MARY: THE QUANDARY

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call Him Jesus. 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, and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on 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. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

Luke 1:31-37

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Prophesies of old had predicted it some 700 years earlier.

God would send a sign to His people, a virgin who would give birth to a son who would bring light to a people living in darkness, a child who would be a Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and the Savior for all mankind.

As we saw in yesterday’s devotion, the virgin God had set aside to fulfill His promises was a young woman named Mary who received word of it from the angel Gabriel who shared with her that she was highly favored because the Lord was with her. She would conceive and give birth to a son who would be great and called Son of the Most High. Her son who she would name Jesus would be given the throne of David where He would reign over the people of God forever for His kingdom would never end.

It was quite a proposition, one that Mary had trouble grasping. For there was just one problem with what Gabriel shared: Mary was still a virgin and she was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph. This meant that she and Joseph were forbidden by law to have any sexual relations before their marriage became official.

Was God going to give them authorization to violate the law in order to fulfill His wishes?

Not exactly. Because the conception that God had in mind was not by any conventional means as revealed in this explanation given to Mary:

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on 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.”

I can’t imagine how difficult this must have been for Mary to understand. For the angel was telling her that she would indeed become pregnant but not by any man but rather supernaturally by way of the Holy Spirit. If this child was to be holy and God’s Son, then the impregnation would have to come by divine means. Gabriel knew it all sounded impossible to Mary and so he shared that another miracle pregnancy would happen, this one involving her relative Elizabeth who was old in age. Her conception would be almost as improbable as Mary’s but as the angel reminded Mary, no word of God would ever fail. He always keeps His promises.  

And so the quandary was created for Mary. If she accepted God’s proposition, she would become pregnant outside of her engagement with Joseph. She wouldn’t be able to hide it and people would certainly start to wonder about what had happened with the consideration that Mary had become pregnant by way of the Lord being nowhere in mind. Those who tried to figure it out would believe one of two things, neither of which would have positive outcomes because they were direct violations of the Jewish laws on marriage.

Either Mary had lain with another man outside of Joseph and became pregnant as a result of the tryst or Mary and Joseph decided to have sexual relations before their marriage became official. The penalties for such sinful behavior were harsh with the death penalty a real possibility. Even if Mary was not killed, she could be given a certificate of divorce and banished from the community, cast away with her child still growing inside her.

So what would Mary do? Would she agree to go ahead with God’s plan and accept the scrutiny and public scorn it would bring? Or would she opt out and seek to continue her engagement to Joseph free from any complications?

We’ll find the answer in tomorrow’s devotion.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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