She’s been described by millions as “Queen of Heaven,” “Mother of God,” and sometimes even “Co-Redemptrix.” Millions of others have responded by only thinking about her once a year. But she doesn’t need elaborate titles. She only needed the title that Jesus gave her – Mom.
Her name was Mary of Nazareth
Mary of Nazareth is a unique person in the Christian family tree. Depending on your faith tradition, her role may be vastly overstated or quietly downplayed.
In Roman Catholic and Orthodox tradition, there has been a growing assortment of traditions concerning her. These teachings cover all aspects of Mary Life from the Immaculate Conception (meaning she was born without original sin) to her Assumption (meaning her body was taken up to heaven after her death). The title Queen of Heaven comes across as an awkward attempt to use a medieval monarchy to understand the kingdom of heaven. Titles such as Co-Redemptrix and Mother of God are much too clunky and confusing.
On the other end of the spectrum, Protestants tend to place Mary in the same category as her little grey donkey and the resident ox at the stable. They are all part of the Nativity narrative that we blow the dust off on the day after Thanksgiving and quickly box up on the day after Christmas.
Perhaps both sides would do better to follow the actual Biblical text when Elizabeth simply refers to Mary as “the mother of my Lord.” (Luke 1:42 NLT).
When we first meet Mary, we meet a spiritual, but very practical young lady. She willingly accepts God’s mission to give birth to his son – a very dangerous task for a 1st century unmarried Jewish girl. But she is not afraid to ask the question, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” Contrary to what skeptics like to think, people in the ancient world knew where babies came from.
When Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth outside Jerusalem, she confirms the truth that Elizabeth in her old age is also pregnant. Mary rejoices and gives us The Magnificat, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed.” (Luke 2:46-48 NLT). That is what it is entirely appropriate to refer to Mary as the Blessed Mother. She was blessed, because she believed what the Lord had told her (Luke 2:45).
We follow Mary and see her in a whirlwind of trouble as her fiancée Joseph the Carpenter decides to quietly end the engagement. He knows where babies come from too. But he does not know where this baby is coming from. Thanks to an angel, Joseph is reassured, and he and Mary are wed. (Matthew 1:18-25).
The next scene finds Mary wrapping the newborn Jesus in swaddling clothes and placing him in the manager, not too far from that faithful donkey. She and Joseph are startled when shepherds arrive unannounced to worship the newborn. When the shepherds left the nativity scene, they tell everyone they met about baby Jesus. In contrast, Luke tells us that “Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.” (Luke 2:19 NLT).
Sometime later, Mary and Joseph take the baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to perform the appropriate religious ceremonies. It is here that the old man Simeon, takes Jesus in his arms, and praises God for allowing him to see the Messiah. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph are amazed. They shouldn’t have been, but perhaps they thought that the news of Jesus’s miraculous birth was only between them. They weren’t fully aware that a diverse group from shepherds to senior citizens to astrologers would be in on the secret. After blessing them, Simeon has a strange warning for Mary, “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.” (Luke 2:34-25 NLT).
In our culture, we have spent so much time focusing on the shepherd’s adoring the newborn Jesus and the wise men worshipping the baby Jesus, we have overlooked this ominous warning that occurred in the middle, “Many will oppose him….And a sword will pierce your very soul.”
Mary begins to understand this when they received some more unexpected visitors – astrologers from the East, better known to us as the Three Wise Men. The celebration is short lived. Soon afterwards, Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus make a desperate journey to Egypt to seek refuge from the evil King Herod the Great. After his death, they wisely decide that perhaps Bethlehem is a little too close to the action. Just as Superman needs Smallville to grow up in, Jesus needs Nazareth to be his childhood home. (Matthew 2).
The next time we meet Mary she is a panicked parent. She just realized that her son has been gone for three whole days. She and Joseph rushes back to Jerusalem, and she gives preteen Jesus a little bit of her mind. “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.” (Luke 2:48). Again, she’s not resembling the mother made of marble. She’s resembles more of the mother from Home Alone rushing home to check on Kevin. Jesus calmly asks why they had to search everywhere. Didn’t they know that he would be in his Father’s house? So Mary, did you know? At this juncture, Luke tells us “But they didn’t understand what he meant. Then he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart.”
That incident captures the paradox of being a parent of Jesus. On one hand, Mary does know that the Lord is doing great things. She even wrote a song about it – The Magnificat. On the other hand, she is constantly being surprised at how the Lord is doing great things.
When Jesus begins his public ministry, we see an awkwardness in their relationship. At the wedding in Cana, it seems that Mother Mary has more faith in her son than he does when the wine runs out. Scholars disagree over how to view this situation. Was Mother Mary expecting Jesus to perform a miracle? Or was she just expecting Jesus “to do something”? I’m sure many a grown son can relate to frustration of a mother that wants him “to do something” – in other words, fix this problem, though I have no idea how you are going to do it. In any event, it is here that Jesus performs one of his first miracles, turning water into wine. (John 2:1-12).
The awkwardness continues into Jesus’s ministry. Mark tells us that early on in Jesus’s ministry that ‘One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again. Soon he and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat. When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away. ‘He’s out of his mind’ they said.” (Mark 3:20-21).
A few verses later, we read, “Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him. They stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them. There was a crowd sitting around Jesus, and someone said, ‘Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.’ Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ Then he looked at those around him and said, ‘Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.’” (Mark 3:31-33)
Once again see the panicked parent of Mary. She learns that Jesus has been so busy preaching, teaching, and healing that he has not been eating – he has not been cleaning his plate. Mary wonders if her son has gone mad! So apparently at this juncture, Mary still didn’t know. Later, she and his brothers are outside a house ready to grab him – a family intervention. John’s gospel collaborates this by telling us that even his brothers didn’t believe in him. (John 7:5).
And Jesus doesn’t help matters when he implies that his family extends beyond shared DNA. This is a theme that he will repeat again in his ministry. It seems that Mary may have become something of a celebrity – the mother of the prophet from Nazareth. For while Jesus was speaking, a woman shouts out, ““God bless your mother—the womb from which you came, and the breasts that nursed you!” Jesus doesn’t argue with her, but replies with “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.” (Luke 11:27-28 NLT). That is a powerful and scary thought – we can be more blessed than Mother Mary, if we hear the word of God and put it into practice.
Our final scene is of Mary at foot of the cross. Whatever misunderstandings she and her firstborn son had are now in the past. From the cross, Jesus tells his mother, ““Dear woman, here is your son” as he asks the mysterious “beloved disciple” to provide for his mother. Strange is it not, that even from the cross, Jesus was showing concern for others, especially his mother.
One of my favorite pieces of art is the Pietà by Michelangelo of Sistine Chapel fame. I have a replica of it that I bring out every Easter season. It is a statue of Mary holding the body of her deceased son. It is a powerful reminder of the Jesus’s humanity – that his own mother had to watch him die, something that no mother should have to go through. At a time, when Jesus had been deserted by those closest to him, he was able to look down and see the one person who was there for him from the beginning to the end – his mom.
And Mary surely remembered the prophecy from long ago, “And a sword will pierce your very soul.”
Mary is rightly remembered at Christmas, but her love for Jesus led her from the stable to the cross. For this reason, Mother Mary is a heroine of Easter.
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