Mary was a virgin, probably 12 or 13 years old, when she became engaged to Joseph. Girls in her culture were pledged to be married around puberty. The plan would be for the girl to live with her mom and learn how to be a wife for the year leading up to the marriage, and the man would be planning a home for them, and then they would be married after the year.
When the angel came to her and told her she would be the mother of Jesus, in Luke 1:47, she says “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Mary knew she needed a Savior and she was just an ordinary girl and sinful just like the rest of us.
When Joseph found out she was pregnant, he decided to divorce her quietly. This showed that he didn’t believe her at first when she said she was having the child of God, but it also showed that he cared for her. The angel appeared to Him and cleared it up.
It seemed that Mary lived under a shadow for the rest of her life, because the community knew that she was pregnant when she got married, and the Bible said Jesus’ own people rejected him. I bet there was a lot of gossiping going on. Being God‘s servant is not always a bed of roses. The Bible says Mary was “highly favored” by God, yet she was almost put away by the man she loved. She carried a baby for nine months and gave birth to Him on a dirt floor. She was judged by her own people. And finally, she watched her Son die a brutal death. Highly favored might be in the darkest night or deepest valley. If you are in that dark night or deep valley, remember like Mary. This is just the beginning, not the end. There’s no better calling in life, even though it means the loss of things that we consider very precious. For Mary, following God was costly, but so worth it.
When Mary was near the end of her pregnancy, she and Joseph found out they had to travel to Bethlehem for the census. It was a journey of about 90 miles, and even though we always see her on a donkey, we don’t know if that was really true. Either she had to go by foot or did ride on a donkey, and it was at least 3 to 4 days difficult journey.
She knew her Bible. I wonder if she had remembered the prophecy that the Messiah would come and be born in Bethlehem as they approached the town. When they arrived in Bethlehem, she was exhausted and in the first stages of her labor and there was no comfortable place to stay. Was she afraid? She was facing her first birth with no mother and no friends around. She wasn’t in an antiseptic operating room either.
Finally, Joseph found a cave where animals were kept, and there on a bed of straw with no one, but Joseph to help her, she gave birth to her first born son. She wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in an animal feeding trough filled with clean straw. What was she thinking in that humble place? God’s Son had been born in a stable. Did she feel she had let God down?
There was no family to share the joy. God deliberately sent a bunch of excited shepherds. They came in wonder and awe telling the amazing story of an angel, who had told him that a Savior was born and then the sky was filled with angels praising God. There was no human family there to celebrate, and the birth of a son was something that you celebrated in a big way. God was celebrating the birth of his Son. He sent these humble shepherds, filled with joy, to Mary and Joseph.
I wonder what the shepherds thought. The area where Jesus was born was where King David had set aside fields for the sacrificial lambs to be raised for Passover. The lambs would have to be unblemished and undamaged. The shepherds would wrap them in swaddling clothes often laying them in a manger to protect them until the priests could come and carry them to the temple.
Did they wonder if the Messiah would be a holy sacrifice for mankind? All of this was fulfilling prophecy. Mary knew the scriptures, but on that night, it was about survival and getting her baby into the world safely. Nothing was by chance. It had been ordained from the beginning of the world. What a holy night!
Luke 2:19. says Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. We see that repeated in verse 51. Mary was a very thoughtful, deeply reflective, and spiritual woman, and she loved God and her husband and Baby Jesus.
In Luke 2:21. We see the couples’ obedience. He was circumcised on the eighth day, which was the law. He was given the name Jesus, as the angels told them.
They obeyed when they were warned by an angel to flee to Egypt. Mary knew what it was like to be in a foreign country where she didn’t know the language and where she was a stranger. I’m sure there were lonely days away from family and friends, but this woman had sturdy faith. She trusted God and obeyed him. She was uncomplaining and flexible and patient. She trusted Joseph too.
It’s better to suffer anything and be doing God‘s will than to be comfortable and be out of his will. She must have been brokenhearted to learn other boys were being murdered because Herod was searching for her Son.
Mary and Joseph were obedient to the laws and in Luke 2:41 through 42. It says that every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. When he was 12 years old, He was lost from them as He stayed behind to share in the temple with the priests. He reminded them of who He was and that He needed to be about his father’s business. In Luke 2:51-52, it says again that Mary treasured all these things in her heart.
The next 18 years of Jesus’s life were lived in obscurity and He was not mentioned in the scriptures. During this time, Joseph must have died, because Joseph was the legal heir to the throne of David. If he had still been alive, Jesus could not have come as an heir to the throne of David, as prophecy had revealed. The caring of the family would have fallen on the oldest son according to the law. Jesus would have earned their living as a carpenter.
Finally, when he was 30, we see Jesus again in Matthew 3:23 when he began his public ministry. Relatives ran out of wine at a wedding, and Mary did what she always did. She went to Jesus and asked for help. Then she left it to him and told the servants to do whatever He asked. Her words still ring true to us today. “Trust Jesus. Do what He says.”
Can you imagine growing up as Jesus’ sibling? He had to be the favorite. He was the child who never did anything wrong. Maybe some jealousy was going on.
Mary’s focus was on her Son, never on herself. It’s her son, God’s son, her Savior, and our Savior that must be obeyed, never ever shift that focus. Jesus did turn the water into wine at this wedding, and it revealed his glory so that the disciples believed in Him even though those that were raised in the same home did not believe.
Mary followed Him as she watched His popularity increase. She knew the fear and heartache that any mother would feel when her son was betrayed and deserted by His friends, falsely accused and sentenced to death. She saw her perfect Son, carrying His cross outside the city gate, she saw Him, cruelly nailed to it, and hung there to slowly die in agony when the disciples ran away and feared for their lives.
Mary and the other women who cared for Jesus loyally stayed by the cross, where He could see them and know they loved him. It showed her courage and mother’s love. Despite her broken heart, she stayed there for Him until He died. Then He discharged his last duty to her, and committed her into the hands of John to take care of her. It had been His job as the eldest son. He loved her and made sure she would be cared for.
We can’t even remotely understand the joy that Mary‘s heart felt when she heard of Jesus’ Resurrection.
The last mention of Mary is found in Acts 1:13-14. Mary is in a prayer meeting with the other women and with Jesus’ brothers. They now finally believed. She’s not specifically mentioned but she, no doubt, was there when the Holy Spirit came down to indwell all believers permanently. She was still a woman of faith and humility, taking her place with all the others who trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.
She had been the most privileged and blessed of women, she had known the presence of God all through these years. But now that Jesus’ earthly life was over, she asked for no special place of honor. She was simply another worshipper of her Lord.
The real meaning of Christmas, the reason that it is good news, is that God gave the first Christmas gift—his own Son. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
The gift is not yours until you take it. John 1:12 says “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” You don’t earn the gift or pay for the gift. You simply reach out and take it. That’s what faith is. And that’s what Mary had.
Why did God pick her? What can we learn from her? She was humble, obedient, knowledgeable and steadfast in His Word, and totally surrendered. Through her, He did great things for His glory.
Let Mary’s qualities be our gift to Him this Christmas and in the new year to come and all the days after that. May we be ready to serve Him in any way He asks. And to say, “Let it be unto me according to your Word.””
Merry Christmas! Mary had a little Lamb, and His name is Jesus!