Precarious prince of peace
Lily Cathcart
December 01, 2024
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Matthew 1: 18-19 (NRSVA)
18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
Like any parent who has watched CBeebies’ Colour Blocks over and over, I am well aware that ‘Purple is the colour of kings and queens, of princes and princesses’ but here in Matthew’s Gospel we find the beginnings of a prince who is definitely not dressed in purple. No-one was going to offer the quietly disgraced Mary garments in a colour reserved for the wealthy and for royalty. Who would honour her, a woman whose intended didn’t even want her anymore, no matter how quietly he went about it.
Mary may be one of the most famous mothers to find herself in this situation but she was not the first and she will not be the last. We know that her story has happier turns, but for this moment imagine what she and countless others must be feeling, worried for their future and the future of their children.
Mary knows that her child is destined for glory and heartbreak, but in this moment, rejected and shunned she is in danger and so too is Jesus, as yet unborn, swathed not in royal purple but in flesh and womb, in simple clothes, and no doubt in tears and love.
Prayer:
Dear God of scared mothers
Thank you that you chose to send a part of yourself to earth
Help us to remember that precarious starts in life, like Jesus’s, are all too common
Point us to places we can help mothers and children in need
May they be filled with hope and find support
Amen
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