Today I would like to turn our minds to a unique example we have in the Scriptures of servanthood. It may not be among the first examples which come to mind when you are thinking of examples of God’s servants. But it certainly is a prime example - perhaps among the most important examples we have been given in the Bible.
I am talking about Mary - the mother of Jesus - and her special call to surprise service.
Background
We are not given a great deal of information about Mary. The first time we encounter her in the gospels, we learn that she was from Nazareth (Lk 1:26) and was betrothed to Joseph (Lk 1:27).
I think we all know that Nazareth was a small country village, but what surprised me when I first found out was how small it actually was. Archaeological excavations have shown that during the 1st century AD, Nazareth comprised of around 50 houses, with an estimated total population of 200 to 400 people.(1) It’s the kind of village where everyone would have known everyone else.
Archaeological digs also reveal that it appeared to be quite a poor town, with no glass or imported products uncovered in the house remains. Instead they contained simple cooking pots, water jugs and grinding stones. Digs have uncovered three watchtowers, a wine press, stone quarries, farm terraces and a spring-fed irrigation system. It was such a small, poor town that it’s not mentioned in most other Hebrew sources and history records from the time (e.g. Talmud, Josephus). This is unsurprising, as Nazareth is located in the region of Galilee, the “country backwaters” of Israel. Most of the inhabitants were subsistence farmers. So this is the background that Mary grew up in.
Although we’re not told directly, it seems that both Mary and her husband to be - Joseph - were quite poor. If you remember, after Jesus’ birth they went to the temple to offer two turtledoves as a sacrifice for their first-born child (Lk 2:24). The corresponding passage from Leviticus actually states that the mother was to offer a lamb and a turtledove/pigeon as her sacrifice, but if she could not afford a lamb then she could offer two turtledoves or pigeons (Lev 12:6-8). So if between the two of them, Mary and Joseph could not even afford a lamb for a sacrifice, then we can safely assume that Mary grew up in a very poor family.
As a poor, country girl from Galilee, she would have received virtually no education, and would have been unable to read or write. She would have learnt domestic duties such as cooking and embroidery, preparing her for her future position as a wife. However, Jewish girls did also receive a basic religious instruction, mostly from their mothers. There was a synagogue in Nazareth - the synagogue where Jesus would later read from the scroll of Isaiah that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him and that he had been sent to proclaim the good news and proclaim liberty to captives (Lk 4:16-19). Mary would have heard - either at the synagogue or from her mother - of the promised Messiah who would save Israel. Even though they had not heard directly from God for over 400 years, the Jews were still suffering under Roman occupation and all eagerly looked forward to their Messiah. Mary might have even been among groups of women discussing this and hoping to be the mother of the coming Messiah.
The Bible also doesn’t tell us how old Mary was at this point, but based on the typical age of marriage in the Middle East during Bible times, most scholars think she would have been somewhere around 15 or 16. Following Jewish custom, her betrothal to Joseph would have been considered a sacred and binding estate, but without the actual or the legal privileges of marriage.
So this was Mary. This impoverished, uneducated, teenage girl from the backwaters of Galilee - this was who God chose as one of his most significant servants of all history.
Now, what can we learn from Mary’s example?
1. Humility and submission to God’s will
The first thing that I would like to point out is Mary's humility and submission to God’s will.
Read through the account of Gabriel's appearance in in Luke 1:26-38. . After Gabriel delivers the prophecy, Mary appears to initially show some doubt and points out that she doesn’t yet have a husband (Lk 1:34). Notably, she does not seize on the position being promised to her; that she would have a son who would be “great”, and that he would inherit David’s throne, and would reign over an eternal kingdom (Lk 1:32-33). This offer of a position of privilege and power would be enough to overwhelm virtually any person - particularly those of a low status - unless they were extremely humble. Yet Mary deflects, almost as if to say to the angel, “You must have got the wrong woman.”
Gabriel explains that her child will come from the Holy Spirit and not from a human father. Surely Mary could not have understood this fully. Even with the full New Testament available to us now, the incarnation is still hard to grasp. How does an eternal, unchanging God become a human? Mary must have had a million questions. She was to be the mother of the Son of God. What did that even look like? What did it involve? And yet she did not object any further. We have Mary’s simple response in Luke 1:38: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
Later on, when she met with Elizabeth and gained a little more understanding about the promised Messiah, Mary burst into song - the Magnificat - praising God for His goodness and keeping His promises, as well as showing her gratitude that she would be part of this plan.
Mary saw herself as a servant of God and submitted to whatever He wanted to do through her. This - I believe - is one of the most remarkable things about her. Oh, that we would all be a bit more like Mary! Not always needing to know exactly what God is doing and the minute details of how He is going to do it, but just trusting that He knows best. So if you are sure that God is speaking to you about something, then I would encourage you to submit to that and act accordingly. You don’t need to wait until you understand exactly why.
That is the first lesson we learn from Mary. Do you see yourself first and foremost as a servant of God? Are you willing to give everything else up and say - like Mary, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word?”
2. A call to motherhood?
For my second point, you may have noticed something a bit unusual about Mary’s call to service - or is it unusual? It is certain that Mary was a servant used by God - we have just read that in Luke 1:38 - and by serving God, she also served others. But have a think about it for a moment. What is Mary known for? What was her act of service? What did she actually “do”?
There is a very simple answer to that: she became a mother. Think about it. That is really the one thing that Mary is remembered for in Scripture - for being the mother of Jesus. God chose to become a human and enter the world, and He did it through Mary.
