Mary's Story (A Christmas Message)

Miriam’s (Mary’s) Story

In the days of Isaiah, the Nativity was all still a dream, a vision, a hope of things to come. Hopes and dreams should inspire action – that’s what makes them different from wishes. A wish is merely passive optimism – wishes don’t bring results. Isaiah saw a deep spiritual corruption in his people. They had plenty of passive optimism, but seemingly little hope as Assyria first, then Babylon conquered them. Ezra and Nehemiah changed that by rebuilding Jerusalem. They inspired hope. Ezekiel saw bones turned to flesh, and Daniel saw beastly empires overcome by one unarmed man. In the centuries leading up to the Nativity, these prophetic dreams never died. The dream, the desire of women, was alive and well in women like Elizabeth and Mary. This is about far more than the prophecies of the coming Messiah. God has used many “one persons” to bring about His plans. Abraham and Sarah were mirrored in Elizabeth and Zacharius. Like Sarah, Elizabeth was older when she conceived, then gave birth to Johannen (John) a Hebrew name meaning “God has been gracious.” We too should dream and hope for better days when God will be gracious unto us. Enter Miriam – in Latin Maria, and the English version Mary – another unremarkable ‘one person’ from an unremarkable town that had a bad reputation. She presented herself to God, a ‘one person’ favored by God for a special purpose, a pre-Christian example of dying to self.

This Miriam was not unlike another Miriam, the sister of Moses. She protected the infant Moses just as this Miriam protected the infant Savior. Both Miriams were selected to look after men who would lead Israel out of bondage.

It would be a mistake to think of this Miriam, the Hebrew girl whom the Gentile world now calls Mary, as fragile. Even at the age of 13 or 14, she was a peasant woman performing laborious duties to her family. She made an annual 5-day trip to Jerusalem on foot – no small task for a young teen, and she went about her peasant woman business until Gabriel showed up. Then, even while pregnant, she was capable of walking the hill country of Judea, making a 100-mile trip to visit Elizabeth, and a 70-mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem on a donkey, then giving birth in a stable room, enduring the horrors of Herod’s massacre, fleeing to Egypt with her husband and a baby…   No, she was not a fragile young girl. History teaches us that she probably had a robust physique, and the needed strength to do what needed to be done.

She is often called the “Virgin Mary,” although never in Scripture are those two words put together as a proper name. Nazareth is never mentioned in the Old Testament or the Talmuds – another example of God using unknown people from unlikely places for His great purposes. Little is known of her personal history, but we can gain an understanding of who she was by looking at the cultural and societal influences under which she lived.

Her genealogy is given in Luke 3. She was of the tribe of Judah and the line of David. Psalm 132:11 says, The Lord has sworn in truth to David; He will not turn from it: “I will set upon your throne the fruit of your body. Mary was connected by marriage to cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth was descended from Aaron. Scripture teaches that the point of divergence between the royal lineage of Mary and that of Joseph is that he descended from David’s son Solomon, and Mary from David’s son Nathan. Mary’s father was Eli who, since he was a direct descendant of King David, gave Yeshua the royal right to ascend to the Jewish throne.

In the Hebrew culture, a young girl was betrothed, but not married, to a man after her bat-mitzvah, the Hebrew coming-of-age ceremony for girls held at the age of 12 or 13. This is roughly equivalent to what we call “engagement” today. We are sadly mistaken if we picture Mary as the lavishly-dressed, blond-haired, blue-eyed Madonna that hangs in Catholic churches and appears on Christmas cards. Regardless of how we think of beauty, she would have had features similar to those of Jewish women today, most likely with long dark hair, olive-toned skin, dark eyes, and height of not more than 5’. It is unlikely that Mary knew how to read or write as literacy was extremely rare among women of the time. The Hebrew culture was primarily verbal. The Scriptures were read publicly by a Rabbi, they told stories as a means of communication since they didn’t have phones or texts, they recited poems, and they routinely sang songs and hymns.

After God spoke to Miriam, she sang the psalm recorded in Luke 1:46-56,

Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed. For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me. He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands. He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”

Many today hear this Song of Mary – or in Latin, Magnificat  – as the freedom song of the poor. She epitomizes the lowly of Israel, the marginalized and the rejected, those for whom there is no room at the inn. Yet she sings praises of God with joyful confidence. It’s easier to understand this song when we know who the historical Miriam, Mary, was. Galilee was the seed ground for 1^st century revolts against repressive government power and its taxes. Some of Paul’s writings teach that the Christians of Jerusalem suffered from real hunger and poverty. Mary believed that these people, her Son’s followers, would make the world right again. She was convinced, as Christ taught in Matthew 25, that in God’s kingdom the poor come first. And the prostitutes, publicans, and outcasts of society eat at the table of the Lord. The historical Mary experienced poverty and want, oppression, violence, and the execution of her first-born. She is not among the world’s elite and powerful, but simply God’s servant girl. But she knew that nothing is impossible with God.

