Who is the Mary you know?

O.k., so I didn't actually see this while driving although driving past some of the more run down areas of town has made me think further on this. A lot of this actually came to me while driving thanks in part to Mark Driscoll's sermon on Mary. You can listen to it here.

Mary the mother of Jesus is definitely one of the more iconic images throughout history. Her image has probably been represented nearly as much as Jesus himself through art and imagery. It is because of this I think we lose touch with who Mary really was. Most everyone has seen a picture of Mary that looks something like this:

She looks so peaceful and serene, with gold and beautiful clothing; no worries in life whatsoever… But is this true? Let’s take a quick look at some facts about Mary:

1. She was probably a teenager – in that time girls could be betrothed as early as 12 and married by the time they were 13. We don’t know how old she was when she was visited by Gabriel but one could assume that she was in her early to mid teens. 
2. She was poor – The best evidence of this comes from Luke’s gospel where we are told that she and Joseph offer two pigeons for a sacrifice which was an accommodation made in the Mosaic Law for those who could not afford a lamb for a sacrifice. Not to mention that Joseph was a carpenter. In that time there were doctors, lawyers, bankers, soldiers, architects, essentially a whole range of “professional” occupations. Joseph was a tradesman which most likely meant that he was uneducated. Mary was most likely uneducated as well. Living in a rural community and being a girl would have meant that she did not have access to education and would have been likely illiterate. 
3. She was from nowhere - Mary lived in Nazareth. Nazareth was a rural farming community that was very very small. It was not well thought of, in fact upon hearing about Jesus for the first time Nathanael (one of the twelve apostles) said “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” 
4. She was likely regarded as a whore – Think about it: if you lived in a small rural community and a young, uneducated girl became pregnant and then went and told you that it was a miraculous conception that was foretold to you by an angel what would you think? In fact in John 8 we see the Pharisees level this very accusation at Jesus by asking “Where is your Father?” They regarded him as a illegitimate child without a father.

In light of all of this, does this change your view of Mary? I tried to think about it in the context of today – what would Mary look like today? Where would she live? This is what I came up with:

She would likely be a young girl, living in a trailer park or a rural community with little education, little future other than hoping to find and marry a guy who can make enough money to squeak by in a trailer near their parents. She then ends up pregnant and scared because all of society calls her names like “white trash” or “trailer trash”. Her parents and her fiancé’s parents likely would not believe her and her fiancé himself is about to leave her too until God intervenes through another visit from Gabriel.

This was the family that God chose to enter the world through. This was the world that Jesus grew up in – small town, working class family, rumors about his parents constantly swirling around. So let me ask you… do you know a Mary? Do you know someone in dire straights that the world has cast aside as trash? If you don’t, why? Are you too scared that you might get dirty? That your reputation might be tarnished? This Christmas think about the people through whom God chose to enter the world and reach out to them. Bless them this Christmas if at all possible, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!