Pretty much every year, the Christmas story, the most familiar story in the Bible- maybe in the whole of western culture- still manages to show me something I haven’t thought about in that way before. This year it’s Mary.
How do you see Mary?
She’s probably the most famous woman in the Bible, maybe tied with Eve, with whom she is often contrasted. Eve is seen as representing the ‘Fall’ of humanity, or our selfishness, while Mary is the embodiment of obedience and faith. It’s easy to see why, in the first chapter of Luke’s gospel. When the angel tells her the news that she will be carrying a baby that will be God’s son, her response is to say, “All right, if that’s what God wants’.
For two thousand years the church has used that as an example of how we should respond to God’s calling us to do this or that. It’s especially been (mis)used as an example of what women should be like in relationships not just with God, but often with men. But if you read on, there’s more to Mary than the traditional picture often presented by carols and nativity plays.
Given that the last person who met an angel in Luke chapter 1 was literally struck dumb and was unable to trust God to do what the angel had said (despite being a priest!), we should probably not take it for granted that Mary responded with such radical obedience. Luke (ch1 v29) describes her as ‘perplexed’ or ‘greatly troubled,’ depending on your translation. Other references to Mary describe her as someone who thought deeply about what was happening (Luke chapter 2 verse 19, for example). Yet despite probably not fully understanding, she was willing to say yes. To trust that God could do what the angel said. She would surely have been able to guess at some of the struggles she would face, but she doesn’t try to get out of her calling. The Old Testament has plenty of stories of people called by God to do something they don’t want to do, who squirm and plead and, in some cases, literally try to run away.* Mary doesn’t.
After she says yes, this young woman, probably only in her teens, hurries to see her relative Elisabeth. Maybe she goes to escape inconvenient questions and gossipy whispers in her hometown, maybe she just wants the company of someone else who can share her experience of an unexpected and unusual pregnancy- someone who might believe her unbelievable story.
The greeting surely surpasses all her expectations. The bible doesn’t report a lot of conversations between women, so it’s lovely to see an older and a younger woman rejoicing together and supporting one another. I picture the scene with lots of tears and laughter and hugs.
And then Luke reports that Mary comes out with this beautiful song (Luke 1 verses 47-55, often called the Magnificat). A young woman who has lived all her life in a village in a territory that has been occupied by a military power. She draws on Old Testament imagery and the words of the prophets to picture a world where the proud and rich rulers are brought down and the poor and humble are lifted up, with plenty to eat and enjoy. A world where God’s people are freed from those who oppress them and live under God’s protection. Mary would have probably understood this as being about the Jewish people, freed from living under Roman occupation, but we can see that it’s broader than that, going right back to the promise God made to Abraham that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him (Genesis 12 v3).
It’s a pretty radical vision, even today, to say that rulers who prioritise themselves over those they serve will be overthrown, or that those with nothing will be given plenty. Jesus evidently shared his mother’s political views, for in Luke chapter 6 v20-26 we see him saying basically the same thing. In one sense, it’s looking forward to some future time, after God’s direct intervention in the world to bring about justice (what we sometimes think about as ‘armageddon’ or the end of the world. But Mary sounds to me like she believes it’s happening now- not at some unspecified point in the future, but through the child she is carrying.
I think most of us would agree that the world around us doesn’t reflect what we believe God wants. It was the same in Mary’s time, with different oppressors but many of the same problems. So how can Mary believe that this better future will come about? The clue is in Luke 1 verse 37: “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Mary believes that God can be trusted to bring about this. And why shouldn’t she? God has already worked a miracle in her life.
So, how do you see Mary? I would argue that the picture of her as the ideal, obedient mother figure doesn’t come close to seeing her as a fully rounded character. That her obedience came from a thoughtful faith and the hope that God would bring about positive change in the world. Maybe it’s harder for us to believe this, given that two thousand years on from Mary, people are still starving, still suffering under unjust rulers (not least, perhaps, in parts of the world very close to Bethlehem). But maybe the example of Mary’s faith- in God, in the change that will be brought about through the child she is carrying- can help us to hold on to that hope, and inspire us to do what we can to bring the world closer to the one she describes in her song.
Read Mary's story in Luke 1 here.
*Moses, Elijah, Jonah to name but a few. A personal favourite is Judges 4, where a leader called Barak is too scared to go to war unless the prophetess and judge Deborah will go with him.
