“My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour, For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed!” Luke 1:42. 46-48. NASV.
Because we stand firmly in the Protestant tradition, we have been rather reticent in speaking of Mary, the mother of Jesus. This is a pity for just as we can learn much from the lives and exploits of the prophets, so too we can profit from a study of the experiences of Mary.
That it was a wonderful privilege to have the honour of being chosen to be the mother of God’s Son, the Messiah, there can surely be no doubt. “Blessed among women are you!” exclaimed Elizabeth when she heard Mary’s thrilling news; and Mary herself could not refrain from expressing her joy; “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour, For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed!” Luke 1:42. 46-48. NASV. Of all the many women among the faithful remnant who had down the dark centuries, been “waiting for the consolation of Israel”, lowly Mary was selected to be the mother of the Messiah! No greater honour was ever conferred upon a woman.
A Sword
Having said that, we must not let the greatness of the honour make us overlook the fact that much sacrifice and suffering was involved in being the mother of God’s Son. And whether Mary was fully aware of the suffering it would inevitably involve at the time when the angel made his momentous announcement to her or not, she was surely made vividly aware of it by the solemn words of Simeon, when he held the infant Jesus in his arms, on the occasion of his presentation in the Temple: “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed – AND A SWORD WILL PIERCE EVEN YOUR OWN SOUL” Luke 2, 34, 35.
With the passage of those silent years between the birth of Jesus and the one incident from his adolescence recorded in scripture, Mary may well have put Simeon’s sombre words to the back of her mind. But the incident in the Temple, for which we are again indebted to Luke, brought them flooding back to her consciousness once again. Mary, her anger scarcely held in check, rebuked Jesus for his sudden disappearance; “Son why have you treated us this way? Behold, your father and I have been anxiously looking for you.” Jesus replied: “Why is it that you have been searching for me? Did you not know it was my duty to be engaged upon my Fathers business?” Luke 2, 49. Weymouth.
He was not destined, to make smooth yokes and sturdy trestles in Joseph’s workshop, but to mend lives and limbs and above all, to be nailed to a gnarled and cruel cross.
A Cross
It has been the sad experience of many mothers in the last and present centuries to lose their sons when they were in the prime of life, as did Mary. The annuls of the nations are stained with much young blood – blood shed on the battlefields of two global wars, then Korea, Malaya, Falklands, Iraq, Afghanistan. But surely few, if any, have experienced what Mary went through when her beloved Son was crucified: before her eyes.
"At the cross her station keeping, stood the mournful mother weeping, Where He hung, our dying Lord,
Bowed with anguish, deeply grieved, Felt the sharp and piercing sword".
Scandal
What, then are the lessons to be learned from these experiences of Mary? First we must not forget that her harrowing experience at Golgotha was the culmination of a whole series of tribulations that Mary had to suffer. At the very beginning her consent to be the mother of the Son of God brought the risk of scandal. Was not the pious Joseph about to divorce her, when he discovered that she was pregnant, supposing her to have been unfaithful? Matt 1, 18.
Then came that tearful day when she had to let her son go – never an easy thing for a mother to do – knowing full well how it would all end; and knowing that, as well as having devotion showered on him by those whose sicknesses He had healed and whose broken lives He had put together again, He would also face the implacable spite and the incessant plotting of the hierarchy.
Faith
When the angelic messenger told Mary she was to be the mother of the Messiah, she could not see how it would come about. Even when Gabriel explained that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her she could not have fully understood. But she nevertheless believed and consented to co-operate with God’s staggering plan. This was the Christ implanted in her. Likewise we, though unable to explain the inexplicable, having believed, trusted and put ourselves at God’s disposal, by operation of the same Spirit by which Jesus was conceived, are privileged to enjoy “Christ in us, the hope of glory” Colossians 1, 27.
Relinquish
Eventually, as we have said, Mary had to ‘let go’. She had been given the privilege of being the mother of God’s Son not for her own personal enjoyment or fulfilment but that He might become the Saviour of the world. Similarly our experiences of the new birth is not meant merely to be for our own personal benefit, but that salvation may be proclaimed to the world at large, and to those about us. We are not meant to cling to Christ with the avarice of a miser secretly gloating over his riches but rather to share His inestimable benefits with an impoverished world. And he who gives Christ receives more of Him than he had before.
Too often our preaching of the Gospel omits or makes only passing reference to what might be called the darker side of Christian life and experience. But the scripture makes it plain that being a Christian involves bearing a cross; “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” Acts 14, 22. The experience of Mary amply bears out that statement; the Virgin Birth involved risk of scandal, the ‘letting go’ was a terrible wrench, and Golgotha was a nightmare. But the cross was not the end, for ‘on the third day He rose again’ and Mary’s sorrow turned to joy. It had all been worthwhile.
Has anyone ever given better advice than the words which Mary spoke long ago to the servants at a village wedding?
