Luke 1:28

‘And he came in to her, and said, “Hail, you who are highly favoured, the Lord is with you.” ’

So to that little backwater of a hillside town in Galilee came the mighty Gabriel, and he came to where she was and said, “Hail, you who are highly favoured, the Lord is with you.” ‘Hail’ is a Greek greeting, possibly translating ‘shalom’. Luke’s intention is possibly to stress that he has come on behalf of the Greeks as well as the Jews. Or it may be that he wanted the mother of the Messiah to be hailed like an Emperor, as a recognition of the One Whom she was going to bear.

‘Highly favoured.’ Every woman in Israel longed to be the mother of the coming Messiah. It was seen as the distinction that outclassed all distinctions. And now this woman in this small hillside town in Galilee learned of the great favour that God was bestowing on her. She above all women was being chosen to be the mother of the Messiah. That it was not because she was supremely perfect comes out quite clearly in her subsequent behaviour, for she would later rebuke Jesus for what He saw as right (Luke 2:48-49) and would seek to interfere with His ministry and have to be put in her place (Mark 3:21; Mark 3:31-35; John 2:4). But nevertheless God saw in her a devoutness which meant that he could trust His son with her. She would bring Him up well until He was too big for her to be able to understand.

The word can also be used of physical beauty ( Sir 9:8 ) or moral excellence ( Sir 18:17 ). (It does not refer to something that can be passed on or signify ‘full of grace’ in that sense).

‘The Lord is with you.’ This, in contrast to ‘hail’, was very much an Old Testament idea (compare Ruth 2:4; 2 Chronicles 15:2; Zechariah 8:23), thus confirming that the message was for both Greek and Jew. She was about to face the humiliation of bearing a baby without a known father, but it was very much to be because the Lord was with her in a way in which He would never be with any other woman. For from her womb would come forth, as truly human as well as truly divine, the Son of God. Through the coming months, and even years, she would need ever to remember that assurance that ‘the Lord was with her’ in it all.

But we must not see in this an over-exaltation of Mary. The concentration in this passage is on Jesus. She is ‘favoured’ because of the huge part that she will play in His coming, even more favoured than the favoured Elisabeth. The favour is all from God. She is but the recipient.