Christmas Supplement

Archangel Gabriel shares story of his role in the Incarnation

By John F. Fink

Hello. My name is Gabriel. I’m an archangel, a title that means chief messenger, and I’ve been privileged to be the messenger of God himself.

As an angel, I’m a pure spirit and one of the nine orders of the celestial hierarchy: seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels and angels.

I’m not the only archangel. Christian and Jewish writings identify seven of us, of whom Michael, Raphael and I are the most prominent. But there are also Uriel, Chamuel, Zophiel and Zadkiel. I could tell you more about each of them, but that’s not my purpose today. I want to tell you about something far more important.

We who enjoy eternity in heaven don’t have time as you do on earth, but it’s hard to explain what happened without referring to time. So let’s say that one day God gave me an assignment. He told me that he had decided that the time had arrived for him to accomplish the redemption of humanity on earth. He said that he planned to send his Son, whom we angels constantly adore as the Second Person of the Trinity, to earth as a mere human being, and he would redeem humanity.

He didn’t tell me how he’d do that. That wasn’t important for my assignment.

When God told me his plan, my first thought was, “Wow! Talk about humbling yourself! God himself is going to become a human being with all those limitations.”

Of course, I didn’t know the half of it. As you know now, he not only became a human, but he died a most cruel death—by crucifixion. But now I’m getting way ahead of myself.

In putting his plan into motion, God said that he had two assignments for me.

First, I was to appear to a man named Zechariah, a Jewish priest who lived in Judea with his wife, Elizabeth. God had decided that they were to be the parents of a man who would precede God the Son and would prepare the way for him.

My second assignment was to tell a young woman named Mary that she was to become God’s mother.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go too well on my first mission. I went to see Zechariah while he was burning incense in the Temple in Jerusalem. As I said, he was a priest. He was a member of one of the 24 divisions of priests who, for a week at a time, twice a year, served in the Jerusalem Temple.

I’m afraid that I startled Zechariah when I appeared to him. When I sensed his fear, I said what we angels have always said to try to reassure recipients of a heavenly vision: “Do not be afraid.”

Then, as I had been instructed, I told him that he and his wife’s prayers for a child had been heard, that Elizabeth would bear a son, and that they should call him John—a name that means “Yahweh has shown favor” to indicate that he would play a role in salvation history.

Before he had a chance to say anything, I continued to tell him that John was to be consecrated by a Naririte vow and set apart for the Lord’s service as were Samson and Samuel. Therefore, like them, he was not to drink wine or strong drink.

I further said that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb, thus born without the stain of original sin. I said that he would have the power of Elijah the prophet and would use this power to prepare a people fit for the Lord.

Well, Zechariah didn’t seem to believe me. He replied that he was an old man and that Elizabeth was also advanced in years. So I got a bit forceful.

“I am Gabriel, who stands before God,” I told him. “I was sent to speak to you and to announce to you this good news. But now you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.”

He was indeed mute from then until John’s birth.

Things went much better, thank God, when I appeared to Mary six months later in the village of Nazareth in Galilee. She was betrothed to Joseph at the time. I appeared to her much as I had done to Zechariah and began my greeting, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

She, too, was troubled by my appearance, so I also told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”

Before she could speak, I continued, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High [God], and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Unlike Zechariah, Mary didn’t doubt what I said, and I know full well that she understood what I was telling her. She was well aware of the Jewish prophecies of a Savior who would be born of the house of David. She did have some questions, though, mainly how this could happen because she planned to remain a virgin.

So, as God had explained it to me, I told her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her so the child would be conceived through the power of God.

“Therefore,” I said, “the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”

I also told her about Elizabeth’s pregnancy despite her old age, and couldn’t resist adding, “For nothing is impossible for God.”

Mary believed me immediately and just as quickly replied, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

She had always considered herself God’s servant and, if this was what God wanted of her, she was eager to obey.

The evangelist Luke reported all this in the Gospel he wrote. But the evangelist Matthew also wrote about the involvement of an angel in the birth of God the Son as a human.

This time the angel appeared in dreams to Joseph three times. Matthew didn’t give the name of the angel, but I think you can figure that out for yourself.

The first time happened after Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant and knew that he was not the father. He was trying to decide what to do about it when the angel appeared in a dream to let him know that Mary had not had sexual relations with another man, but that the child had been conceived through the Holy Spirit.

The second time was when King Herod was about to send soldiers to kill all the babies in Bethlehem after he learned from the Magi that a king had been born there. The angel warned Joseph and told him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt.

Then, after Herod’s death, the angel again appeared in a dream to tell Joseph that it was safe to return.

We angels were also involved after Jesus was born in Bethlehem. This time we were sent to announce the good news to lowly shepherds. We startled them while they were tending their sheep at night, so again we had to tell them, “Do not be afraid.”

After telling them that a Savior had been born who is Messiah and Lord, we all sang, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Well, that was my involvement in the great mystery of the Incarnation. As the evangelist John wrote, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” He emphasized that the Word was God who existed from all eternity and that “all things came to be through him.” But then, without losing his divinity, he took on human nature.

Of course, the Incarnation was only the beginning of you humans’ redemption. But the Incarnation made the redemption possible. I feel privileged that God asked me to play my small role in the birth of Jesus.

(John F. Fink is editor emeritus of The Criterion.) †