“Whatsoever He says to you, do it” John 2, 5.
Because we stand firmly in the Protestant tradition, we have been rather reticent in speaking of Mary, the mother of Jesus. This is a pity for just as we can learn much from the lives and exploits of the prophets, so too we can profit from a study of the experiences of Mary.
That it was a wonderful privilege to have the honour of being chosen to be the mother of God’s Son, the Messiah, there can surely be no doubt. “Blessed among women are you!” exclaimed Elizabeth when she heard Mary’s thrilling news; and Mary herself could not refrain from expressing her joy; “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour, For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed!” Luke 1:42. 46-48. NASV. Of all the many women among the faithful remnant who had down the dark centuries, been “waiting for the consolation of Israel”, lowly Mary was selected to be the mother of the Messiah! No greater honour was ever conferred upon a woman.
A Sword
Having said that, we must not let the greatness of the honour make us overlook the fact that much sacrifice and suffering was involved in being the mother of God’s Son. And whether Mary was fully aware of the suffering it would inevitably involve at the time when the angel made his momentous announcement to her or not, she was surely made vividly aware of it by the solemn words of Simeon, when he held the infant Jesus in his arms, on the occasion of his presentation in the Temple: “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed – AND A SWORD WILL PIERCE EVEN YOUR OWN SOUL” Luke 2, 34, 35.
With the passage of those silent years between the birth of Jesus and the one incident from his adolescence recorded in scripture, Mary may well have put Simeon’s sombre words to the back of her mind. But the incident in the Temple, for which we are again indebted to Luke, brought them flooding back to her consciousness once again. Mary, her anger scarcely held in check, rebuked Jesus for his sudden disappearance; “Son why have you treated us this way? Behold, your father and I have been anxiously looking for you.” Jesus replied: “Why is it that you have been searching for me? Did you not know it was my duty to be engaged upon my Fathers business?” Luke 2, 49. Weymouth.
He was not destined, to make smooth yokes and sturdy trestles in Joseph’s workshop, but to mend lives and limbs and above all, to be nailed to a gnarled and cruel cross.
A Cross
It has been the sad experience of many mothers in the last and present centuries to lose their sons when they were in the prime of life, as did Mary. The annuls of the nations are stained with much young blood – blood shed on the battlefields of two global wars, then Korea, Malaya, Falklands, Iraq, Afghanistan. But surely few, if any, have experienced what Mary went through when her beloved Son was crucified: before her eyes.
"At the cross her station keeping, stood the mournful mother weeping, Where He hung, our dying Lord,
Bowed with anguish, deeply grieved, Felt the sharp and piercing sword".
Scandal
What, then are the lessons to be learned from these experiences of Mary? First we must not forget that her harrowing experience at Golgotha was the culmination of a whole series of tribulations that Mary had to suffer. At the very beginning her consent to be the mother of the Son of God brought the risk of scandal. Was not the pious Joseph about to divorce her, when he discovered that she was pregnant, supposing her to have been unfaithful? Matt 1, 18.
Then came that tearful day when she had to let her son go – never an easy thing for a mother to do – knowing full well how it would all end; and knowing that, as well as having devotion showered on him by those whose sicknesses He had healed and whose broken lives He had put together again, He would also face the implacable spite and the incessant plotting of the hierarchy.
Faith
When the angelic messenger told Mary she was to be the mother of the Messiah, she could not see how it would come about. Even when Gabriel explained that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her she could not have fully understood. But she nevertheless believed and consented to co-operate with God’s staggering plan. This was the Christ implanted in her. Likewise we, though unable to explain the inexplicable, having believed, trusted and put ourselves at God’s disposal, by operation of the same Spirit by which Jesus was conceived, are privileged to enjoy “Christ in us, the hope of glory” Colossians 1, 27.
Relinquish
Eventually, as we have said, Mary had to ‘let go’. She had been given the privilege of being the mother of God’s Son not for her own personal enjoyment or fulfilment but that He might become the Saviour of the world. Similarly our experiences of the new birth is not meant merely to be for our own personal benefit, but that salvation may be proclaimed to the world at large, and to those about us. We are not meant to cling to Christ with the avarice of a miser secretly gloating over his riches but rather to share His inestimable benefits with an impoverished world. And he who gives Christ receives more of Him than he had before.
Too often our preaching of the Gospel omits or makes only passing reference to what might be called the darker side of Christian life and experience. But the scripture makes it plain that being a Christian involves bearing a cross; “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” Acts 14, 22. The experience of Mary amply bears out that statement; the Virgin Birth involved risk of scandal, the ‘letting go’ was a terrible wrench, and Golgotha was a nightmare. But the cross was not the end, for ‘on the third day He rose again’ and Mary’s sorrow turned to joy. It had all been worthwhile.
Has anyone ever given better advice than the words which Mary spoke long ago to the servants at a village wedding?
“Whatsoever He says to you, do it” John 2, 5.
