Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 1:38

"And Mary said, Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her." — Luke 1:38 (ASV)

Behold the handmaid of the Lord . . .—The words seem to show a kind of half-consciousness that the lot which she so accepts might bring with it unknown sufferings, as well as untold blessedness. She shrinks, as it were, from the awfulness of the position so assigned to her, but she can say, as her Son said afterwards, when His time of agony had come, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” It may be that the more immediate peril of which Matthew speaks (Matthew 1:19) flashed even then upon her soul as one that could not be escaped .