Hello again everyone. Merry Christmas and welcome to Bible Backdrop! I hope everyone is enjoying the season and, with that in mind, I’m going to do a short Christmas episode. Last year, when I started this podcast, I did 3 episodes around the Christmas story. The first was about Bethlehem and the Magi, the second was about Herod and the flight to Egypt, and the third was a bonus unscripted episode about Joseph. If you are interested, they are still available and will help put context to the Christmas story. For this episode, I will talk about Mary and have a brief aside about the heavenly hosts.
Since I did an episode on Joseph, it’s only right to do one that focuses on Mary. Unlike Joseph, Mary has a much larger speaking role. The book of Luke records the entire conversation between her and the angel Gabriel when he announces to her about how she will bear the Messiah. Later, when she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, she sings what is later titled The Magnificat, a beautiful song of praise and rejoicing. In Luke 2, after the birth in Bethlehem, she goes to the Temple where she meets Simeon who prophesies to her about Jesus and also that “a sword will pierce even your own soul.” She also meets Anna, a prophetess who tells everyone about the child.
From these stories, we gain quite an insight into Mary. Let’s look at the stories in turn. First, she is visited by an angel and told that she will conceive and bear a son who will be the redemption of Israel. Knowing that she was engaged to be married to Joseph, she had to be fairly young...maybe 14 or 15. This news had to be frightening and exciting and confusing for someone in her position. Frightening because she’s face to face with an angel who tells her she’s highly favored of God and that she will bear the Messiah. Confusing because she certainly has an understanding of biology and can’t understand how she will become pregnant as a virgin. What would this mean for her engagement to Joseph? What would this mean for her reputation in a small town like Nazareth? Most estimates have the population ranging from 150 – 400 people, so everyone would know she was pregnant. This couldn’t be kept a secret. So many of these things had to be running through her mind. While we don’t know her thoughts, we know her response: “Behold, the bondservant of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” The angel didn’t give any details nor any assurances that everything would turn out fine. Mary had to have a strong, extraordinary faith in God’s plan to simply trust and move forward.
In the next phase of the story, the Bible says Mary “arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah.” I’m sure she did leave in a hurry! In my episode on Joseph, I mentioned that I could almost see how this went down. Mary tells her family that she’s visited by an angel and that she is pregnant while still a virgin. They had to be dealing with a wide range of emotions, but the first thought was to get Mary away from the town while they decided what to do and how to deal with Joseph. While her father talked to Joseph, Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, whom the angel told her was also pregnant even in her advanced age. This was not an easy journey. Nazareth is about 150 kilometers or 90 miles north of Jerusalem. The Bible says Elizabeth lived in the hill country of Judah, so this would be the distance Mary had to travel. She also probably went a long way on the east side of the Jordan river to avoid Samaria. So this was no easy journey and she almost certainly traveled in a caravan of some kind for protection. This had to be a trip filled with questions and trying to understand what was happening. However, as soon as she gets to Elizabeth’s house and greets her, the Holy Spirit comes upon Elizabeth and she knows why Mary is there. She confirms that Mary is carrying the Messiah when she says “And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?” This had to be a final confirmation for Mary and she bursts out in a song of praise and worship. The Bible then says she stays with Elizabeth for 3 months and then returns home. During this time, Joseph is visited by the angel and decides to go ahead with the wedding.
What’s striking here is that they both had to be very trusting of God. Word had to get around that Mary was pregnant but could she explain why? The angel didn’t say she couldn’t tell anyone, but almost certainly nobody would believe her. Joseph would probably have the same problem with his story. There would always be this cloud of judgement hanging over both of them.
Into all this comes the decrees from Augustus that everyone needed to take part in the census. The customs being what they were at the time, Joseph had to take a very pregnant Mary to register in Bethlehem since he was of the line of David and that was his ancestral home. Again, the distance was probably similar to what Mary traveled 9 months prior...maybe even a little longer since Bethlehem is south of Jerusalem. You have to wonder if Mary was a little relieved at leaving all the talk and whispers of Nazareth behind.
When Jesus is born in Bethlehem, heaven burst forth in praise and the announcement is made to shepherds in the area. The Bible says “And suddenly appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.’” As an aside to our discussion about Mary, I want to look at what the Bible means with the term “heavenly hosts.” This has confused me as the Bible specifically mentions angels and then talks about heavenly hosts. God is even described as the Lord of Hosts in the Old Testament. Was there a difference? It seems that Biblical authors mention an angel when it’s singular. Research shows that the heavenly hosts describes a multitude of angels or an angel army. So the shepherds that night not only saw one angel but an amazing multitude, singing praises to God.
Back to our discussion on Mary. After Jesus is born, she and Joseph bring Him to the temple as is required in the Law of Moses. This is written in Exodus 13: “The Lord said to Moses ‘Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.’” This is usually a forgotten part of the Christmas story. While there, the couple meets 2 people named Simeon and Anna. Simeon, had been told by God that he would not die until he saw the Christ. After saying a prayer of thanksgiving, he tells Mary “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed – and a sword will pierce even your own soul – to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” For a new mother, who was certainly a teenager, this had to be overwhelming and somewhat ominous. The word for sword here describes a long sword and her soul would be pierced as she sees her son hanging on the cross. After this, they meet the prophetess Anna who also had it revealed to her that Jesus was the Messiah. “At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.” Why is this story important? Well, the Bible says that two witnesses were enough to confirm either a person or event in a court of law. Both Simeon and Anna are used here to confirm early that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah and are therefore very important to the story Luke is telling in his gospel.
On that note, I think we’ll close out this discussion on Mary. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed this short Christmas episode. If you are enjoying Bible Backdrop, please leave a 5 star rating and review. To get in touch with the show, you can e-mail me at BibleBackdrop@gmail.com. Thank you again for listening and have a Merry Christmas!