Thoughts for the Day

Luke 1:34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

Yesterday’s focus was on how this question was pivotal for Mary’s understanding of how she would become pregnant. Today I note that it is also pivotal to our understanding of the nature of Jesus.  Conception requires a father, and God was Jesus’s, not in a metaphorical sense, not in a spiritual sense, but in the practical, biological and physiological sense.  We need to allow Gabriel’s bombshell to explode in us too!  In the absence of DNA testing, of course, the immediate evidence is simply Mary’s testimony and both her and Joseph’s testimonies of their corroborating angelic visitations.  It requires faith to accept it.  But it is fundamental to our faith.  We claim Jesus was both wholly human and wholly divine, and here is the root of that claim at the moment of conception.

At the risk of getting myself into some truly hot water, let me comment on Mary too.   Unquestionably Mary was highly favoured, specially selected, courageous, faithful and lots more. But arguably, she was also necessarily representative of human-kind, so that, in joining with her as the practical, biological and physiological mother of Jesus, God well and truly came into our ‘mess’, cleansed it, redeemed it and rose above it.      

Unsurprisingly, then, the Virgin Birth is affirmed in every creed or other denominational statement of Christian belief (certainly that I’ve come across).  Yet the diversity of views about it is a veritable minefield.  At one end some note that it is only mentioned in the New Testament by Matthew and Luke and only in the Christmas story, and conclude that it is a fabrication, simply a device to highlight the importance of Jesus.  At the other end Mary is attributed with characteristics beyond anything I find in the Bible, most notably that she was herself sinless.  One end seems to struggle with the notion of Jesus’ birth being anything other than “normal” and wants to remove any vestige of the miraculous.  The other seems to struggle with the idea that Jesus’ birth could be in any way “normal” and supports the view with extra-biblical narratives.  What are we to believe?

As with any scriptures we struggle with, any passages we are tempted to over-emphasise, water down, or even ignore, I can only suggest approaching them as openly, humbly and prayerfully as we can.  Recognise that God is the same from Genesis to Revelation and beyond, seek to learn as much of Him as we can from as much of His word as we can and ultimately trust His Holy Spirit to lead us to the truth.