12202020 – Luke 1. 26-38 Advent 4B
This is all about setting the stage, as it were. Reminding us of the proper context…to read and to understand this passage.
To begin with, we are talking about the Gospel according to Luke, also written anonymously…like those that have preceded it. Luke is the third gospel to be written following, Mark and Matthew.
Only Luke relates this story.
The birth stories are told from Mary’s point of view.
Later, Luke will include narratives about Mary, Martha, Mary Magdalene and an anonymous woman who anoints Jesus’ body for burial.
As a result, Luke has often been referred to as “the Gospel of womanhood.” There are eight positive stories about women, included in this gospel.
The Gospel text for today is considered to be one of them.
To better understand the Gospel text we need to consider the placement of girls, like Mary in the social-pecking-order of first-century Palestine.
In a gender-segregated, male-dominated patriarchal society, young girls, like Mary, were sheltered from the outside world. And, I mean “sheltered.”
She should have never been left alone and left vulnerable.
She should have never been visible to anyone outside of her immediate family.
She was to be protected at all costs to ensure the honor of her entire family…but especially, that of her father.
Young girls were never educated under any circumstances. Literacy laid with the males, since females were considered too inferior and too emotional for education.
Likewise, women had no rights in ancient society…and they were indeed treated as mere property.
As you have heard before, at least the family cow could be sold for money or butchered for food.
Girls, like young Mary, stood at the bottom of all proper society.
Family honor was everything, and by family honor, we mean the honor of the father and the male members of the family.
Girls meant nothing.
Women had no honor of their own…they could only stand in the honor of their husbands and their sons.
We are talking a young woman here. Quite possibly as young as 12 ½ or 13 years of age….bearly a woman.
She was NOT ENGAGED but rather was betrothed, she had no say-so in the arrangement, it was decided between men.
So what we have here is – in a small Jewish hamlet, too small to even be mentioned even once, in the Hebrew Bible…a young woman was asked to give up her reputation (and that of her family) for a greater honor.
We are talking here about receiving the honor and the favor of God..
It is a frightening and terrifying story, especially for one so young…and especially from the perspective of a young woman.
The young girl is caught alone by a powerful-dominant-male figure.
We are not told the “whereabouts,” inside, outside, in the house, or exactly where.
All we know for sure is that any encounter such as this should have been prevented at all costs and should never have occurred.
To do as she was told, meant dishonor for her male family members, and more than likely, death for herself.
Honor would be restored in her death.
So when Mary was initially greeted, she was perplexed. She should not be seen. She should not be spoken to in public. She should not be visible. She should not be addressed by a stranger. Ever!
She is a “peasant girl” from a working-class neighborhood of tradesmen…in some little backwoods village or hamlet…
Her fate was never her own.
From her earliest of days, she would have been told what she could do and what she could not do…always under the threat of extreme punishment or beating.
At first, she objects, of course, she does, it is the honorable, the expected thing to say and do.
“How can this be?” She asks? She is disturbed and puzzled, as we might expect.
The interesting thing is that the story is not hushed up and buried in antiquity. It is spoken of, it is remembered, it is shared. It is even proclaimed.
The other comment worthy of remembering is that “all of the human redemption” was dependent upon the consent of a young teenage girl.
It is the story of a woman who was faithful to God’s call.
And in the end, Mary says, “Yes!” knowing both she and her child will face a life of uncertainty…and possible shame and degradation… Amen.