Day 22 • The Week of Love
Scripture Readings:
1 Samuel 7:1-11,16
Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38
This year, more than ever before, advent has reminded me of a central message of Christmas. It is a simple yet profound message that can be easily forgotten. It is the message that we are not alone. It is the message that God saw the fear and suffering of our world and didn’t want us to endure it alone with no hope of a brighter future. Even if it meant that God would do something that God had never done before in God’s infinite existence: become human. God was never going to leave us alone.
This message really hit home for me in a new way when I read Luke 1:26-38 this year. As much as I could as an Idaho boy, I tried to put myself in Mary’s place. Try to understand her context, her experience, and her heart as these unexpected events unfolded for her. In this passage, Luke employs the Greek word “diatarassó” to emphasize how troubled Mary actually was by how the angel Gabriel greeted her in verse 29. This word means "acutely distressed, through and through." How had Gabriel greeted her? He said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” This may actually sound comforting to us, but Mary was deeply troubled by what this greeting might mean for her and her future.
I really don’t think we can underestimate how high the stakes were for Mary. She was young in a context that valued age. She was a woman in a context that valued men. She was poor in a context that valued wealth. She was powerless in almost every way. Then, on top of all this, an angel visits her with a message that troubles her deeply.
To get a small taste of why Gabriel’s message might have troubled Mary so much, let’s read Deuteronomy 22:20-21, which says, “However, if the claim is true and proof of the young woman’s virginity can’t be produced, then the city’s elders will bring the young woman to the door of her father’s house. The citizens of that city must stone her until she dies because she acted so sinfully in Israel by having extramarital sex while still in her father’s house. Remove such evil from your community!” This was the law of her land, the law of God.
Then, here is an angel claiming to be from God and saying that she is highly favored and that the Lord is with her. Yet the situation Gabriel is inviting her to consent to is one where she will be a pregnant, unwed teenage girl in poverty, all in a context where that was not only against the law but might result in the death penalty. Since she would become pregnant by God, there would be no way to prove her virginity or that she didn't have extramarital sex. In her context and how someone like her would be viewed, who would believe her wild story? How would the elders of her city respond? How would Joseph respond? Gabriel said she is highly favored by God, but she wasn’t highly favored in her world. All this was a deeply troubling prospect for her, to say the least.
This should cause us to see Mary’s wisdom and maturity even more in what happens next. Even though Gabriel tried to assure her that she didn’t need to be afraid and laid out God’s invitation to her, and if she accepted, her son’s kingdom would endure forever and ever, she still spoke up, advocated for herself, and asked more clarifying questions. “How will this be since I am a virgin?” she asked. Then Gabriel explained in greater detail about how it would come about in verse 35.
Then, verse 36 is what hit me in such a profound way when I read it this year. Gabriel said, “Even Elizabeth, your relative is going to have a child.” After Gabriel says this, Mary asks no more questions. She gave her now famous words of consent, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.”
What struck me so much about this is that it was after Mary discovered that she would not be walking her path alone. Not only did she find out that another woman would be going through the same journey of pregnancy with her, but it was a family member. Someone we find out in the rest of the chapter that she loved and trusted very much because Elizebeth would be the first person Mary would choose to share her news with. It was because Mary knew that only another woman would understand the gravity of her situation, and it was because Mary knew someone she loved would see her with love rather than legalism that she was able to be assured. This is so powerfully moving.
We also see how God was “with her,” as Gabriel said, in the midst of it all. God sent Gabriel directly to Mary instead of to Joseph or to her father to ask their permission for this proposal, which flouted the patriarchal standards of that day. God had Gabriel silence Zechariah because he didn’t believe the good news about Elizebeth’s pregnancy (v 20). Who was Zechariah? A priest (v 8). What was a priest? An elder of the city. It seems that God was leaving no chance that Zechariah might try to enforce the law and accuse Mary of acting sinfully when she shared her story with Elizabeth.
That is the powerful message of this passage and God coming into the world at Christmas for me. That it isn’t just vague assurances that “God is with you.” Rather, God is not only becoming human but entering into our humanness with intimate knowledge of our lived circumstances, the challenges we face, our fears, and our hopes. It is God journeying alongside us. It is God doing this, especially for the most vulnerable, like Mary. This powerful message of love is what we are called to not only embody for others around us but to take deep ownership of ourselves.
God loves you. God is with you. God is entering fully into your life with you. We also have each other. You are never alone. It is owning that reality for
ourselves that enables us to respond with Mary, “May your word to me be fulfilled.”
Reflection Steps:
Are there areas of your life you feel you are facing alone? I want to invite you to ponder this question. Such loneliness can cause us to feel deeply troubled through and through. It can cause us to even feel abandoned or unloved by God and by others. It can also cause us a deep fear of how others might respond if we share what we are going through with them. Are there ways you might be able to embody Mary’s vulnerability and bravery and seek out someone who you know is going through a similar situation? How might you take just a small step towards inviting someone you know loves you into that area of loneliness? As you reflect on this and think of ways to move forward, remember God is really with you.