Put yourself in Mary’s shoes for a moment. An angel tells you, a virgin, that you’re going to have a baby. You’re a young woman (probably 15 years old), engaged to a respectable man, and you live in a society where virginity is valued and expected until marriage. What would you do?
We can only imagine the turmoil that Mary, Jesus’ mother, must have felt. Unlike all the other women of Jesus’ genealogy, Mary is the only Jewish woman listed. The rest, surprisingly, were Gentiles. Like all the other women, there is some question about her sexual propriety. Tamar slept with her father-in-law Judah. Rahab was a prostitute. Ruth visited Boaz in the night and laid at his feet. Bathsheba had an affair with King David. Mary became pregnant outside of wedlock.
Sexual impropriety, especially for women, in ancient Palestine was no casual matter. At the very least, it was grounds to break off the marriage along with public humiliation, and it was a crime that could be punishable by death.
Matthew gives us a little insight about Joseph’s struggle with Mary’s pregnancy, revealing that he planned to quietly annul the engagement without disgracing her or calling for her execution. But he recants after being visited by an angel who reveals God’s plan to her.
Still, we are not told how Mary handled this with her parents or with her community. Imagine the struggle she felt. Did she try to explain what happened, or would that just be laughable? Did she feel like she had to defend herself or apologize for the rest of her life? Was Jesus ever discounted because some in his community considered him the son of a harlot?
When Gabriel visited Mary and told her that she had found favor with God, and explained how everything was to happen, her reply was simply, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” Who knew that such favor with God or such faithful obedience was going to cost Mary so much? Her statement was a tremendous act of self-denial.
In his book, “The Cost of Discipleship,” Deitrich Bonhoeffer writes, “To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self denial can say is: ‘He leads the way, keep close to him.’”
But within the story of Mary is the story of God’s faithfulness. He intervened so that Joseph didn’t break off the relationship, and He protected Mary so that she was not expelled from or executed by her community. Instead of a life scorned with shame like we may think of a woman such as Bathsheba, Mary is the most celebrated woman in all of history. God pulled through. The angel Gabriel said it best when he told her, “No word from God will ever fail.”
Mary’s life emulates Jesus’ in so many ways. Jesus submitted to the Father’s plan just as His mother Mary did. “Thy will be done,” led him to suffering and execution, but God pulled through. Instead of ending in death, Jesus rose to new life. Just as we remember and celebrate Mary, Paul tells us that Jesus’ humility will bring everyone in heaven and earth and under the earth to one day bow and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
This is a promise that pertains to us. When we obey God, even though we may indeed encounter difficulties, the glory is much greater than the trial. We will test the faithfulness of God, and He will, as He always does, prove faithful. God’s promise to us in Isaiah 61 is that we will be oaks of righteousness, planted by the Lord, for the display of His splendor. We can now begin to understand why Mary insisted to the men at the wedding at Cana to listen to Jesus and do exactly as He says. Keeping close to Jesus, like Deitrich Bonhoeffer said, is where we find the beauty and joy of the new wine of life.