Mary’s life was wholly Jewish. She would have kept a kosher kitchen, spoke Aramaic, and the family home would have had a mezuzah scroll on the doorpost. We know from Mark 3:31 and John 2:1-12 that Mary was alive throughout her Son’s ministry. Her separation from Him was likely very painful for her, as the stereotype of Jewish mothers’ close relationship with their sons is based in truth. Even worse, Mark tells us in 3:13-15,

“And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons” And in 20-21, “Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.” 

We could ask the question: What mother, upon witnessing her son pose direct challenges to the Romans – a death-defying act – might not have asked Him, “Are you crazy?”

Mary serves as an example of yielding to God’s will. She presented herself to the Holy Spirit to cooperate with His creative power. Because she surrenders, she receives. She gives all of herself because she dared believe the impossible was possible. Her Son modeled her self-surrender, and He often preferred to heed her insightfulness, as recorded in the Gospels.

When we think of the Nativity story, we usually tend to think of it according to how movies and popular renditions or entertainments depict it. We need to realize that there was actually no urgency in the trip to Bethlehem. They would not wait until the last second the way we do things today. It wasn’t an emergency. Her husband-to-be was a kind, considerate, and obedient man. You may read his story in the following blog post. He was well aware of her condition, and would have done nothing to endanger her. The concept of the rush-rush Nativity we think of originated with an anonymous 3^rd century writer who felt a need to embellish the story – something some churches continue to do to this day. The “inn” was not a hotel. The Greek word in Scripture is “kataluma,” which means guest room or chamber. In the Hebrew culture, every home had a guest room. Hebrews had a sacred duty to hospitality, and a pregnant girl would never have been turned away. Since all the katalumas were occupied, one family discharged its duty by allowing them to sleep in a stable room, which would also have been attached to the house in most cases. Incidentally, the Last Supper was also eaten in a kataluma.

We also know from Scripture that Mary had other children, a fact that the Catholic Church seems to ignore since their doctrine teaches that she was perfect and died a virgin. Her other sons included Joses, James (the writer of the Book of James), Judas (not Judas Iscariot), and Simon (not Simon Peter). There were daughters, as well, but they are not named in Scripture. Of the brothers, the next oldest after Yeshua was James. Other cult religions have also distorted Mary’s Immaculate Conception, and these false ideologies have crept into our culture. Some Mormon leaders wrongly claim that Mary had sexual relations with God appearing as Adam, and Islam wrongly teaches that Christians believe that Mary had sex with God.

With that in mind, one might ask then what was in Christ’s DNA? Did He inherit it from Mary? Many have not carefully thought through this issue. Again, Roman Catholicism has made particularly grievous errors by elevating Mary. She was a repentant sinner saved by grace, just like everyone else. God’s Word gives us no reason to believe otherwise. She needed the Savior, as we all do. Paul wrote, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Prior to His incarnation as the baby in a manger, Christ was a Divine Person in spirit; a part of the Trinity that is God. He is called “The Word,” and He existed before the Creation of the world. Under Jewish law, the baby was legally the son of Mary and Joseph. To Mary, by being grown in her womb and delivered like any other child, and to Joseph by legal adoption under Jewish law.

There are important differences between Yeshua and every other human child. First, Yeshua was born of a virgin. Ever since Adam was created from the dust of the Earth, and Eve’s creation from Adam’s rib, all human descendants have been created at the moment of conception. Each new person, complete with eternal spirit, wondrously begins by Divine design at the moment the DNA of a man and woman combine. But Yeshua’s spirit already existed in eternity past—He is God. Clearly his spirit did not come into existence on Earth through a human combination of DNA. Neither did his body. The physical body of the Man has to have been a special creation of God, placed in Mary’s womb. This is the biblical doctrine of incarnation and the virgin birth. The Father sent “…His own Son in the LIKENESS of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin…” according to Paul. ‘Likeness’ means like, not ‘is.’ Every human child has been born with corrupted flesh and inherited sin nature. This is the result of Adam and Eve, and each generation has sinned, passing on its sinful nature to each succeeding generation.

