Who Mary Is
She is the greatest woman who ever lived. Maybe that's divisive? But no other woman was trusted by God himself to bear his one and only son, God in human form, Jesus Christ and raise him into adulthood. And then follow him and support him in his ministry.
Mary is the mother of God. No matter how you feel about that statement, It's literally true.
Mary is not just one of the greatest women to ever live, she’s one of the greatest people to ever live. Up there with the rest of our Biblical heroes. Names like Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul. Mary is up there with them.
Mary is blessed, over and above all women for all time. She represents the pinnacle of feminine accomplishment.
Bearing, birthing and raising the savior of mankind. God himself.
Now the feminists in our culture might find that statement belittling, The ability to bring new life into existence isn’t something to negate or belittle.
The ability to bring forth new life is a quality of God not given to man. Men obviously play a part. But it's the woman's body that undergoes the changes, endures the strain of childbirth and whose body sustains the baby after its birth.
Bringing forth new life is one of, if not the greatest thing a human being is capable of.
All of society rests upon it. The continuation of humanity itself is impossible without it.
Mary should be an example for all women, especially mothers!
Study what we have of Mary's life in the Bible. See what we can learn from her example. How to be a better woman, better mothers. And something all of us can learn from her is how to be more faithful servants to God.
This is who Mary is.
Mary’s Story
Now Mary’s story reaches its climax in the Christmas story which we’ll obviously get to. But I want to start at the beginning of her story all the way back in the book of Genesis!
Some of you might be surprised by that but Mary’s introduction in the bible comes in Genesis chapter 3. But it does! Starting in verse 14.
Genesis 3:14-15 (NLT)
14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. 15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Here God is laying out the punishment for Satan after he deceives Adam and Eve. Cursing the snake to crawl on its belly, but in verse 15 we see the mention of a woman and her offspring.
“And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Immediately someone reading this for the first time might assume this to be talking about Eve. Her being the only woman present during this conversation. But this is actually the first Messianic Prophecy about Jesus. This verse is called The Protoevangelium, which means First Gospel.
Jesus is the offspring of the woman, Jesus will destroy the Devil, strike his head. But the Devil will get a bite in there, talking about Jesus’ death on the cross.
And understanding the offspring spoken of here is Jesus means that the woman has to be referring to Mary!
All the way back in the beginning of the Bible. God is making his plans known!
Which means this has always been his plan! From the very moment mankind sinned God had a plan in place to redeem us and was beginning to reveal it.
So time continued on. And God continued to reveal more details of his plan of redemption involving his son as well as Mary.
The next Messianic Prophecy that mentions Mary brings us to the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 7:13-14 (NLT)
13 Then Isaiah said, “Listen well, you royal family of David! Isn’t it enough to exhaust human patience? Must you exhaust the patience of my God as well? 14 All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).
Here Isaiah is speaking to the King of Judah Ahaz regarding the alliance between Syria and Israel.
King Ahaz was in great distress of their alliance because the two nations allied themselves against Judah and were planning to attack and take over the nation.
So the Bible says Ahaz was overcome with worry, but God sent Isaiah to tell him to stop worrying because God has spoken and this invasion will never take place. God even offers Ahaz a sign to prove that what he said was true.
But Ahaz was an evil king with no faith in God so he rejected God’s offer of a sign. So instead of giving Ahaz a sign for his salvation God gives the entire line of David a sign of their salvation.
That a virgin will conceive a child! What? What a sign for God to give! I can only imagine the reaction of those hearing this from Isaiah’s mouth.
“That would definitely be quite the sign, obviously from God”
I’d be a miracle! And the son she’ll give birth to will be called Immanuel ‘God is with us’.
More details about God’s plan revealed. About Mary and her son Jesus.
The last prophecy that gives mention to Mary is found in Micah 5
Micah 5:2-3 (NLT)
2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf. 3 The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the woman in labor gives birth. Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land.
Here the prophet Micah is prophecying to Israel and is giving them a real mixed bag.
He’s giving them good news, a ruler of Israel, their messiah is coming and will be born out of Bethlehem.
But he’s giving them bad news as well. That until the a woman in labor gives birth to this ruler (talking about Mary) God will abandon Israel to their enemies.
This time of abandonment mirrors the labor pain of Mary but once that period of labor is over for Israel then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land.
A more direct translation from the Hebrew says it like this: The remainder of his brothers will return to the sons of Israel.
“His” refering to Christ. But who are the brothers talked about here?
All believers. Jews and gentiles alike. Christ’s brothers, those he considers his family. The Jewish believers will return to covenant relationship with God becoming genuine sons of Israel again. And the gentiles will be grafted in with the sons of Israel.
This is the last old testament prophecy that mentions Mary.
And all of these prophecies being me to awe of the Omnipotence and Omniscience of God. I hope it does for you too.
God’s plans can be trusted. God can be trusted, place your faith in him! He knows his plans for history, into eternity. He knew Mary thousands of years before her birth. He knew the plans he had for her since the beginning of time.
And he knew you too! All the way back in Genesis. From the beginning of time he knew you and he knew the plans he made for you.
And the free will God has given mankind cannot bring his plans to ruin. He’s bigger than that. Everything is accounted for.
700 years after this prophecy in Micah we begin to see the fullfillment of all these prophecies in Luke with the introduction of Mary.
