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For those of us who are personally acquainted with the Savior who was born that first Christmas day, Christmas holds particular significance. However, we’ve romanticized the story of Christmas to the place that the manger scene and the people involved seem like actors in a play. We rarely stop to think that they were real people, in anything but a romantic setting.
That’s why I’d like to bring a little reality to the Christmas story. I want to talk about the most blessed woman who ever lived. And I want to focus on the heart of Mary. What was it about this lady that qualified her for this incredible privilege of bearing the Savior of the world? What was in her heart?
Let me begin by pointing out that nowhere in Scripture are we given any indication that Mary is to be worshipped. If she were here, I think Mary would be the first to tell us that she was just a woman, a very simple young lady, chosen by God for a special purpose. But like all of the rest of mankind, she was born of Adam’s race—born according to man—and she inherited the same sin nature that all of us have.
So, when I speak of Mary’s heart, I’m not elevating her to some divine place of sinless perfection. We’d have a hard time relating to her if that were true. But in fact it is because Mary was just like us—a regular lady—that we can look at her heart and can identify with her and learn from her. So, try to erase all those images of Mary with a halo over her head, and see instead a lady with a wash bucket and children, a small, poor home, with few luxuries or conveniences, and a very special heart.
Though Mary came from the line of David, she was a humble lady from a very small, insignificant town, Nazareth. We don’t know anything about her parents, except that they must have been godly people because Mary had a very good knowledge of Old Testament Scripture.
We begin to get an idea of the heart of Mary when we think about Gabriel’s announcement to her that she had been chosen to bear the Messiah. Let’s look at that passage in Luke 1:28-38:
Gabriel said to Mary: “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 name Him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible with God.”
And Mary said, “Behold the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Certainly Scripture makes it clear time and again that Mary was then a virgin and remained a virgin until after the birth of Jesus. You know, not many people who will be celebrating Christmas this year really believe that Jesus was born of a virgin.
Why is it so terribly important that we believe and accept that Mary was indeed a virgin until after Jesus’ birth? Because we know from Scripture that sin entered the world through the seed of man. Had Jesus been conceived through an earthly man’s seed, he could not have escaped the sin nature that is born into all of us. And if Jesus were not sinless, he could never become the sacrifice demanded by God’s righteousness.
The virgin birth is not an optional theology. Your whole destiny—and mine—depends upon whether or not it is true. We are acceptable to God when we accept the redemption and forgiveness of our sins made possible because the perfect sacrificial Lamb, Jesus Christ, paid the debt for our sins. And Jesus Christ was perfect because there was no sin in him passed on to him by the seed of man. He was born of a virgin; the only man who has ever been born of the seed of a woman. That is critical.
Can you imagine what Gabriel’s words meant to a little Jewish girl, probably only 15 or 16 years old, of the humblest means, who has heard all her life about David, his kingdom, his reign as King of Israel? And now, she is told that her son is going to take David’s place and reign forever. I’m sure Mary had often heard the prophecies of the coming Messiah. But surely she never seriously thought she would be selected as his mother.
Can you put yourselves in her shoes, and think of how you might have reacted? It was an incredible declaration requiring enormous faith on Mary’s part. Would you have accepted such a statement face value? How does Mary react?
She asks a very simple question, not a question of doubt, not a challenge to the truth of the angel’s statement, but a question of curiosity and logic. To paraphrase she asked: “How can I have a baby, when I’ve never known a man? If you’re not going to use an earthly man for this, how are you going to do it?”
So, to a simple, honest question, Gabriel gives a simple answer: “The Holy Spirit will cause this child to be impregnated in your womb, Mary. Therefore, He will be the Son of God.”
Mary’s acceptance of this announcement is absolutely remarkable. Once Gabriel answers her simple question, in the same simple faith and openness, she accepts. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” Instead of plying Gabriel with hundreds of questions, instead of giving place to all the doubts and fears and insecurities that she must have felt at that time, Mary accepts.
Let’s think of some of the normal, natural questions and objections that Mary could have legitimately raised at that point. She could have said:
- What will I tell my friends and relatives? No one will believe that I have not slept with some man. What will happen to my reputation?
- What will I tell Joseph? He probably won’t want to marry me now.
- And if Joseph doesn’t marry me, what will I do to support myself and this baby? I will be an outcast.
- Worse still, Gabriel, if Joseph so desires he could divorce me or he could have me stoned to death for adultery.
- Why don’t you, Gabriel, tell everyone else what you have told me? I would appreciate you doing that. Then maybe they will believe me. At least tell everyone in Nazareth, please.
Wouldn’t you have asked some of these questions or made some other requests of Gabriel? I’m sure I would have.
But not this Mary. Her immediate, unquestioning response is “be it done to me according to your word.” Now we’re beginning to see the heart of this special lady. An accepting heart.
What is required of us in order to have an accepting heart? First, we must stay very simple, and by that I mean uncomplicated. Mary didn’t try to see exactly how everything was going to work out before she accepted. She didn’t let her imagination run wild with all the “what if’s” or “why’s”, as many of us tend to do. She kept it very simple. She accepted from God’s hand what he had asked of her.
Do you keep your heart simple? Or do you waste emotions and time and effort in complicating issues? When you know what God wants you to do, do you get all tied up in knots, trying to see every possibility and make sure you know every step of the way before you do anything? You know, you’ll save yourself a lot of grief if you can ask God to give you a simple heart, to help you learn how to un-complicate decisions and situations by simply accepting.
Another thing required for an accepting heart is trust. Mary believed with unwavering faith. Can you appreciate the enormity of what she was asked to accept by faith? She was asked to believe that she would become pregnant without ever having relations with any man. And Mary believed.
Why do you think Mary so readily believed what Gabriel told her? Do you think it’s possible to just have that kind of trust and faith without any preparation? Was she just born that way?
I don’t think so. We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. We know from what Mary says later to Elizabeth, her cousin, that Mary knew the Word of God. She had established her faith in God’s Word, so when Gabriel brought this further Word of God to her, she was accustomed to trusting it, and it wasn’t difficult for her to trust it once more.
May I say again what I know I’ve said time and again: You’re never going to be able to trust God until you spend consistent, quality and quantity time in his Word. If some great thing comes on you which requires a lot of trust and faith on your part, and you are unprepared because you don’t consistently saturate yourself with God’s Word, don’t be surprised to discover that your faith falters, and you fail the test. You won’t be able to muster up tons of faith on the spur of the moment if you don’t make trusting God a part of your everyday life. And that comes by knowing him through his Word.
Are you in the midst of some testing now? Are you under some stress or pressure that requires faith on your part? I hope you’ve been staying in the Word of God, because that’s where that instant faith comes from at those unexpected times when you need it. You need to know the Word of God to have the kind of trust that Mary had.
This Christmas is a bit unusual for most of us—with all the issues we face in our country. But maybe it’s good that we have less “stuff” this Christmas and more time to celebrate the real meaning of that day. How marvelous it is that, as Paul says in Galatians 4:4: But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.
I pray that you have become a child of God through placing your trust in his Son, the One who was willing to come and be born of a woman so that you and I could be redeemed from the curse of the law and sin. If not, you can that right now by confessing your sin and allowing that One born in a manger to cleanse you and give to you the full rights as his child. Until you have done that, you can never really understand what Christmas is all about.