|
|
Mary, the
Mother of Jesus
Luke 1:26-56 (Luke 1:26-56 NIV)
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in
Galilee, {27} to a virgin pledged to
be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was
Mary. {28} The angel went to her and
said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."
{29} Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of
greeting this might be. {30} But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you
have found favor with God. {31} You
will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name
Jesus. {32} He will be great and will
be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his
father David, {33} and he will reign
over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
{34} "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a
virgin?" {35} The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born
will be called the Son of God. {36} Even
Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was
said to be barren is in her sixth month.
{37} For nothing is impossible with God." {38} "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May
it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
{39} At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country
of Judea, {40} where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth.
{41} When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
{42} In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and
blessed is the child you will bear! {43} But
why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? {44} As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the
baby in my womb leaped for joy. {45} Blessed
is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be
accomplished!" {46} And Mary
said: "My soul glorifies the Lord
{47} and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, {48} for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed, {49} for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his
name. {50} His mercy extends to those
who fear him, from generation to generation.
{51} He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who
are proud in their inmost thoughts. {52} He
has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.
{53} He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away
empty. {54} He has helped his servant
Israel, remembering to be merciful {55} to
Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers." {56} Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then
returned home. Preliminary: Mary’s
Reputation One key fact
stands out about Mary: her
reputation within the Roman Catholic church.
Her stature there is such that one author called her “the fourth person
of the Trinity.” It is not my
purpose to exalt creature to creator status;
nor to conduct an attack on the Roman Catholic church.
Rather, I will propose three questions: ·
Why was it
necessary for God to use anyone for this purpose? ·
What caused
Him to select Mary? ·
What lessons
can we learn from this? The Necessity of Mary Why did God
need to use a “Mary?” The
question may be broken down into two parts: ·
Why was it
necessary for Christ to come in the flesh? ·
How, then,
was this to be accomplished? The Incarnation Why was it
necessary for Christ to come in the flesh?
Why not some supernatural, ghostly visitation, a glowing saucer in the
sky with a loudspeaker?
The legal answer The answer
is found in the Old Testament. A
reading of (for example) of Leviticus chapter 16 will show that, over and over,
God associates the shedding of blood with the forgiveness of sin. It is a curious feature of the Old Testament Law: ·
The Law is a
code of conduct which will stand for no deviation. ·
But God
knows you will deviate from it, sinners that we are. ·
Therefore,
some atonement must be made to cover for this. Atonement is
always made in blood. Indeed, as
the author of Hebrews has it, (Heb 9:22 NIV)
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood,
and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. So, if the
Law is to be satisfied once and for all -- if the word “final” is to be
written on the payment slip -- there must be a sacrifice.
In the Old Testament, a sacrifice must be unblemished.
In some cases, it must be first born.
Therefore, the ultimate - “final” sacrifice is the first born of God,
the purest possible person. Indeed, the Bible expressly declares that it was for this
purpose that Christ came: (Gal 4:4-5 NIV)
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born
under law, {5} to redeem those under
law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. To “redeem
the law” -- that is the purpose of the Incarnation.
The moral answer But what of
those who do not recognize the Law? It
was given to us as example, but only to the Jews as Law.
The sense of the Atonement can be generalized to that of a “ransom:” (1 Tim 2:5-6 NIV)
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus, {6} who gave himself as a
ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time. Indeed, it
can be seen as the reason He came: (Mat 20:28 NIV)
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Why?
In the moral sense, we can see it this way.
Only the person sinned against can forgive, but anyone can atone.
If I owe a debt, you can pay it for me -- but only to the person to whom
I owe it. If I injure
someone, the court (in any country, under any law -- i.e., in general good
morality) will make me pay recompense to the victim of my errors.
I know this might happen, so I buy insurance against it -- like auto
insurance. I line up someone else
to make the payment for me -- just in case. Now, when I
sin, I have offended God. In some
sense, I “owe” God. But I
can’t pay -- what do I have that He would want?
How could I meet His divine standard of perfection?
I’m held hostage by my sin. But
(praise God!) I have a Friend who can pay the debt -- and has.
(Ephesians chapters one and two).
The picture There is one
overriding picture we need to put in our minds: the Passover lamb. The
Israelites did not understand (probably) why God was doing what He was doing.
They knew, however, that the way to avoid the death of their first born
children was to put the blood of the Passover lamb on the door posts.
Thus, the Destroying Angel would “pass over” that house.
If you want
to get the feeling of it, think of being pulled over for speeding.
The officer approaches the car, sees your “UCLA Alumni” sticker on
the car, and comments that “at least you went to the right school.”
Then he gives you a warning and lets you go.
How do you feel about the Alumni Association dues now? That’s
Jesus Christ, our Passover lamb: (1 Cor 5:7 NIV)
Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast--as
you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Why a Woman? OK, so the
Christ must come in the flesh to be a sacrifice.
Why not have Him just appear, or come down out of heaven, or .....
Why a natural birth? First, it
was prophesied -- as a nemesis of Satan: (Gen 3:15 NIV)
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." But this is
no ordinary birth, as was foretold to Isaiah: (Isa 7:14 NIV)
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with
child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Here we see
that the virgin birth is a “sign.” That
means a way we can recognize the real Christ.
But the main reason is that without a birth there is no real incarnation;
no way for God to become Man. It
is a mystery, to be sure, but it is the faith: (John 1:14 NIV)
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his
glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace
and truth. The Character of Mary So then, a
birth is required, and that means a virgin of Israel, of the house of David, to
give birth in Bethlehem, .... the list goes on.
