Thoughts on Luke 1

Today’s reading: Deuteronomy 21, Luke 1

Any time I read the beginning of Luke, I can’t help but marvel at, and be deeply challenged by, Mary’s faith.

On the one hand, it would definitely have taken faith to say yes to bearing the Messiah, given the social implications of her pregnancy at that point in time, but there is also the angel Gabriel standing there telling her that God has selected her for this, and is she really going to tell Gabriel no?

(Come to think of it, maybe he went to someone else first and we just never heard about it because she did say no, and that’s why we don’t talk about the virgin Sarah or the virgin Miranda… 🤷‍♂️)

Legitimately, I don’t want to downplay Mary’s faithfulness is agreeing, but I also feel like it would be hard to tell God’s messenger no when he’s standing right in front of you. What’s really telling and challenging to me is what she says to Elizabeth.

While it hasn’t been long since Gabriel appeared to Mary, when she talks to Elizabeth there has certainly been enough time for her to realize and grapple with the implications of this pregnancy. Showing up to her fiancé and telling him she was is pregnant with a baby by the Holy Spirit; would he even believe that, or would he just assume she had cheated on him? If he doesn’t marry her, and she and her baby are on their own, what will that mean? People are clearly going to assume she was sleeping around before she was married, so what is that going to mean for her socially? Is she going to lose friends over this? Might her parents disown her for this? Even if Joseph still agrees to marry her, is he going to be willing to pay her family the full dowry? How might that impact her family’s financial position and status? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Realistically, this could ruin Mary’s life in a significant number of ways, many of which are honestly highly likely, and yet, what does she say to Elizabeth?

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me…”

That statement, “from now on all generations will call me blessed,” is what blows me away. Mary can look at all that may or will get disrupted in her life as a result of saying yes to God on this and say with assurance that all generations will call her blessed. It makes me think of what we read yesterday in Deuteronomy 20 with Moses’ instructions to the Israelites not to be afraid of a powerful enemy army because they have the Lord on their side. Mary, in much the same way, is able to look at all that could possibly go wrong, and still declare that all generations will call her blessed because she trusts the God whom she is serving in what she has just agreed to.

I don’t know what Mary’s faith looked like in this. I don’t know if she assumed that, as likely as all these things might be, God is in the picture so they won’t happen and things will go well, or if she assumed that some (or all) of them might happen, but with God involved, it was worth it and He would provide and carry her through it. Either way, Mary’s ability to look forward and know that faithfulness to God was worth it and would result in all generations calling her blessed, despite the imminent difficulties stemming from the choice to be faithful, is a really powerful testimony.

I can so easily be be rocked by embarrassment or shame (real or theoretical) that leads me to keep my mouth shut when God has called me to open it, or that leads me to not step into a situation that God has placed before me to step into. I honestly have a difficult time imagining myself having Mary’s perspective even now, 15 years into following the Lord.

I want this perspective though. I want to care a lot less about what people think and a lot more about what God thinks, and I want my heart to find it’s rest in faithfulness to Him, regardless of what that may or may not mean to the world.