Luke 1:26-38
26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 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, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God." 38 "I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
Mary – Eye Witness News 1
The Christmas Story is one that most of us know extremely well. As Christians, we have been rehearsing that event for over 2,000 years now… you could call it an old hat. It’s beautiful and slightly strange to us… we almost don’t know how to translate it our modern day understandings. So we play it out as best we can, with little boys in their father’s bathrobes playing shepherds, angels with paper wings, children dressed up as animals, Joseph, the baby in the manger… and of course Mary… Mary… sitting quietly and serenely. She has no lines… her job is to look peaceful.
That is what most of us know about Mary… Mary the quiet… Mary the adoring… Mary the peaceful. However, the events leading up to that fateful night would be anything but peaceful for Mary.
The very first time that Mary appears in the Scriptures, she is in the presence of an angel. How’s that for a grand entrance. We learn that she was already engaged. Most marriage agreements were made when the children were fairly young. In all likelihood when Gabriel spoke to her, Mary was probably only 13 or 14 years old, still living with her parents.
Imagine that, 14 years old and being told that you would become pregnant… and the father was NOT going to be your fiancé! I imagine at that moment we would not see the quiet, serene, peaceful Mary that we so often adore during Christmas pageants. As Mary listened to the angel she must have wrestled with all of the problems that she would have if she accepted God’s call. How am I going to explain this to my family? What will Joseph say? What about the townspeople? What will they think of me? Am I headed for a life of being a single parent? Mary would probably live her whole life under a cloud of suspicion from her family and neighbors.
Too often, I think we treat the Christmas Story as if it happened a LONG LONG time ago… plastic… free from blemish after years and years of being polished and perfected by small children playing out the ritual. But what IF… what if we could go back… and see Mary as she was. See her in THAT moment… sit with her on the dirty floor and watch as her face turned white and her mouth went dry. What IF… this were not some event 2,000 years ago… but BREAKING NEWS for all of us today? What if?
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We forget that… what it must have been like… to accept this call that God had placed on Mary. As the panic rose, as her fear overtook her, she was able to calm herself, and in verse 38 say, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
With this, she willingly accepted all the ridicule… all the contempt… all the loneliness that would come with this decision. It was Mary’s choice to willingly embrace what God had for her. And here is the amazing thing… she made the decision with no assurance… no assurance whatsoever… that anyone except God would ever fully understand. Not her parents… not her beloved… noone.
After this fateful moment with the angel… she would now have to face the man she loved and tell him that she was pregnant – this would be no easy thing considering their situation.
You see… marriage worked differently back then. Boys didn’t court girls in the hopes of winning their hearts… it was arranged between families. In biblical times marriage was considered a covenant between two families, not just the bridal pair, so there was much to discuss.
There wan an actual contract made up between the two families, and then the couple would be blessed with a benediction and they would drink wine together. This would bind them to one another, in a way that our modern engagements do not even come close to comparing too. Now, only divorce or death could separate the two. That is the situation that Mary and Joseph are in.
When Joseph of Nazareth makes his first appearance in the biblical story we learn that he wants a divorce. His engagement to Mary has already lasted a number of months, but now new evidence has come to light.
Mary told him that an angel had appeared to her who said that she would conceive miraculously. Her son would be the promised deliverer, the Messiah, God’s Son. She said it so calmly and confidently. But how could Joseph believe a story like that? Without saying another word he got up and left Mary. What would he do? He could marry her, he could publicly divorce her (basically the equivalent of sentencing her to death), or he could even send Mary away to have the baby in secrecy.
As he turned these options over in his mind, he finally decided he would divorce her quietly so that he could be free of the situation and Mary would still be safe. With that decision made, he fell into an exhausted sleep.
But in a dream, God opened up to Joseph an option that he had never considered.
Matthew 1:18-25
18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us." 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
You see, we tend to forget all of that. We forget the dirt and the scandal… the heartache and the pain… the fear… the rejection… the shame. We may never fully know how much it cost this young couple to bring our savior into the world. But I think we would all agree we are glad that they did. For us today… I hope we are able to remember the price paid and the trust that this couple must have had for God… and the trust they must have had with each other.
Both Mary and Joseph had to say to God, “I am your servant. Whatever it costs, wherever it takes me, I will do it.” May we follow their example… may we be willing to follow God today, no matter the cost.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
