Who is the Virgin Mary?

Mary has been describes many ways. A good woman. Heaven’s noblest gift. The perfect mother. Obedient to God. The list is long. Motherhood is a painful privilege. Young Mary of Nazareth had the unique privilege of being mother to the very Son of God and as Jesus referred to himself many times The Son of man. Yet the pains and pleasures of her motherhood can be understood by mothers everywhere. Mary was the only human present at both Jesus’ birth and death. That is a miracle within itself. She watched him arrive as her baby son, and she watched him die as The Son of God her Savior.

Until Gabriel’s unexpected visit, Mary’s life was satisfactory. She had recently become engaged to a carpenter, Joseph, and was anticipating married life. But her life was about to change—forever. Ah, then, the miracles begin to happen, an angel entered the picture. As you know, angels don’t usually make an appointment before visiting. There Gabriel stood. As if she were being congratulated for winning a mega lottery or a grand prize in a contest she had never entered. His presence must have been frightening! What she heard next was what every Jewish woman in Israel in history hoped to hear—that her child would be the Messiah, God’s promised Savior. Mary didn’t doubt the message, but asked how pregnancy would be possible? Here’s how the story unfolds. 

Mary, the most venerated woman in all of history begins as a confused young girl on a mission from God. When she learned of her conception, the news was somewhat unwelcome, scary, confusing: nothing about it was anticipated or even explicable. Mary was perplexed, mystified, and had a dilemma about how to tell her betrothed Joseph. Approximately 2,000 years ago, according to the Gospel of Luke, in the city of Nazareth of Galilee, Mary found herself in the presence of the angel Gabriel, a messenger of the Lord who was known to the Jewish people in that day as the mysterious figure who had granted Daniel his prophetic visions. Luke writes that the woman was “a virgin pledged to be married to a young man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.” Mary, Luke’s Greek form of the Hebrew Miriam, was the sister of Moses and the first great prophetess of Israel. “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”, Gabriel said. “Blessed are you amongst women,” the angel continued, terrifying the young Mary, who “was greatly troubled at his words.” Confused and stunned, Mary said nothing, her face apparently showing anxiety and awe. Sensing her confusion and fear, Gabriel was reassuring: “Do not be afraid, Mary; You have found favor with God.” Mary, greatly troubled at his words wondered what kind of meeting this might be. The angel told her “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you will give him the name Jesus.” Gabriel elaborated further, “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever: His Kingdom will never end.” In other words, Mary was to bear the Messiah. Composing herself, Mary asked how will this be, I’m a virgin? She was told that, “The Holy Spirit would come upon her, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Who wouldn’t be amazed? Two critical things to bear in mind here: nothing’s impossible with God and He was unfolding his ultimate plan. Mary was understandably overwhelmed and puzzled. She wasn’t alone! In the gospel of Matthew, Joseph, knowing nothing about Gabriel’s appearance, is humiliated by the news that his future wife is already expecting and is pregnant and he has divorce in mind. However Joseph, also, is visited by an angel, and they commit to each other and carry on their lives together. Less than nine months later, in a manger under a bright shining star, Mary indeed gives birth to a miraculous child who would go on to work miracles of his own.

There are other deep roots in miraculous conceptions in the Jewish tradition: the aged Sarah bearing Isaac, the barren wife of Manoah bearing Samson, the barren Hannah bearing Samuel and Mary’s kinswoman Elizabeth barren, bore John the Baptist while Mary carried Jesus. In fact, "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit." (Luke 1:41) Now that's amazing. There are more examples of God granting children to aged parents but just not involving virgins but ordinary married women. This is no small difference. By asserting Mary’s virginity, Matthew and Luke are taking the device of the miraculous conception further than any other Jewish writer had before. Jesus was such a revolutionary force that both Matthew and Luke sought to make him comprehensible in the context of established Jewish imagery and prophecy. In Luke, Mary’s reaction to her conception is: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” And Hannah's prayer of Thanksgiving in 1 Samuel says, “My heart rejoices in the Lord and my horn is lifted high.” Jewish people hearing these women’s stories were able to associate Jesus with past figures of deliverance.

The writer Matthew makes a direct connection with the Jewish past, stating outright that Jesus is answering ancient expectations. Referring to Isaiah 7:14—“Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call him Emmanuel, which means God with us”—the evangelists writes: “Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet.” In discussing Christ’s birth, it all comes back to the Virgin Mary.

Let’s dig a little deeper. Few of us, thankfully, are ever called into situations where our decisions affect the entire world. Just think about that statement for a moment. In order to understand the point of view of Mary the Mother of Jesus, and add the daunting prospect of the fact that an angel had just informed Mary that she would give birth—without having any mammal type of intimacy relations—or having undergone any other single precondition for her pregnancy—was indeed perplexing. Just ask yourself, in what kind of state-of-mind would your faculties of acceptance and decision-making be in such a situation?

In spite of all her fears and unknowns, Mary agrees to put faith first in a way that is as remarkable to modern believers as it must have been to the first few disciples to meet the woman who birthed their teacher. Remember that last line in the Annunciation story where the Gospel says, “And then the angel left her.” This profound experience of God’s presence in Mary’s life ends, and we never know if she had another experience like it ever again. My point? Mary lives the rest of her life in faith, as we must.

Back to Who is Mary? She is a miraculous woman, who gave birth to the Savior of the world, who serves as an example on how to trust God. Mary was a human woman not a divine figure and not a person capable of the kind of intercession we expect when we pray to Jesus, The Son of Man, The Son of God. All Mary can offer us is her Biblical story, her obedience, her faith and trust in God, and her proximity to the Lord—and that is enough. When we pray, we pray to Jesus, not for Mary to answer us—but for Jesus to answer. Mary answered it best herself in Luke 1:38 when she states: “I am the Lord’s servant.” We can imagine that even if Mary had known all she would suffer as Jesus’ mother, she would still have given the same response: “I am the Lord’s servant.” Ask yourself this question, “Are you, like Mary available to be used by God?” A big part of her painful privilege of motherhood would be to see her son rejected and crucified by the same people that he came to save. Thank you Mary and “Glory to God in the Highest”. The bottom line? Acts 3:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” That name—Jesus.