WHAT IF MARY HAD SAID "NO" ?

This question has haunted me through this past Christmas season. What if Mary had said "No" to God’s request that she mother the Christ Child? Luke says in the second chapter of his gospel that the Angel Gabriel came to Mary and greeted her as one favored by God. Then he announced to her that she would become pregnant and bear God’s Son.

"How can this be?" she asked in amazement. Even at her young age, she knew that it took two – a man and a woman – to create a child. She was engaged but unmarried. She knew that she had not had any male cooperation to create new life. So, "how can this be?" she wondered.

Gabriel did his best to explain the process of Divine intervention and creation of new life that God had planned for her. But do you think she really understood?  I don’t understand what happened.  Do you?

But Mary said "Yes." She willingly agreed to something beyond her comprehension and control. She gave God permission to use her body as the incubator for the God-child. She agreed to nurture and raise the One chosen by the Great I Am to re-direct human history and individual lives. Certainly she could not have foreseen that, thirty years later, she would watch God’s Son and hers – perfection in the flesh – die one of the most cruel deaths ever invented by the savagery of the humankind.

What if Mary had instead said "No"? After the Angel Gabriel had made his plea, what if Mary had answered, "Thanks, but no thanks. I’m flattered to think that God has favored me with this offer. But, let’s be realistic about this for a moment. If I get pregnant without benefit of husband, what will Joseph think? I know he loves me and wants to marry me. But how will he feel about raising someone else’s child? Even God’s child, mind you?

"Besides, Gabriel, the law that Moses gave us says that a woman who gets pregnant outside of marriage is to be stoned to death! What about that? I mean, I’m only a teenager; I’ve got my whole life before me, and it could be snuffed out in a moment if I do something like that! God’s law says that is the right and just thing to do, and you are asking me to break God’s law?

"But even if I escaped being stoned to death, how could I possibly raise God’s Son? I mean, I’m not perfect, you know, and I’m sure I couldn’t be a perfect mother to Him. Surely God can find somebody better than me to bear and raise this Divine Child!

"No. No, I just can’t do it. I’m grateful for the opportunity and for the trust God has expressed in me, but no. I just can’t face all the challenges it would require!"

What would our Christmas be like if this had been the story? What would our lives be like? Would I have said "Yes" or "No" ? What about you?

However, there’s always Good News with God.  Surely Gabriel – or some of his angel successors – would have eventually found another woman who would say "Yes."  But, if her name was Marilyn or Henrietta or Carmen or Tatiana, just think how many Christmas carols we would have to re-write!

12/28/2008 - mshr

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