Week 4: “Mary’s Journey”
Set the Space
Before reading this Devotional, take a moment to tune into the Spirit.
Get comfortable where you are sitting. Feel free to light a candle or close your eyes.
Take a few deep breaths and focus on the movement of the air gently expanding and contracting your lungs. Be still and know that this is the Spirit rushing through you.
When you are ready, turn to Luke 1:26-37 and read part of our passage for this week.
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth,
a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph,
a descendant of David.
The virgin’s name was Mary.
The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored!
The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.
You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,
and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age,
and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.
For no word from God will ever fail.”
(Luke 1:26-37)
Think About It
This Advent season, we have been discussing how to cultivate the new self; Christ within you. We have analyzed three parables of Jesus and looked at different points in the journey of Mary at how to practice this growth. So, here is a Christmas question to ponder: Why was Mary chosen out of every women in the world to carry the literal Christ in her womb? When we read the passage in Luke 1, there is only one clue I see as a way into this question and it’s in the Angel’s greeting to Mary. In the NIV written out above, Gabriel’s welcome is translated as “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Highly Favored? That is VERY churchy language. But what does that mean? Favored means “acceptable or to find pleasure in”. So God found delight in Mary and saw her as acceptable for what He was calling her to do. But doesn’t God see that in all of his Creation? God calls all of Creation “good” in Genesis. So, again, why is Mary different? In a survey of different translations of the greeting, I found the MSG version helpful. (It certainly beat the TLB’s “Congratulations, favored lady!”) The MSG paraphrases Gabriel’s words as:
“Good morning! You’re beautiful with God’s beauty,
Beautiful inside and out! God be with you.”
I really resonated with that greeting because it answer’s a lot of things. It affirms thatfirst and foremost, God sees the beauty he created in Mary. She and all things are a reflection of his masterful work in Creation. Which brings up another point, God created Mary with this purpose in mind. In this appearance from Gabriel, Mary is being graced by God with her calling to be the conduit by which God is made incarnate in the world. By extension, the Christ in us, is the seed of God’s beauty we are working to bring into the world. It is a part of this grand mission to bring Heave to Earth. Just as God favored Mary above all other women to do her part, he has also favored you in the specific purpose he has called you to.
Take With You
“In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.” (Luke 1:26-27)
This calling the Mary received seems to have come at a rather inconvenient time. Her introduction mentions that she is pledged to be married to Joseph who happens to be a descendent of King David. That would have been a pretty prestigious engagement. Even if David’s family was no longer in power, the bloodline would have probably been seen as a stamp of honor. In short, Mary got herself a good one! The news of Gabriel complicates this arrangement. Instead of pledging herself to Joseph’s plan, she is now pledging herself to God’s plan. That’s a lot of sudden pressure! And yet, Gabriel gives her more news:
“Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age,
and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.”
That’s incredible! This shows us that not only does God make promises of his power through us, but he also has given displays of this power through other people. Mary got to surround herself with a person who could affirm what she was going through and strengthen her for the judgement she would later face in Nazareth. Through Elizabeth, Mary’s faith would be solidified and the news of the angel wouldn’t just be rationalized away. Some Bible scholars think this could be a pattern we can observe in Mary’s life. If we read John’s Gospel without any outside influence, the only person it names that Jesus loves is Lazarus. This leads some to think that “the disciple Jesus loved” was Lazarus who he would later raise from the dead. So, at the Cross when Jesus gives his mother to an unnamed disciple, this could be Lazarus. What better partner to get paired up with in the midst of a crucifixion but a product of resurrection. God could have been sending Mary a guide to sit with through Saturday as a reminder of what was coming Sunday.
I hope this Christmas season, we work on noticing all the displays of God’s power that surround us. They may not be as dramatic as a virgin birth. They may be as small as an encouraging word, family getting a long with each other, an opportunity to grow closer to your community. All of this outward power is a reminder of the Christ which lives in you; the new self.
