Absolute faith

Then Mary said, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.  - Luke 1.38

Jesus’ mother Mary can pose a bit of a dilemma for non-Catholics. Catholics vary in their views of Mary. Some honour her, some venerate her, and some worship her. The most radical view holds that she is deity along with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I would have grown up and served in churches for most of my life that handled Mary by just ignoring here. A lot of folks were afraid to talk about her at all for fear of being seen as ‘pro-Catholic’ or ‘soft on Catholicism.’

That was just plain silly. Acknowledging Mary’s role in the plan of redemption is to not fully preach the word of God.

Luke tells us the most about Mary. We get to know her pretty well. And from what we get to know I am impressed by this amazing young woman. Remember who she was. She was just a plain simple Jewish girl. She was probably quite young for our culture, possibly 14 or 15 years old.

She just heard an angel tell her that she was going to give birth to God’s Son without having sexual relations.

I don’t think any of us can possibly imagine what young Mary felt at that moment. I can’t imagine the gamut of emotions. The angel calmed her with the words ‘with God nothing will be impossible,’ but still…

But look at Mary’s faith response ‘Behold the maidservant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your words.’

Don’t you wish that we all had that kind of faith? It is the kind of faith that says ‘I am going to trust God no matter how ‘crazy’ it sounds. Really now, and young virgin is going to give birth to God’s Son and still remain a virgin? How many of us are challenged with that kind of situation?

Do we have the kind of faith to say, no matter what, ‘Behold the maidservant (or manservant) of the Lord. Let it be to me according to God’s will?’