Pain?  Sure.  Hardship? Yes.  Poverty? OK.  Hard work? Count me in. Death?  That one is very hard, but yes.

Public humiliation? Uh, maybe not.

Honor, duty.

We value these things highly. Civil War commanders sent rows of young men to near certain death with the words “What will your family think of you if you run?!”

Speech teachers know that fear of speaking in public rates higher for many than the fear of death. Which leads me to conclude that some people would rather die than speak in public! Of course, the root of that fear is the possibility of embarrassing yourself before a crowd of people. This is one of the reasons that the Christmas story is so noble in the sacrifice of the main characters.

Mary’s shame.

One of the most remarkable statements made by any human being is found in Luke 1:38.

Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word. ” And the angel departed from her.

Maybe Mary was so young and so taken aback by the fact that angel had come to visit her that she did not think through the consequences of her submission to God’s will. Or maybe she thought that the revelation of the Christ child would occur in such as way that should be spared the indignity of what would eventually happen. Or maybe, she was just a humble girl that was willing to submit to the will of God, whatever it might be.

However, what the angel said to her was like a commanding officer saying to his troops, “Congratulations, you are about to die for the sake of your country. You are greatly blessed. ”

Here is what the angel said.

• You are greatly blessed and have found favor with God.
• You will conceive and have a son.
• He will be the promised Messiah.
• This will happen while you are still a virgin
• It will be the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.

However, for this to be true, the following will happen.

• No one will believe that this child is miraculous.
• You will carry the shame of being an immoral woman for the rest of your life.
• The man that you are espoused to will believe that you have been immoral and will consider divorcing you.
• This event will not only bring shame upon you, but also on your family.
• This promised child will grow up with the cloud of being illegitimate hanging over him.
• People will speculate for the rest of your life who the father of the child might be.
• You will not be honored for this except maybe in your later life or after you die.

They should have known.

In order for Isaiah 7:14 to be fulfilled, some young woman—morally pure and virtuous—would have to endure this shame. There is no way around it. After all, people do not tend to believe in miracles, especially when the proclamation of the miracle sounds suspiciously like a young girl making up a story to cover her sinful choices (and cover for a sinning lover or even abuser).

The angel did not give her a choice.

While Mary responded with “Let it be according to your word, ” she was not giving God permission to do this miracle in her life. Gabriel was not asking nicely if God could do this. He was telling her that God would do this and that she should rejoice in it. Mary was submitting her heart to the will of God and that submission was in welcoming what God had already chosen to do.

She makes the choice to rejoice in God’s will rather than resent it. She demonstrates that choice in a song called Mary’s Magnificat, where she chooses to believe God and see herself as blessed, rather than put upon and abused.

She looks forward in faith, trusting God that whatever shame she endures will be for a season and the real glory is in pleasing God above all else. She trusts God to vindicate her and sees the future as a place of honor based upon nothing more than trusting the goodness of God to her.

Mary is one of the greatest heroes in all of scripture.

She is humble enough before God that she considers enduring shame for His purposes a blessing.

She is humble enough before God that His glory is what matters most to her.

She is trusting enough to allow herself to be shamed now, for future honor.

She sees herself as a recipient of mercy, when many others would consider her situation a curse.

She is trusting enough to let God do His work without knowing how it will all unfold.

The Shame of Christ

Just as Mary was willing to endure the shame, so was Jesus. Hebrews 12:2 says,

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The eternal Son of God was treated like a common criminal. He was crucified for claiming to be who He actually was. He was beaten, tortured, and hung naked between heaven and earth so that mocking crowds could gaze upon Him.

Would I be willing to endure public shame for the sake of Christ? To be thought wicked and immoral with no way of defending myself?

I hope so.

I know this. When I see the depictions of Mary and the little baby Jesus—when I sing Silent Night or What Child is This—I will think of sacrifice. The sacrifice of the eternal Son of God, and the sacrifice of a humble girl from Nazareth.

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Audio version of this post is here: Mary: Enduring Shame for the Cause of Christ