Mary and Joseph, Part I

Matthew 1:22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying , 23 Behold , a virgin shall be with child , and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is , God with us.

Isaiah 7:14  therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: a maiden is with child and she will bear a son, and will call his name Immanuel.

Most scholars today believe the Hebrew word 'almah’, used in Isaiah, would more accurately be translated as young woman rather than virgin, but this is not about chastity and has nothing to do with 21st Century politicians’ rhetoric.

It is about the conviction of the residents of what is now Palestine that God, their God, the one whose name was too sacred to be spoken aloud, had promised centuries earlier that when they needed it most God would send a deliverer.

They were exiles in Babylon when the promise was made.  They were under the heel of the Roman emperor centuries later, when the young woman in Nazareth, about to be married to the woodworker Joseph, had an encounter with an angel who told her she would be the mother of their deliverer.

She did not understand it then, and too many of us do not understand it now. Gabriel wasn’t talking about freedom from Roman oppression. His message was not just for Mary, not just for Israel, but for generations to come: that God believed all people should be free from the bonds of human frailty – selfishness, greed, prejudice – that kept them separated one from another.

The “miracle” is not a virgin’s pregnancy.  The “miracle” is the message of God’s continuing presence in our lives…Immanuel…God with us then, now and always.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for being there, a buffer between us and our human frailties, our Savior.