To Inherit the World, Are You Prepared to Meet the Cost? Consider the Christmas Story
Carol McClain
Matt. 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
The meek. We think of them as spineless milquetoasts. Unassertive and too timid to achieve anything.
Although not mentioned as meek, consider Mary, especially in this Christmas season. As a teenage girl betrothed–essentially married in all but consummation–an angel appears to her. We, of course, know what the angel proclaimed.
The only hesitation Mary has is that she is a virgin, so how can she be pregnant? Once she accepts her destiny, the consequences begin.
As a pregnant teen, everyone thinks she’s been licentious and unfaithful to Joseph. In this time period, her fiancé would divorce her. No one else could marry her. Women in this era who find themselves pregnant were put away. As a matter of fact, Mary goes to her cousin’s home in a distant country (Luke 1: 38-45). Was this to cover her shame? To hide her pregnancy? As recently as the 1960s and 70s, women were sent to relatives and homes for unwed women to hide their pregnancies. The babies were then taken from them and given up for adoption.
Mary bore all this with apparent dignity.
She was meek. In vs. 47-48a of what is now known as “The Magnificat”, she says, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.” (emphasis mine). Humble estate. She knows who she is in the eyes of the world.
In vs. 52b, she repeats this thought.
The mighty, the rich, and the proud were brought low. (verses 51-53)
By becoming the mother of the Christ, Mary certainly inherited the earth. But at what price? Shame of illegitimacy, giving birth in a filthy stable after traveling on a donkey for days (Imagine doing that when nine-months pregnant!). When they present Jesus at the Temple, Simeon says to Mary, “and a sword will pierce through your own soul also” vs. 35a.
Imagine the pain she suffered watching her child beaten and humiliated and crucified. I could never fathom her agony. Mine would have been tragic.
Yet, as “The Magnificat” says in vs. 48 b: “For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”
Are you willing to pay the cost of the blessings of God.
Everything good comes with heartache and pain.
Tangled Lives
Two sisters share the same past–one that one can’t remember and the other can’t forget.
Find out how meek Crystal inherits her dreams.
Author Carol McClain
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