The cost of Christmas - the cost of the call (1)

Today is a public holiday here in Spain; it’s the day of “annunciation” or announcement - the day in the Advent calendar when people remember how the angel Gabriel came and made a shocking announcement to an adolescent girl, a Jewish teenager named Mary.

Last week, my Advent Bible reading was all about the hope and the freedom that the first Christmas made available to us. This week, my readings and meditation are about the cost of the call. I’ve reflected a lot in recent years on the well-known passage in Luke 1: 26 - 38, and on the incredible price this teenage girl paid when she agreed to be the mother of Jesus. (Click here to read this blog post from way back in December 2007.) Her willingness to embrace shame and loss of reputation; her courage to say, “Let it happen like God has said,” and her faith to believe, no matter how crazy the angel’s message sounded, that “nothing is impossible for God.”

This weekend, I was also reading Matthew 1: 18 - 25, which gives us some insight into the turmoil of the other teenager in the mix - a young man called Joseph. The events in this chapter of Matthew obviously happened after Luke’s account of the angel appearing to Mary, but we’ve no way of knowing how much later. Did Mary tell Joseph about the angel’s visit right away, or did she wait until she realised it had happened and she was already pregnant? Did Joseph have this dream the same day as hearing the devastating news, or did a few days go by?

Either way, there were some heartbreaking hours or days when the young couple thought their relationship was over, and Joseph began making plans to break the engagement as quietly and discreetly as possible. Did Mary already foresee this when she said yes to the pregnancy? Did she realise that the man she loved would probably break off the relationship and leave her to bring up the miracle child as a single mum?

And then came Joseph’s dream. Does it take more faith to believe a nameless angel in a dream than one you’ve seen with your physical eyes when you’re awake? Or did people in this culture at this point in history lay more store in dreams than many westerners do today? Was it the prophetic detail in the dream that convinced Joseph it was really a word from God? After the dream, this young man also agreed to pay the cost: to believe that his fiancée was still a virgin and to accept the stigma that would probably come to both of them with the pregnancy and the birth of the child. 

What a huge cost! These teenagers were willing to lay their lives and their future on the line. In contrast, so many believers today are unwilling to pay the price of a little embarrassment that might come if they talk to their neighbours or friends about Jesus; unwilling to give up a little time on a regular basis to read their Bible and get to know God better...

God, please help me not to sidestep the cost of the call. Help me be the sort of person who is willing to pay any price to do your will.

Continue reading in the post below for further reflection on the cost of the Christmas call.