Blessed Are You Among Women

The past week my wife and I saw a movie called “Whale Rider” about a young girl named Pai, that despite tradition becomes the leader of her tribe. The movie takes place in New Zealand during contemporary times where the Maori people are losing there native traditions and people are moving away including her father. I was impressed with the genuineness of the acting, especially the debut of thegirl played by Keisha Castle-Huges. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, making her -- at 13 years old -- the youngest actress ever to be nominated in this category.

So has does this tie in with this weeks topic for my blog?? I believe the innocence and goodness portrayed by Keisha in the Whale Rider led to her being chosen to play the part of Mary in “The Nativity Story”, a highly recommended portrayal of the events we are going to look at next in our passage of Luke.

Before we look at this passage in detail I think it’s important or clarify my approach to doctrine and scripture. This is especially critical at this point due to the many views on who Mary is and what she means to us. There are many ways that we create truth about spiritual matters that are based on our human values. They are tradition, experience, rationale and dictate.

We can assign truth to traditions that have been practiced for a long time. If over time many people believed something and practiced it, it must be true. As an example the Catholic Church has a long tradition of worshiping Mary and assigning her special spiritual position above others. This tradition includes Mary ascending to heaven and not experiencing physical death like the rest of us.

We might find some that experience a special change in their lives because they saw an image of Mary in a rock formation, tree bark or visiting a cave somewhere. This experience shared with others leads again to creating a special emphasis on Mary as a person to be worshiped and prayed to. This is truth derived from experience.

Mainstream Christianity puts an emphasis on logic and rationale approaches to thinking. The emphasis here is on my human wisdom. What seems right to us? The tendency here is to explain away the miraculous and extraordinary. This group would tend to portray Mary as just a person. Though she might be the mother of Jesus she does deserve any special recognition to the point of not even acknowledging her in the teaching of the church.

There exist many groups who receive their understanding of truth through dictate. These groups are led by strong and charismatic leaders who dictate how their followers are to believe. They may use scripture, but will twist its meaning to their own advantage. Due to the diversity of the leaders in this category there isn’t a singular view of who Mary is. There are some that do not recognize Mary at all, and some that would point to a contemporary female leader in the group as the true mother of God.

I now come to what I hope is the way best way to know the truth about spiritual matters. In this blog we recognize that God is the source of truth and He communicates that truth to us through His Word (The Bible). My prayer and hope is that we can remain faithful to this approach as we explore these passages of scripture and that your lives may be enriched from growing closer to God.

Ps 1:1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

So I am going to ask you to put aside preconceived ideas about Mary and to open your eyes to what God will teach us as we meditate (think about) this passage from Luke 1:26- 38

Luke 1:26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”^[c]
29 But when she saw him,^[d] she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Gabriel who we met earlier is now on another mission from God to deliver a message. The message is to a virgin named Mary. There isn’t any dispute about the meaning of the word virgin here. Since not only is it mentioned several times in the passage, but has direct bearing on Mary question “how can this be, since I do not know a man?”.

Now the key to understanding Mary is how the angel addresses her. First Mary is to rejoice, because she is highly favored, the Lord is with her and she is blessed among women. Mary is receiving undeserved blessing and favor from God. He has chosen her and His choosing has made her blessed among women. This is noteworthy not as a commentary on who Mary is, but on who God is and who he bestows his blessings on.

Mt 5:3- 10 3 “ Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Well my plan was to keep this blog brief and to the point so I guess I will have to pick up this discussion next week. In the mean time if you are able to get a hold of the movie “The Nativity Story” that would help in visualizing the events we are looking at in the first couple of chapter of Luke. Please feel free to submit comments and questions, since my hope is to have a dialog that is beneficial to all our understanding of who God is and what he means to us.