029. Chapter 8 - Mary, The Mother of Jesus
Chapter 8 - Mary, The Mother of Jesus An Ideal Mother
“Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee.” This was the salutation of heaven to the noble virgin of Nazareth who was to become the mother of Jesus, the Son of God. The favor of God was bestowed upon her because of her righteous and devout character. Her conduct, depicted in the fleeting glimpses of the New Testament, confirms the heavenly tribute. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the very ideal of all mothers in the mystery of suffering and in self-sacrificing devotion.
Beauty of the Records The New Testament records concerning Mary are amazingly brief and simple. She immediately becomes the center of interest in the story, but almost instantly drops into the background. Her hymn of praise and joy is one of the most beautiful gems in the Bible. Someone has called it “the most magnificent cry of joy that has ever issued from a human breast” (Luke 1:46-55). Each time she appears in the narrative the nobility of her character is suggested; but the scenes are full of restraint and constant reminders that, after all, she is but a woman. The deity of Jesus never stands out more clearly in the narrative than when He is in the presence of His mother.
Faith and Devotion
Mary — at Nazareth, in the home of Elisabeth, in the stable at Bethlehem, in the temple with the young infant, fleeing to Egypt, returning to Nazareth, going up annually to the temple — is the very picture of devout faith and tender love. Mother love is not magnified in the Bible. “Like as a father pitieth his children” is rather the current comparison. But Mary predominates in these scenes for the obvious reason that Joseph was not the father of Jesus. Her overwhelming sense of responsibility, her perplexity and loneliness are all emphasized in these early records. “But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.” That is the way of a mother. But how greatly magnified were her interest and anxiety! “Yea, and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul” was the terrifying prediction of the aged Simeon as he unfolded the future of the child. The shadow of the cross flung itself across her pathway, at first in fearful silhouette, and finally with agonizing distinctness. Her Anxious Love The anxious throb of a mother’s love vibrate; in each of the great passages in which she appears. In the temple at Jerusalem, after three days of search which sound the depths of anguish and self-reproach, the striking dialogue reveals her amazement at His conduct, “Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing,” and His calm rebuke: “Why is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:45-51). At the wedding feast in Cana, too eager to behold the fulfillment of her dreams she attempts to urge Him on, but again she is rebuked: “Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.” He can suffer no earthly dictation. He is to do the will of God. But there is a song in her soul that cannot be stilled. Unshaken in her triumphant expectation, she prepares the way if He shall desire to enter in: “His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it” (John 2:1-12).
Mary enters again at the height of the early Galilean ministry. He is being overwhelmed with the demands upon His time and strength. The multitudes press upon Him until there is neither leisure to eat nor rest. “And he cometh into a house. And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when his friends heard it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself” (Mark 3:19-21). The phrase translated “his friends” is in the Greek literally: “Those from (the side of) Him.” Many scholars render it: “His family.” This evidently is the meaning, for Mark 3:31 is a continuation of this narrative: “And there come his mother and his brethren.” In addition to the other heart-breaking trials of Mary, she was surrounded by unbelief in her own household. “For even his brethren did not believe on him” (John 7:1-9). In scorn they urged Him to quit His ministry in provincial Galilee, and concentrate on the capital city — Jerusalem. In Mark 3:19-21 and Mark 3:31-35, they seem to have persuaded Mary to accompany them in the effort to compel Jesus to desist and come home. Doubtless they told her: “John has been imprisoned. His death is imminent. Jesus is imperilled by the same foes. He is about to consume His vital energies by excess of zeal, taking time neither to eat nor sleep. We must bring Him home for a rest.” Again there is the anxious solicitude of a devoted mother, and again Jesus stands forth as the Son of God, and administers a kindly rebuke. He continues His instruction, answering His mother’s call by the wonderful word to the multitudes: “Who is my mother and my brethren? Whosoever shall do the will of God.”
Then, finally, in the darkness which enshrouds Golgotha is the patient, bowed form of a mother. “They all forsook him and fled,” but not Mary. Her prostration from grief calls forth that tender word: “Woman, behold, thy son. Then saith he to the disciple, Behold, thy mother” (John 19:26, John 19:27).
Place of Mary in the New Testament Church
During Jesus’ ministry no organization was formed. There were several groups of disciples more or less closely associated with Him: twelve apostles with an inner group of three; seventy disciples chosen and sent forth on missionary work; a wider group of disciples, including women of wealth and distinction who helped to finance the missionary tours of Jesus (Luke 8:1-4; Mark 4:10; Matthew 27:55, Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40, Mark 15:41; Luke 23:55). Luke does not mention the mother of Jesus among this group, but John notes that when Jesus began His Galilean ministry, making Capernaum His headquarters, “his mother, his brethren, and his disciples” accompanied Him (John 2:12). Perhaps Nazareth was now too hostile to make a congenial home for Mary. At any rate, her intense interest led her to be an eyewitness of the great ministry of Jesus (John 2:1-12; Mark 3:19-21, Mark 3:31-35; John 19:25-27).
It is very remarkable that there is not the slightest intimation that Jesus ever appeared to His mother after His resurrection. She was present at the crucifixion, but is not mentioned at the tomb. Perhaps she collapsed when Jesus died, and was taken home by John while some of the other women followed the body of Jesus to the tomb. Jesus appeared to James, His unbelieving half brother (1 Corinthians 15:7). (What a meeting that must have been!) But, if He appeared to His mother, the sacred historians do not record it.
Luke emphatically notes the presence of Mary with the apostles and disciples at Jerusalem before Pentecost (Acts 1:14). The fact that he fails to mention her presence at the cross makes more striking the specific mention of her name in Acts. A certain simple dignity is hers amid the disciples by virtue of her relationship to the Master.
