Could You Be Mary?

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201;%20John%201:1-14&version=NIV

Welcome, my friends, to the New Testament. I pray that as you read, God would touch your heart with a whole new picture of his love and promises fulfilled through Christ Jesus. I pray that he would increase your faith and your desire to know him. I pray that he would bring you closer still.

There are a few things that I would like to touch on today. First, because some of us just finished reading the Old Testament, we need to have an understanding of history during the time period between the Old and New Testament. This is also called the Intertestamental Period. Below is a link that will take you to a great and quick comprehensive review of what occurred during this time.

http://www.gotquestions.org/intertestamental-period.html

But, I also really want to share my heart with you, because I love Luke 1. It is a story of God's promises being fulfilled. It is a story of his purposeful and sovereign plan in the lives of Elizabeth and Zachariah and the years of waiting for a child. And it is a story of amazing humility, faith, obedience and blessing in a young girl named Mary. It's Mary's story that I'd like to focus on. I'm sharing with you something a wrote a while back and praying that Mary's faith and God's faithfulness would touch your heart. Here's what I wrote:

What I love about God’s word is that it is never old. I’ve probably heard or read the Christmas story more than any other part of the scripture – and yet, God makes frequently speaks a new word through it to me. Three years ago God used the phrase “for nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37) over and over again – one day he found a way (through scripture, radio, and a book I was reading) to speak it to me three times before 7:00 AM. Last year the words “Blessed is she who has believe that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” (Luke 1:45) jumped out at me as if I’d never heard them before in a way I knew God wanted me to hear them.

This year as the Christmas season approached, I started, in ‘Mary’ terms, pondering these things in my heart, wondering what God would speak this year and feeling as though I never understood exactly what God was trying to speak to me through those words. I felt like there was more he wanted me to know and I never quite got it. However, I did find myself envying Mary a little – I wanted her favor with God, for him to do the “impossible” in my life, and certainly I wanted to believe that the Lord had given me certain promises and would accomplish them. But at the same time, I frequently am certain that I don’t measure up to Mary standards.

I wonder if there are others who have wanted to be Mary. Not in real terms, of course because for the men reading this, physically giving birth at all would certainly be the “impossible” being accomplished (although I’m certain God could do it). And for the women, giving birth to the Savior is not our reality because while Jewish people would disagree, Mary has already ‘been there done that’.

But I’m not sure the physical technicalities are the things that keep us from believing we could be Mary – or at least like her. If you are like me, it’s Mary’s goodness – the fact that she found favor with God (Luke 1:28-29) that has me convinced that I could never be Mary. Mary, after all, is the mother of our savior, which means that God must have been pretty impressed with the girl. Now to clear up what some may be lead to believe, Mary was not perfect. While Mary’s physical purity is clearly stated and part of the miracle of the virgin birth, there is no reference in scripture to Mary being sinless. If she were, she wouldn’t have needed the savior she gave birth to.

But while many believe it is scripturally inaccurate to say Mary was sinless, I believe we still tend to believe she was way better than we ourselves could ever be. Oh, I’m fairly sure she behaved well. I can just hear her parents, “Our Mary, such a good girl. She doesn’t go schlepping around with those uncircumcised boys like the other girls in Nazareth.” But at the same time, Mary was human, and Mary was a teenager. As someone who has had 150 teenagers in and out of her classroom every day, I assure you that no matter how amazing some of them are, there are moments of rebellion. Certainly there were days when she got up in the morning and thought (or even said) “Every day is the same thing, get up, build a fire, bake bread, water my father’s donkeys. I wish, just once, that those stinking donkeys could water themselves.”

This is not to diminish Mary’s position of favor in being the mother of our savior, but to say that I do not think it was because she faultless that lead to God choosing her. I say this only because I want us to have an accurate picture of Mary and to understand what it means to be blessed and highly favored. I do not believe it is connected to a state of perfection or goodness that goes beyond what we also can have or be through the power of God. Instead, Mary was in a position of favor because God knew her heart. He knew her faith, he knew her humility, and he knew she would be obedient – therefore she was chosen. Let’s take a closer look at the evidence.

First, Mary was Jewish – she would have knows about the promised Messiah although likely it was only what was spoken to her – most biblical scholars believe she couldn’t read because most women at that time where not taught – and she likely would not have access to scripture as only the religious leaders and scholars at the time did. But not only did she know, God knew her heart and knew she believed in the covenant promise of a savior. Secondly, God knew she believed he was a God who was all-powerful and could accomplish the impossible. When God told her she would give birth to a son, she definitely had questions – in fact she asks, “How will this be since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34. Most commentators agree that unlike Zachariah’s question about the birth of his son – “How can I be sure of this?” (Luke 1:18) which showed a lack of faith, Mary was simply asking how God would accomplish this – not if he could or whether he would – she just knew that logistically it wasn’t possible. But that does not mean she didn’t believe that supernaturally it was not, evidenced by Elizabeth’s statement to her, “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.” (Luke 1:45). God not only knew that she believed he could, but he allowed the questions and provided an answer – he knew her heart and her faith and knew that she would get that if he said it was by the power of the Holy Spirit, that it would be so.

The second thing God knew about Mary’s heart was that it was a humble heart, submissive to him. It was a heart that would cause her to walk in obedience. The evidence is in Luke 1:38 – in humble submissiveness, Mary says, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” Mary willingly accepted God’s purpose for her – she was a willing vessel.

Now, don’t be confused – her willingness wasn’t as majestic as it sounds. It came with consequences. Seriously – picture the scene – unwed Jewish teen tries to convince her parents that an angel visited her and that she’s pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. She risks losing her betrothed – he would have, by law, the right to break the engagement. And, Joseph would have divorced her, she likely would have been an outcast and unmarried. She stepped out in obedience, however, because she knew that God would protect her. She knew that all of those questions and concerns she had, God already had answers for and a plan in place.

The other part of Mary’s humble heart had to do with her response to being chosen by God. To be visited by an angel is not small potatoes – there aren’t a whole lot of recorded instances in the bible. But instead of being caught up in the fact that she must be the model of obedient Jewish girls, she instead praises God as a vessel of his purpose – bowing to his greatness and the height of his purpose. Mary’s song isn’t one of “Wow, Lord, look what you’ve done for me”, but one of “Wow, Lord, look at who you are, how you work, your mercy, your deed, your provision, and your faithful fulfillment of a promise made to Abraham and his descendants.” (Luke 1:46-56). One commentary puts it this way, “The marvelous intervention of God humbled her instead of lifting her up. She saw God in what had taken place, and not herself; on the contrary the greatness of these marvels brought God so near as to hide her from herself. She yields herself to His holy will: but god has too large a place in her thoughts in this matter to leave any room for self importance.”

Yes, Mary was a pretty amazing gal. She had a heart for God that God honored. She walked in faith, she walked in humility, she walked in submissive obedience. Those are big shoes to fill. But friends, we have a big God. Through the power of God’s discipline, his word, his sanctification, his Spirit, we too can have a heart like Mary’s. God promises us all of these things in his word. Can you be a Mary? I believe that we each can by the power of God. And here’s the beauty in that – when we allow God to work in our lives like Mary did, when we walk in faith, obedience, and humility, seeking God with all our hearts, he will use us for the very purpose for which he created us. We will walk in the center of his will and see the fulfillment of his promises. Blessed are you who have believed that what the Lord has said to you will be accomplished.

How to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him by the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Ephesians 3:20

I pray, sweet friends, that we might each be a Mary for this generation – Amen!

Today's post was submitted by Carol Bartels