Advent with Luke #6 – Born of the Virgin?
How surprised was Mary, and then Luke’s first readers when Gabriel materialized? They believed in angels but didn’t encounter them very often. The bigger surprise? Luke emphasizes that she is a virgin – no big shock for a young woman in a small town with few bachelors! But this virgin will be having a child, and soon.
Luke doesn’t point to Isaiah 7:14 explicitly as Matthew 1:18-25 does. But that 700+ year old prophecy loomed in the background. You may have learned in a college religion class that Isaiah 7:14, “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son,” isn’t a crystal ball prediction of the birth of Jesus or Mary’s virginity. The original Hebrew, ha almah, needn’t imply “virgin.” It’s simply a young woman of child-bearing age, maybe a virgin, maybe not. That ha matters. It’s not “a woman” or even “a virgin” but “the woman,” or “that woman,” clearly implying someone in eyeshot of Isaiah and King Ahaz, who needed help right then, with the Assyrians besieging Jerusalem.
Should we be disturbed that Isaiah wasn’t literally prophesying the birth of Jesus? Not at all. Isaiah revealed what God was about to do in Ahaz’s day: a child would bear a name, “Immanuel,” reminding them (and us) of the hopeful truth that God indeed is with us. God was and is always like that – and especially when God entered another womb and became flesh. Matthew 1:23 connects the dots.
Mary knew Isaiah 7:14. Did she come to cherish it and understand her life path through it? I know that woman. I am that woman. Did Joseph think Gosh, it’s Mary. Whether Isaiah’s woman was a virgin or not, Mary knew she was (as did Joseph). Did she speak of this verse with Joseph or her mother? Isn’t Ben Witherington right? “It is perfectly possible for God to fulfill his word more than once.” How good of God to do so, and to envelop Mary’s anxious season with a promise of old.
In the Apostles’ Creed, we repeat “born of the virgin Mary.” I’ve been asked if you can be a Christian and not believe this is factually true. Of course. We’re saved not by mental consent to dogmas, but by God’s mercy. People often ask me what I believe. I’m sure it may seem laughable to people smarter than I am, but I do believe she had this child without having engaged in intimate relations with Joseph or any other man. I have 3 reasons.
First – and oddly – I ask myself, Who are the 50 people ever whom I admire the most and hope to emulate? And then I ask myself, What percentage of those 50 believed Mary was a virgin? The answer? 95% or so. This doesn’t guarantee anything, but I hope to grow old becoming more like them.
As a science lover, I admire the mountain of knowledge we’ve piled up, understanding more and more about cause and effect. What seemed magical or miraculous centuries ago we now understand, and are blessed by that knowledge. But I get in a funk when I stumble into thinking everything can be explained by measurable cause and effect, that nothing ever happens that is inexplicable, or mysterious, or divinely miraculous. Aren’t we cynical about Mary virginity because we presume we have mastered how everything really works?
And then: are we cynical about Mary’s virginity because we’re flat out jaded in our culture about intimate relationships? David Brooks wrote of the “McDonaldization” of physical intimacy. I married a couple recently who informed me they both would be virgins entering marriage. I was shocked. I hate to feel or appear to be prudish. But I do suspect our modern ethic on these things isn’t entirely healthy or holy for us. Mary being virgin might just hold out some hope for us who are shocked when somebody else is or was or will be.
We needn’t suspect Joseph. He had good cause to put her away, to shame her, to divorce her – unlikely if he’d been sleeping with her. Joseph was “virtuous” (Matthew 1:19). I’d add “merciful.” Picture the raised eyebrows and whispering in town! He was courageous. He stayed. He shows us how to stay. His role in the story, manger scenes and pageants, is simply to hang around close to Mary and then Jesus and Mary, no lines, no action except maybe holding the donkey’s reins. Being close to the Christchild, virtuous, merciful, committed. That’s the guy I want to be.