Gabriel’s Message that Permanently Altered Mary’s Young Life
The angel Gabriel suddenly appeared to Mary, saying, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28). Understandably, Mary was troubled by Gabriel’s sudden appearance and initial greeting. Angelic visitations are exceedingly rare. So, Gabriel responded, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom, there will be no end” (Luke 1:30-33). There Mary is, called out by the heavenly messenger as the young woman who has “found favor with God.” Upon hearing these words spoken by the angel, Mary had some understanding concerning their significance. Doubtless, she had heard similar words read at the synagogue in the Scripture’s account concerning Noah, “Now Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord God” (Genesis 6:8). With this knowledge, then, Mary received settled confidence concerning this, her righteous standing before God. Also, she likely had some anticipation of a divine calling, a holy mission.
From that moment forward, Mary could never escape the paradox, the irony, and the incongruity. As with Noah of old, she knew in her heart her righteous standing with God, for like the patriarch, she heard these treasured words, “You have found favor with God.” Nevertheless, this young righteous virgin would shortly come to know that she would be carrying a developing infant within her womb apart from engaging in marital relations with her betrothed husband. What an enigma! What a stigma! Righteous Mary. Betrothed to Joseph. Pregnant before the set time for the consummation of her marriage. Understandable though wrong, the young virgin of Nazareth was stigmatized for life. Likewise, her firstborn son would always bear the stigma of illegitimacy (cf. John 8:41). Understandably, then, her betrothed righteous husband, “unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly” (Matthew 1:19). Only an angelic visit ended Joseph’s plan. Thus, he patiently endured the whispers, the innuendoes, and the gossip that made its way through the village of Nazareth. After Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus returned from their divinely appointed sojourn in Egypt they returned to Nazareth (Matthew 2:13-15; Luke 2:39).
How Should We Receive Mary’s Encounter with Gabriel?
When I was a youth participating in Christmas pageants, society was still heavily influenced by Christian even Victorian morality with its strong emphasis on the family and on sexual chastity. Consequently, Christians tended to suppress any plainspokenness concerning Jewish society’s stigmatization of the Virgin Mary. Thus, throughout my ministry in the gospel, I have labored to correct this suppression. Because maturity should bring the capability to differentiate between things that are not separable but nonetheless distinguishable, throughout my career in the classroom, I endeavored to assist students in acquiring this proficiency.
As a university professor devoted to teaching Biblical Studies, especially the New Testament and Biblical Theology, I regularly challenged my students to ponder the stigmatization that Mary faced not only while God’s Son was in her womb but all her life. Thus, even though I knew that I might invoke the wrath of administrators, earlier in my teaching career, students’ eyes and ears perked up as I challenged them by affirming, “Being pregnant before the consummation of one’s marriage is not sinful.” Then, I would ask: “Was Mary in sin because she was pregnant?” “Of course not,” students would respond. Then, I would always add, “It is not the pregnancy itself but the sexual act that brings about pregnancy outside marriage that is sinful.”
I would apply the matter to where students lived by pointing out how Evangelicals often fail to minister correctly to young unmarried women who become pregnant. In those days, routinely, instead of appealing to the young women and the young men who impregnated them to repent, those who oversaw student life on campuses would quietly expel pregnant young women from Christian universities and colleges. Often, the males who impregnated their girlfriends would avoid expulsion. Invariably, students grasped three points I made: (1) the stigmatization that the Virgin Mary endured; (2) the importance of distinguishing the sinful sexual act from its resultant pregnancy; and (3) the need for Christians to act compassionately by seeking repentance from both the young woman and the young man for their sinful act and by welcoming the repentant to continue in our fellowship.
Eventually, during more recent years of classroom teaching, I began to observe changes in how students would respond when I addressed this issue. Responses became mixed, even detached and indifferent among young people who have been reared in Christian churches where, lamentably, the sexual revolution has significantly eroded sexual morals, the stigma of pregnancy outside of marriage, and worse, the stigma of getting an abortion. Thus, the Advent message for the present generation concerning Gabriel’s announcement to Mary is an occasion for Christians to underscore (1) the stigma Mary endured as a young virgin who was pregnant; (2) the sinfulness of engaging in the marital act outside of the marriage covenant; and (3) the forgiveness of sins available to all who repent because of Jesus Christ whose conception and birth invoked the stigmatization of his mother Mary, of her husband Joseph, and of himself throughout the days of his ministry which brought him to the cross where he sacrificed himself to redeem us from every sin.