I must have just been in a “place” amidst the hustle and bustle of everything coming ‘due’ this time of year. Children were doing a Christmas play for church…so I figured my devotions should go back to the story as it is written in the Bible. So I found myself sipping my coffee and reading the selections in Matthew and Luke. I’ve certainly read the story before….but my mindset was just in a different place…and it turned into a case of “look at what isn’t there.”
As I read, I contrasted what my kids had been practicing for weeks and what I was reading…here my kids were doing a whole play on the birth of Christ…but in actuality the story as documented is stated so basically, so simply. There was more in Luke about Mary and Elizabeth’s conversations, and the shepherds, than the description of the birth. Matthew focuses more on the angel’s conversation with Joseph and the Magi. Where was the drama? The theatrics?
I guess I knew all of this, like I said, I’ve read it and argued the existence and importance of the story before. But….maybe we’re putting a little too much emphasis on the ‘stable and the players’ instead of the whole story…the story within the story. Is it possible we’ve religiosized (yes I made up that word) the players so much, idolized them if you will, that they have taken on their own level of importance (Thinking of a giver of gifts in AD 300s who had been sainted and now plays his own huge role this time of year as well. People argue for and against him as well).
After reading I was left thinking “Who is Mary?” Not in the way of who were her parents, what is her genealogy (though that is a whole other story in itself). But, more, WHY Mary? Who was she that she got to play the part of the Mother of Jesus? Truth be told, she was no more special than any other human being. Stop right there. I hear the “But….!!!” Nope. Stop…re-read Matthew and Luke again yourself. There is nothing there. She was an ordinary teenager who was promised to be married. She was not perfect. Her main qualifier was that she fulfilled the prophecy that Jesus would be in the lineage of David.
The only other qualifier that I could come up with was that she said ‘yes.’ Think about it. Put yourself in the story. A teenager (normal marrying age was 14 or 15 years old), simply following the customs of the land. There is a belief that Joseph was likely older and had been previously married, so whether she was an excited participant in this union is unknown. Regardless, she is approached by an angel who says she has found favor by God and will become pregnant, will have a Son, who will be the Son of the Most High. She asks a very appropriate “how” question, to which the angel states “For nothing is impossible with God.” And she responds with “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said.”
Just wow. First, I know certain pre-teens who will ask “why?” and bargain or argue when told to do something like clean their room, the house, empty the dishwasher, do their homework. But…asking a teenager to take on the responsibility of this, when the penalty of becoming pregnant before marriage could, by the law of Moses, be punishable by death… Who was Mary that she said yes?! I have to give some credit to her parents here, whoever they were. Mary must have been raised to recognize a Godly directive and had been impressed with the sanctity of it as well.
But, back to the story. What was asked of Mary? What really? Sipping my coffee, I thought about it. And the story shifted. Mary was not so special. She was not asked to do anything that I, in this age, am not asked to do. And what is that? To surrender my life. To surrender the plans I have. To trust that God may ask something of me that is very difficult, even unto death…to follow His plans. But He also reassures me that “For nothing is impossible with God” and “For I know the plans I have for you….plans to prosper you and not to harm you” (Luke 1:37 and Jeremiah 29:11).
So should we still do the pagents? The plays? In my opinion, of course! My kids talked about their parts, we reflected on the significance, talked about what was amazing and miraculous about the story. But let’s not forget that God asked nothing more of that young girl than He asks of us. To simply say ‘yes, I am your servant.’
Merry Christmas.
