Annunciation - What child is this?

By Edward Sri
“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.” — Luke 1:31-33
Now the angel Gabriel gets to the heart of his message and the nature of Mary’s mission: Mary will bear a son who will bring Israel’s history to its climax. She will be the mother of Israel’s long-awaited Messiah-King.
Each of these lines is highly charged with Davidic kingdom themes—we can see numerous parallels between the words God spoke to David (see 2 Samuel 7:9, 12-14, 16) and the words Gabriel speaks to Mary. For example, Mary’s child is called “son of the Most High,” recalling how David’s sons were described as having a unique filial-like relationship with God (see 2 Samuel 7:14; Psalm 2:7; 89:26-27). Similarly, God’s giving Mary’s child “the throne of his father David” brings to mind how David’s heir was to receive “the throne of his kingdom for ever” (2 Samuel 7:13).
Futhermore, the description of Jesus’ never-ending kingdom—“He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end”—reminds us of the everlasting dynasty God originally promised to David’s family (see 2 Samuel 7:13, 16; Psalm 89:36-37).
These themes—the throne of David, greatness, sonship, an everlasting kingdom—make the angel’s message to Mary quite clear: Mary will have the long-awaited royal Son who will fulfill the dynastic promises God made to David.
For hundreds of years the Jews have been longing for God to rebuild the kingdom that Babylon destroyed. Their prophets have foretold that one day God would send a new Davidic heir who would comfort the people in their oppression and free them from their enemies. This new Davidic king not only would restore the great dynasty to its former glory but also would bring Israel’s history and the history of the world to its ultimate destination: the reunion of the human family into covenant with God. The Jews called this long-awaited son of David “the anointed one”—or in Hebrew, Messiah.
Mary’s mission is to be the mother of this particular King, the Messiah. In her womb she is to carry the summation of all of Israel’s expectations and the culmination of God’s plan of salvation. Indeed, “the hopes and fears of all the years” find their answer in Mary’s child.
It is important to note that up to this point of the angel’s announcement, there has been no explicit mention of the child’s divine origins. All the language so far about the everlasting kingdom and Jesus’ being the Son of God is taken from terms that the Old Testament commonly used to describe the Davidic king.
Also, there has been no explicit mention yet of a miraculous virgin birth. Presumably, if Mary were like most first-century betrothed women, she would anticipate conceiving of this child through the natural means of marital relations after her betrothal period ended and after she moved in with her husband.
However, Mary surprisingly asks, “How shall this be, since I have no husband?” Only now does Gabriel underscore the extraordinary type of motherhood to which Mary is being called: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”
How will Mary, who is betrothed and still a virgin, bear a child? By the spirit and power of God, Gabriel says. Here we have the first clear indication of the virginal conception of the Messiah.
Furthermore, we see that Jesus’ filial relationship with God far surpasses that of any king in David’s dynasty. Jesus will be called Son of God not simply because of his role as Davidic heir and Messiah but because of his unique divine origin. Gabriel tells Mary that she will conceive through God’s extraordinary intervention of sending the Holy Spirit upon her, and this is the reason for calling him God’s Son.
Early Christians saw Mary’s conceiving Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit as an important sign of Christ’s humanity and divinity. On one hand, it points to his divine nature by highlighting his unique divine origin. By the power of God’s Spirit, Mary really becomes the mother of her God.
On the other hand, the Church fathers also saw the virginal conception as a sign that the divine Son of God really became human, taking the flesh of his mother Mary. Within the first century of Christianity, St. Ignatius of Antioch, for example, emphasized that the Son of God really entered into the human family and really took on human flesh that he received in the virgin’s womb. God did not just appear as a man, but he truly became one of us in Jesus, experiencing birth, life, suffering and even death.