Jesus -- Born of the Virgin Mary

by Dave Wilkinson

Galatians 4:4, Luke 1

December 2, 2001

It's so important to stay up on the news.

(Hold up copy of the Weekly World News 10.2.01)

If I hadn't read the newspaper, I never would have known about how a number of dead rock stars returned on a ghost plane and held a concert in New Zealand. I would not of known -- although I am not at all surprised -- that the faces of Howard Stern, Satan and Pamela Anderson appeared in the smoke of a volcano in Mexico. I would have never known that an Indonesian Pig Nosed man was roasted alive while trying to fire walk.

Some of what appears in the newspaper is a little hard to swallow. I probably wouldn't believe it if they didn't have pictures.

Now suppose you read this headline: "Virgin gives birth in stable!" Would you believe it? Or would you be more likely to accept that a four legged woman opened a dance studio or that Hilary caught Bill with a space alien.

We are looking on these communion Sundays at the Apostle's Creed -- the most basic statement of Christian belief outside the Bible itself. In the creed we make a series of core statements about Jesus. The first of these is that He was "conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary." That's what we say we believe.

What is the biblical evidence for this teaching?

The foundation is mainly found in Luke 1. As the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she is to the mother of the Messiah, she interrupts him with a very logical question; "How can this be, for I am a virgin?"

The Greek word that is translated virgin is "Parthenos". It definitely means what we mean by virgin -- "never having had sexual intercourse."

It is important to note that Mary's question is in no way a rejection of Gabriel's message. She is willing to accept the fact that an event of salvation that had been promised to her people for generations was about to occur and that she was God's chosen person for the act. Her question is one of mechanics. Gabriel's announcement is in conflict with all she had ever learned about human reproduction in her biology classes at Nazareth High School.

Mary asks a good question. Later she is interviewed by Luke as he is preparing to write his gospel record . She tells Luke what happened and who said what. Luke is a medical doctor -- a . physician. You would expect him to be skeptical about such a birth. He has an understanding of the birth process as only doctors have. I'm sure he asks questions. But then he records in detail Gabriel's message to Mary -- that she, a virgin, is going to be mysteriously impregnated by God's Holy Spirit and that no earthly father is going to be involved.

Now at this point it would be helpful to know something about the marriage customs of Jesus' day.

There were three stages in the process of marriage. The first is engagement. This might take place when the parties were only a few months old. It was entered into by the parents or by professional matchmakers. If you saw "Fiddler on the Roof", you remember how Tivia's three daughters fight against this tradition.

The second stage is betrothal. This is the ratification of the engagement when the man and woman formally exchange their consent before witnesses. This consent was usually entered into when the girl was between twelve and thirteen years old. It gives the young man legal rights over the girl. She is legally his wife. Any infringement of his marital rights can be punished as adultery. However, during this stage the girl continues to live with her parents. And there is no sexual intercourse between the man and the woman even though they are legally husband and wife.

Finally, there is the third stage when the bride is taken to the husband's home and they live together.

Mary is in the second stage, betrothal, when Gabriel announces the birth of Jesus. She is in the one year period of legally having a husband but not yet being one flesh sexually. This is why Mary raises the question: "How can this be, since I know no man?" "Know" is a Hebrew way to express sexual relations. Mary is saying: "How can I possibly become pregnant? Joseph and I belong to each other by law -- but we've never had sexual intercourse."

The fact of Mary's virginity is confirmed in the account of Matthew through Joseph's question. Joseph learns that Mary is pregnant. He is a law abiding man. He is shocked that Mary is pregnant during the betrothal year because he knows that he is not the child's father. He struggles with this. By Jewish law he has the right to divorce her for adultery. He decides to end their marriage; but out of love for her to do it secretly so she is not disgraced. At this point an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him: "Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." It's the same as the angel Gabriel tells Mary in this passage from Luke.

In Roman Catholic theology, the doctrine of the virgin birth includes the "threefold virginity of Mary." This means first the conception of Jesus without a human father -- what we mean by he virgin birth. But it also includes the belief in a miracle by which Mary remained physically unaffected by the birth process and also the doctrine that Mary remained a virgin after Jesus' birth -- never bearing other children or even consummating the marriage with Joseph.

That's not what we believe -- especially since the gospels make a number of references to Jesus' brothers and sisters. Only the virgin conception has any support in Scripture or any purpose. The other two folds of the threefold virginity have more to do with a negative view of sexuality -- equating sex with sin -- than with anything else.

The virgin birth must not to be understood as an insult to appropriate sexuality -- that God somehow views it as unclean. As C.S. Lewis points out, "we might just as well see the feeding of the five thousand as an insult to bakers." The message is not that sex is tainted. The point is simply to leave no doubt as to who Jesus' father really is and to create a birth that is unique -- not for show but for the sake of what happened in Christ -- the union of the human and the divine.

On the one hand, Jesus was born of a human mother. He is a human being like us. He was born into the world like us. Later he will suffer and die as we must suffer and die. Jesus really was a human being with whom we can identify.

But, on the other hand, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. From the moment of conception, Jesus was unique. He is the "Son of God" in every sense of the term. He did not become the Son of God at some point in His career. From the very beginning He possessed this exact status and identity. The way Jesus was born confirms what the crucifixion and resurrection also declare -- that He was both God and man.

Christians believe that we are saved only through Jesus Christ.

But how does this connect to the virgin birth?

Jesus is a human being like the rest of us. But if he is just a man -- if He is only a descendant of Adam like the rest of us, then He shares our need for liberation. He can't save us. He is part of our problem, not the solution to it. So there must be some essential difference between Jesus and all other human beings if Jesus is going to be able to set us free.

But, on the other hand, if Jesus is only God -- God pretending to be a human being -- it means two things. First, if He is only God, He has no real point of contact with those who need liberation. The humanity provides the point of contact. Second, if He is only God, then He didn't really die for us because God can't die. This means that He can't be the redeemer because Scripture makes it clear that there is no forgiveness apart from the shedding of blood and blood hasn't really been shed. It means that Jesus was not telling the whole truth in the Lord's Supper as He offers His body broken for us and His blood shed for us.

Today is the first Sunday in Advent. Advent means "coming."

Who is coming?

Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord -- who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.

What a great gift --- not only Emmanuel, God with us, but God one of us.