Luke 1:26-38
One of the strangest phenomena of our age is our insecurity and lack of fulfillment. Have you thought about that? This ought to be the golden age of mankind. Every possibility for self-fulfillment is at our fingertips. We can hop on a plane and in a few hours visit the other side of the world. As I am writing this, Maurice is in Kolkata, Terry is in Cairo, Jessica is in leaving for Swaziland, Austen is in Turkey and Annie is leaving for Thailand. It’s amazing. Missionaries used to go to the mission field for a minimum of six years to a lifetime because travel was so difficult. We have self-help seminars and videos and we can go on-line to get the answers to almost any problem we might face in life. We have all kinds of entertainment and recreation to fill our leisure time. We can participate in virtual football and have a vote on who wins in “Dancing with the Stars”. We are no longer just part of our own little community but we are connected to the world. Last night we got a phone call from a lady in India who was just “checking in.” When we dial up support for one of many electronic gadgets, it is likely we will talk to someone on the other side of the world. Many children are even tutored on-line by someone on the other side of the world. It’s an amazing world we live in today. We are educated, enlightened, well-fed, dressed in the latest and finest, living in pleasant surroundings and in affluence with an amazing latitude of freedoms. If 2+2=4, this ought to be the recipe for happiness, security, good marriages, well-adjusted children and a deep sense of peace and fulfillment. Right? Is this what our lifestyles have produced?
I’m sorry to say that they have produced exactly the opposite. We are a deeply hurting society that is groping in darkness, desperately searching for that elusive peace of mind and purpose in living. We are a society that has gone past dead center and is swinging wildly out of control, desperately grasping at anything that will stop our fall and keep us from self-destructing.
In the process of seeking happiness, we have indoctrinated the minds of our children with the philosophy of self-fulfillment and the drive to be number one. This has become the hallmark of American society. It used to be “all for one and one for all”. But somewhere our moral compass went awry and we have dropped the second half of the adage. We are high-centered on the “all for one”. We have been programmed to believe that happiness can be found within ourselves and that we simply have to discover why we are here and what our purpose is. The “good life” is out there somewhere just waiting for us to discover. Just keep searching!
In reality, this is a lie concocted by the great deceiver of the ages who would like to undo and destroy the precious gift which God has for each of us who believe. Following the above recipe for success leaves us lonely, disillusioned, hurting and still searching. We are nursing a society that has lost sight of true north and has labeled any absolutes or solid moral base as passé. We are left with a people who have turned inward, licking their wounds, trying to decide whether life is even worth living. We are faced with a new generation of young people who are afraid to enter the rat race because they might get swallowed up by it. They are afraid they can’t compete in this “dog-eat-dog” world. They are desperately searching for significance apart from the old patterns established by their forefathers.
About two thousand years ago, there was a young lady named Mary. She was Jewish and grew up in a normal home of simple means and was probably one of several children. She grew up with traditions. Traditions formed a foundation upon which life was built. There was the Bar Mitzvah for the boys at age 13 and the years of preparation and schooling in the ancient Torah to ready themselves for passing the bar exam. Then, after 13, there was the apprenticeship to teach a trade and prepare a home for a wife and family. Those early years were busy. Along with learning a trade, a young man had to lay aside enough money or goods to pay a dowry for a bride. This was no small matter, especially if you wanted a “ten cow wife!”
At the same time, the girls were learning to manage a home. Although they didn’t go to school or have to pass the bar exam, they were learning their own trade…that of a housewife and mother. They tended children. They babysat for other families. They learned to cook and sew. They learned to carry water from the city well. They learned to churn butter and bake bread and dry food and spin wool and an endless number of other things that took special skills and would qualify a young lady for marriage. Girls did not learn the finer points of the law like the boys did, but that didn’t matter. They understood the important events of their history. They understood their lineage. They knew who Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were and who David was and how God used Deborah and Rahab to save their people. They knew that Messiah would come, and they greeted each other by saying, “May the Messiah come quickly.” They knew this was the next event to unfold in their history.
The crowning point of a girl’s life was her marriage. It encompassed everything that had meaning. And next to that in importance was the ability to bear children. Women who could bear children easily went to the top of the social order and were revered as receiving a special blessing from God.
