Shawn Moynihan - Mary of Nazareth - Class 1 - Mary's Identity

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   This is day one of the 2025 Palm Springs Bible School. Our first period teacher is Brother Sean Moynihan. His general subject is Mary of Nazareth. Today’s topic is Mary’s identity.

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   My name is Brother Sean Moynihan and I’ve been trying to follow Brother Jeff’s act since 1980, so here we are. So it’s such a blessing to be here surrounded by beloved brothers and sisters gathered around God’s word. And I pray this week we’ll open our hearts and our minds and our Bibles to learn together about that great exemplar of discipleship, Mary of Nazareth. So we’re going to start with a question, Brothers and sisters, who do you think you are?

3. 0:55

   Who do you think you are? It’s a question about identity, isn’t it? It’s a question that we answer every day. It’s about our upbringing and about our current environment. It’s about our hopes and our dreams and our fears. It’s about our triumphs and our tragedies. And most importantly, it’s about our relationship with the God of Israel.

4. 1:24

   This morning we’re going to explore who Mary thought she was, and we’re going to see how she expresses her identity in her interaction with the Angel Gabriel. Now, we’ve got lots of lots of stuff to cover here before we reach the deadline Closing of our class at 11:15. So see, you’re not the only one, Jeff.

5. 1:47

   I can do that too. So let’s take a look. Who does Mary think she is? Well, we’re kind of given the short bio, aren’t we? By Luke? We read in Luke 126. Now in the sixth month, the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the House of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

6. 2:17

   So Luke provides us with all the building blocks that we need to construct a sense of who Mary thought she was. She is named Mary. We know how important names are. She’s from Nazareth in Galilee, she’s a betrothed virgin, and she’s of David’s house. Now Mary’s name is emphasized. In fact, in the span of a few verses, Luke mentions her name 8 times. We’re hit over the head by Mary’s name, and this isn’t a document.

7. 2:57

   The Bible, the New Testament that frequently doesn’t mention women’s names at all. And yet over and over again, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary. So we know all names are important in the Bible, especially we think because of this emphasis is Mary’s. So Mary is Miriam in Hebrew, and it comes from the word Mara, bitter. And historians estimate that 25% of the women in Herod the Great’s Kingdom were named Mary.

8. 3:29

   There’s a really interesting article written by historian Bachman in 2009, and he speculates in all the reasons why that is. And one of the reasons was that Herod the Great’s wife was named Miriam. And she was a very popular figure, kind of a popular and tragic figure because Herod and Salva killing her and, and he says she was kind of like the Princess Di of that era and very, very popular. So whatever, whatever the reason, Mary was a very popular name.

9. 3:58

   We know that because there’s 7 Marys mentioned in the New Testament. So what are some other connections that we could make to Mary’s name? Well, of course we think of Miriam right away. And three days after Miriam’s triumphant song, we know that Mary’s song was also triumphant. Bitter Mara waters were made sweet. We think of the fact that Naomi renames herself Mara. Don’t call me pleasant, call me bitter. And she does this in front of the women in Bethlehem. We know that Hannah was in Mara of soul when she prayed for a son to save God’s people.

10. 4:39

    And we know that this kind of odd test for women suspected of infidelity was called drinking the waters of Mara. And so we can see those connections that begin to form, right? Connections that we made and Mary would have made connections to Ruth, to Bethlehem, to Hannah, to Miriam and connections to this strange task for suspected infidelity. So how did Mary’s name shape her identity? Well, clearly she would have connected to Miriam. And you know, one of the things we’re going to do in this class is start to weave some threads that we’re going to take, God willing, all the way through the week. So she would have connected to Miriam that the fact that Miriam was a a very influential, impactful person and her song, she would have connected to Hannah, who I self identifies as a handmaid just as as Mary does the great song and the son dedicated to God.

11. 5:38

    She would have connected to Ruth, who also identifies as a handmaid and the the connection to Bethlehem and the connection to and this is something that that the women say to Ruth at the end. We know that you are a woman of Kyle, a woman of valor, a woman of virtue.

12. 5:58

    And I think we can say too, from the ubiquity of Mary’s name, that she would begin to understand, understand herself as the representative woman, the woman mentioned in Genesis 315. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. This representative woman that Paul talks about in Galatians 4. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman.

