Mary in the Gospel of Luke: Part III: The Annunciation

The Annunciation

In the last installment we began a study of the first section, the appearance of the angel Gabriel. In this issue The Queen continues with this first segment; examining the person to whom Gabriel appears a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph of the house of David”.

It is to a young girl of the insignificant village of Nazareth (not even mentioned in the entire Old Testament!) that God sends the announcer of salvation, the archangel Gabriel. She is most probably a teenager. She is surely “a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph of the House of David” (cf Mt 1:18).

A study of the infallible truth of the virginal conception will be undertaken when examining the reply of Our Lady to Gabriel. “How can this be since I know not man” (Lk 1:34). Today’s considerations will be limited to a reflection on the inspired words; “engaged to a man named Joseph of the house of David.”

Engaged to a Man Named Joseph

For us westerners, “engaged” would mean a “firm pledge to a marriage sometime in the not-too-distant future”. And that commitment can be broken. A marriage does not necessarily take place after an engagement.

The question is, however, not what engagement means today, but what did it mean at the time of Jesus? And the inquiry comes up with an extremely important response.

In the Palestine of the time of Jesus and Mary, marriage customs were somewhat different. Different than they are ln present western culture. True, there were typically two phases that were followed: the engagement or betrothal and then the marriage proper when the bride was led to the man’s home, “to live happily forever after.” However the two stages were understood differently than they are today.

Engagement Was Different 2000 Years Ago

First, the engagement was far more solemn and binding than it is today. According to modern understanding, it could be said that at the time of Mary and Joseph, the engagement was actually the “legal marriage”. The formal exchange of “vows” took place in the presence of witnesses and it was then that the paying of the “bride-price” occurred. The young girl became at the engagement truly the wife of the young man (cf Mt 1:20, 24 where Mary is called “wife”).

The “newlywed” young girl lived at her parent’s home for about six months to a year before the bride-groom would escort her to his house amid the celebration of the village. Nonetheless, during this time after the engagement (the legal marriage) and the actual living together, the husband had “legal rights” over his engaged – his wife. If she broke the marriage contract “signed and sealed” at the engagement, she could be treated as an adulteress.

Mary is Married, Not Yet Living With Her Husband at the Annunciation

It is clear in Luke – and even more explicitly so in Matthew – that the annunciation took place during this interim period between the legal marriage the engagement – and the actual living together. In our terms, Mary is a married woman not yet living with her husband when the Angel Gabriel appeared to her.

Unlike Matthew, Luke does not give much attention to Joseph. His attention is only of declaring that he was “of the house of David.”

There is no certain indication that Mary herself was of the Davidic line; in fact, her relative, Elizabeth, is a descendant of Levi or Aaron, not of David. Since Joseph will be the legal father of Jesus, the child to be born of his wife, by the overshadowing Spirit, will be related to the Davidic dynasty (cf Lk 1:32-33). Jesus’ Davidic ancestry is mentioned in Rom 1:3, Mt 1:1, 20; 2 Tim 2:8.

God’s Plans

When the Lucan Annunciation narrative is put back into its historical context, the implications of the announcement by Gabriel take on a deeper significance. Mary is already legally married to Joseph. Her plans are in place; within a few months, her husband, Joseph, will “carry her over the threshold” and they will begin their married life together. There is no indication that Mary was expecting this visit from the Archangel. Quite the contrary. She is upset at the appearance of the angel. There is also no suggestion that Our Lady knew beforehand that God would request that she would become the mother of the messiah. The scriptures, rather, underscore her surprise at the message given to her by Gabriel.

The annunciation as depicted by Luke gives us every reason to conclude that God is tearing up the plans of Mary. He is presenting her with his own, yet not giving all the details. What about Joseph, her husband? What about her parents? Any infringement on Joseph’s marital rights – legally binding since the time of the “engagement” – could bring upon her the punishment due to an adulteress. Luke, unlike Matthew, gives us no indication of the anguish of Joseph upon learning that his engaged wife is pregnant.

Accepting God’s Surprises

Truly, the annunciation is a joyful scene. It is the solemn proclamation of the incarnation of the Word of God into our human family. Yet, hidden within the Lucan narrative is more than a hint of the difficulty and the courage of the young girl, Mary. She must totally trust in God. The situation is one of the surprises of God which overturn one’s life. The Wisdom of God becomes flesh, but only through the total self-sacrifice of this married virgin. She yearns to do God’s will. Yet how often we overlook the immense cost such surrender entails. The price of discipleship is clear from the first moment of the entry of Divine Wisdom into creation.

It is axiomatic in Mariology that “when we speak about Mary we are ultimately speaking about ourselves”. Not precisely ln the same way, of course, for Mary alone is the immaculate Mother of God. But she is the first Christian, one who completely accepts the surprises of God, as painful as they may often be. We see in this “virgin espoused to a man named Joseph of the house of David” our model of discipleship.

The mysterious ways of God in relationship to Mary indicate God’s mysterious ways with each one of the followers of Jesus. As God tears up Mary’s plans, so too with us. When God presents his inscrutable will to Mary without outlining the details, so too with us. As we will see, Mary surrenders actively, responsibly to God’s will. She surrenders even though it is such a great surprise, entailing such sacrifices. Do we do the same?

(To Be Continued)