Mary’s Treasure
“But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19)
Imagine you’re Mary. You’re in a stable with your not-yet-“known” husband, pregnant with the Son of God – and your water just broke.
Then as you and your husband are preparing for labor, imagine the kind of thoughts that would be running through your mind.
“I’m about to give birth to my first child.
I don’t even know what it’s like being with a man, yet here I am about to give birth.
The baby isn’t an ordinary boy, he’s the son of the Most High, and any minute now the Son of God will be coming out of me.
A bit of anxiety, maybe? And I would imagine that she would seek comfort and solace by recalling all of what God promised her. And as she ran through all those promises, those prophecies, perhaps the most crucial one would be this:
“Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son…” (Isaiah 7:14).
The virgin birth is a big deal. I mean, a really huge deal. So huge that it would actually be a deal breaker. “In what sense? Why would it be?”
Larry King, the television and radio host, had interviewed over 50,000 people in his long career, which is why I found it so fascinating when an interviewer once raised the following question to King:
Interviewer: If you could interview one person across all of time, who would it be?
King: Jesus Christ
Interviewer: What would you ask him?
King: I’d ask Him if He indeed was virgin-born. The answer to that question would interpret all of history.
Now Larry King was not a believer, yet even he knew how pivotal this truth is. He understood that whatever that answer, it would impact everyone.
He wasn’t a believer, and he couldn’t believe the virgin birth to be true because to him it’s simply impossible. In fact, he once had John MacArthur as a guest on his show to discuss who Jesus was, and they had this exchange:
MacArthur: I believe in what actually happened, what is true. I don't have an airy-fairy faith in some concoction of my own mind. I'm not separating my faith from reason. I believe in what's reasonable and historical and actual and factual.
King: So, it’s reasonable… Virgin birth is reasonable to you?
MacArthur: Well, of course it is. Because it’s reasonable if God came into the world, he’d come differently than any other person who is mortal.
The Messiah MUST be both God and man, otherwise salvation would not be possible. Which is why the Messiah’s parents HAD to be both God and woman. Therefore, Mary absolutely HAD to be a virgin. It’s a testament to Jesus’s deity.
In other words, if I claim to be a Christian, yet do not believe in the virgin birth, I am a false witness to Christ. The virgin birth is that big of a deal.
In 2014, a survey was conducted that found 73% of Christians in this nation believe Jesus was born to a virgin. The same survey was conducted 3 years later and found the percentage dropped to 63%. And I have no reason to believe that trajectory will reverse anytime soon.
Though this trend is alarming, it doesn’t surprise me, nor does it bother me too much. Because I always look forward to my favorite time of the year. I get excited for the parties, the Christmas songs, watching Christmas movies with the kids, etc.
But every year, those things grow less in significance as the truths of Christ’s birth and God’s promises grow more and more elevated in my mind and in my anticipation.
Just this past Sunday, as I was sitting in the sanctuary waiting for worship service to begin, this thought popped into my head: “The infinite God, the supreme being… became.. a man??? WHAT?!!”
I just can’t help but marvel at the seemingly impossible truth, and rejoice in the reason why God sent His own Son in the first place.
My hope is for all my brothers and sisters in Christ to meditate on the virgin birth and the true Son of God this week, and doing exactly what Mary did by treasuring it all in our hearts.