So, every ounce of attention for a young girl went toward preparation of her marriage. Girls who matured at a young age had a special advantage and were again seen as receiving an added confirmation of blessing from God. As soon as a girl could conceive a child, a husband was sought, often through the bargaining of a matchmaker. The man had to have a trade and be able to provide a home and a dowry that was satisfactory to the girl’s family. It was a great honor to be able to get one’s daughter married off soon. To have a daughter that was not sought early was a curse. So, most girls were bethrothed or engaged when they were about age 12 or 13. A man’s apprenticeship took 5-6 years, so he was usually 18-20 years old when he sought a wife. The engagement period lasted for 6 months to a year. During this time, the couple was to have no physical or social contact. The man made final preparations on his home. The girl set aside her trousseau and came into her marriage with everything needed to outfit her home. This was no small task. It meant hours of sewing and putting aside food and provisions and all the rest that goes with setting up housekeeping.
This was the tradition…the foundation upon which things were built. This was the most important event of life. This was their sense of fulfillment. And if it were not done this way, there was not much to look forward to in life. Anyone bypassing this tradition was not accepted within their society. It was unthinkable to do it any other way. Society had no place for those who circumvented tradition.
Because of the gift Mary and Joseph offered when Jesus was dedicated, it appears that they were of simple means. And they were from a simple setting. Keye’s Story of the Bible World says, “Nazareth was a little village that lay in a quiet backwater away from the regular routes of business and trade. Nazareth was almost completely Jewish and given to the most orthodox customs and beliefs. So strict a place was it, in fact, that Nathaniel quoted the derisive question often asked by neighbors, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’”
For a poor, young girl like Mary growing up in this setting, marriage was her only hope. And she was fortunate to find a man who wanted her…Joseph. She would not be passed over, as some were, and left with no life…the ridicule of her community.
Life was going as planned. It was happening the way tradition dictated. Mary was excited and making preparations for marriage. Then it happened…an angel appeared to her. Angels are not supposed to appear to young girls in little out-of-the-way villages. Luke says she was “confused and disturbed”. Can you identify with her and understand what she was feeling?
And then the message from the angel…she would become pregnant by means of the Holy Spirit while she was still engaged to Joseph. This is all an exciting part of the Christmas story to us today. We call it the “virgin” birth, and it has become a major part of our theology. But to Mary, it was the sounding of the death knell for her life. If a man married a maiden and found that she was not a virgin, he was to divorce her and have nothing to do with her (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). She was doomed! The word would get around quickly—there were no secret in Nazareth! A single mother had no recourse, and her child would be an outcast. And it happened just the way she had pictured it in her mind. She told Joseph; his response was to put her away (divorce her) and not tell anyone…but it would be obvious soon enough.
Mary left immediately to go visit her aunt Elizabeth, who had previously had no children of her own and was like a second mother to her. She prayed for three months and, with the help of Elizabeth, was able to put her life back together again. There were two things she had to do to find God’s peace in the midst of this nightmare.
1. Die to expectations and rights
2. Present her body to God as a living sacrifice
All of her dreams were shattered. Joseph would not marry her. She would go from a “Prima Donna” to an outcast. Her son would have no father. She would have no means of support. She would be a disgrace to her family and the she would be the focus of lots of whispers and gossip from the women at the well. She would have no excuse for what had happened. She might have to end up having to sell her body in order to provide for herself and her child.
And how could she ever be used by God now? What would she have to offer Him? How could she provide a home for herself and her child? Who would believe her when she told them about the angel and explained who this child was? Would the girls in town believe her? What should she do next? She “pondered these things in her heart.” I guess so!
What would you have done? Luke 1:38 says, “Mary said, ‘I am willing to do whatever He wants.’” Is that your response to your circumstances? Can God use you? Can He use you when the whole world rejects you and your life falls apart? Can He use you when all of your dreams and expectations are smashed and you have nowhere to turn?
Are you kneeling at the manger in Bethlehem this year in simple, unadorned worship? What is it you are presenting to Him as you worship? Are you:
1. Dying to expectations and rights?
2. Presenting your body to Him as a living sacrifice?