Shortly after Mary
discovered that she was pregnant, she went to live with relatives a long way
away. Mary was from Nazareth in Galilee;
Elizabeth lived in the remote hillsides east of Jerusalem, where her husband,
Zechariah, served in the Temple.
Sometimes we are told that
Elizabeth was Mary’s cousin, but clearly they weren’t close to the same
age. Mary was a young woman in her teens
and Elizabeth was much older - “getting on in years” is how the gospel of Luke
puts it. Maybe Elizabeth was Mary’s
mother’s or father’s cousin.
We might wonder why Mary
went to stay with Elizabeth.
Well, in spite of her
advance years, Elizabeth was also pregnant.
In fact, it was the first time for her.
She was even teased among her neighbours because she had never been able
to have children.
People can be so cruel.
Elizabeth getting pregnant
at this time of her life was nothing short of a miracle.
Speaking of people being
cruel, sometimes when a young person (like Mary) unexpectedly becomes pregnant,
people in the family worry about what other people might say. They worry about the rumours that gossipers
will share. Did you hear about Mary? Yes,
and apparently they don’t even know who the father is.
They might even have called
her the Aramaic version of the S-word or the W-word. Quite the scandal.
It is sad to imagine that
people could be so cruel - to both Elizabeth and to Mary.
Hopefully, the reason Mary
went away was to allow her to support Elizabeth and to learn from her about
what to expect in the months to come.
Hopefully, if ‘worry’ was a
motive that it was to protect Mary from the cruelty of the rumours and not that
her parents were embarrassed. The bible
doesn’t say.
Mary stays with Elizabeth
about three months. The way the Bible
reads, it sounds like the teenager stayed until just before Elizabeth had her
baby. It might have made sense for Mary
to stay for the actual birth, but it doesn’t sound that that is what happened.
But it does sounds like these
three months were good and helpful for Mary.
She must have been surrounded by family support and the promise of
motherhood.
If Mary was worried and
scared when she arrived, she was able to feel better by realizing that she was
not alone.
She knew the love of
family. And she knew that God was with
her.
In
Luke chapter one, verses forty-six to fifty-five, we read that 46Mary sang,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, 48for
the Lord has looked with favour on the lowliness of this servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call
me blessed; 49for
the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is God’s name. 50God’s mercy is for those
who fear the Lord from generation to generation. 51The Lord has shown
strength and scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52The Lord has brought down
the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53The Lord has filled the
hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54The Lord has helped his
servant Israel, in remembrance of holy mercy, 55according
to the promise God made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants
forever.’
Mary saw herself as being
part of a long line of those who were included in the loving promises of God. She knows that - in spite of her age; in
spite of what people might say about her; in spite of all of the worries she
might have about the future - she is loved by her God. And that is a blessing.
When Mary looked deep inside
herself, she knew that God was alive in her.
“My soul magnifies the Lord” she said.
God is made brighter and
more visible through Mary and her faith.
Like a magnifying glass,
through Mary, God can be seen by others in this world.
When we look through a
magnifying glass, whether it is one of those cheap ones you can get at a dollar
store, or a microscope, or a telescope, we are able to see details that we can
easily miss with just our naked eyes.
One of the neat things
about looking through a magnifying glass is that there is always more to
see. If we turn up the magnification -
if we look deeper and farther - we discover amazing details.
These details were always
there, we just weren’t able to appreciate them.
And once we have seen with
new eyes, we can’t ignore the discoveries that have been made. They change us. We are never the same again.
In the story of Jesus’
life, Mary is the one constant. She is
there at the beginning. We hear of her
being with Jesus during his years of ministry.
And she is even with him on his fateful, final Passover pilgrimage to
Jerusalem.
Mary’s soul magnified God.
Jesus learned of God from
his mom.
And as we look deeper into
the life and ministry of Jesus, we can be changed.
The world will never be the
same again.
Let us sing together #134
from More Voices “There Was a Child in Galilee”.
No comments:
Post a Comment