I’m sorry this post is somewhat late. I’m trying to update every Thursday, but this post has been an intimidating one. I mean, it’s Mary! The Catholic Church adores her, and everyone else in the Christian faith regardless of denomination at least tips their hat to this young girl who obeyed and trusted God even when she might die doing so.

I skipped ahead to Luke while studying up on Mary because Matthew doesn’t talk about her too much when he tells the story of Christ’s birth. In Luke 1:26-56, Luke tells the story of the angel telling Mary what would happen and Mary going to visit Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. The angel of the Lord describes Mary as “you who are highly favored” and “you have found favor with God.” I think since the angel said it twice, its safe to say that Mary found favor with God. The angel doesn’t tell us how or why, just that God has found favor with Mary. I think in the next few verses we gain some insight as to why God likes Mary so much. Her response to the news that she is going to become pregnant by the Holy Spirit before she’s married is “Okay.” Who does that? She has complete trust and faith in God that He is going to take care of her. Her being pregnant outside of wedlock is an offense punishable by death in the Jewish law, but she completely trusts that God is going to take care of her. Being the all-knowing, all-powerful God that He is, He knew Mary’s heart and knew that she would have complete faith in Him while facing complete uncertainty.

After learning that she will be the mother of the Messiah, Mary goes to visit her relative Elizabeth for three months. While she is there, the book of Luke records a speech or song of Mary’s emotions during this time. Her words in this song show that she has complete faith in God’s promise and does not doubt that she has been chosen to be a part of something great:

“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me–holy is his name.” Luke 1:46-49

Mary returns from Judea three months later, pregnant and unmarried. When I think about Mary and her predicament, I could not help but relate her to all the other teen mothers today. Mary was somewhere between 13 and 16 according to Bible scholars, and she was unmarried and pregnant. While she was a virgin, unlike today’s teen mothers, I have a suspicious feeling that religious people today would have treated the mother of Christ the same way they treat teen mothers today. No one would have believed her, and the Church would have shunned her as a slut and a future parasite of the welfare system. She would have at least suffered some harsh judgment, but Mary faced much worse in 1st century Israel.

Because of her supposed infidelity, Mary could have been stoned to death, but even in the face of death, Mary agreed to bear Christ as her child. For her faithfulness, God did not abandon Mary but took care of her by providing for her a righteous husband in Joseph who married her despite her supposed infidelity and protected her and her son so that Jesus could save us all.

Much love–Char

Since this is a feminism blog based in Christ, I thought it would be a good idea to start blogging about how Christ views women. What better way to start in this spiritual journey than in the Gospels? For convenience sake, I decided to start in the book of Matthew.

I pulled out the Bible, thinking I would have to scour the book for His few encounters with women that were recorded, but there, to my surprise, in the first chapter were FIVE women associated with Christ before He was even born into this world. These five women mentioned in Christ’s genealogy are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. I’m going to give Mary her own separate blog post so I would like to focus on the first four.

I think a huge part of Jesus’ earthly ministry was about breaking down cultural barriers and equalizing the playing field for all people. This definitely included women. I’ve contrived this idea greatly from verses like Matthew 19:30 that say, “…many who are first shall be last, and last first” as well as the company that He kept. This idea will be explored throughout this journey since women are very much a part of this theme of Christ’s ministry.

Women in the Jewish culture at that time and many surrounding cultures were seen as second-class citizens, more slaves than people and definitely not equals. Women had few rights if any and were at the mercy of their caretakers: fathers, brothers, and husbands. The presence of these four women in a genealogy, especially Christ’s genealogy, makes a statement. In 1 and 2 Chronicles, books known for their tedious genealogy lists, women are rarely mentioned, often only as daughters or if a man has more than one wife and clarification is needed for the bloodline.

However, God doesn’t use just any woman to make His point. He uses the lowest of the low. Not only are these women significant because of their “sub” status as women, but these women are even more undesirable if we look at their histories.

Tamar’s story is found in Genesis 38. Judah (one of the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel) brought Tamar into his family as a wife for his son Er. Unfortunately for Tamar, Er was a wicked man so God killed him. As is Jewish tradition, Tamar was given to Er’s brother Onan so that a son would be born to continue Er’s line. Onan was unhappy with this arrangement and never was able to do what he needed to do to fulfill his manly duties to Tamar so God killed him too. Judah was at a loss because his next son was too young to marry so he sent Tamar back to her father’s house to wait for the youngest son to grow up. Well, during this waiting time, Judah’s wife died, and he traveled to Timnah (Tamar’s hometown). When Tamar heard that her father-in-law was in town, she got all dolled up, put on a veil, and chilled out by the entrance to Enaim. Judah found her, mistook her for a prostitute, and slept with her not knowing her identity. Through this encounter Tamar became pregnant with twins, the first of which became a part of the bloodline of Christ.

Rahab comes next in the genealogy, and her situation is explained in Joshua 2. She is noteworthy because she aided two of Joshua’s spies in Jericho just before the city was taken. In return for her help, Rahab and her family was spared during the battle. Rahab was also a prostitute, and her son was the Biblical dreamboat Boaz, which brings us to Ruth.

Ruth is so special she gets her very own book. Ruth is significant because she is a Moabite who is devoted to her Jewish mother-in-law. She follows her mother-in-law Naomi back to Bethlehem. She ends up marrying Boaz, a righteous man who is fascinated by her faithfulness to Naomi. While Ruth is not a prostitute, Moabite’s were seen as a sub-group of people by the Jews since they were a people born out of the incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters (Genesis 19:30-38).

Then we have Bathsheba, who is referred to in the genealogy only as Uriah’s wife. It is interesting that she is referred to as Uriah’s wife because it brings direct reference to David’s great sin. As is recorded in 2 Samuel 11, David saw Bathsheba bathing and slept with her while her husband was away at war. She became pregnant, and David had Uriah killed so that he could take Bathsheba as his own wife. As punishment for his sin, God killed the child. Solomon, the son who perpetuated Christ’s bloodline, was their second child.

The fact that God included these prostitutes, Moabites, and adulteresses in Christ’s genealogy and brought attention to them shows that He can use anyone from any background to further His kingdom. Sex, past sin, race does not prevent God from using you. In God’s eyes, these women, some of them hopeless and destitute, were good enough to be a part of Christ’s family. Before He was even born, Christ was already leveling the playing field for all people but most notably in this chapter, for women too.

Much love–Char