Alexander the Great, couldn’t sleep one night, and he left his tent to walk around the campgrounds. As he was walking he came across a soldier asleep on guard duty. The soldier began to wake up as Alexander the Great approached him. Recognizing who was standing in front of him, the young man feared for his life.
"Do you know what the penalty is for falling asleep on guard duty?"
Alexander the Great asked the soldier. "Yes, sir," "Soldier, what’s your name?" demanded Alexander the Great. "Alexander, sir." Alexander the Great repeated the question: "What is your name?" "My name is Alexander, sir," the soldier repeated. A third time and more loudly Alexander the Great asked, "What is your name?" A third time the soldier meekly said, "My name is Alexander, sir." Alexander the Great then looked the young soldier straight in the eye. "Soldier, either change your name or change your conduct."
A name can be a powerful thing, in a way, it can define terms of intimacy,when I was in Seminary, professors generally would call students by their last name -Mr. this, Mrs. that -East Coast formality.
But they would always call me by my first name – Peter. I figure it was because my last name was hard to pronounce. (spelled, Loughman – pronounced, lockman) So, I started calling my professors by their first name too. Instead of Dr. Willis, David, instead of Dr. Osmer, Rick. To my surprise, though most professors would not let students call them by their first name they accepted me calling them by their first name,
go figure…
Names are powerful, if you had a very bad experience with someone named Scott. Perhaps a kid that bullied you or a nasty coworker. If you had a very bad experience with someone named Scott, chances are, you wouldn’t name your first born son – Scott.
On the other hand, names can bring good memories too. In 2005 the top ten most popular names for girls were; Emily, Emma, Madison, Olivia, Isabella, Hannah, Samantha, Ava, and Ashley. Do you know the girls name that has been in the top 100 the longest? Mary.
I wonder why?
In our first Scripture, which was read during our Advent Candle lighting, the Angel Gabriel appears before Mary and says, in verse 10,
“Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.This is a very familiar passage, we hear it every year, but what does the angel really mean when he says don’t be afraid? I have always taken it to mean:
Mary don’t be afraid at this very moment; Mary don’t be afraid now, while I am giving you this message; Mary don’t be afraid for I as an Angel of the Lord won’t hurt you. I think the angel Gabriel does mean, don’t be afraid at this very moment and I think the angel Gabriel also means Mary, don’t be afraid later- When you face the possibility of divorce; When you face the shame you will bring on your family; When you face your friends and neighbors as they reject you; When you see your son make the Authorities raging mad; When you see your oldest son die a horrible death, right before your eyes.
You know, before the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, she was heading in a different direction altogether. She was in the middle creating her life. She was hoping her dreams would come true. She was making wedding plans with her fiancé Joseph. Pretty much busy trying to plan her life thinking that she was like everyone else. And then, everything changed, didn’t it?
Have you had that happen in your life? Its an ordinary day, and you’re hit with startling news. Life is completely different. We’re moving again
Or, that thing you have been hoping for, for so long, it is going to happen.
It doesn’t have to be bad news for fear to take a hold of us. Good news, sometimes can be almost as frightening.
So, is Mary frightened? Of course. Why else would the angel say be not afraid, if she wasn’t already afraid. A 15 year girl is visited by an angelic being, who tells her life as you thought is was, is now gone – forever. Everything she hoped for is up in the air. You bet she’s afraid.
Fear does terrible things to us and when fear takes a hold of you, even when you are highly favored by God it is hard to contain….We can look at this passage and say, "Well, that’s Mary, the mother of Jesus – she knew God would be with her!" No. Mary didn’t know that God would be with her. Mary had no idea of the magnitude of what was going to happen in her life. It is estimated that she is a 15 year old kid, what did Mary know.
Mary knew that an angel appeared before her. She knew that this was real, no hallucination. She knew that she would remain a virgin, and become pregnant. She knew the child would be a little boy, and be called the son of the most high. He would be great. His kingdom would never end. She also knew her relative Elizabeth, who was barren, was with child. Finally, she knew that nothing was impossible with God.
Now that’s quite a bit, and at the same time its not much.Did Mary understand the Jesus would have to be crucified, die and rise again?Certainly not. The Gospels are clear, only after the resurrection did people have a clear understanding of Jesus mission.Not the disciples, not the religious leaders, not the everyday folks, not Jesus family, and not Mary. All these people had assumptions about Jesus, and they were all wrong.
So, though Mary has been promised by this very real angel, that nothing is impossible with God. She has absolutely no idea how this will all work out.
This good news was going to cause a lot of fear in her life
Fear, what does it do to us? It bends and it bruises us, it tries to control us – it tries to blind us to the spiritual reality around us.
