« Jesus, the Trustworthy Shepherd | Main | The Privilege of the Lowly »
December 10, 2006
The Glory of the Virgin Mary
Matthew 1: 2-6
December 10th, 2006
In the few minutes I have this morning I want to remind you again how essential not only Mary is to the Christmas story, but of the pivotal, dare I say, crucial role four other women played in fulfilling God's promise to Abraham. After all, this is what we celebrate at Christmas. Then was born to Mary, of a very interesting lineage, the One of Abraham's seed who brought blessing to all nations.
So I remind you of some verses from Matthew's Gospel we seldom read. In the old King James Version the word "begat" is repeated thirteen times, because Matthew's "Jewish Gospel," considers begats of great importance. After all, the first Divine command was "Be fruitful and multiply." Not only that, but along the way as God's sovereign plan was unfolded there were moments when the begetting did not come easy.
Who can forget Sarah, Abraham's wife who until age 75 had begotten no one so that she laughed when an angel told her she would bear a son. Isaac's name meant, "He will laugh;" which reminded generations ever after how surprising was his birth. There was old Elizabeth too, finally a mother when she was very old, to a wee boy we know as John the Baptist.
I'm tempted to say that part of the message of Christmas is "Expect the unexpected." Look at the genealogy Matthew provides in those opening verses of the Gospel. Judah began Perez of Tamar. Who was Tamar? She was a Canaanite woman taken as wife by Jacob's son, Er. After Er died, not leaving an heir, it was his brother Onan's duty to marry his older brother's widow. But Onan refused to provide his brother an heir by his widow, Tamar. So this Canaanite woman, profoundly loyal to her deceased husband, did the unthinkable. She seduced his father. So that Judah continues the lineage of the Messiah by a dreadful deed forbidden in the later law given to Moses. We would choose a different, more proper lineage for the Messiah if we had the choice to make. But God's ways are unlike our ways. A woman who would have been stoned to death becomes a link in the chain leading to the Messiah. "A chain is no stronger than its weakest link," we say. Expect the unexpected with God. Tamar played a "crucial" role in the coming of the Messiah. She bore a cruel cross, we might say, as a deeply good woman, who did the unthinkable to achieve her place in the plan of God for the salvation of the world. With God, expect the unexpected
Then there is Rahab, a Canaanite harlot, who not only provided a way for Israel to begin its occupation of her homeland, but she also went on to marry an Israelite man by whom she bore the great-great grandfather of King David. Then there was Ruth, the Moabite girl, that is, from a people descended from an incestuous union between Abraham's nephew Lot, and one of his daughters. Who would have imagined such a plan? Rahab and Ruth were important links in the chain leading to the Savior of the world in far more than a physical way. With God, expect the unexpected!
Who would bear the child in David's line to lead to the Messiah? Well, it was Bathshebah, a Hittite woman, or at least married to a Hittite man. We cringe to read the story of the way King David sired Solomon by Bathshebah. In the process he became a murderer and an adulterer. And from this adulterous union, "whitewashed" ever so briefly with a murder, the chain grew that would lead to the birth of the Messiah, Jesus. With God, expect the unexpected!
In this glorious season, then, we remember how unexpected was the way the "wondrous Gift was given." Mary, the mother of this Gift, was not yet married when she became pregnant. She was apparently unable to tell Joseph what the angel Gabriel told her about giving birth to a child, though she was not married. How could she say this to Joseph? He would hardly believe her. But he noticed her slender figure was changing. How could he say anything to a girl he knew very well was anything but promiscuous with her favors? So God intervened in such a way that enabled this fair and good man to put up with the seeming indecency of his betrothed sweetheart. Joseph and Mary were learning prior to the birth of the Savior of the world to expect the unexpected with God.
As Matthew unfolds this genealogy he dips into Jewish history citing embarrassing links in the chain of God's fulfilling His promise to Abraham. From the books of the Hebrew Bible, the Bible of the Jewish people, he draws undisputed evidence of a "blemished" lineage. Of course, there were many other offenses against the ideal that are found in the generations of God's chosen people. Moses, in fact, may have been married twice; first to an Ethiopian princess, if Josephus tells it like it is, and then to a Midianite lass, daughter of a Midianite priest. So much for the purity of the Levitical lineage. Levites were to marry within their own tribe. But here goes Moses, marrying not only outside the tribe of Levi, but also outside the family of Israel altogether. Expect the unexpected with God!!
Perhaps it was Mary's awareness of how odd was the birth of this heralded child that fed into a native humility an even greater trait, a kind of contrition, as though she had committed a sin in being pregnant before she was married. The psalms tell us that a humble and contrite heart is God's chosen dwelling place. As Paul would later say of Jesus Christ, that "He who knew no sin became sin for us," so Luke's Gospel tells us of Mary that when she learned that she would be part of a plan that would look very unseemly, in which her reputation would look flawed, humbly she accepted her role. "Be it unto me according to your word," she told the angel. Even though she did no sin in this, she appeared as though she had committed a grave sin, and she felt the censure of those who only judged by appearances. In her humbled state, humiliated as well as by nature humble, she was the perfect home for the Son of God.
It is very tempting to become lyrical about this grand scheme at Christmas. But of what use is this to us, to become lyrical at Christmas? What is important for us is to see how Mary exemplified the state of heart and mind that is essential to carry on the work begun in her womb. In the prologue of John's Gospel we read, "To all who receive him, who believe in his name, he [i.e., Jesus] gives the right to become children of God; who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." As Jesus was begotten by God, so when we have trusted in Jesus so thoroughly that we yield the authority over our lives to God, as Mary did when she said, "Be it unto me according to your word," then in an odd sort of way, we become like Mary. God is born in us too.
This can become very mystical as I think of the parallel between our simple trust in God and Mary's simple trust in God. In fact, when it comes to some aspects of our relationship to God in Jesus, we cannot help but realize we have stepped beyond the ordinary.
But there is a place where our will joins our helpless trust, as it did for Mary. Had she refused to allow the Son of God to be conceived in her body, the Holy Spirit would not have imposed this on her. She said "yes," and then followed up on that "yes." It begins with you and me with a "yes" too. And we must follow up on that "yes" in order for Christ to grow in us, as He grew in the womb of Mary. Paul wrote, "Christ in you the hope of glory." Very mysterious. Very parallel to what happened in the story of Jesus birth to Mary. Expect the unexpected with God.
I pray that as we contemplate the glory of Mary, and the remarkable place she played in the drama of God's fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, we may also realize that our feelings of unworthiness are gently ministered to when we read the story of the family line leading up to Jesus. Who would have thought that Tamar belongs in this lineage? Or Rahab, the harlot of Jericho? Or Ruth, the Moabite woman—of a people who began with a son by incest of Lot, Abraham's nephew? Or of Bathshebah, or, for that matter, of Mary who was with child before she was married? Maybe you and I fit very well into the picture of how God applies His grace in this world. Expect the unexpected with God. Indeed, offer yourself to God that He may do the unexpected through you.
Let us pray: O Lord, it is not only when we consider the heavens that we wonder at your ways, but when we consider also your ways in bringing to us salvation, the forgiveness of our sins, the hope of perfect life. Grant to us the wisdom of Mary who offered herself so wholly for your use, and grant that we too may be sources of unspeakable blessing. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Pastor Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at December 10, 2006 09:30 AM