13. 6:29

    Now why does Paul say that? Was there some confusion about that fact? No, it’s to say the representative woman. And it also comes up in Paul’s writing in First Timothy 2. And I love the disciples, literal New Testament. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman having been completely deceived, has come to be in transgression. But she shall be saved by the childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with sound mindedness. Now let’s move from Mary’s name to the fact that she was a Princess.

14. 7:09

    Now I feel well qualified to talk about the topic of princesses because I have a four year old granddaughter. Now do we think of Mary as a Princess of David’s house?

15. 7:27

    Well Gabriel did because he talks to her and says the throne of his father David, the divinely guided wise men dead because they were searching for the one born king of the Jews. Paul did, he says concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, brother Robert Roberts dead. Mary was of the House of David.

16. 7:55

    The promise requires it. For if Mary were not a descendant of David, then was Jesus not of the seed of David according to the flesh, for he had no actual human father. And of course we see that the the genealogy in Luke 3 is of course Mary’s and brother Ron Abel writes. Mary is presented to us as a member of the tribe of Judah, being a descendant of David through her father Hallow and brother. Thomas comes right out and says it. He talks about the right of the Princess Mary derived from her father.

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    Hell, I Mary was a Princess. Well did she know she was a Princess? Answers yes, because we know that there were scrupulous genealogical records kept at that time. There’s a really interesting book by James Tabor called The Jesus Dynasty, and one of the things that he says is Jewish families were quite zealous about genealogical records, all the more so if one was descended from the line of David Josephus. The Jewish Astorian of that period traces his own priestly genealogy with obvious pride and mentions archival records that he had consulted.

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    Now she’s a Princess. What’s a Princess doing in Nazareth? Well, Nazareth doesn’t appear in the Old Testament. So how did David’s house end up in Nazareth? Well, there’s tremendously exciting archaeology that’s being done by an Israeli archaeologist named Zvaigal. And professor at the University of Wyoming Paul Fletcher neatly summarizes it and basically says archaeology shows that Galilee was emptied of population between the Assyrian conquest and 100 BC.

19. 9:46

    So then it gets interesting. Josephus records that Arrestabolas conquered Galilee and one O 4, one O 3, and then his successor Alexander Geneus sent thousands of Judeans N to settle Galilee and farm its rich agricultural land. And archaeological evidence makes it clear that these new inhabitants were from Judea. So we can infer that Joseph and Mary’s grandparents were resettled from Judea into Galilee, and that’s why they had to go back for the census, back to Judea. Now, when settlers go to a new country and they decide to name places, what do they do?

20. 10:35

    They use the old names or they use a name that has special resonance for them. So Princess Mary lived in a place called Branch Town, a city of Galilee named Nazareth. The descendants of David moved from Judea to Galilee and named their new towns with names that commemorated their Davidic heritage. Branch Town comes from the the Hebrew word netzer and we know that this is in fulfillment of prophecy right in Matthew 2 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene.

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    And brothers and sisters, the only way that prophecy makes sense is if you connect it to the plethora of Old Testament prophecies about the branch prophecies like the one that uses the word netzer and Isaiah 11. One, there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

22. 11:30

    And there’s also a word for branch, stomach, that is a synonym. And that’s in so many messianic prophecies about the branch, like Jeremiah 3. Behold, the days are coming that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. And in Jeremiah 3315, in those days and at that time I will cause to go up to David a branch of righteousness. And in Zechariah 6 verse 12, then speak to him, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, behold the man whose name is the branch, and from his place he shall branch out, and shall build the temple of the Lord.

23. 12:09

    So how did her lineage shape Mary’s identity? The national hope for David’s son, the Messiah, was personal for Mary. And brothers and sisters, that’s made me stop and reflect. You know, the hope that we have for Christ to return. It’s not an abstract one. It’s a personal one. The Lord is returning, but our Lord is returning. It’s personal for us.

24. 12:48

    Mary is troubled and scared, but she’s not surprised when she hears that the Lord God will give him the throne of his Father. David and Mary shared genealogy with Joseph, and Matthew 1 gives her some powerful role models. And we stop and we think of the power of role models, both biblical ones and ones in our ecclesia.