Do things start off well for Mary? She’s pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and who is going to believe her? Not even the man she trusted most, Joseph, he didn’t believe her.
Can you imagine when she hears that Joseph might divorce her? Do you think she just waved it off and said, "Whatever, God will take care of it". No she probably doesn’t sleep a wink. wondering, what else can go wrong. She had to have some level of fear, and yet God stood by her. Mary was as real as you and I, and Mary though she was a great woman of faith, Mary was very human and did not know the future, or how things were going to work out.
When God tells us through the angel Gabriel that nothing is impossible with God. He is not saying, not saying you will have health, wealth and happiness. Remember last week we saw through the life of John the Baptist, that Jesus is the real thing, in spite of Irrelevant of what bad, unexpected, unfair and miserable things, that happen in our lives? And in the same way when we hear that nothing is impossible with God, we shouldn’t hear that bad, rotten, lousy, things will not happen in our lives. We should know that they will. We should know that especially as Christians, they will. But we should also know – that when the tough times do come – as they will, that nothing is impossible with God. Nothing.
So you know that Mary had to be afraid, for she did not know what would happen next and bad things, very bad things happened in her life. So when she came up against something he feared – the threat of divorce- the threat of the death of the baby Jesus - the death of her husband, she had to say to herself, "I don’t want to be afraid, I don’t want to run away. I don’t want to be afraid, I don’t want to run away. I am going to trust that God can do the impossible.
I have had people in the past give me grief about talking about miracles - Of people being healed – who had no chance at all -Of people being saved from disaster – again who had no chance at all
Of impossible things coming true. They have insinuated, clearly, that I’m naive, that the real world doesn’t work that way, that someday – I’ll grow up. OK….but here we see, nothing is impossible with God and what does that mean? It means what it says.
You know we tend to believe that if we were alive when Jesus was walking the earth, we would be different. We would get it. We would believe Jesus, every word, but we would be just like everyone else in Jesus day – suspicious of Jesus.
Matt. 13:54 Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. 55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him.
That’s not how the real world works!
Even Jesus’ brothers and sisters did not believe him. We just saw in the last Scripture the names of his brothers, James, Joses, Simon and Judas. Jesus had at least two sisters also.
We read in the Gospel of John:
John 7:2 But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
And even more…
Mark 3:21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
His family thought he was out of his mind! His family, insinuates brother’s sister …..and mother Mary.
My question is, in each of these instances: what were they afraid of?This is a different kind of fear than what we were talking about earlier, with Mary having certain fears about her personal safety or worries about how life would turn out with her future husband. These are fears about faith. What would it have been like for Mary and Jesus’s brothers and sisters for those 30 years before he went into his ministry? It had to be tough.The difficult circumstances of Jesus birth. Having to flee to Egypt to escape crazy Herod and yet, God saw them through.
We have to assume that Joseph had died at some point before Jesus’ ministry, for he is not mentioned after the birth narrative. If so, that leaves Jesus, the first son, to be head of the household. He would be expected to care for the household.
Today we might expect a young man to go off on his own, but not in Jesus day. It would have been unheard of for a man to leave his family,
his business, his home and travel about leaving everything behind. This would certainly confuse Mary and the family.
We see Mary herself following after Jesus on occasions: At the wedding at Cana, and here in our second Scripture.
Look at matt 12:47
Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside,
wanting to speak to you.”
Jesus teaching in the Synagogue, not a place where one just interrupts,
“Your mother (that’s Mary) and brothers want to see you”. Why couldn’t they wait until he was finished speaking? Because he was embarrassing them, they wanted him to stop. They…didn’t….believe….him.
Jesus’ family’s greatest fears have come to pass. He wasn’t what they thought he would be. Sounds a lot like John the Baptists from last week, doesn’t it? Scripture doesn’t say what they expected, but it is clear that he is not acting as they thought he should and so they don’t want to be afraid, but they are.
Mary? How could this happen? Isn’t she this woman of great faith?Didn’t she live with Jesus for 30 years – 30 years? How could she not believe? How could the family not believe?
I think they let their fears get a hold of them, like John the Baptist. They thought Jesus would be like this – not like this. Well, simply put Mary, though chosen by God, though in the favor of God, and though she has seen faithful things in her life, is human – and like the rest of her family – she doubts.
But remember what the Angel of the Lord said, Nothing, nothing is impossible with God.
After the death and resurrection of Jesus’ his family does believe. Mary and her family were human too. We like them, have the promises of God. And like them, we don’t know what is around the corner, good news or bad news, and so, we naturally, have a level of fear. And that’s ok, because nothing is impossible with God.
(Special thanks to Jeremy Houck, for a great ideas and a place to start on this topic of Mary)