Mary’s Faithfulness
Luke 1:26-38
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36 What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. 37 For the word of God will never fail.”
38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
Here in Luke the Virgin prophecied about throughout history is finally revealed.
A young woman living in Nazareth named Mary, who’s engaged to be married to a decendent of David named Joseph.
Given what we know about this time period and the culture most historians believe Mary to be somewhere between the ages of 14-16 at this point.
These are all the details we learn about her this passage. But we can learn alot about who she is from how she responds to Gabriel here.
Earlier I said that we can all learn from Mary how to be more faithful servants to God. We can start learning here.
Gabriel appears to her and breaks the ice by telling her she has found favor with God and that she is going to become pregant with the Son of God. That her son will become King of Israel and reign forever.
That seems alot to take in.
Apparently I cant speak for Mary but Id think if I was her in that situation Id might have a hard time believing what is being said. At the very least I think I’d have a number of questions Id like answered. Am I alone in this?
But here Mary shows no sign of disbelief. She only asks the angel one question!
She knows how baby’s work and she knows she’s a virgin so she asks him one question, but not out of disbelief just for clarification.
To sum it up this is essentially how this conversation goes:
Hey Mary, God has found favor with you, so youre gonna be pregnant with the Son of God who will rule over Israel forever.
But Im a virgin?
Gods got it covered.
Okay.
Umm… Mary are you sure there isn’t anything else you think you should ask him before he leaves? Anything at all?
No, she takes him at his word, and believes it. No additional questions necessary.
At such a young age, no signs of fear, no disbelief.
The level of trust and faith in God on display by Mary…
If only we had an ounce of her faithfulness… But we can learn from her!
Mary is blessed because of her faith in God’s word. We’ll read that in the next passage. And in the next passage we can further examine the level of faithfulness Mary shows thats even beyond what we see in this passage.
Luke 1:39-55
39 A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town 40 where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. 41 At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. 43 Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? 44 When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. 45 You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”
46 Mary responded,
“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. 47 How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! 48 For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed. 49 For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me. 50 He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. 51 His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. 52 He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands. 54 He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. 55 For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”
In this passage we have Mary visiting her relative Elizabeth. And the thing that really stuck out to me regarding Mary is that we see her singing a song of praise to God.
This really shows the depth of Mary’s trust and faithfulness to God. Even more so than her response to Gabriel!
One could make the argument that Mary’s response to Gabriel, the lack of fear, and questioning. The quick acceptance could be a result of shock. Youre seeing an angel, he gives you supernatural news about a child youre going to have. Thats alot to process in the course of one conversation right?
She hasnt had time to process the effects of the news she was just given. The effect it will have on her life.
But at this point its been around a week since her meeting with Gabriel.
The walk from Nazareth to Judah is 4-5 days. And thats if she left immediately, the passage says a few days later so its been at least a week.
A 4-5 day walk is alot of time to process.
And in this passage we still see no hesitance, no fear from Mary. Not a hint of regret for accepting what Gabriel told her.
Shes just… praising God for it.
Verse 49 sticks out to me the most in her song.
For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me
Has he?
Because the only thing I can think when im reading her song is MARY DID YOU KNOW!?
I know its the Christmas song but genuinely! Mary, did you know, really, what you said yes to?
How much hardship and suffering you just brought on yourself. How much uncertainty?
Youre bethrowthed to Joseph! A betrowthal isnt the same thing as being engaged in our culture. Theyre legally married! They just havent had the ceremony yet.
Mary the punishment for infeidelity under Jewish law is death! Joseph knows he’s not the father. Your life is in danger!
And if Joseph dosen’t have you executed he’ll most certainly divorce you! And no one is going to marry a divorced woman with an illegitamite child. Mary not only is your marrage ruined, your chances of ever being remarried is ruined!
Your family will likely cast you out in shame! And youll be without a man to provide for you!
Their culture isnt like today. In that day a woman without a husband or father to care for them is destined to live on the streets, begging for money for the rest of their life. That or prostitution.
And with a child on the way. Mary I know you know this!
And here she is singing… Giving praise to God.
Mary did you know!?
Joseph he’s going to stay with you, but he is going to die and youre going to be left to raise your children as a widdow.
Did you know!? That after your son is born youll be forced to flee your home, and live as a refugee because Herod will try to kill him?
Mary, did you know, that you will watch your son die? You’ll watch as he’s brutally beaten and nailed to a cross?
How could you have? Mary didn’t know these things.
But the thing that tears me up.. I can’t prove this, but I believe it.
Is that even if she wouldve known all these things. I think she’d be here, singing her praises to God.
Why cant we trust God like Mary?
We spend our days worrying, what will we eat, what will we drink, what will we wear? We worry about money, our time our finances. Everything. Yet God knows we need it and tells us he will provide for us. But we continue worrying.
If only we had an ounce of the faithfulness Mary had…
How much different would our lives look?
God can be trusted! We can take him at his word. He has good plans for us. His word is reliable, just look how it has stood the test of time.
Prophecy after prophecy after prophecy fulfilled without fail. Plans spoken of eons in advance coming to pass precisely as he said.
This season and into next year, let’s all take a lesson from Mary and give the best of our faithfulness. Because if we can trust God, we can place our faith in him!