25. 13:16

    You think of the impact of the people in our lives where we can look back and say, well, such tremendous faith. And Mary also would have been surrounded by others descended from David. We’re going to get to this, God willing, in a couple of days. But that’s one of the reasons why the reception at Nazareth was so profoundly negative is that there were others in that community that were descended from David. Who does this person think he is, the son of the Carpenter? So Nazareth, and we’re going to talk about this more when we talk about Mary’s community.

26. 13:50

    But Nazareth was near Gentiles, yet it was separate. And Jews who lived in Nazareth at Mary’s time were scrupulous in their observance of the law and separation from Greco Roman culture. There’s all this exciting new excavation that’s happening in Nazareth, and it’s led by by Ken Dark, and he’s published in in Biblical Archaeological Review.

27. 14:12

    And this is what he found. Nazareth chose a strictly Jewish material culture, perhaps denoting a more conservative attitude to religious belief and concept, concepts of purity, and rejecting quote, Roman culture as a whole, nowhere else in the Roman Empire. What a statement. Is there such a seemingly clear cut boundary between those accepting and those rejecting Roman culture?

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    This suggests that the Nazareth era was unusual for the strength of its anti Roman and or the strength of its Jewish identity. Mary’s Nazareth had a strong sense of Jewish identity despite or perhaps because of its proximity to Gentile influences. And this is kind of foretold, right? Galilee among the Gentiles, you know, that fulfillment of the Isaiah prophecy that we read about in Matthew 4.

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    Nazareth was uniquely positioned. It was on the fringe of a great city, Sepphoris, about 6 kilometers away, which Josephus calls the ornament of Galilee. And it was near one of the most important roads in the Near East at that time, the we Emeris. And I wish my high school Latin teacher, Mr. Eager, was here for me to, you know, so he could hear my pronunciation of that. Tabor writes the living in a small village. Jesus grew up just outside the urban capital of Galilee. The implications of this geographical fact are enormous, and Eidersham writes from its position. Nazareth was on the world’s great highway. What was spoken there might equally echo re echo throughout Palestine and be carried to the remotest lands of the East and West.

30. 16:07

    So Mary would have been impacted by that in the construction of her identity. We know that despite the bias that we see in the Gospel records about Galileans not knowing very much, but that’s all it was. That was anti Galilean Judean bias. You know, go and look or there are no prophets from Galilee.

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    Like how many do you want me to name? Right? So Galileans were focused on studying Scripture. Karen Jobs, right, writes. We know that Galilee contained a comparatively high proportion of literate, educated scholars. Galilean Jews knew the law well. They read it, debated it, and discussed it, David Biven writes. The standard of education and religious training in Galilee surpassed that of Judea.

32. 16:55

    In addition to their high level of knowledge of and reverence for Scripture, the Galileans could be seen as the religious conservatives of the period. And Alfred Ettersheim writes, the Galileans had more earnest practical piety and strictness of life, and less adherence to those fair sake old distinctions which so often made void. The law focused on Scripture, not on the teaching of man. Mary’s Navis was also known for its Jewish nationalism. Biven writes that Jewish messianic nationalism flourished in Galilee.

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    Michael Grant writes, Galileans tended to support quixotic seditious causes, and they carried their bravery and such causes to violent and fanatical lengths. And Beatty writes, following the death of Herod the Great, riots and rebellions flared up in several places throughout the Kingdom. Sepharus was the center of uprising in Galilees, so this was an environment that cried out for a deliverer. It was an environment just like the one that Hannah experienced. But Roger Lewis writes, Hannah wanted a strong deliverer to redeem the nation from this yoke of bondage to evil. Hannah had thought deeply about the problems of her nation and its spiritual condition, and so did Mary. Hannah knew that the history of her times and was aware of how often the Lord had intervened to send such a deliverer to his people.

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    And tomorrow, God willing, we’re going to see how closely Mary identified with Hannah. So in summary, how did Nazareth of Galilee shape Mary’s identity? Well, it was a tremendously strong sense of what it meant to be an heir of the promises made to Abraham and to his seed forever. And you recognize that from Mary’s song. That’s the triumphal note to Abraham and to his seed forever. She was amongst Gentiles, but separate from them. She was in an area that was marked by a rich Bible study. And that’s the only thing that explains what goes on in her song.

