Mary’s Story

Luke uniquely tells us the story of the mother, whereas Matthew’s account has the father as the central character - history was told always from the male perspective! We read of a girl named Miriam (or Mary in translations), who had come of age to marry, she would be around the age of 12 - 14 yrs old. We are told she was betrothed to a Joseph, meaning that they were engaged but she would be living with her parents, a home she would rarely leave until she married. They were of the House of David - a royal line when a corrupt puppet king sat on the throne of Judah. 

Suddenly, a supernatural messenger from God, an angel named Gabriel appears. Mary was agitated and disturbed by his presence, because this Angel has a name that translates from the Hebrew as the ‘strong man of God’! This unobserved girl, concealed in her family home, finds herself no longer isolated but in the presence of one who is spoken of as an angel who is called upon to incite war and who destroys the enemy! Here Gabriel acts as God’s instrument, and a young girl is confronted and alone with a male stranger to whom she is not related, and she refutes accepted customs!

This young girl has little power or status, as she moves from being the property of her father to become the property of her husband.  And yet God steps in and interrupts this sanctioned right of passage. Gabriel’s message brings status to a girl who is dependent on her relationship to her father’s household and her new husband’s family.  This mighty angel says ‘do not be afraid’. For against all the worlds expectations, God favours those who appear powerless and subjugated, and it is for - and through them - that he acts to rescue people. But this will not only disturb the world around her, it will also hugely impact her future life. This girl is told she will become pregnant, though unmarried and not living with her husband, but being favoured by God, she will become an outcast by society and held in shame as a social pariah. And yet, this young girl breaks conventions, speaks up and accepts the upheaval this will bring.

The second story also involves an impossible pregnancy. This relates to the birth of John the Baptist, whose mother was past the age of childbearing and whose father was the high priest of the Jerusalem Temple. The two stories together, casting the two women, one old and one young, and each related. Mary leaves her home in haste to visit her kinswomen, Elizabeth, in a distant mountainous region. We might conjecture whether this part of the story recalls how the young girl may have been sent away from home to conceal the pregnancy perhaps. 

At the meeting, Mary proclaims a song of justice and liberation. A song that speaks not only of her situation but also of the cry of all oppressed people. Her condition is ‘persona non-grata’! There is a promise that the proud will be scattered, rulers will be deposed, and the rich will be banished. And in bringing justice, the destitute will be raised out of poverty, the humble will be crowned, and the hungry will be fed. The violence, suffering and injustice of the world will not be allowed to reign. 

This story shows us the messy political reality of life. It paints a picture of social upheaval with families returning to their ancestral homes at the decree of an occupying Empire.

We speed by, nine months later, Mary is married, and she is ready to give birth. She travels many miles on a donkey with her husband to his home city. Displaced and far from home, with little room to accommodate them in Bethlehem, her child is delivered in a humble place, far removed from palatial power and influence. Yet, it is in this vulnerable place that God is at work. By contrast to the powerful, the birth of a poor child is insignificant. The child is swaddled by his mother and laid in an improvised cot from which animal food is placed. 

However, this child’s birth would be have great significance. The shepherds were tending sheep in the countryside. In former times this has been a noble occupation. The founder and king of the house of David had himself been a shepherd born in Bethlehem. Shepherding was important in first century Palestine as they provided lambs for the Temple, but Shepherds had lost social respectability, often despised as untrustworthy and victims of prejudice. It is to these poor outsiders, living outside the cities of respectability, and pushed outside in rejection by polite society, that the child’s birth is first proclaimed. 

That’s the start of the story, and the Angel appears to the shepherds, and they see him standing there and are fearful and he reassures them and brings the whole army of God to the hillside about them, and shouting voices clamour that prosperity will be established. The story of Jesus is a message of salvation - a gospel of direct challenge to the comfortable, the successful and the powerful. It requires of them - and of us - to consider how we attend to the needs of marginalised people wherever they are found. It was in accepting and trusting that Angel on that day 2,000 years ago that this child would be born who would be God made flesh and dwelling amongst us. 

By Wendy Stokes From Colin Setchfield.