The first person we want to interrogate is Gabriel, the angel of God. He appears at least twice in the Christmas story, once to announce the birth of John the Baptist to John’s father, the aged Zechariah, and once to announce the birth of Jesus to Mary. It is this second announcement that bears on our question, for having appeared to Mary and having greeted her as one “highly favored” of the Lord, Gabriel went on to say, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:30-33).
Each of these pronouncements must have struck the young virgin as remarkable. It was remarkable that her son would be great, she being of humble origins. It was remarkable that He would reign on the throne of David forever. Everyone knew that God had promised David that he would have an heir to reign on his throne forever; but this had not yet happened, and it was actually the case that in Mary’s day the house of David had been cast down and foreigners ruled the land. If Gabriel were right in telling Mary that her son would reign on David’s throne, this would mean that the long waiting of the Jewish people was now over and that their Messiah had come. Mary’s future child was that Messiah. All this was remarkable. But these were not the most remarkable parts of Gabriel’s greeting. The most astonishing thing was that the child was to be “the Son of the Most High.”
Were it not for the context a person might be inclined to take this phrase in a minimal sense, that is, as speaking of one merely chosen by God to fulfill a special task. It was used of Israel in just this way (Jer. 31:20; Ps. 82:6). It was used of the kings (2 Sam. 7:14). This will not do in the present case, however, for the context has to do with the conception of Mary’s child without a human father. His father would be God Himself, for He would be “the Son of the Most High.” The child was to be God’s offspring in a way no other person either before or since has been. Nor is this all we can say. If we had only the context of Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary, the promise would be remarkable enough. But this is not our only context. We also have the whole of the New Testament in which this title is picked up and explained.