I found our discussion about Mary pretty intriguing during class today. I have often pondered the question why God chose Mary, out of all the women we never hear about in the Bible, to be the mother of the Son of God. We hear in Luke 1:28 that Mary is "highly favored", meaning that God has given her his graces. However, other than that small snippet, we do not have much more information on Mary's background.
There is of course the precept that God chose Mary to be Jesus' mother from the moment of her birth. Some Christians believe in this 'Immaculate Conception', which is that Mary was herself conceived without sin. From this belief, we could therefore assume that since Mary was pure and never sinned, she would be a good candidate for the mother figure of Jesus.
Another belief is that God chose Mary in order to "depose the mighty and raise the lowly" (Luke 1:51). This notion infers that God wanted Jesus to come from a poor family, rather than a high class, and therefore chose a woman of lowly status. This could also be why Jesus was said to be born in a manger.
There is of course also the belief that God chose Mary because she was righteous in her faith, just like many of the prophets God found favor with in the Old Testament.
What are some of your thoughts on this subject?
-Ali Swoish
Although the question behind Mary is unknown there have been many reasons brought up as to why god chose Mary specifically. The truth is that we will never know because #1 the events and magic that occurred with Mary probably never occurred or #2 because everyone retains their own thoughts and subjects on the matter, which will make it almost impossible to reach a possible solution. But apart from all of this I personally think that, if these sequences of events did happen, God chose mary because of Jesus.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the Bible strictly, I believe that God choose Mary because of her undoubting faith, willing attitude, and accepting behavior of the situation she was told she was in despite much initial fear that was instilled. Other than that, there are not any solid reasons we could come up with due to the fact that it's very vague and only speculative out of the realm of the Bible.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the idea that Mary would be exempt from sin. There is no biblical support for such a claim. And to ask why Mary was chosen would be to ask why the Israelites were chosen as God's people. I think God's decision rests on His sovereignty and His will to choose.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Paul in that I think Mary was chosen due to her undoubting faith, attitude, and behavior. However, I think that it is a combination between that and what Ali said- to "depose the mighty and raise the lowly" (Luke 1:51). Since there is close to no background given about Mary, we can assume that she is just a common person. This could also be the authors' way of showing that any regular, common person can be a part of something divine. Or, perhaps, this could go to showing that God had a "lowly" and humble upbringing.
ReplyDeleteAmy Shih