A Virgin Shall Conceive

(See Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-23)

If not for the familiarity of the story of our Lord's birth, we would all be cynical at best upon hearing that a virgin conceived, carried, and bore him. We would perhaps be worse than cynical--disbelieving and scornful might better describe most of us. After all, we are sophisticated and scientifically aware. Not that we'd need to be all that in order to understand where babies come from. And we certainly understand the cold, harsh logic of these things. Here's how it works--virginity means no intimacy with a man; pregnancy, by necessary implication, means intimacy with a man. There is no way someone can claim to be a virgin while her belly grows with a life inside her.

Let's not kid ourselves about those who lived in Nazareth during the reign of Caesar Augustus. They knew the logic as well as we do. And they surely reached very logical conclusions about Mary, the young woman betrothed to Joseph. Doubtless, she was "the talk of the town," and for all the wrong reasons. There were probably those who took a certain sinister delight in her "fall," for so it would have appeared.

In fact, although Mary knew--and for a time she was the only one who knew--she was still pure and virginal, it must have been quite a lonely feeling. Do we not suspect even her own parents doubted her story? The conversation may have gone something like this: An angel? That’s right. And he told you his name? Yes, it was Gabriel. Mary, we’re trying here, but this is a lot to swallow. You know that, don't you? At which point Mary would probably drop her head and walk away with only her sadness and the memory of the blessing pronounced on her by that angelic visitor.

"A virgin shall conceive." The prophecy from hundreds of years before, repeated in Matthew's gospel, says in the simplest imaginable terms what is impossible, apart from a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit of God. First, Mary had to accept and believe, and trust that the Lord God knew what he was doing. We have no way of knowing for certain how difficult it was for her, but we do know that more than 30 years later she was still thought of as immoral (see John 8:41). What a courageous woman!

A virgin has conceived! And all who belong to Jesus Christ are privileged to follow Mary in trusting that God still knows what he's doing. "All things work together for good"--true for Mary, and for us. How great the Father’s love and grace!

Tim Bowditch