35. 19:19

    When, you know, Bible scholars have said that there’s a minimum of 35 direct allusions to the Old Testament. Some people think there’s as many as 50.

36. 19:31

    Mary’s mind was deeply enmeshed with the Bible, and she lived in an environment where there was a fervent expectation of a Messiah who would overthrow both the Romans and the corrupt high priests. Now, we also told that she’s a virgin betrothed. So interesting. Virgin betrothed in his book Jewish and Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary. But Peter here really summarizes a lot of really interesting things.

37. 20:06

    So from the phrase of virgin betrothed, we know that there are some key details that emerge. So Mary’s age was between 13 and 18, and you find that a little bit disquieting, the fact that she would be married as an early teenager. But of course, that was the custom of the time. We also recognize that adolescence is a invention of modernity.

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    Throughout most of our time, adolescents were viewed not as special transitional people, but just as really as incompetent adults. I’m not going to go any further with that. So she was of that age. Mary was already legally married to Joseph, had the first cup, and was waiting the second cup of marriage. Typically, about a year elapsed between the cup of betrothal and the wedding cup, and the wedding was not consummated until after the wedding cup. Now we’re so blessed in Cambridge. We have so many young couples that are just amazing and we’ve seen a whole bunch of young couples betrothed and waiting to be married.

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    And it’s, it’s just, it’s life affirming, isn’t it? To see young couples who love God and love each other. And so a little bit of different experience that Mary would have had, but the same principle, she would have been a virgin betrothed between the two cups, the betrothal cup of Arosen, the wedding cup of Nisuen. So what would Mary have been doing? Mary would have appreciated the bride price, Mary would have focused on how her life will change when the bridegroom comes for her, Mary would have been preparing for her new life. And Mary would have been keeping herself chaste. Brothers and sisters, these parallels were brought to our attention last night.

40. 22:14

    But that’s focused on them, a virgin betrothed between the two cups of marriage, between the betrothal cup and the wedding cup. Isn’t that exactly where we are exactly? Paul writes in Second Corinthians. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. And we all look for that time when our Lord will return and come for us. Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

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    So let’s learn from Mary. Mary appreciated the bride price, and we know from First Corinthians 6 for you were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods. We know that Mary would have focused on how her life will change when the bridegroom comes for her and we’re exhorted in Hebrews 12. Therefore, since we are receiving a Kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Mary is preparing for her new life. Can you think of a parable that talks about people who were in the in between the betrothal cup and the wedding cup? That has to do with preparation,

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    kind of a famous one. Right at midnight a cry was heard. Behold, the bridegroom is coming. Go out and meet him. And then of course, the wise ones were prepared, and through God’s grace may we be prepared. And Mary kept herself chaste. And we know that James tells us pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted in the world.

43. 24:11

    So let’s take a look at how Mary’s identity manifested itself in action. So we’re going to see an interaction with Gabriel. Her identity is revealed in her words and her actions. So first of all, Mary was praying when Gabriel appeared to her. How do we know that? Well, the Angel of Gabriel is in this unnerving habit of appearing to people that are praying Daniel Zacharias. And in fact, the appearance of Zacharias is all about prayer, right?

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    It was the incense offering. All the people outside were praying at the same time. So clue number one. Clue #2 Mary’s response, She is not surprised by the appearance of the Angel. Now, I parented 2 teenage daughters. If one of my teenage daughters had a man show up in the house, she wouldn’t been engaging with him in dialogue. She would have been looking for something heavy to hit him with. Now, maybe that’s just my daughter’s. I’m not sure.

45. 25:20

    But Mary is not surprised. Mary is not surprised. Mary responds like it’s an answer to prayer. And the third reason is just the tremendous parallels between Hannah’s prayer and what Mary would have been doing. I think we can say that we might even know what Mary was praying. There was an Amidah prayer that was prayed at the time it was started when they returned from captivity.

