Mary & Joseph's Status Updates

If Mary and Joseph were able to post a Facebook relationship status over 2,000 years ago I think it would likely have been “It’s Complicated”.  More specifically, I think it would have changed from “Betrothed” to “It’s Complicated”. Obviously, I am taking some liberties here to make a point.

Just imagine Mary, a young girl at the time. The ceremony of betrothal had already taken place. The Mohar or dowry had been paid. Although, according to custom Mary remained in her parents’ house until the wedding ceremony, she belonged to Joseph. Soon they would begin their lives together as husband and wife.  She would leave her family and join Joseph, likely in the house of his father.

I wonder if she, like any young woman, might have had mixed emotions. We know Joseph was a good man and because the agreement had been reached and they had the blessings of their families. Still, it had to be a bittersweet time for Mary.  To leave her home and family, the only life she had known, must have been difficult. I wonder if she had younger siblings that would miss her dearly once she was married and gone.  What emotions filled her parent’s hearts as their daughter prepared to leave? While Mary anticipated that her life was about to forever change, she had no idea how profound that change would be.

Whatever her emotions, there was Mary preparing for her wedding to Joseph and the next thing she knows, an angel is standing in front of her. Don’t you just wonder what she was doing when Gabriel showed up? Perhaps she was cooking. Maybe she was doing laundry. Whatever she was doing, I’m sure she never expected an angel to show up. Suddenly there was Gabriel and he greets her with, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”  

To put it plainly, Mary must have been totally freaked out.  Then Gabriel goes on to say, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.  You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. 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”.

          Somehow Mary finds the courage to ask how she will have a baby when she is a virgin. Gabriel informs her:

“The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.  Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.  For no word from God will ever fail.”

Mary simply replies, “I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled.”

In my mind I picture Mary remaining in the place where this conversation took place for a very long time. Don’t you think she must have replayed the conversation in her mind over and over? If I were her I would have tried to freeze the image of Gabriel in my mind as I gazed at the place where an actual angel of the Lord had stood! What thoughts must have filled her heart and mind!

I wonder at what point she wondered how she would tell Joseph and how he would react to the news. The Bible doesn’t tell us who told Joseph. We do know that after he found out, he thought Mary had been unfaithful. His reaction of this reveals a great deal about his character. In those times he could have easily publicly divorced her. She might have even been put to death. However, he planned to handle the matter quietly, so as to limit the impact on Mary. Imagine Joseph struggling with all this in a fitful slumber one night when an angel appears to him in a dream and tells him not to be afraid to take Mary into his home. The angel went on to tell him that the baby was indeed conceived by the Holy Spirit, what to name the baby, and that this child would save His people.

So went the status updates in this “complicated” relationship between two people. Both unassuming characters in a story that changed the World. They went from “Betrothed” to “It’s Complicated” to “In a Relationship”. These status changes each brought about by an announcement or word of instruction from someone they never expected to be on their “friend list”- the angel Gabriel.

As time progresses, another “update” is added as they relocated to Joseph’s hometown to register for a required census. Imagine poor Mary, so very pregnant, traveling all the way to Bethlehem. How exhausted and uncomfortable she must have been! When they finally were ready to stop for the night and found no place to stay, I wonder if she cried tears of exhaustion. Can’t you just picture Joseph trying to “make the best of it” as he fluffed some hay in a smelly stable? Then, sometime in the night, she gave birth to her baby right there in the hay. They made do with some cloths and swaddled Jesus to keep Him warm. What a humble way for the King of Kings to arrive!

I wonder if after long hours of watching Mary labor, Joseph went outside to clear his head once the baby arrived and looked up at the star. If he did, I am sure he had never seen anything like it before. Little did he know that a certain group of shepherds was looking up at the same star and another “status” update was about to take place.

Next-A look at the shepherd’s Facebook page!