Sacrifice

Last night's lesson was about sacrifice. I used Luke 1:26-38 for my lesson.

We look at Christmas as a time of gift giving and joy because of the birth of Christ, but shouldn't we instead by focused on the sacrifices made by Mary, Joseph, and God? When the angel Gabriel gave Mary the message she was going to have Jesus it caused a lot of uncertainty in her future. She was a virgin and engaged to Joseph. If she turned up pregnant before the wedding she would certainly have a lot of things to explain.

While our society doesn't seem to have much of a problem with unwed teen mothers today, 2000 years ago things were definitely different. According to the law she would have been guilty of committing adultery (Deut. 22:23-24) Of course the townspeople would not believe that she had not slept with another man. 


Joseph could have broken the engagement (he knew he wasn't the father. In fact, this is what he planned after he found out Mary was pregnant Matthew 1:19. If it hadn't been for an angel's intervention Joseph would have done just that Matthew 1:20-21. Mary's future would have been in real jeopardy.

Knowing that all this could happen, Mary had to make the decision to carry Jesus. She made a real sacrifice that could have cost her a secure future and possibly her life. Joseph had to make the sacrifice of his reputation being called into question since Mary was pregnant before the marriage and he was expected to raise a child that was not his. God had to make the biggest sacrifice by sending Jesus to Earth for the purpose of becoming a sacrifice to sin.

Maybe we should spend less time this year thinking about gifts and more about sacrifices we should be making.