We are going to close out the year by looking at 25 posts on Mary and Joseph for Advent. Part 1 - Gabriel Visits Mary.
Luke 1:26-38 (NLT)
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36 What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. 37 For the word of God will never fail.”
38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
Dear God,
It is one thing to be Joseph and Jesus’s “stepfather,” if you will. It is another thing to be his actual mother. For Jesus to be flesh of her flesh. What an amazing thing for her, in a physiological and psychological sense. This child was part of her and was partly her. Her DNA was in there along with yours. It adds a whole layer to what Joseph experienced. I am sure it meant just that much more to her than to him, although I know it meant a lot to him too.
I think it is interesting that Mary gets a little more latitude from the angel than Zechariah did. Zechariah asked in Luke 1:18, “How can I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” Mary asks in Luke 1:36, “How can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?” Those questions do not appear that different to me, given each circumstance. But where Gabriel is a little harsh with Zechariah, he is gentle with Mary. I have a feeling that each actually got what they needed to prepare them for their journey. Zechariah probably needed those months (almost a year?) in silence to contemplate, study, and prepare himself to raise John the Baptist. Mary, on the other hand, needed the encouragement of Elizabeth. She needed to be able to communicate freely with Joseph. And she was just a young woman, whereas Zechariah was older. Mary deserved a little more guidance.
With all of that said, that is not what hit me when I first read this passage this morning. What hit me is the idea that none of us know what we are getting into when we become parents. We can think we are ready, but we are not. We can think we do have or do not have enough money, but we are wrong. We can think we know what we are doing, but we have no idea. Even for the second or third child, we are not as prepared as we would like to be.
In her case, Mary had no idea what she was saying yes to. If she had, would she have done it? Would she have signed up for giving birth in a difficult environment, abruptly moving to Egypt, moving back to Nazareth, losing Jesus when he was 12, watching a ministry from him that would lead to his Crucifixion, and then going through the Resurrection and the Ascension? She lost her son at 33. Yes, he rose again, but he was still gone 40 days later. I am sure this was not how she planned it out as she visited with Elizabeth or traveled to Bethlehem with Joseph.
Father, I still do not know what being the father of my children really means, and they are in their 20s now. I do not know what they need from me today, and I have no clue what they will need tomorrow. I do not even know how much longer they will have me on this earth, nor do I know how much longer I will have them. But I know that in this moment, right now, I need to simply be your servant. I need to be your worshiper. I need you to flow through me and touch the world through me. And I need to simply rest in the knowledge that you know what my children need more than I do, and you will be responsible for giving it to them. Much like Mary did not understand what was happening with Jesus’s life most of the time, I have no idea either. Help me to use that ignorance to my advantage and build my faith in and worship of you.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
