I was considering this term that is so frequently tossed about in churches today. I wondered about its origin, in Luke 1:28 Gabriel tells Mary that she is highly favored and blessed among women. So, there it is, the virgin Mary who was selected out of all women to be the mother of Christ is told that she is blessed and highly favored. Wow, doesn't it just give you chill bumps? I mean, if we are to take it as the way that phrase is used today in the many word-faith churches, then that means Mary just hit the lotto! Come on, big money! She will have new cars, a new house. Not just a new house, a big new house, and not just a new big house but a new big house in an exclusive neighborhood. She’ll have everything that money can buy. I mean she’s gonna get her blessing, right?
After hearing the Angel, she accepts this message saying, “let it be” (anybody else humming the Beatles?) “to me, according to your word”. Let’s take an honest look at how blessed and highly favored she was in earthly things: In those days, a single mom was considered a harlot, which is a nice or not so nice way to say a prostitute or at very least a promiscuous women. She would have faced ridicule from people who believed she should be stoned to death. Joseph basically wants to divorce her. After Augustus declares a census; Joseph and an extremely pregnant Mary make the 80 mile journey, most likely by donkey, over harsh terrain, an extremely rough ride for a pregnancy. Then, because there is no room in the Inn, Mary was forced to give birth in a manger, not exactly an antiseptic or sterile environment (Luke 2:7) Next, an Angel warns Joseph, that Herod wants to kill the child so he takes Mary and Jesus on another rough trip all the way to Egypt, fleeing to save their child’s life. When Jesus was 12 years old, Mary and Joseph went to Jerusalem for the Passover as they did every year and on the way back they went through a panic when they realized Jesus was not with them, every parent knows that anxious feeling but compound that with the fact Mary knows there are forces that want Jesus dead. Sometime between Jesus’ 12th birthday and his 30th, Mary loses her partner in life, she would have grieved heavily at Joseph’s early death. Sure she sees the miracles of Jesus, the people following Him, but she also sees the church becoming angry at Him and she sees how he made the dangerous political system very uneasy. She most likely hears the news the power structures of church and state plot for her son’s death, they hold a sham trial, they torture him with the brutality that made the Romans famous, and then they murder this innocent man in one of the most barbaric ways possible on the cross. So by the time Mary is 48, she has lost her husband; she has seen her son tortured and killed. Yeah, that’s what most televangelists (I resist the temptation to name names) and the rest of the motivational speakers that call themselves preachers mean when they say, “you are blessed and highly favored” Just remember, as children of God, we are blessed and favored, we are “the elect” according to the scriptures but that does not promise us wealth and riches. Jesus said blessed are the poor, the hungry, the meek. Jesus recommends to the rich young man that he place his treasure in heaven, after he sells everything he owns and gives it to the poor. Jesus said when the widow gave out of her need (indicating poverty) and that she gave the most. In Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the rich man, the poor man inherits eternal life after an earthly life of affliction and poverty. By the way, the rich man in the parable goes in hell. In Proverbs 30, Agur prays for the Lord not to make him rich or poor. He implies rich people think they don’t need the Lord and the poor may curse God in their poverty. I guess what I am saying or restating is what God says in Isaiah 55, His ways are higher than ours and His thoughts are higher than ours. Also in 1 Corinthians 1:27-28, Paul says, “Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And He chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.” The whole of the Bible tells us that this world has it backwards, and wouldn't it mean that what “blessed and highly favored” means to God is not the same thing it means to the world? And don’t even get me started on how these name it claim it, word-faith guys abuse the story of Jacob wrestling with God for a blessing…what a terrible treatment of a great story, enough ranting now, maybe some other time . Until then, seek first the Kingdom of God, keep your mind on things above then the desires of your heart will not line up with the desires of the wicked or the lust of the flesh.
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