Apocryphal Additions The New Testament offers no further information concerning Mary, but the early Christian romancers who produced the Apocryphal Gospels soon began to relate all sorts of prodigious things about her. Tradition states she died a.d. 63. It is significant that the New Testament, the last book of which was written a.d. 85-90, does not mention her death or anything further concerning her. The Gospels set forth with the greatest care the fact that she must not be considered above the rest of humanity by reason of her relationship to Jesus. Anyone who does the will of the heavenly Father can be as His brother, sister, and mother (Mark 3:35). But, in spite of all the restraint of the Gospels and their specific statements to the contrary, the church, with the passing of years, proceeded to corrupt the simplicity of its faith by deifying Mary. The “Assumption”
There are two conflicting traditions concerning her death. A letter of the General Council held at Ephesus a.d. 431 states that she lived at Ephesus with John and died there. Another writing of about the same age says she died at Jerusalem and was buried in Gethsemane. The legend states that Thomas desired to see the remains, and that, when they opened her grave after three days, her body was not to be found, and they concluded it had been taken up to heaven. This story, which supposes that she was not translated while alive, as were Enoch, Elijah, and Christ, but that her dead body was taken up to heaven, was called the “Assumption.” Concurrent with the exploitation of this legend, others were set afloat affirming that Mary was sinless, and also born of a virgin, as was Jesus, and that she remained a virgin until her death — this last in spite of Matthew 1:25; Luke 2:7; Mark 6:3, and other passages. The Children of Joseph
Tertullian refers to the marriage of Joseph and Mary and to the brethren of the Lord, making it evident he believed them to be the children of Joseph and Mary. Clement of Alexandria and Origen seem to indicate that this is the general view of the Christian world. Clement refers to the perpetual virginity of Mary with the phrase “Some say.” The growth of asceticism as well as veneration for Mary caused the growth of this idea. The earliest mention of the perpetual virginity of Mary is in the Protevangelium of James, an Apocryphal Gospel of the second century, which treats of the childhood of Mary and Jesus. In clumsy imitation of Matthew and Luke it describes angelic visitations, hymns of nativity, etc., surrounding the birth of Mary of Joachim and Anna. At the age of three she danced in the temple and was “nurtured as a dove in the temple and received food from the hand of an angel” until twelve years old, when she was betrothed to Joseph, a widower eighty years old, who had a number of sons by a former marriage. This piece of fiction represents the beginning of centuries of effort to explain away the obvious meaning of “the brethren of the Lord” and kindred passages in the New Testament. This theory, which received its classic exposition at the hands of Epiphanius (a.d. 377), in reality sets aside the genealogy of Matthew and destroys the Davidic descent of Jesus as the legal heir of Joseph. The exaltation of Mary so engrossed them that they did not perceive the dethroning of Jesus.
Other theories were offered to explain away the “brethren of Jesus,” such as that advanced by Jerome (a.d. 385), that they were the cousins of Jesus — the children of Mary of Clopas, sister of Jesus’ mother and wife of Alphaeus. The Council of Chalcedon (a.d. 451) definitely asserted the perpetual virginity of Mary.
Theory of Sinlessness The theory of the sinlessness of Mary was unknown to the early Christians. Augustine began cautiously to suggest it: “Who knows what power God might have given Mary to overcome sin?” When the Council of Lyons in the twelfth century sought to institute a festival in her honor, this idea became prevalent. Peculiar relations to the Godhead began to be affirmed of Mary by some writers of Alexandria at the close of the third century. During the next century the phrase, “Mother of God,” became common. Cyril of Alexandria in the Council of Ephesus (a.d. 431) speaks of the “Holy Virgin — Mother of God — the spotless treasure-house of virginity.” About this time prayer began to be offered through Mary and to Mary. Peter Damian speaks of Mary as “the most exalted of creatures, now deified and endowed with all power in heaven and in earth and yet not forgetful of our race.”
Reasons for Worship of Mary
There are several causes of this deification of Mary. The vulgar and blasphemous attacks on the birth of Jesus and on Mary by the brilliant pagan Celsus and the unbelieving Jews caused the Christians to react in her defense, and led them to go beyond the Scripture in all sorts of extreme affirmations about her. A sample of these attacks is the slanderous story that Jesus was the illegitimate son of Mary and a Roman soldier named Ben Pandera.
Joseph Klausner, Jewish scholar of Jerusalem, in his Jesus of Nazareth, published in 1925, reviews this legend and admits its falsity, and traces the origin of the fanciful name “Pandera,” or “Panther,” to “a corrupt travesty of the Greek word parthenos — Virgin.” It is obvious how such vulgar attacks on Mary caused Christians to overstep the Scripture in rushing to her defense. A second cause was the Arian controversy, which caused many to affirm the deity of Jesus in such fashion as to make Him so far removed above the world as to give place to a mediator such as the “virgin Mary.” In the very face of such passages as Hebrews 4:14-16, they began to urge the need of a mediator such as Mary, who was not “forgetful of our race”! A third cause is found in the natural religious instincts of people only half Christianized, who had lifelong training in heathen religions which offered female deities to be worshiped. It was an easy matter to substitute Mary for Hera, Juno, or Venus. The development took its rise from the Apocryphal Gospels, which were the romantic output of the masses who naturally felt this loss and unconsciously took this method of supplying it. The place of simple dignity accorded Mary among the disciples at Pentecost should be her place in our hearts today — a recognition of her noble character and her wonderful example of faith and devotion, but towering over all is the word of Christ: “For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my mother.” The Gospels present Mary as a mere woman as far removed from Jesus as all of sinful humanity. But what a noble woman was Mary of Nazareth! We are reminded of the gracious tribute of Carlyle to his mother: “If I could have chosen my mother out of all the women in the world, I would have chosen you.