A Woman of Faith

The second chapter in The Real Mary focuses on Mary's courage and the stakes that were involved with her role to bear the Messiah. When Mary responded to the angel's announcement with "May it be," everything changed for her, and the change was potentially not a good one.

In Mary's culture, for her to be engaged meant that Joseph and her were legally husband and wife except for sexual relations. As McKnight notes, "She was young [probably between 13 and 16] and she was engaged, but the hard fact for Mary was that she was already pregnant." This would have made her a sotah, the Hebrew word for suspected adulteress. A woman labeled as a sotah was likely to face a humiliating public trial; if convicted, stoning was the prescribed punishment.

As McKnight notes, "With the scent of the angel still in Mary's presence, she had little idea how Joseph might respond to her claim of a virginal conception." Joseph had the right to divorce her which would have left her without financial means. Her son would be known as mamzer, the Hebrew term for illegitimate child, and might well be ridiculed and ostracized by the community. Yet knowing this was a definite possibility, Mary said, "May it be."

"Mary, in faith, consented to God's plan. Mary, in faith, began to carry a cross before Jesus was born. Mary began to suffer for the Messiah before the Messiah suffered." Everything changed for Mary with that simple, "May it be."