MARY: DEVOTED MOTHER

When we first meet Mary, she is at her home in Nazareth in Galilee (northern Israel). We don't know exactly how old she is, but we do know she is old enough to be betrothed (like engagement on steroids) to a man named Joseph and old enough to get pregnant. 

One day, as she is going about her normal daily routine, she is visited by the angel Gabriel—the same angel who visited Zechariah at the Temple a few months earlier.

Mary is perplexed by the visitation, but even more when he tells her that she is going to have a baby. 😲

And she asks the same question Zechariah did when the angel told him his barren wife would soon conceive: HOW?

Surprisingly, Gabriel doesn’t strike Mary mute like he did Zechariah. Instead, he answers her question.

GOTTA ASK: Why do you think the angel responds so differently with Mary than he did with Zechariah? Could it be that although the question was the same, their underlying thoughts and feelings were different?

GABRIEL OFFERS DETAILS & A SIGN

Instead of reproving her, Gabriel shares more details: Mary will conceive a baby who will be called the son of God, and she can believe what he says because hers is not the only miraculous pregnancy he’s recently announced.

This whole experience is unsettling for Mary, but she makes herself available for the miracle anyway. She replies to Gabriel’s message by saying,

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord;

let it be with me according to your word.”

Luke 1:38, NRSV

Why does Mary say “according to your word”?

I don't want you to miss this: Gabriel has graciously offered Mary a sign of confirmation that what he’s said is true. Do you know what the sign is? It's Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy.

SIDENOTE: Hollywood often paints Mary as already pregnant when she arrives at Elizabeth’s home, but this is not stated—or even hinted at—in the text.

What we know for sure is this: Right after the angel leaves, Mary sets out “with haste” to visit Elizabeth. The journey from Nazareth to the hill country of Judah is roughly a hundred miles, and after a few days on the road, Mary arrives.

Much to her relief, she finds everything just as Gabriel said it would be. Not only that, but when Elizabeth hears Mary’s voice, she is filled with the Holy Spirit and speaks a blessing over her.

Mary responds with the ONLY full speech of proclamation by a woman in the New Testament. It’s called “Mary’s Song” or “The Magnificat.”

SIDENOTE: The Asbury Bible Commentary notes this is “reminiscent of Hannah’s song after the birth of Samuel (1Sa 2:1-10).” The two songs have many similar themes, and both are accredited to women.

A NEW TAKE ON THE MAGNIFICAT

I encourage you to read this passage (Luke 1:47-55) imagining that Mary is not yet pregnant. Imagine this as her official acceptance speech for what God has laid out before her. Does reading it this way change your view of Mary? Or the impact of what she says?

It’s not long until Mary becomes pregnant through a divine mystery; and through divine intervention, her betrothed does not “divorce” her or “put her away.” He stays with her and marries her. 💍

Towards the end of her pregnancy, she and her husband are forced to travel to his hometown of Bethlehem as part of a Roman census. While there, she delivers her firstborn son: Jesus.

🐪 ON THE ROAD AGAIN...

From Bethlehem they travel to Jerusalem to fulfill requirements of the Law, and then they move to Egypt for a few years eventually returning home to Nazareth.

A very attentive mother, Mary treasures special memories in her heart—especially the visits from angels, shepherds, and wise ones, as well as first teeth, first words, first steps.

SIDENOTE: Joseph and Mary have lots more children together including: James, Joseph, Judas, Simon, and sisters whose names we do not know.

Mary will never forget the time the family packed up to head home from Jerusalem only to discover a couple days later that Jesus was nowhere to be found. Panicked and heartsick, she and Joseph returned to Jerusalem and located their son sitting in the Temple courtyard in theological conversation with the teachers.

⏩ Fast forward a few years, and we find Mary prompting Jesus to perform his first miracle at a wedding in Cana. They have a great relationship as evidenced by the way Jesus teases her when he says, "Woman, why do you involve me?" and then follows her nudge to change the water to wine. 🍷

DEVOTED MOTHER

Mary supports her son throughout His entire ministry, even to the point of personally witnessing his death on a Roman cross. She is one of a small handful of people who stay with Him until the very end.

But Mary's commitment to her firstborn does not end there.

Jesus' mother is one of the first people to visit the tomb and find it empty. And she is also present with the apostles and her son's other followers a few weeks later as "they all joined together constantly in prayer" (Acts 1:14). She is probably in the Upper Room at Pentecost, too.🔥

You can learn more about Mary in the Gospels and the first chapter of Acts. 

Additional Resources:

• “Mary’s Visit to Elizabeth” by Warren Peel on GentleReformation.com (Online) 2020. 

• Asbury Bible Commentary by Zondervan Publishers, 1999. Accessed online at BibleGateway.com.

• All the Women of the Bible by Edith Deen (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1955), p. 168.

• “Mary” Women’s Bible Commentary, 3rd Edition. Edited by Carol A. Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, and Jacqueline E. Lapsley. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012), p. 504.

Photo Credits:

Photo by Leandro Cesar Santana on Unsplash

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