What kind of person is this Mary? We
have in this passage most of the clues to her character. She is submissive in obedience. “Behold
the handmaiden of the Lord” (verse 38) in the old King James.
Her response to what must be an overwhelming message is one of submission
and obedience. She is a woman of purity.
She explicitly asks how this can happen -- she understands sex well
enough for that! (The question is
“how”, not “whether.”) In
asking the question -- of an angel of the Lord, Gabriel himself, not one you
would want to “fake out” -- she shows what she is.
She is a pure virgin, and not at all self conscious about it. She is one who has a deep relationship with God.
Poetry
is a window on the soul, and in the Magnificat (verses 46-55) we have a
beautiful picture of Mary’s relationship with God: ·
She is one
who “rejoices in the Lord.” ·
She thanks
God for His blessings, both on her and on her people. ·
She knows
God’s character, knowing Him to be ·
merciful ·
knowing the
thoughts of all, and opposing the proud ·
faithful
(verse 55) Christ’s view of Mary It’s
interesting to see our Lord’s own view of His mother.
It’s recorded in two places: (John 2:1-10 NIV)
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother
was there, {2} and Jesus and his
disciples had also been invited to the wedding. {3} When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They
have no more wine." {4} "Dear
woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus
replied. "My time has not yet come."
{5} His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
{6} Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for
ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. {7} Jesus said to the servants, "Fill
the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.
{8} Then he told them, "Now draw some out and
take it to the master of the banquet." They did so,
{9} and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into
wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had
drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside {10} and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and
then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have
saved the best till now." (John 19:25-27 NIV)
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the
wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. {26} When
Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he
said to his mother, "Dear
woman, here is your son,"
{27} and to the disciple, "Here is your
mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. (It’s no
accident that John, the closest friend Jesus had, is the one to record these).
The adjective “dear” is used only twice by Jesus -- and only of His
mother. Henry
Halley, a Bible commentator of the 1920s, described the Papacy this way: “It
arose on the ruins of the Roman Empire, in the name of Christ occupying the
throne of the Caesars; a Revival of the Image of the Roman Empire inheriting the
Spirit thereof; ‘the Ghost of the Roman Empire come to life in the garb of
Christianity’ ... It brought itself to power through the prestige of Rome, and
the Name of Christ, and by shrewd political alliances, and by deception, and by
armed force; and by Armed Force and
Bloodshed has maintained itself in power“ (flaming capitals in the original)
-- from which you can see how he felt about the Catholic church. Yet see how he views Mary: “Mary was
a quiet, meditative, devoted, wise woman, most honored of women, queen of
mothers, sharing the cares common to motherhood.
We admire her, we honor her, and we love her because she was the mother
of our Savior.” Lessons to be learned Mary stands
not, as misstated, the source of grace, but rather as example to us.
Some key points: The example to women Women today
feel the desire to be “liberated.” The
word means many things to many people. Several
of them are the denial of the woman of the Scriptures.
The one most particularly offensive is the role of motherhood.
Today, motherhood is supposed to be an afterthought (certainly not to be
ranked with career and prestige) -- something of the thought of “I’m
superwoman, I can do that too.” Consider,
however, that the honor due to Mary is for one thing:
motherhood. She was counted
worthy to be the mother of our Lord. The example to all of us Much of what
I have to say here applies to motherhood in particular. Please consider, however, that we, the church, are the bride
of Christ -- female to Him who is male to us all.
There are three keys of her character I would give you: The key to submission:
knowing God.
How many women would tell you something like “Submit to some guy?
Not me sister!” God
doesn’t ask you to submit yourself to “some guy”
-- He asks you to submit to the husband you know, the one you know who
loves you to the point of giving his life for you.
Submission is so much easier to one you know; one who loves you. So it is
with us, the church. We are to be
submissive to our Lord, and this starts with our knowing Him.
·
Do you know
His mercy? ·
Do you
understand that He knows your thoughts, and opposes the proud? ·
Have you
seen His faithfulness? All these
things Mary saw. The key to service:
Purity.
I had to repair my wife’s glasses yesterday.
A tiny screw had popped out and been lost.
I found an old pair of glasses to obtain a replacement screw, and then
went to select a screwdriver. I
picked one of those tiny “jeweler’s” screwdrivers -- because that was the
tool that would do the job. I have
a lot of screwdrivers, but only that one would do.
God’s toolbox likewise has different tools (us) for different tasks. But suppose
I came and found the tip of that screwdriver rusted and corroded.
I’d have to throw it away and get a new one.
So it is that purity makes us a tool fit for the Master’s hand, to be
used at His tasks. Do you ever feel
that God does not make sufficient use of you, that your life needs some greater
task? Perhaps it is not the shape
of the tool, but the shape the tool is in! The key to obedience:
faith and trust.
As the angel told Mary, nothing is impossible with God.
He will not work beyond our trust, however.
You know
this from married life. Your
relationship depends upon trust; that
trust must be nourished. Can you
tell where serving each other stops and trust begins? So it is
with God. If you wish to be His
obedient and submissive servant, you cannot do it with a Missouri attitude.
Compare the attitudes: “Lord, I
want you to work great things through me. But
you understand that until I see great and miraculous things, I’m going to go
on doubting that you can or ever will work through me. So I’m just going to sit back and wait for you to do a
miracle in my life -- then you’ll see just how hot and on fire I can be.” “Behold
the handmaiden of the Lord.” “May
it be to me as you have said.” Which of
these is pleasing to God? And
through which of these people will He do great things? |
|
|
