Three Wise Women

TROWEL & SWORD

Three Wise Women

Henni Burggraaf

Traditionally, on many Christmas cards, there are 3 wise men that gather round the manger scene. The number of wise men is often based on the fact that there were three gifts, frankincense, gold and myrrh. Matthew’s gospel tells us about these wise men; however I want to suggest that framed within the Christmas panorama that we read in Luke’s gospel is the story of three wise women and the gifts they bring. Their gifts reach down to us in our generation, each coming from a separate stage of life, and instruct us from their experience, as God brings about salvation for humankind.

There is Elizabeth – (Luke 1: 5-7,11-25) the barren wife, coming to terms with loss of cultural significance, an emptiness and loss, a place that needs filling at the mid-life of her years…for she was ”well along in years”
From Elizabeth we learn the wisdom of moving from emptiness to fullness, from barrenness to birth. Living beyond life’s disappointments to hope and fullness again.
There is Mary – (Luke 1:26-40) the teenager, a virgin, starting to take on the mantle of adulthood with all its responsibilities and fears. Facing her culture with courage.
From Mary we learn the wisdom of moving from negativity to encouragement. How to live beyond the impossible to the possible.
There is Anna – (Luke 2:36-40) the widowed eighty-four year old, in the temple, for she was “very old”.
From Anna we learn the wisdom of moving from the losses of widowhood to worship, from moping to ministering. How to live at the end of life after the loss of your partner.

Elizabeth

What sort of person was she? This descendant of Aaron? As a couple they were ‘upright in the sight of God, careful to keep His ways, enjoying a clear conscience before God’…sounds like your model church-going couple! But they were childless, too old to have kids anymore. Menopause had come and hopes had dried up. The big five-oh had come and the nest was still empty. Expectations had turned to disappointment… and it had been happening on a monthly basis, year after year. Such ongoing disappointment provides real potential for resentment, bitterness, and self-pity. Let alone, the social impact this barrenness brought - isolation from families; being culturally insignificant; people looking down on you because, wasn’t it obvious, God had not blessed you? Her disappointment was not just a personal disappointment, it impacted on her place in society, impacted on her relationship with God. She felt cut off, abandoned by God and society, having no future. For Zach and Liz hope had dried up. We see that in Zach’s response to the angel..’You really expect me to believe that Liz is going to get pregnant… after years of hoping? I don’t dare to believe anymore, I’m old and so is my wife’…hope has come to its own menopause. I can never hope or believe again. How do we, as God’s people, journey through such barrenness and emptiness, through the disappointments that life brings? How do we come to acceptance and still hold onto hope? It seems like God allows us to teeter on the edge of despair, feel the full impact of culturally imposed sanctions, the full extent of our own powerlessness before God acts. Perhaps God is instructing us... “Only by experiencing disappointment will you understand it with all its emotional nuances… and I want you to understand it…but I don’t want you to live there.”

Just when we come to accept barrenness as a way of life, God jolts us into the opposite, birthing something new in our lives. When God acts… speech is silenced, there are no more words to speak, except the act of naming when barrenness has given way to birthing new life. Imagine Elizabeth’s journey from barrenness to fullness…in wonder and quiet seclusion she relishes her pregnancy nurturing hope back into a new place of wonder, faith, and love. It allows her to exclaim- ‘God is at work here! He is at work in me, God has done this for me! He has turned the tables!’

From Elizabeth we learn the wisdom of holding onto hope in God and not onto our own expectations. It is living in the “yet”… of life; the “in spite of”, -the remembrance of God’s faithful, redemptive, actions in the past.

Mary

As a teenager and virgin, Mary stands at the other end of womanhood to Elizabeth. Partnership, intimacy, and motherhood await her with all the fearfulness that surrendering in love to another person entails. She stands at the brink of adult life with all its enormous responsibilities. When the angel speaks into her life Mary recognizes that there are enormous cultural implications in this message that speaks of God’s favour. How can God’s favour come in such a culturally unacceptable package? How will she face her family, her friends, her husband-to-be? Like Elizabeth, she too, must deal with cultural shame and disgrace.

Imagine the social stigma of being an unmarried mother…barrenness can almost seem desirable in such a situation. Imagine the sphere of negativity that surrounds her… the criticism, the jibes, accused of infidelity, and the potential of being stoned… how will she cope with all that? Mary has big questions…how can this be possible, I haven’t slept with a man… she knows the facts of life. Into her situation the angel speaks reassurance, her questions are answered, and there is emotional support from a mentor who knows about living through cultural shame. The angel affirms the faith conviction that with God nothing is impossible. Mary’s response of submission is a lovely thing. She gives her body willingly so that God’s purposes may be accomplished, but with that surrender begins her journey into the sphere of negativity. However, when confronted with the critical retorts of others, she chooses not to remain there. She seeks out Elizabeth, the older wiser woman. The very one who has journeyed through cultural shame and grief will now mentor her with encouragement. Her greeting is instructive “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.” Belief and faith are the tools of encouragement that Elizabeth acknowledges. Three months of this mentoring in faith and grace move Mary out of the sphere of negativity into the sphere of encouragement where faith is nurtured and hope restored. Mary’s choice to remove herself from negative surroundings into a place of encouragement is the wisdom we receive from Mary.

Anna

Anna is in the third phase of womanhood. She is very old, being 84. As a widow she knows of life’s love and losses. Her marriage had been short, only seven years. She could have wallowed in a life of self-pity and loss. But she chooses a different path. She teaches us how to embrace singleness, widowhood. She has a prophetic gift that she employs in the temple. Her gift is not dependent on her marital status. She exercises her spiritual gifts alone as a mature adult within the community of God’s people. She exercises the spiritual disciplines of fasting, prayer and worship. She does this irregardless of day or night. There is a spiritual awareness about her that allows her to be tuned in to what God is doing in the lives of those who come to the temple. She lives a life of thanksgiving. We note that she is old but still hoping, looking forward to what God will do and is still doing. Newness and change are not a threat to her. She is able to take initiative, for she is so tuned into God’s kingdom, God’s sphere of action, that she confidently approaches Jesus, and Mary and Joseph and gives thanks for this child, for God’s act of redemption. From Anna we learn the wisdom for the later years of life. Bereaved but not bitter. Ministering not moping. How in the midst of sorrow we seek the comfort of God’s presence. She remains in that presence of God using her gifts. She maintains a kingdom perspective on life. She embraces the opportunities that singleness or widowhood presents. She dedicates her life to the ministry of prayer, fasting and thanksgiving; maintaining hope and initiative.

Three wise women, with wisdom for three different phases of life. They surround the Christmas story and bring their gifts.

As we bow in worship this Christmas, as we consider Jesus-
may we, with Elizabeth, bring the gift of personal faith…The Lord has done this for me!

may we, with Mary, bring the gift of full surrender… May it be to me as You have said

may we, with Anna, bring the gift of worship, prayer and thanksgiving…She gave thanks to God.

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