You Were There (2/9/04)
Can you imagine the absolutely shocking nature of this encounter! Here is a young child, perhaps fourteen years of age. She is betrothed, pledged in marriage to one of the local men, and that betrothal period is nearing its end. She has been careful to remain chaste in light of this. And now this! How has this man even come into her house? Who has let him in? Is there anybody else at home at this point? Has anybody seen him enter? What will people say!
Shocking enough to have this man in her house unescorted, but now come his words. "You have been given grace, favor, and honor." What's that all about? She is but a daughter of plain folk, and lives in a backwater community. To be from Galilee is hardly to be honored. Ridiculed, perhaps, but not honored. And then he adds this, "God is in your midst." What does that even mean? Is he bringing charges of some sort against her? She wracks her mind, trying to recall if there is anything for which she might stand accused, but she comes up empty. "God is in my midst? OK. Well, God is everywhere, so I suppose that's true enough, but what's his point? Perhaps he has the wrong house. Me? Honored? How so? Because I can keep house?" In her own sight, she is doubtless just a village girl. The greatest honor she has known is simply that she will be wed. I wonder how much she even understands the significance of that. Is it a matter of little girl imagination to her, all dreaminess and romance, with no edge of reality, or is she more wholly prepared than that?
I cannot imagine that she thinks of any higher honor. She will be wed, and this is enough. Favored? Well, yes, he has a trade, but her father would not have agreed to her betrothal to one who could not make a house for himself. Certainly, he's not a disreputable man, and that's a blessing. He is not rumored to be rough, or hurtful, which is well and good, but what is this honor thing all about? And what is this stranger's visit going to do to that honor? People will talk! What if Joseph hears of it? He could call the whole thing off! What blessing then?
New Thoughts (2/10/04-2/11/04)
I am really wondering, at this point just how Mary perceived these words of Gabriel's. At their simplest level, this greeting doesn't seem all that shocking. "Hello, cheerful one! The Lord be with you." There is nothing in that which would seem inclined to inspire a thorough agitation of one's thoughts. It is little more than an elder's greeting of a child. What cause, then, for the alarm Mary experienced? Was it his appearance that caused the shock? Perhaps. Zacharias was certainly shocked to see Gabriel, although it's unclear how much of that had to do with the place, rather than anything awe inducing in Gabriel himself.
No, Gabriel hasn't come to shock. His mission is not to overawe those he greets with the superiority of his heavenly nature. He comes to bear messages of great comfort and joy. What place does shock value have in that mission? I am certain, then, that the text reflects the situation truly when it says she was agitated by what he had said. Now, if she had heard the whole of the message already, I could see this easily enough, but that opening greeting does not, if read lightly, seem likely to so much as spark the curiosity.
I think, then, that she must have heard more in this simple greeting than is evident to us in the translation of it. It seems to me that there are two words that we need to grasp the full flavor of, if we are to understand Mary's reaction. The first of these is that word 'favored.' Thayer's Lexicon gives us a greatly intensified meaning for this, suggesting that it includes in its sense the idea of pursuing with grace, surrounding with favor, honoring with blessings. There is also the syntactical aspect of this. The word is delivered as a perfect passive participle. The perfect tense speaks of things accomplished, it declares of the matter that it is finished. Yet, it also declares that the completed work continues to bear results in the present. The participle aspect of the word makes it a description of her to whom it is applied. The whole of this, then, gives us the message "Greetings, having been pursued with grace, having been surrounded with favor, having been honored with blessings, and all these redounding to your present circumstance…"
Now, I see something that might cause a bit of confusion at least. One can imagine Mary beginning to think, "who has been pursuing me grace? Who has been surrounding me with favor? What is he talking about?" I can also see that, unlike the translation, it seems that Gabriel speaks one sentence, not two. That greeting is followed by "The Lord is with you," but not as an unrelated statement, there is a connection drawn. I think the passive nature of that favor would suggest a reading something like this: "You have been pursued by the grace of God, surrounded by Divine favor, heaped up with the honor of His blessing, because the Lord is with you." Now we begin to approach something to be wholly agitated about.
But come a little further. That little word 'with,' it seems so innocuous, so unexciting. It's almost anticlimactic after the powerful description of Mary's status. Indeed, when I was going through the 'interesting' words of these two verses, 'with' did not strike me as one of them. But, as I began to consider the paraphrasing, it was impressed upon me to consider further what that word really means. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for that prodding! The Lord is 'in the midst' of you! He is your associate and companion, your help and guide. Oh, now we have something shocking indeed! God is your companion. He is in your midst! Wow!
