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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) Here are a few final thoughts about Christmas before we take down the tree and pack away the creche for the year. Let’s spend a few moments contemplating two heroes of the faith: Mary and Joseph.
Mary is a person of under-acknowledged courage. She’s visited by an angel and is told that she will give birth to the Messiah. Surely she must have wondered if such a blessing might have passed from her to someone else. No angel announced to her family, or to her village that she would carry the Christ child in her womb. And this was a time when loose women were taken out of the gates and stoned to death. Certainly there were many who assumed the baby she carried was less than holy, and certainly Mary knew what others would think. This is a woman of quiet dignity.
Joseph found the woman that he was engaged to was already pregnant. Scripture tells us he was a righteous man, and was going to send Mary away silently, until, he, too, was visited by an angel. Imagine what people in his own family must have said about his pregnant bride-to-be. Joseph would have been ridiculed by some to take an expectant mother as his wife.
Joseph is not mentioned in scripture after a young Jesus went missing and was found in the synagogue. He may have died before Jesus’ adult ministry began. Mary was indeed a Christ-follower. She is recorded to be present at Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
Jesus’ earthly mother and father stand as brave witnesses. They left Palestine and went to Egypt to protect their newborn baby from the slaughter ordered by King Herrod. Strangers in a strange land until, as foretold in the Old Testament, “from out of Egypt I will call my son.”
Surely for both of these young people it was a blessing to care for and raise Jesus to adulthood. But God also made a difficult and life-changing request of both of them. If God asks you, or me, to do the difficult on his behalf, let’s make sure our answer is a resounding “yes”.
Chris Conley
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