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    It had 16 sections in Mary’s time, and one of them dealt specifically with David. The prayer was speedily caused the offspring of your servant David to flourish. Let him be exalted by your saving power, for we wait all day long for your salvation. So I’d suggest to you that she was in the midst of that prayer, and that she would have been thinking about Hannah. She would have been making those connections we read in First Samuel 1, and she was in Mara of soul and prayed to the Lord. O Lord of hosts, if you’ll indeed look upon the inflection of your maidservant and Remember Me and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life. And I think Mary’s final assertion that ties up her interaction with Gabriel is just undeniably resonant of Hannah. Behold the maidservant of the Lord that it happened to me according to your word.

47. 27:06

    Gabriel says to her something it’s that was unusual. He says greetings favoured 1 Keratu. We recognize the root of the word cares of grace. You know, that only happens twice in the New Testament where it’s only used twice, and the other time it’s used is in Ephesians 1. And I, you know, I defy anyone to read this passage and not get excited.

48. 27:32

    Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He has made us accepted. That’s the only other time that word is used in the Beloved. And like Mary, we are chosen and favored above measure. Peter talks about this in chapter 2 of the first epistle. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light, who once were not a people, but now we’re the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

49. 28:23

    So Gabriel says to Mary, the Lord is with you, brothers and sisters. Where’s the only other time in scripture where an Angel appears and says the Lord is with you?

50. 28:45

    There are no wrong answers. OK, well, that’s an interesting one. I I thought of this example. Gideon the Angel, O Lord, appeared to him and said, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of kale of valor. And of course, Gideon acted like a mighty man of valor, right? He said, let’s go. No, he didn’t, did he?

51. 29:14

    We’re going to talk about the comparison between his response and Mary’s response later on in the week. But Mary would have thought of that. She would have thought of when’s the other time this happened, that an Angel appeared and said, the Lord is with you. And she would have thought, this is big.

52. 29:34

    There’s a mission for me. God wants me to accomplish something. It says that Mary was deeply troubled, and that’s a unique word to dieterosso di is an intensive. Terosso is troubled. It’s literally all shaken up. Mary was deeply troubled by the angels message and she wondered what his words meant. Mary is a thinker. She’s a wanderer.

53. 30:02

    She’s all about making sense through God’s word. What is happening to me? Why is it happening? How can I glorify God and what I think and what I say and what I do? And this word dialogue Googles my it literally means to throw things together. It’s where we get our word dialogue from.

54. 30:22

    And it’s in the imperfect tense, which means that it’s being repeated over and over again. It’s talking about a habit of mind that Mary had. She wondered. She wondered how God’s word connected to her.

55. 30:37

    And what an example for us brothers and sisters, that when we’re all shaken up, when we’re afraid, we wonder, we connect. We have a habit of mind of connecting to Scripture what we’re experiencing. You know, Mary’s example exhorts us to connect our experiences to our beliefs. And remember, that’s one of the things that Elizabeth says to her right away. She says God blessed you because you believed. You believed what was promised.

56. 31:15

    Mary’s belief was unshakable. And I’m going to suggest that that Mary found one passage in particular a source of refuge. I think that the Lord is with you, made her think not just of Gideon, but of the passage in Isaiah starting in chapter 41. But you, Israel, are my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham, my friend.

57. 31:46

    You are my servant. I have chosen you, and I have not cast you away. Fear not. So that’s what the Angel says, right? Don’t be afraid, Mary. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand, Brothers and sisters and friends, when we, like Mary, have the habit of mind, where we integrate scripture into our minds and our being. When we have hidden God’s Word in our heart that we might not sin against Him, it allows us to work through trials in our lives.

58. 32:32

    It reminds us that God is much above our trials. Brothers and sisters, the last year or so has been kind of a challenge for me. Had a couple significant things come up that I found quite challenging. And I don’t know if you do this, but, but in times like this, I, I, I latch onto a Bible verse latch on.

59. 33:00

    And the one that I latched onto was this. And I love the the mounts translation. And remember, I am with you all of the days until the end of the age. In the last year, I probably said that 30 times a day. And maybe you’ve had this experience, brothers and sisters, where these Bible verses that you have, they start as Shields that protect you from your trials, and then they become a sword to help you fight and recognize that all things work together for good to them, that love God and are called according to his purpose.

