Mary, Woman of Danger

McKnight begins the fourth chapter with, "The real Mary was a dangerous woman. " I don't think we tend to think of Mary as a dangerous woman: pious, yes; obedient, yes; dangerous, no. Why does McKnight believe that Mary was dangerous? Her claim that her son was the future ruler made her dangerous to the established powers.

According to McKnight, at the time that Jesus was born, there was a "gospel of Rome." What was this gospel? Caesar Augustus was the adopted son of Julius Caesar. After Julius Caesar died, he was pronounced to be a god, which made Augustus the "son of god." Furthermore, after Augustus won the war for succession and took power as the emperor, he created peace in Rome, what was known as the pax Romana, and thus became known as Rome's savior. Finally, Augustus' ascendancy to the throne was declared as "good news." Therefore, as McKnight writes, "The gospel story out of Rome was this: Caesar Augustus, son of god, our savior, has brought peace to the whole world."

As he notes, it cannot be coincidence that the angel's announcement to Mary about Jesus contained the same four words used of Caesar Augustus: Jesus, son of God, is the savior, and will bring peace to the whole world. "That could mean," McKnight continues, "only one thing: Caesar August was not. That's dangerous."

When the scriptures say that "Mary pondered these things..." McKnight believes that she was working to put things together.

Instead of imagining Mary sitting quietly meditating in some corner all alone, while everyone else was singing and dancing and clapping and dreaming of the end of Augustus' rule, Mary was actively figuring out what in the world God was doing in the world...The gospel story Mary announced was the dangerous story that Jesus was King and Augustus was not.

I must admit that I liked the challenge of this chapter. I certainly haven't thought of Mary as dangerous, and need to rethink this image that I have. How about you? Do you think Mary was dangerous?