Thoughts for the Day

Luke 1:39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea …

Encouraged by Gabriel to check this demonstration that “nothing is impossible with God”, Mary will set off to visit Elizabeth, a journey of around 80-100 miles taking maybe a week on foot, less if she can join a caravan.  We are not told exactly when she sets off, but the text indicates soon after her exchange with Gabriel, and she will stay with Elizabeth for three months.  Most likely, then, she will be around one month pregnant when she leaves and four to five (allowing for travelling time!) when she gets back.  She will leave perhaps even before her body confirms to her that she is pregnant.  She will return ‘showing’. When, I wonder, along this timeline did she share this news with Joseph, and how?  We are not told.

From Matthew’s account, which focuses on Joseph, we learn that he was righteous, compassionate, open to God’s revelation and obedient to it … a pretty good list of character traits for the man chosen to parent Jesus (or for any father, come to that).  Matthew also records that Mary “was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit”, but it is clear that finding her “with child” preceded confirmation that it was “by the Holy Spirit”.  What a huge test for both Mary and Joseph.  So how did Joseph react to this bombshell?  Evidently not so well.  At best he tells her he will need to think about it, and at worst he may have told her what he was thinking.

Matthew records the Joseph “had in mind” to divorce Mary but to do so quietly (balancing what was right and what was compassionate).  How awful for them both!  Joseph is confronted with the apparent betrayal and disgrace of adultery, Mary with the prospect of rejection.  All is put right when Joseph is visited in a dream by an angel, who explains something of God’s plan, whereupon Joseph does as he is told to do.   But the dream came only “after he had considered this”.  There was this agonising interval between discovery and revelation.  Was it all before Mary left, or after she returned or was the time away part of Joseph’s thinking time?  Whichever it was, it was a sobering introduction to the rollercoaster of circumstances and emotions that being the parents of Jesus will entail.