Recently reading the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke regarding the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would have a son in miraculous fashion, I began thinking more fully on the cultural implications for Mary.
Mary would have been a teenager when Jesus was born, and Joseph would probably have been in his 20s, possibly even close to 30. This is the accepted cultural information found everywhere one looks. However, my questions weren’t related to the age of Mary or Joseph.
What about Mary’s parents? We know nothing of them except that Mary and Joseph’s marriage had been arranged. That takes involvement of the parents.
Logic must therefore reign as we ponder Mary’s situation. Her parents must have raised her diligently in the instruction of their faith. They must have at some level supported her unplanned pregnancy, as they did not reveal it to religious authorities. Otherwise Joseph, her betrothed, would not have thought about “putting her away privily” (Matthew 1:19). Religious authorities could have judged her and caused her to be stoned.
What about Mary and Joseph’s friends, extended family, and work relationships? We can’t remove this couple from their community and social life. The gossip must have been intense after Jesus was born and people began counting months since the time Joseph took Mary as his wife as the angel instructed.
Matthew 1:18-20
“Now the birth of Jesus was on this wise: when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being as just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her if of the Holy Ghost.”
Mary had to trust God with confidence that no matter the looks and whispers, she was in His will.
Mary received the angel Gabriel’s declaration with faith. “Be it done to me according to thy word,” (Luke 1:38) was a declaration of acceptance of God’s will no matter the cost. Culturally the cost could have been her life. At the least, gossip and shunning. She would have been well aware of the cultural laws.
When she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth before her and Joseph came together in their marriage, Elizabeth called her blessed because she believed.
Luke 1:45
“And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
Elizabeth’s prophetic greeting to Mary must have greatly comforted the young girl’s heart and mind. Her cousin provided further confirmation of the things Gabriel announced. And Mary must have been greatly comforted to see proof of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, as Gabriel also had told her.
