Yes, She Knew

Did Mary know?  Absolutely.  Because exactly the kind of thing God does.

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Transcript

Luke 1: 39-55

“Yes, She Knew”

December 22, 2024

According to Luke, it all started this way.  “During the reign of King Herod…”  Just to be clear, this is the one known as Herod the Great.  There are lots of Herods and it can get confusing so I have to keep a handy-dandy chart to keep them all straight.  

In Matthew, this is the Herod who heard the news from astrologers following a star that the King of the Jews had been born in Bethlehem.  “But wait, that’s my job!”  He was known as paranoid and a particularly cruel king so just in case, Herod the Great, or to be more accurate, Herod the Horrible, ordered the slaughter of all boys under the age of two in and around Bethlehem to eliminate any competition… which is why the Holy Family fled to Egypt as refugees to escape his death squads.  

Some years later when Mary and Joseph wanted to leave Egypt and go back home, the king then was Herod the Even More Horrible, Archelaus, just as paranoid and cruel as the previous one, if not more so.  That’s why the Holy Family moved to Nazareth instead of back to Bethlehem.  It was 94 miles north where there was yet another Herod ruling – Herod Antipas, who was also the Herod that Jesus stood in front of on trial.  Not to be confused with another Herod, Agrippa, before whom Paul stood on trial.  

This extended Herod family ruled for 137 years.  For fans of history, this is fascinating.  For everyone else, are you ready to go on with the story? 

So again, Luke starts his story, “During the reign of King Herod…, the Great-slash-Horrible one, there was a priest named Zechariah working his shift at the Temple.  The angel Gabriel was sent from God to give him news that his wife Elizabeth would soon be pregnant.  Zechariah responded with disbelief.  “That’s not possible.  My wife is way too old for that.  You’ve got the wrong guy.”  

You may recall a similar situation with the elderly Abraham and Sarah centuries before when she laughed at the absurdity of such an idea.  And then lied about it:  “No, I didn’t.”  But for Zechariah’s disbelief, he was punished by being made mute.  He couldn’t speak and yet he now had to go home and inform his wife that she would soon be pregnant.  Did he play charades?  (You.  Fat?  No.  Pregnant!?)  

And soon enough Elizabeth was indeed pregnant and went off by herself for five months.  But whereas her husband had been skeptical, Elizabeth was certain.  She knew this baby was a gift.  “This is God’s doing,” she proclaimed; adding, “no one is ever going to laugh at me again for not having a child.”  What a sad thing to say…

And so it was that when Elizabeth was six months pregnant, the angel Gabriel went directly to Mary instead of her husband, which she didn’t yet have, with similarly impossible news.  “You’re going to become pregnant.”  But instead of laughing like Sarah or disbelieving like Zechariah, Mary simply asked, “How can this be?  I haven’t been with a man.”  The explanation was absurd.  Pregnant by a spirit, not a man.  Perhaps it was an idea so absurd that she had no way to object.  But I prefer to think that it made perfect sense to her.  She thought to herself, “That’s the kind of thing God would do.”  So she boldly and confidently said, “Well, yes, of course I’ll do that.”  

She went to visit her cousin Elizabeth to share the news because Elizabeth, pregnant with the one-day-to-become John the Baptist; she was precisely the kind of woman who would understand.  In fact, as soon as Mary approached, Elizabeth knew what was going on without even being told.  The baby in her womb jumped for joy and she exclaimed, “God has blessed you above all women.  Happy is she who believed this is exactly the kind of thing God would do!”

There was a beautiful Christmas song released in the early 90s called Mary Did You Know.

Mary, did you know

That your baby boy will one day walk on water?

Mary, did you know

That your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?

That your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?

That your baby boy will calm a storm with His hand?

And when you kiss your little baby

You've kissed the face of God

Mary, did you know?

This sleeping child you're holding

Is the Great I Am

This question, though sincere and set to beautiful music, reinforces images of Mary as meek and mild, an innocent young girl without a clue, not a bold and brave young woman who knew exactly what she was doing because, of course, that’s what God does in the world.  And if not portraying a clueless girl, Renaissance painters often made Mary look like a wealthy queen instead of, as Kathleen Norris describes her, a woman capable of walking for nine days through the hill country of Judea just days before giving birth, sleeping on the ground.  An olive-skinned, muscular young woman with calloused hands and feet accustomed to hard work.[1]  A young woman who very much knew what she was doing.  

How we picture Mary shapes what we think of Mary.

Here is one of the paintings from the Renaissance of Mary.  Did she know?     

Go to www.davidbahr.weebly.com to see images

This Mary absolutely knew:  Our Lady Breaker of Chains by Nic Phillips

This is what you get when you Google “Innocent Mary”

But here’s another idea for a portrait.  José y Maria by Everett Patterson

We may have a particular picture of Mary in our minds, but there are Mary’s from many cultures, like this strong and powerful Indigenous Mother and Child by Father John Giuliani

Here is a very unique Christmas Madonna from Haiti by Lewis Williams

The Japanese Madonna of Tender Mercy

A Korean Virgin Mary

A Madonna from Poland with a Rainbow Added

But let’s not forget Joseph!  He was not an absent step-father.  He too consented.  This is called Sacred Sanctuary (artist unknown) 

To keep things real, let’s remember this all happened in an occupied land, now known as Palestine, at the time when Rome brutally enforced something they called “peace.”  This is called War-Torn Nativity (artist unknown)

And, of course, Matthew’s gospel tells of their escape from which Herod?  Herod the Even More Horrible, AKA Archelaus.  This provocative icon is called Flight to Egypt by Kelly Latimore

Or like modern day refugees such as this powerful Mary and Joseph Behind Barbed Wire (artist unknown)

And back to Mary and Elizabeth by M. McGrath

Elizabeth knew.  Mary, did you know?  You bet.  She said so in what we call the Magnificat:  “My soul magnifies the Lord, because…”

Here is M. Barclay’s version in which God’s pronoun is “They”:

My soul is alive with thoughts of God.
 What a wonder, Their liberating works.

 Though the world has been harsh to me,
God has shown me kindness, seen my worth,
and called me to courage.
Surely, those who come after me will call me blessed.

 Even when my heart weighs heavy with grief,
 still, hope abides with me.
 Holy is the One who makes it so.
 
 

From generation to generation,
 Love’s Mercy is freely handed out;
 none are beyond the borders of God’s transforming compassion.

 The power of God is revealed:
 They humble the arrogant.
 They turn unjust thrones into dust.
 Their Wisdom is revealed in the lives and truths of those on the margins.

 God is a feast for the hungry.
 God is the great redistributor of wealth and resources.
 God is the ceasing of excessive and destructive production
 that all the earth might rest.

 Through exiles and enslavement,
 famines and wars,
 hurricanes and gun violence,
 God is a companion in loss,
 a deliverer from evil,
 a lover whose touch restores.

 This is the promise They made to my ancestors,
 and to me,
 to all the creatures and creations,
 now and yet coming.
 And in this promise,
 I find my strength.[2]
 
 

Today, in a world controlled by Herods both Great and Horrible, listen up.  This is exactly the kind of thing God still does.  Do you believe it?

[1] Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, 1998
[2] https://artandtheology.org/2022/05/27/magnificat-adaptation-rev-m-barclay/