60. 33:56

    Mary had that same kind of biblical habit and she latched on to Scripture. So the content of Gabriel’s message doesn’t surprise Mary, but the timing does. So Mary doesn’t ask why me. She doesn’t ask who are you? She doesn’t say get out of my house.

61. 34:18

    She doesn’t doubt God’s power to accomplish His purpose, unlike Gideon and Zacharias. And of course Luke 1 is all about comparing and contrasting Zacharias response to Mary’s right. Mary has only one question. How will this be since I have no sexual relationship with a man? So why doesn’t Mary make the logical conclusion that this will happen when she is married to Joseph, also of the House of David? So Mary doesn’t seem to think that Gabriel is telling her that the conception will naturally happen after she consummated her marriage to Joseph, who was repeatedly called the son of David.

62. 35:04

    So I think that Mary was processing all this and I think she connected Isaiah 7 to her circumstances. When Gabriel said behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and should call his name Jesus, I think her mind went to behold in Isaiah 7 the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. And I think yet another connection she would have made with the Lord is with you is to Isaiah 714 and you should call his name Emmanuel.

63. 35:36

    I think that that’s the only explanation that makes sense, that Mary just didn’t logically assume that would happen naturally through Joseph. So Gabriel confirms Mary’s insightful inference. He says the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will over shadow you. Therefore, also that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

64. 36:04

    So basically he’s saying, yes, you will conceive before the second cup of the wedding ceremony and that fact will change your life’s path. The ceremony that you thought you were going to have is going to be different.

65. 36:23

    Mary understands that her prayer is answered, her most fervent prayer is answered, and her life will be different. There’s no record of a wedding ceremony for Joseph and Mary. She was anticipating a joyous 1, and I think that’s one of the reasons why she stepped up in John 2 and we’ll talk about that later, God willing, this week. She appreciated how important these ceremonies were. She was looking forward so much to being married to this just and kind man, Joseph.

66. 37:01

    And instead she realized that she ran the risk of being stoned to death and almost divorced. That was a possibility that she would have thought of clearly because she’s human. She would have been wanted to be respected as a virtuous woman and instead she had a reputation maliciously spread gossip of her as a sinful woman. And we know that that comes up in John 8, right? We are not born of fornication

67. 37:32

    and brothers and sisters. It’s so sad that that’s malicious slander that’s that’s preserved to this day and some writings. Mary knew that her life would be different. Her life would be challenging in ways that she hadn’t anticipated. And her prayer was answered and she recognized that the answer, that prayer meant trials that she hadn’t anticipated.

68. 37:57

    And how does she respond to that? She says, behold, the maidservant of the Lord, let it happen to me according to your word. Edwards 3 writes that Mary describes herself as someone who has completely surrendered her freedom. The Greek word, here translated as handmade doula, actually refers to a servant or slave, someone who is completely at the disposal of another. In fact, Philips translates this as I belong to the Lord, body and soul.

69. 38:33

    See, Mary’s identity is founded on those who went before her, those who call themselves handmade in the same circumstance, like Ruth and like Hannah and like Bathsheba.

70. 38:59

    So Mary’s example is powerful and it’s something that was kind of a foreshadowing of something that Jesus would fulfil in a much more comprehensive and perfect way in the garden.

71. 39:17

    Luke 22 we read and he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw. And he knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if it is your will, take this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

72. 39:34

    When Mary says, behold the handmaid of the Lord, she’s saying, I give my will over to you. God, make it happen as you choose.

73. 39:46

    And the Psalms preserved for us. That connection that Mary’s identity is reflected in her son. Her son did it perfectly. We read in Psalm 86, Oh, turn to me and have mercy on me. Give your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant.

74. 40:06

    And then in Psalm 116, one of the Hellel songs, one of the things that Jesus would have sung before he went out into the garden on the night when it was betrayed, we read, O Lord, truly, I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds, so let’s end where we began. Who does Mary think she is?

75. 40:40

    Mary knows who she is. Behold, the slave of the Lord may be done to me according to your word. So let’s follow Mary’s example, brothers and sisters, and with our thoughts and our words and our actions, declare that we belong, body and soul, to the God of Israel.