Like Adam, Yeshua was not physically derived from any previous human being. Both began as untainted special creations, without a sin nature or corrupted flesh and able to stand in God’s Holy presence. Yeshua is just as fully human as Adam, and He is called the Second Adam, the great solution humanity desperately needed. He is also called the Last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15. Although He grew in the womb of Mary, apparently in the same manner as any baby, His source was Divine, different from all other babies. He could not be from one of Mary’s eggs, for those, like all other cells of descendants of Adam, contain the inherited sin nature, corruption and the curse of death that is passed through our DNA, causing us all to be born spiritually dead and doomed to physical death. No, Yeshua is absolutely PURE and SINLESS. He had to be flawless, since His purpose in becoming a man was to serve as the spotless LAMB OF GOD, without blemish, a worthy sacrifice to pay for our sins.

Summarizing, it seems clear that neither Christ’s spirit nor his body resulted from the DNA of Mary; she was a blessed and highly favored vessel to carry God’s Son, but not the source.

Yeshua grew and lived a sinless life and then died for our sins, satisfying the need for justice. Then He arose, defeating the penalty of eternal death for us, and ultimately regaining Paradise for His chosen people. How amazing is our Creator and Savior!

After Christ began His public ministry little Scriptural notice is taken of Mary, however she was notably present at the marriage in Cana. A year and a half later we find her at Capernaum where Christ uttered the memorable words, “Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!” The next time we find her is at the cross along with her sister, Mary Magdalene, Salome, and some other women. From that hour, the apostle John took her to his home to look after her. Acts tells us she was with the group in the upper room after the Ascension, probably with John (whose Hebrew name is also Johannen). Mary was very important yes, but her importance really ended when Christ began His ministry. These short biblical mentions do not add up to a woven tapestry of her life. Only in the narratives of the Nativity and the Passion is her place significant. Her acceptance of the favor shown her in the Annunciation is the prologue to the Christmas story. At Calvary, she stands at the foot of the cross, but at the Resurrection, “the other Mary” who came to the tomb is not she because, having kept in her heart what He was to be, she knew that the body of Messiah would not be there.

After Pentecost, Mary disappears from Scripture, and largely from history. What memories, hopes and strategies did she share with the men and women of the new, Spirit-filled Jerusalem community? Was she quiet or outspoken? Tradition portrays her as having moved to Ephesus in the company of John. At the time of the crucifixion, she was probably about 50, beyond the age at which most women in that era died. She lived on at least into the early days of the church. Luke states in Acts 1:14 that she was in the upper room in Jerusalem with the 11 remaining apostles “who devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women...and with his brothers.”

The time and manner of her death are unknown. Some Roman secular historical accounts report Mary as having died in Ephesus in 47, 17 years after Resurrection. If she was 14 or 15 when Yeshua was born, she would have been born around 18 BC, and died at the age of 65. However, Hippolytus of Thebes in Greece, a Byzantine author who wrote extensively about the Holy Family in the late 7^th Century, and whose original writings survive today, recorded that she died there in 41 at the age of 59. There is simply no way to know for sure, and God did not have it divinely recorded. His word, however, is clear that Mary’s unique position as the mother to Yeshua did not give her any more access to God, or more clout, than any other believer is given. Therefore, Mary is not worthy of receiving prayers. Christ addressed this in Luke 11 by emphasizing that it’s more blessed to be a follower of Christ than to be the mother of Christ.

Catholicism teaches that, allegedly, Mary was taken, body and soul, into Heaven in a rapturous event. This dogma of the “Assumption of Mary,” was only declared in 1950! In Heaven, Mary supposedly intercedes for the church as advocate, helper, benefactress, and mediatrix, effectively elevating her to be a co-savior with her Son. Recently, an increasing number of prominent Catholics have petitioned the church to officially declare that Mary can provide forgiveness of sins! These beliefs are so far off the rails from Scriptural truth that one would wonder how they were dreamed up in the first place!

In closing, and perhaps most significantly, we can know much about Mary, just as we can Joseph, by observing who he Son was as a Man. And we should always remember that it was from the lowliest of states, from the most humble of people, and from the most unnoticed of society that God fulfilled His great purpose.

Remember the Holy Family, dine with them, and enjoy the table which has been set before us in the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, and Lord and Saviour of all mankind.

That is what Christmas really is.

Shalom Aleichem.