There is something very important in this - and that is the simplicity of it. God doesn’t give us pointless or useless roles, but often we (or others) tend to undervalue them. So much of Mary’s service was what we would think of as “everyday” or maybe even “secular” activity - raising a child. She was just a young mother in the Galilean hills - feeding, nurturing, teaching her child. The incarnation meant that Jesus was fully God and fully human (Phil 2:7-8) - and as a human He needed a mother; He needed someone to do these things and care for Him as He grew up.
When you consider it, Mary’s call to serve as a mother aligns perfectly with the rest of Scripture. Many of the best-known women of the Bible - such as Sarah, Moses’ mother, Hannah, Elizabeth - are best known for their role as mothers. Sarah is actually listed in the “Faith Hall of Fame” in Hebrews, along with other greats such as Noah, Abraham and Moses. But what does the writer of Hebrews say faith allowed Sarah to do? To conceive and become a mother (Heb 11:11) - and as Isaac’s mother, she actually became the “mother” of the tribe of Israel. Even Deborah, best known for helping Barak to defeat the Canaanites, described herself as “a mother in Israel.” (Jdg 5:9).
I believe this points to the importance of motherhood in God’s eyes - a sacred role which we can tend to dismiss or greatly undervalue. Our modern society sees children as a burden, rather than a blessing. It scorns and demeans women who chose to dedicate their lives to their family. Have you ever heard someone say “Oh, I’m just a stay at home mum?” I know that I have been guilty of using similar language before, but that is buying into this modern lie that actually cheapens women. Remember in the creation account in Genesis, man is given two roles - to tend and keep - and woman is described with two nouns - helper and mother. Just like men have a sacred and God-given role to be protectors and providers, so too women have this sacred, God-given role of being mothers. Indeed, motherhood is one of the most elevated roles in the Scriptures.
What job could possibly be more important than raising immortal souls? But - as if that isn’t enough - the role of a mother is even more than that. It is also a way of reflecting and proclaiming God’s character - it is a physical reality which points us to a deeper spiritual reality. When women are mothers, they display God's role as our life-giver, consoler, nurturer, helper.
In Mary’s case, we do note that while her call to motherhood is part of God’s general call to women, the specific details of her call were unique - because she would be the mother of God incarnate, and because this event was the fulfilment of the first gospel prophecy all the way back in Genesis 3:15. She was to be the mother of this Offspring which would bruise Satan’s head - the prophesied serpent-crusher which the world had been waiting for for thousands of years.
So - what do we think of when we think of serving God and serving others? Do we just think of the man up the front preaching the sermon, or of a missionary in a tropical jungle translating the Bible into another language? Or maybe we think of someone serving in a soup kitchen, or teaching Sunday classes. Those are all ways in which we can serve God and others, but - as we learn from Mary - those are not the only ways. Some calls to service are less showy and seemingly more mundane - but are just as important; perhaps even more.
Mary - arguably the most famous woman from all of history - was called to be a servant of God, and her calling was to be a mother. Is that how we think of our service to God?
3. It came at great personal cost
The final thing to note about Mary’s role as a servant of God was that it came at great personal cost. Even before Jesus was born, Mary had to endure public shame. Remember, she came from a small village of 200-400 people where nearly everyone would have known her. After she conceived through the Holy Spirit, it would have become obvious to everyone that she was pregnant before she had married Joseph and it is easy to imagine that accusations of fornication would have been thrown around (Matt 1:19). It seems unlikely that she could have told anyone about Gabriel’s message, and even less likely that they would have believed her. Joseph - her betrothed husband - recognised that she was pregnant and was planning to cancel the betrothal to avoid the shame (Matt 1:19). It was only after an angel appeared to him in a dream that he realised the truth and followed through with his marriage to Mary. However, the other villagers would have assumed that Mary had either been unfaithful to Joseph and been with another man - or committed fornication with Joseph before their wedding.
Fast forward only a year or two and Herod was threatening to kill all the male boys in Bethlehem. Mary, Joseph and Jesus had to flee to Egypt. When they returned, they couldn’t settle in Bethlehem - away from people who would know them - but had to return to the village of Nazareth where everyone knew who Mary and Joseph were and re-face the shame.
The coming of the shepherds and wise men would likely have surprised and pleased Mary, but things would have gotten harder.
Simeon - the old prophet in the temple - said, speaking metaphorically, that a sword would pierce through Mary’s own heart (Lk 2:35). If we progress forward to the cross, there is Mary standing beside it watching her own son get nailed to the crosspieces and then hanging in agony, with nothing at all that she can do. If there is one thing that can break a mother, it is watching her child in pain and not being able to help. Of course, it was all part of God’s plan, but that does not detract from the immense pain and personal cost that Mary had to endure - the “sword that pierced through her own heart.”
While it is not clear at which point Mary finally came to believe that her son, Jesus, was truly the son of God, we find her gathered with the 120 in the upper room in Jerusalem (Acts 1:14). Her role had come full circle - from originally caring for and protecting her son Jesus, she was now trusting and fully relying on Him.
Conclusion
So what do we learn from Mary?
Firstly, stay humble and submit to God’s calling. Say, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord.”
Secondly, service to God comes in many forms and may even present as what we would call “common” work. A prime example of this in the modern setting is the blessing and responsibility of motherhood, which God has called many women to.
Finally, remember that service to God may come at personal cost. But this is not a reason to shy away from our service. God promises great blessings and joy - far outweighing any cost we may have to endure - if we keep Him as our first love; above all else.