Recall Gabriel's explanation to Zacharias, "I am Gabriel. I stand in God's presence." Now, this same Gabriel comes to Mary and says, "God is in your midst." He might as well have said, "you are standing in God's presence." OK, now she's really got cause for concern! She would be quite familiar with here Scriptures, knew the warning God had delivered through Moses, that none could see the Lord's face and live. Yes, now that agitation she experiences becomes understandable.
There are other aspects to that word as well. It is also suggestive of the idea that God would be there to accompany her, and to guide her. In this first moment, when she knows nothing of what is to happen, this part of the message might slip by, much like Zacharias had apparently missed the point because he was too stunned by one particular detail. Here, Mary is likely caught on the idea of being in His presence, and may not have thought far enough to consider that He was declaring Himself her companion and guide. Yet, we are told she was thinking hard on these initial words, gathering together in her mind all the possibilities as to what this stranger meant by them; not only gathering, but weighing all those possibilities, seeking to arrive at comprehension of his words. Contemplation, we will be seeing, seems to have been a strong part of Mary's character.
As time went by, as this Son she bore grew, and His purpose on the earth became more clear, how important these words must have become to Mary. What she went through as a mother, very few are called to undergo. The hurt, the trials that she faced as she watched her son pursue his course; the rending of her heart as she saw Him paraded through the streets to His death, as she saw His agony upon the cross; these things would surely crush her spirit, were not God there with her. Her faith would no doubt have been utterly destroyed by that scene, by that pain and sorrow, where not God there, guiding her through her pain, to a place of understanding.
That same comfort that she found in God in her time of trial is ours today. This is one of the great pieces of news given us in the Gospel. Every one of us to whom the Holy Spirit has come bringing salvation hears this very same message, "God is in your midst, joining with you to be your Companion and Guide." He is traveling this difficult path right alongside us, pointing out the dangers to us, lest we fall by the way, helping us up when we stumble and fall. He is here! Never mind the assurance of knowing He is on His throne, we have greater news than that! He has come down from His throne to be with us here and now!
Given those who are so certain that God, if He exists at all, is remote and far removed from His creation now that it's created, this is a great assurance, indeed. They are wrong. He is here. He is in this challenging journey right alongside us, not that He is challenged by it. But, He is here. He can and does point out the pitfalls, the snares, the dangers along the way, and He steers us clear of them, so long as we are listening. What more could we ask or desire?
Yet, while this is great good news, it is also a scary thing. God is with us, in our midst. While He is a great help to us in time of trial, this also means He is there every time we reject His guidance, every time we willfully thrust aside His desires in favor of our own disastrous way. If we contemplate in full what it means to have God as our constant companion, to know He is there when we're looking for Him, and He is right there looking when we aren't, this can only bring both comfort and fear. I would not want to face this world without Him, having known His comforting presence, having seen the dangers I would have embraced to my detriment if He had not been there to stop me. No, never again would I want to feel alone on this road, yet there are those times when I would that He had not been there to see. There are words that have slipped from my mouth that I would He had not heard. There are thoughts I have entertained, that I would that He had not known of. But, I live before His face every moment. He is here, and there is nothing of me that is hidden from Him, however I may deceive myself on that matter from time to time. He is here, very present in time of need, and equally present in time of rebellion. How, then, should I live my life?
God, You are a most challenging travel companion. I shudder to think of the foolish things I've said and done as You stood beside me, shaking Your head in sorrow for my stupidity. How deaf I must be to have missed Your warnings in those times. When does it change, Lord? It will ever be a mystery to me, Holy One, why You choose to allow me to do, to say such things, why You don't simply exercise Your power to change instantly and completely. Yet, somehow, this struggle brings You a greater weight of glory, and for that reason, Lord, I submit to it if not gladly, then at least willingly.
Oh, God of greatest Purity, forgive me for the offense I have been to Your holiness, for every breach I have made with what is good and proper. Help me, my Lord, to hear Your guidance more clearly, more quickly. God! How I long for a time when I hear the warning before I take the fall, rather than grasping desperately to Your hand as You lift me back up. Yet, I am thankful to know You are here, even when I rather wish You weren't, You are here, and I know, You are not silent. Ever, You speak into my life, ever You turn my heart more fully to the pathways of righteousness. Thank You, Lord, for that assurance, that calming knowledge that You are with me even now.
