In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 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 forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:26-33 ESV)
When I found the picture for this article it struck me as being a whole lot closer to what this story is describing than most of the pictures of Mary and the Angel that you will find. Googling angels or Mary gives you a whole lot of very unusual images, many of which have little to do with a young girl in Galilee two thousand years ago. Two thousand years of traditions and creative storytelling have created some unusual images in many peoples minds regarding this scene.
So this week I want to look at the core characters in this very familiar story. To see if there are things we may have overlooked in this story.
Mary
The story begins with a godly young girl who is betrothed to a man from the house of David. She was likely very young by today’s standards. Almost certainly a teenager and Joseph was likely a fair bit older than she was, a man her family felt was capable of caring for a wife and a family. In this time(the bulk of history globally) marriages were arranged by parents and families to insure their daughters were well cared for and the family name continued with honor to the next generation. Romance novel styled love rarely entered into the equation. That is not to say husbands and wives did not love each other, even romantically, but marriages for the most part were not based on the fickle attraction of physical desire. The family was more important than the individual as a general rule in this culture.
This is hard for modern western people to understand but it is vital in understanding the importance that virginity and male children had in ancient culture. To shame the family or to fail to carry on the family name was catastrophic in Mary and Joseph’s world, both for the individual and the family.
With that thumbnail sketch of their world we can now get a better feel for the weight of this event.
Mary was informed that she was both known and favored by God. This was a lot to take in for a teenager, or anyone for that matter. She was also told that she would have a child, but not just any child, this child would have all the attributes we discussed last week in the prophecy of Isaiah.
* He will be called Jesus (which means “God has saved or God is savior”)
* He will reign on David’s throne forever
* He will be called the Son of the Most High
* His Kingdom will have no end
But there is one small problem…
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
She may have been young, but she was very aware of how things worked, and she knew that what the angel was telling her was clearly impossible.
“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.
As we discussed last week in the prophecy of Isaiah this was going to be no ordinary child. He was not going to be simply a “great” child. This child was to be “the Son of God” in a completely unique sense of that term.
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
This was no trivial commitment, how do you tell your betrothed husband and family that God made you pregnant? This is why Mary is revered to this day, she was not being compelled to do this, as some would suggest, she was giving her consent to this calling and her unblinking trust in God is rare, to say the very least. She put all the normal questions and worries aside and placed her reputation, her future husbands reputation, her families reputation, and her entire future well-being unreservedly into God’s hands.
Joseph
“When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus”. (Matthew 1:18-25 ESV)
This story of Joseph is told in Mathew. The situation looked very different from his point of view. Imagine being told by your future wife that she is pregnant. Needless to say, Joseph’s mind certainly did not run immediately to “it’s a miracle!!!”. And yet, it did not immediately run to jealousy, indignation, and rage either. Even before Joseph receives the explanation from God he looks for a kinder and more honorable solution to this problem. I think Joseph’s character is often overlooked in this story, he was a remarkable man to respond the way he did.
When God did give him an explanation, he like Mary, put aside the personal, social, and family ramifications of this news. Joseph also entrusted all of that to the care of his loving almighty God. He knew to the point of committed action that God’s will is the highest good, regardless of what people think. To Joseph a life lived for selfish gain was no life at all and disobedience to God was sin, so for Joseph the path forward was clear. It was the path God had chosen for him as well as Mary.
Walking like Mary and Joseph
What do we do today in order to live more like Mary and Joseph as we anticipate the coming of Jesus? In our well-healed modern world we tend to think of God as one of our many resources. Now, when I say it like that I think many people would object, but I know in my heart, whether I say it out loud or not, that I far too often tend to live as though God is just one of many resources that I have. I guess you will have to judge your own heart to see if you are afflicted with my weakness or not.
But some of you might say, what is wrong with that? We do have other resources to draw from. My point here is not to condemn anyone for having an abundance of resources. It is to contrast the ancient worldview with the modern one. They were not materialists(thinking that nothing beyond matter and energy exist). They were not Humanists(thinking that humanity is the final authority and the only source of help and wisdom). The ancient world considered atheism a form of delusional thinking(unlike the tendency to think belief is delusion today). The ancient world was very aware of how fragile and fleeting life was, and they knew God was the source and the sustainer of life.
Now I realize that there was no lack of disobedience and sin in the ancient world. My point is that they had a different default mindset than people in the modern world especially in the “enlightened” west. To Mary and Joseph angelic visitations even in dreams were not to be taken lightly, as the product of stress or too much pizza. This was God speaking and although accepting such a calling might mean hardships for the rest of their lives, God was the source of their lives, and because they were faithful, they also knew that God is good and therefore can be trusted completely.
The question for today
The question we need to ask ourselves is, on what am I basing my decisions? Am I basing my decisions on what I think is most likely to produce my desired outcomes? Or am I basing my decisions on what God is asking me to do today regardless of the outcome. This question is not easy, no matter who you are, it was not easy for Mary or Joseph, it is not easy for me, and no doubt it is not easy for you.
One of the difficulties we have in putting obedience ahead of immediate benefit stems from how we judge outcomes. Are we looking only for short term personal gain or are we looking toward eternal joy in the presence of God. On an average Wednesday this is not an easy question, the short term is always much, much louder and more urgent than the dream you had last night or the words of a stranger that you think might have been an angel(or other messenger) from God. On a Wednesday you have to tell your parents that God made you pregnant by a miracle. On a Wednesday you have to trust a dream while you explain to your family that your future wife is pregnant via a miracle from God, because an angel told you - in a dream.
In real life choosing God’s way is not always easy but here we can be encouraged because the choices we face today are very likely not as hard as the choices Mary and Joseph had to make. And God really is God, and He really is good, and He loves us, so our highest good can only be found in Him. Our self-serving ideas have no eternal weight.
I hope this encourages you to face the world as we find it today with faith and courage. Faith that the God who saved the world in this unlikely way is still the same God that is at work in our lives today. And faith that Jesus our king will return to be enthroned and glorified on earth completing the kingdom He established two thousand years ago.
Have a great Christmas Season!
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