the mother of his Lord—through the power of the Holy Spirit.

It seems impossible that this world could ever be fixed. As I speak, the sirens outside are going off—fitting, really. It seems impossible that what is broken could be restored, not just repaired but made better than it ever was.

It seems impossible that God could love us as we are—sinners who constantly choose ourselves over God and over our neighbor. And that’s not even the worst of it. Everyone in the world is a sinner. Everyone is selfish, greedy, and mean at times.

Think of grandmothers—those sweet memories of cookies, candy, and kindness. I loved my grandmothers. My dad’s mom watched us after school. She did all those wonderful things—and she also had a wooden spoon for when we did not listen. And you heave never seen a sixty‑year‑old woman run as fast as she did when chasing kids who were running from that spoon.

Everybody is a sinner. And we make the world worse. And the world is getting worse. If it were up to us, everything would be hopeless. Every service would be a funeral. Every day would be a lament.

But the angel tells Mary, “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

A man once came to Jesus and said, “If you can, heal my child.” Jesus replied, “If I can? All things are possible for the one who believes.” And the man said, “I believe; help my unbelief.” And the child was restored.

God saves His creation. He remakes you. He makes you alive in Him. He gives you a beating heart of faith. He pours out His blood for your sins, making the payment you cannot make. He removes your sins as far as the east is from the west. He does this willingly and gladly because we cannot do it. And He does it in our flesh because He must be fully God and fully man for the atonement to matter. If He were only God, it would not count for us. If He were only man, He would have His own sin. But He is the sinless One—the second Adam.

God begins to fix our world by calling us to faith and by placing His light‑bearers throughout the earth. Some of you may be on low‑sodium diets, but God is not a low‑sodium God. He throws His salt everywhere—to season, to preserve, to bring goodness into the world.

And He uses you to proclaim the message of salvation, hope, and restoration. Even though the world grows worse, even though sin gets the better of us, Christ reigns supreme. Our sins are forgiven. Christ will come again, and sin, death, and Satan will be utterly overthrown.

This is the message of Christmas. It is the message of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. It is the message of Easter.

God has done the impossible. He has saved you from yourself. He has brought you into His kingdom—a kingdom not marked by borders but by faith. A kingdom stretching from Adam and Eve to the final chapter of Revelation.

You are a citizen of heaven. You have a King. His name is Jesus. He is the good King who lays down His life for you.

But you’ll have to come back on Palm Sunday to hear that sermon.

In Christ’s name. Amen.