https://app.dropwave.io/episode/3b0d4671-a95f-4a61-ba86-794d963bf9fd/annunciation-of-our-lord-ad-2026.mp3

++ JESU JUVA ++

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The reading from Hebrews quotes Psalm 40. This Psalm records for us what Jesus says when He is conceived in His mother’s womb. He says that God was not pleased with the daily Old Testament animal sacrifices. But this is what God commanded in Leviticus. We have record of animal sacrifice beginning in the early chapters of Genesis. God commanded these offerings, but He did not take pleasure in them. He required them, but they did not please Him.

And what about the sacrifices that people try to make to God today? People think they can earn God’s favor, that they can offer Him something to win His good pleasure. They think God will be pleased by their commandment-keeping. By their giving up what God says is harmful. Others enroll in monasteries or practice meditation. They seek to avoid whatever the world says is wicked. Still others offer sacrifices, but not to God. They make sacrifices of time, effort, and energy to gain what they want. They give up time with their children in order to pursue what they believe more valuable. Or, perhaps, in their pursuit of these things, they give up children altogether.

None of these sacrifices please God. If the things that God commanded as sacrifices don’t bring Him pleasure, then neither will the things invented by man. According to tonight’s Epistle, one thing does please God. It’s that God the Father has provided a body for His Son. Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary. God is pleased, not merely that His Son now has a body, but that His Son can now offer this body as a pleasing sacrifice — as the pleasing sacrifice.

Jesus has a body in order to do God’s will. “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). The death of Jesus would be the final sacrifice. Since God the Father is pleased with the sacrifice that His Son will make, He is pleased to prepare a body for His Son.

By His mercy, He chooses Mary to be the recipient of His grace. God has favored her — not because of anything in Mary — but because God delights to give. Everything that made Mary eligible to be the mother of God was a gift of God’s grace. That she was a descendant of David; that she lived in Nazareth; that she was a virgin; that she was betrothed to Joseph; that she had been given faith — all these were among God’s many gifts to her. And now, by the Word of the Lord announced by the angel, she would be the recipient of yet another gift. “That Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

For He is not conceived in the fallen image of the first Adam. He is holy, conceived without sin by the power of the Holy Spirit. Mary receives God’s Word. “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Having received the Word of God, Jesus, God’s Son, now dwells within her. And so it is for all who are graciously given God’s Word and receive Him in faith. Receiving God’s Word, they now have Jesus dwelling within them.

The Father prepared a Body for the Son. Jesus grows in wisdom and stature. Throughout His life, He remains perfect — uncorrupted in thought, word, and deed. He leaves no good work undone. He commits no evil, deceit, or wickedness. He is the perfect, holy, and unblemished Sacrifice. I

n the Old Testament, the animal sacrifices were not holy in themselves. They became holy by being offered to God upon the holy altar at the holy Temple. But Jesus is holy in Himself. His own Body is the Temple not made with hands that would be torn down and rebuilt in three days. “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4), but because Jesus is holy in Himself, “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).

Jesus received His Body not only for His earthly life, and in order to make the Sacrifice. Jesus is and remains the Divine One who is fully God and fully Man in His Person. Jesus still has His body now. His bodily Sacrifice on your behalf is complete, but He continues to use His body to serve you. For it is at this altar that He, by means of His own Testament, bids you to come and eat His holy Body. It is the same Body which He took up within the Virgin Mary, the same flesh which He offered for you, once for all. Eating His Body and drinking His Blood, you receive the benefits of His Sacrifice: His holiness is given to you. You have found favor with God. Receiving Him, you have done the Father’s will. God is with you, and you are made holy.

In the holy Name of Jesus. Amen. The peace of God keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.