now that we've discussed joseph, it's time to get to the other member of the "holy couple". throughout Scripture, few women are revered and loved to the extent that mary, the mother of CHRIST, was and is. there are churches named for her, she is worshipped in some sects of CHRISTianity, and songs have been written about her. she is considered the model of piety for women, and yet, very few truly understand this remarkable young woman.
as i have stated in many of my previous posts, i believe that the romanticism of CHRISTmas has greatly diminished our understanding of the reality of the birth narratives of CHRIST that we celebrate each year on december 25th. in my last post, i burst the bubble of misconception surround joseph, and i intend to pull back the curtain and show you the mary behind the curtain of romanticism that she is hidden by today. when you go into churches, regardless of the denomination, any statues or pictures of mary usually portray her as a woman in her late 20's to early 30's, dressed in beautiful, long flowing robes. when we see her in the nativity scenes, she is a beautiful, fair-skinned young woman, looking as if she just got back from the beautician, her make-up flawless, and her kneeling by the manger looking peacefully at her Son lying there, and sometimes having a glowing aura around her head. so go ahead, take our your metaphorical mental eraser, and wipe that picture from your minds whilst i grab my metaphorical mental paint brushes and prepare to paint you a new picture of mary. ready?
for starters, i want to correct any misconceptions that we have of mary's age. mary, was not a woman in her 20's, or even late teens. she was more than likely in her early teens when she found out that she was pregnant with Jesus. how do we know this? in biblical times, betrothal usually took place when a woman reached her 13th birthday. even today, in the middle east, girls are still betrothed as young as 8 or 9 years old. the betrothal period lasted for one year, and during that time, the bride to be lived in the house with her parents while her groom spent time preparing for their marriage by securing a house, furniture, and beginning work in his occupation to establish a business capable of supporting a family. the couple was considered married, and a divorce had to be granted in order to break a betrothal, which was only allowed in the case of adultery. during the betrothal, the couple would spend time together in the house of the husband's family, to allow for the bride to get to know her in-laws, because once the marriage was complete, she would be a part of that family, no longer belonging to her old family. the marriage was not complete until it was consummated, which took place after the marriage ceremony, which was when the groom finished establishing a home and gathered the wedding party and traveled in processional to claim his bride and take her into his tent to consummate the marriage and make it complete (with everyone outside waiting anxiously for him to come out with the tell-tale proof of his bride's virginity! talk about pressure!). so we know that mary would have been living with joseph's family during their betrothal, when she found out she was pregnant. this means that she was a very young girl when the angel first came to her and told her that she had found favor with God and was to be pregnant. when mary asked, very innocently, how that was possible, considering that she had not known a man (that is Bible speak for not having been sexually intimate with a man), the angel basically told her that God would make it happen, to not worry about it. so while mary was young, in those days, she would have known enough about basic biology to know how things worked. young people in those days were expected to much more mature at a younger age than young people are today.
the second picture i would like to correct is how refreshed and well-kept mary looks in the nativity scenes. keep in mind that she had just finished a three to four day journey either on foot, or on the back of some animal such as a donkey or a camel, across mountains and desert, being in her third trimester of pregnancy. we like to think that she was probably in her ninth month, but it is possible that she was earlier along and the stress of the trip on her body caused her to go into labor prematurely. as stated before, in those days there were no hospitals or neonatal care units to take care of newborns. she was having to rely on an inexperienced, young, scared husband to help her through a very difficult delivery process. she had just witnessed this process a few months back with her cousin elizabeth as elizabeth gave birth to john the baptist, so she knew a little about what to expect. so now, she is having to coach her husband through assisting her with delivering the Baby, with the added stress of the baby possibly coming earlier than expected and having to give birth in such squalid conditions. we know that mary appeared to be a strong young woman, despite her age, but this was physically, emotionally, and mentally taxing for her. so after this ordeal, she was anything but the picture of beauty and energy that we see in the nativity scenes. for anyone that has ever seen pictures of mothers in the hours after they gave birth, you know that one, most women are appalled for people to even see the pictures of them looking their worst, and two, the women are definitely not ready to be entered in the miss usa pageant! so if you want an accurate picture of mary at the nativity, picture a young, middle eastern woman, hair frazzled, face dirty from sweat and the dust of traveling, facial features sunken in from dehydration, exhaustion, and sleep deprivation. add to that the frustration of having to sleep on the hard, cold ground, navigating the difficulties of the first few times at breastfeeding, and a group of social outcasts being the only ones to welcome her newborn Child into the world, and you have the makings of a very irritable woman that you probably would not want to spend much time around! the only buffer for her would have been the joy of having a newborn Baby, which any mother will tell you is a joy like no other!
imagine what must have been going through mary's head. here she was, a young woman, having to endure the whispers and the shuns of those around her for something that only she understood and only God had control over. now, for all of her faithfulness, she was rewarded by not having a decent place to have the Child that she had put up with so much for, and the welcoming party was not royalty or even the religious leaders, but rather a scraggly group of homeless shepherds. she had a very uncertain future ahead, but would have been convinced that it was not going to be an easy future.
today, as we look around us, there are those that are like mary. they have found favor with God and have been chosen to be used by God to accomplish His will. they are the lottie moons, the corrie ten booms, the mother theresas of our generation. there are those that God is using despite their age. there are those that are suffering tremendous heartache and ridicule for their commitment to God's call on their life.
this CHRISTmas, are you a mary? has God called you to do something that you know is going to be hard, you know is going to be rife with heartache and suffering? when you wonder how you could possibly endure such hardship if you answer God's call, take a look at mary. very few have had to risk more than she. she knew what it could possibly mean for her when people found out about her pregnancy. in her society, it meant that she would have been ushered by crowd into a corner, and large stones weighing anywhere from 5 to 15 pounds would have been thrown on top of her until she was dead. when you try and rationalize and say, "well, she was chosen by God, so God was looking out for her," you have to remember that if God is calling you to do anything, He is going to give you the strength to accomplish it. mary was human, and was no different than anyone else. we see her flaws later in a few instances in Jesus' life, all earning His rebuke: when she was upset about Him being at the temple at 12, and when she tried with His brothers to pull Him out of a house because of doubt. we do know that in place of her difficulties, she had the greatest gift perhaps any person in the world has ever been blessed with: she was able to spend more one on one physical time with the Creator of the universe. while you may not get that level of blessing, rest assured that if you are following God's calling, you will experience a greater happiness and peace than any this world can ever offer. in every case, the blessings outweigh the hardships.
or perhaps you are young, as i know many that read these posts are. remember that mary was a young woman herself when she was asked to take on an extraordinary calling. remember that paul told timothy to not let anyone look down on him simply because he was young, and the same goes for the young people today. having spent time as a youth pastor, i can honestly say that i have seen more spiritual maturity in some of my middle schoolers than in most adults i have met in the church. when you are young, you have more freedom to serve God than you will when you become an adult and have the pressures of life demanding your time and attention. remember, mary could have politely declined the angel's offer, but she didn't. she actually responded by saying she was God's doulos, meaning His bondservant. a bondservant was a freed slave that willingly bound themselves to a master as a voluntary servant, which is what God asks of us. we should have the same attitude as mary. when God calls us, we, like mary, should respond with a whole-hearted "yes!" because of mary's obedience, she is one of the most remembered women in history, coming in a close second behind eve. who knows, God may have a tremendous blessing waiting for you, if you will just become His doulos!
And so we pull
11 years ago
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