The reading I chose for last night was part of my series of Mary: from maiden to mother, and it follows the Gospel of Luke telling us about how Mary was dealing with the pressures of her inevitable motherhood. Last week, we had the annunciation, and this week, we had Mary's trip to see Elizabeth. Now, please, for one moment, take off your Christian goggles (which I also wear), and try to think of Mary as less of a saint, and as more of a person. Think of her as who she is, at the time in her life that she is. Now, please read the reading that I chose for last night, and I have some follow up questions after you're all done.
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
Okay, do me a solid and think about this for a second, again not as a Christian, but as a human being. Who is Elizabeth? She is Mary's cousin. How long does Mary stay with Elizabeth? For three months.
What would you think of a young woman, somewhere between 16 and 19 probably, who suddenly (ESV 'with haste') went to go stay with family somewhere in another town for a few months.
Exactly.
This is just another of our efforts to try to sanitize the Biblical narrative, and remove all the humanity from it. We have in our minds that Mary went to go see her cousin because she's Mary, and that's what the Bible says to do. She follows the narrative because that's what's dictated. But that only makes sense if she's not a real person.
But she is. Mary is a real person. She has genuine hopes, dreams, fears, all that. And at this juncture, she has been informed by Gabriel that she is going to be having a baby. And she knows that it isn't Joseph's baby. It would be bad enough for her if she was to conceive Joseph's baby before getting married, but conceiving a baby that isn't his, well, that's far far worse. And Mary knows what's at stake, too. She's smart enough to know that Joseph didn't 'know' her, and that he isn't going to react well. How do we know that he isn't going to react well? The Bible tells us so.
Her husband, Joseph, being a just man, and unwilling to put her to shame
resolved to divorce her quietly.
She was pregnant out of wedlock with a child that didn't belong to her fiance. At the very least, she faced a quiet divorce from her husband. At the worst, she faced public shame, humiliation, loss of husband, loss of family, loss of friends, and lest we forget, loss of life.
If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with
her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city,
and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman
because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and
the man because he violated his neighbor's wife.
So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
Deuteronomy 22:23-24
Do you see what was at stake? Everything! Mary had a lot to lose, just like every unwed mother throughout the ages. She had an awful lot to lose, so what's the first thing to do, is to head out to your cousin's house, and stay there for a few months. And over those months, you have some tough decisions to make. For you see, babies don't stay babies. And believe it or not, giving birth do a child doesn't spell the end of your responsibility to that child. We aren't cane toads where we lay eggs and then sort of walk off. We have to raise these children if we want them to survive. And so the choice that Mary faced was as follows. Was she going to give birth to this child and raise it for herself, thus potentially losing a husband, friends, family, respect, and her own life, or was she going to stay with her cousin, give birth to this child, and then give it to another couple who could raise it as their own, and she could go back to Joseph?
Tough choice, and it's the choice you face too. It's the choice that you and I face as Christians. Believe it or not, carrying Christ with you can easily lead to the loss of a spouse, or of family or friends, or even of life. This much is promised in the scriptures. Jesus tells us that he has not come to bring peace, but a sword. He tells us that he has come to divide families against each other, three against two, and so on. Having him around won't under any circumstances make things easier in the world, he already told us that.
And so this Christmas, we gather around the manger one more time. We are present for the birth of that baby. And we have the same questions and fears and doubts that Mary has. What do I have to lose by taking this baby home? And what do I have to gain? If I take this baby home, will it change my life? Most certainly. If I take this baby home, will it make me into a different person? Assuredly. Will I lose friends, family, spouse? Possibly. So is it worth it, or should I just leave this baby here?
That's the question Mary had to ask, and it's the question that we have to ask too. Is it worth it? Do we dare take this child home? Hopefully, for the vast majority of us, the answer is yes. Hopefully the answer is a very cautious, and tentative yes. Mainly because of the promise of this child. The promise that this child will change you. The promise that this child will make you into more than you are now. We all know that about children, that they bend you, break you, and make you into something other than you start out as. But in that, there is the truth that your children make you into a better human being than you would have been, or could have been, otherwise. Your will is no longer your own, and you are living for something greater than yourself now.
It's the same way with Christ. Be perfect, he says, as your heavenly father is perfect, and he means it. If you bring him home with you, then his will will become your will, his words will affect your words, His life, every aspect of it, will affect your life. This is how it is supposed to go. And finally, he will forgive you of all your sin, and make you holy, that's the entire point of the Christian faith.
Bring that baby home with you, and make him part of your family. Believe me, it's worth the cost.
Advent blessings,
PJ.
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