Background Passages: Luke 1; Matthew 1:18-24; 2 Timothy 1:9-10a; Galatians 4:4-5
Because I grew up in church, the Christmas story is a familiar one. It never ceases to amaze me how the story never grows stale or repetitive when I let God speak through his word. After Thanksgiving, my study and thoughts turned to Christmas. When I read again the familiar story, I thought “Why Bethlehem?”
God used Bethlehem to remind me that he can use the most insignificant among us to point the world to Jesus. He used Bethlehem to remind me that I cannot be caught sleeping and miss the opportunity to see God at work through Christ. To be Christ at work.
I read the passage in Luke again this week. A new thought jumped out at me. God could have chosen anyone to give birth to his son. Why Mary? He could have chosen any man to step in as Jesus’ earthly father. Why Joseph?
While I’ll never presume to fully understand the mind of God, think with me.
The birth of Jesus Christ was not a plan thrown together at the last minute when God suddenly realized his people had abandoned him. While the primordial ooze was still solidifying throughout his universe, the omniscient Creator set in motion a plan to redeem his creation, destined by his gift of free will to go its own way. The baby in a manger, who would be the savior on a cross, was always the centerpiece of that pre-existent plan.
Paul proclaimed it in his second letter to his protégé Timothy.
He has saved us and called us to a holy life, not because of anything we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our savior, Christ Jesus… (2 Timothy 1:9-10a)
God knew when to hatch his plan. He knew he had to wait until just enough of the world was ready to listen with open hearts and minds; ready to receive the gift he would send at that perfect moment in time to redeem those who recognized what he was doing through Jesus Christ.
When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. (Galatians 4:4-5)
I can almost see the Creator staring into the future in search of the woman who would bear the part of himself that would become the salvation of the world. There must have been thousands upon thousands of suitable women to consider as the mother of God’s son.
One might expect his eyes to fall on a woman like Elizabeth with impeccable credentials from a line of ancestors descending from one of Israel’s patriarchs. A woman married to a prominent rabbi, a man of wealth and influence. Scripture tells us Elizabeth was “righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.” (Luke 1:6) He didn’t choose Elizabeth…or anyone like her for that matter.
Instead, his scrutiny extended beyond the time of the law and prophets, into the time of the Roman occupation until it settled on Mary, Elizabeth’s cousin, a young woman without prominence…from a town with no consequence…in a country of little significance.
So, why Mary?
Certainly, the plan had been laid out for centuries as Paul tells us in Galatians. God pegged her from the beginning. To let us know who he had chosen, God’s prophecies described her in detail. The mother of the Messiah would be a virgin living in Nazareth with a reason to give birth in Bethlehem. She would be descended from David and married to someone from the same Davidic line.
Mary checked off all the boxes laid out in scripture for the mother of Christ, but Luke tells us the real reason she was chosen. When God scanned the future and his eyes settled on Mary, she simply found “favor with God.” The prophecies stood only as the backstory he created to validate his choice.
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.” (Luke 1:26-30)
Did you hear it? Did you hear the reason? Before the world began, the Creator’s all-knowing eyes and heart scanned the future and he saw Mary and he liked what he saw in her. He favored her. The Greek word for favor found in these verses is charin. It can also mean favored for this cause, for a purpose.
When God saw Mary, he saw her as someone he could call to serve for the specific purpose he had in mind. He chose to extend his favor to Mary by being with her. (The Lord is with you.) Making his presence known. Standing with her throughout the difficult life to which he called her as the mother of God’s son.
Why Mary? What did God see in her that made him want to extend his favor to her. I think you find it in her response after hearing the news shared by the angel. After the angel told her of her Holy Spirit induced pregnancy and that the child born would be the Son of God, the Messiah, and that his kingdom would know no end, Mary’s response revealed her heart.
After the initial shock wore off and with the soothing reassurance offered by the angel, hear the obedience and trust in her response.
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:38)
The Creator God who sees the end from the beginning chose Mary long before the prophecies were uttered because of the depth of her faith and her willing heart. She was the right woman in the right place at the right time with enough faith to be open to God’s call…willing to let him be at work in her life.
Hang on to that thought. We’ll come back to Mary in a moment. Now, consider this.
Why Joseph?
When God first found Mary in his search through the future of humanity, he found her pledged to be married to Joseph. Like Mary, Joseph held no position of power or wealth. He lived an ordinary life, devoid of the prestige one would expect as the father of the Messiah.
Watch how he responds to Mary’s unexpected news.
Mary tried to explain the unexplainable when she shared the shocking news of her pregnancy with Joseph. When he could not imagine the unimaginable, Joseph could have subjected her to public disgrace and even had her stoned to death. However, he never seemed to seriously consider those options.
A righteous and honorable man, Joseph instead decided to handle things privately. Desiring to avoid making Mary an option of ridicule, humiliation and gossip, he chose a quiet divorce.
In Joseph’s private intentions, spoken only in his heart before his head hit his pillow that night, God saw in this simple carpenter the strength of character and unmeasured grace he needed in the one he would choose to be the earthly father of the Son of God. God saw in Joseph a man of compassion, humility, faithfulness and mercy. Characteristics Jesus would see modeled by his earthly father as he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:52)
While scripture doesn’t say it this way, I think Joseph found favor with God…just as Mary did…just as Jesus would someday experience. That’s why God sent his angel to ease Joseph’s mind.
But after he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins”…When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary as his wife. (Matthew 1:20-21, 24)
I hope you see the same obedience, faith and willing heart that I see in Joseph when he woke up the next morning. He no longer doubted Mary’s experience. He heard the same words of comfort she heard, telling him to have no fear of what the future holds. No second-guessing God’s purpose. No second-guessing God’s plan. He just willingly accepted in faith and obedience the role God asked him to play.
So, we look at this couple and ask why?
Why Mary?
Why Joseph?
Mary and Joseph go down in history as simple, ordinary, everyday people through whom God chose to do an extraordinary thing. He chose them because he saw something in them that let him know they were strong enough to handle the difficult role of being the parents of his only son. They had the choice to say yes or no to the call. He chose them because they made themselves available to the will of God in their lives. Willingly and without reservation.
He did the same for all of us. Before time began, he looked into the 21st century and identified me and you and set aside the work he wanted us to do.
We aren’t called to raise the Messiah from the cradle to the cross, but we are called to raise him up through the power of the testimony of what he has done in our lives. To do the things he has called us to do with the same faith, obedience and willing heart demonstrated and modeled by Mary and Joseph.
So, the question is less about why Mary or why Joseph? Here’s the question that matters.
Why you?
Why me?
Whatever he’s called us to do, it was important enough for God to set it before us. Let’s be faithful in the doing. Willingly and without reservation.