Luke tells us that the shepherds go to find not 'Joseph and Mary' as you would expect but 'Mary and Joseph'. In the actual birth of Jesus, Mary again takes the spotlight. In Luke 1:46–55, we have a record of Mary's great hymn, the Magnificat, which reveals that her mind was filled with Scripture. May your word to me be fulfilled' (Luke 1:38 NIV). This encounter ends with Mary giving one of the great statements of faith in the Bible: 'I am the Lord's servant. Mary, still in her teens, is told (twice!) that she has found favour with God and given the promise that she will give birth to a child who will be 'the Son of the Most High' and be called Jesus.Īt this point Mary fearlessly challenges Gabriel by suggesting that he may have overlooked a significant biological problem: her virginity. Most encounters between humans and angels in the Bible are rather one-sided affairs in which the angel speaks and the human quakes. And it's not just any angel: it's Gabriel who has the privilege of standing in the presence of God (Luke 1:19). For a start, she has one of the most extended encounters with an angel of anybody in the Bible. When you carefully read the first two chapters of Luke's gospel, it is clear that Mary is a remarkable woman with a remarkable task. Let's look at Mary the mother of Jesus as someone who is very much a hero in the spotlight. The difference is clearly seen in two of the central figures of the Christmas story: Mary and Joseph. There are 'heroes in the spotlight', men and women who receive all the attention and there are 'heroes in the shadows', those who are overlooked. In thinking about heroes, I have come to realise that there are two sorts.
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