Introduction
Every year, the church prayerfully participates in the 10 days following Jesus’ ascension. During that time, the disciples awaited the promised gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Now, we learn to wait with them, longing for the Spirit’s renewing work and tracing a pattern in Scripture: God ascends to reign and fills people with the Holy Spirit so they can rule with him.
This pattern began in Genesis: God fills humans with the Spirit of God, then ascends to his royal rest. Then dark spiritual forces distort this pattern, establishing a counterfeit kingdom. But the story doesn’t end there. Jesus ascends to his throne above every power, and he promises to fill his people with the Holy Spirit.
Now, Acts lingers in the space between that promise and its fulfillment, teaching the church the shape of faithful waiting. We focus today on the woman named alongside the waiting disciples: Mary, the mother of Jesus. She embodies how to wait for the Holy Spirit, because her waiting led to the embodiment of God himself—the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Mary and the Son of God
Before Jesus chose any of the Twelve to be his apostles, he chose Mary to be his mother. Mary gave her whole life to God, and her first act of obedience involved waiting—waiting to be filled with the Holy Spirit and bring Jesus into the world.
When we first meet Mary, she conceives the Son of God by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18). And here, the last time she is mentioned in Scripture, she is waiting once more. Luke goes into more detail about her first miraculous filling. Mary encounters an angel, a son of God, who announces that she will become pregnant by divine means. Naturally, Mary is troubled and wonders what the angel's words could mean (Luke 1:28-29). But this angel, Gabriel, is not a rebellious son of God, like those who attacked women in order to father superhuman tyrants. He is a faithful servant of God, sent to proclaim the unique way God will inhabit this human woman. Mary, a virgin, will be filled with the Holy Spirit and conceive in her womb the true Son of God, God himself, Jesus (Luke 1:35-37). Gabriel also tells Mary that her son will ascend the throne of David and rule Israel forever (Luke 1:30-33).
In response, Mary humbly yields herself to God, submitting to God’s mysterious ways (Luke 1:38). Her faithfulness brings about the filling of her womb by the Holy Spirit. Her waiting brings Jesus, the true Son of God, into the world to undo the rebellion of humans and angels. And now, with her Son having ascended to his throne in heaven, she waits to be filled with the Holy Spirit once again.
A New Filling
Mary waits with the disciples for God to fill his Temple—the people of God’s Kingdom. Through a miracle of the Holy Spirit, Mary gave the Son of God a body on earth. Soon, through another miracle of the Spirit, the church will become the Son of God’s embodied presence in the world, empowered by God to do the same works Jesus did, to share in his enthronement above all rebellious powers, and to bring his Kingdom to earth.
Guided Prayer
We pray now with Mary the way Jesus, the ascended Son of God, taught his disciples:
Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven those indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
Amen.