In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
Luke 1:26-27 NIVUK
https://bible.com/bible/113/luk.1.26-27.NIVUK
The Catholic Church has many scandals that it will struggle to deal with, and none more so than the Magdalene Laundries.
These were places where sexually promiscuous girls or teenage mothers or even just teenage girls with no-one to care for them were taken in, made to work hard in laundries for meagre food rations and little pay while the laundries themselves were run as a commercial business. It was pure exploitation – nothing more, nothing less.
If they had recruited from my secondary school, they would have found nine new workers: one of them with twins.
Having a baby while still a teenager is such a bad idea on so many fronts: maturity (including physical), medically, educationally, financially... it’s a risk that is not worth taking, which is why it’s always the right thing to do to wait.
In cultures across the world (excluding Roma culture), teenage mothers are generally looked down upon. After all, few parents would ever wish a teenage pregnancy on their daughter. There is a level of stigma attached to it. And that is justified. It’s not something that can, or should, be encouraged.
Did you know a teenage pregnancy lies at the heart of the Christmas story?
Scholars believe that the Greek words used to describe Mary point to her age being in the 12-16 age bracket.
There is little doubt that we are thoroughly uncomfortable with this. It’s not part of our culture at all for a girl to even be engaged this young, let alone pregnant.
However, in her culture, the age would not be a problem. What would be a huge problem is the fact of her pregnancy, and the fact that she wasn’t married to Joseph. That was truly a scandal.
The Old Testament states plainly what the punishment for adultery was:
If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her, dislikes her and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, ‘I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,’ then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate proof that she was a virgin. Her father will say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. Now he has slandered her and said, “I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.” But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.’ Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, and the elders shall take the man and punish him. They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives. If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.
Deuteronomy 22:13-21 NIVUK
Do you see it? If Joseph was capricious enough, he could have Mary stoned to death. And yet this thoroughly honourable man had something more gentle in mind:
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: his mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
Matthew 1:18-19 NIVUK
You see, Joseph understood the impact of their little family secret. Getting divorced sounds harsh, but Joseph knew this was the best way to preserve Mary’s life and his reputation.
There is a fact here that we often skip at Christmas time. The very fact of Mary’s pregnancy was a family secret – the kind of family secret that could prove to be very dangerous. Mary being pregnant with Jesus was something wonderful and miraculous, but also something that was easily misunderstood.
Jesus was born into a family with a secret.
I know of a family where a relative was accused of carrying out a serious crime, but allegedly the victim was paid off and refused to testify. This family did not agree at all with what their relative was alleged to have done. In fact, it revolted them. But it didn’t matter. Ignorant people tarred them with the same brush. They were persecuted by other people because of that one, allegedly heinous act.
Jesus was born into a family with a secret that could have torn his family apart. And that encourages me.
It shows me just how human his family was. And how they weren’t so different from us at all.
Questions
Had you ever thought of the dangers Mary would have felt at being a betrothed (but not yet married) teenage mother? How does this alter your understanding of the Christmas story?
Does your family have any secrets you hope no-one else knows?
How does it feel to know that even Jesus’ coming into the world was a secret that Jesus’ family would have to guard carefully?
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