SS: Mothers of Jesus - Mary
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Intro
Intro
Class background
Matthew begins his Gospel with genealogy in order to anchor his story in Israel’s history. He points to these great moments and figures of the past in order to show us that Jesus is not an afterthought to Judaism, nor is he distinct from what has come before. Jesus was and is the goal to which Israel’s history pointed forward. So much is Jesus the focal point of history that his ancestor’s depend on him for their meaning. Matthew’s Genealogy tells us that the Gospels are real stories about a real Savior who was born of real human flesh who accomplished real salvation in real history.
Yet this genealogy is unique, even shocking, particularly for the role that women play in it. Now, women would have been unique to include in a genealogy for an ancient patriarchal society. In fact, historic evidence suggests that so often were women’s names lost to history that when they WERE included in genealogies, their names would be made up.
But if women were to be included, we would’ve expected names like Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel. Instead, Four of these women (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba) were Gentiles, three had stories of great immorality and shame, one was a Moabitess who could not “enter the assembly forever” (Deuteronomy 23:3).
As a kind of resume, this genealogy fails to impress by worldly standards. But by the ethics of God’s Kingdom, this genealogy shows us that God honors and seeks after the weak, shamed, broken, and sinful.
These women are instructive for us in at least two regards: First, no shame, no sin, can keep us from the grace of God. Second, and this seems to be Matthew’s primary point, Jesus came not just for one particular people, but for all people, even Gentiles, to the ends of the earth. God’s mission to the Gentiles have been a part of God’s plan from the beginning.
Jesus is not just connected to the history of Israel but also the future of the Gentiles, and his disciples have the responsibility to let everyone know about him.
This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah. . .. Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar . . .and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth ... David .... the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife. ... Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah. ... Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.-Matthew 1:1,3,5,6,16,17
Limitations: Mary is a person of great interest both in Scripture as well as the tradition of the church. Layer upon layer of imagery and extrabiblical tradition has fallen upon the sparse New Testament information about the historical Mary. While I’m sure some of us may be interested in the history of that tradition, we are limited by time and space this morning to focus only on what the Gospels say, and the brief reflections we can draw from that.
However, I think one note is in order about this history of tradition surrounding Mary. No doubt the tradition in the Roman Catholic tradition is all-pervasive, where Mary is not only a person of great veneration, but she is regarded as spotless, sinless, and perpetually a virgin.
The Reformed and protestant response to this veneration has been to consider it idolatry. I do not disagree. To the extent that she becomes a intercessor for God’s people is to defy Scriptural teaching about Jesus as the one mediator between God and man.
Nevertheless, the Reformed tradition tends to go far in dismissing Mary as an important figure at all. We go too far and rather than honoring her place in the Redemptive story and as a saint to emulate, we nearly disregard her in our theology or understanding of the life of Jesus the Messiah. So I hope our time together can strike a better balance than the two extremes we often have to deal with.
So let’s consider a few of the key texts which involve Mary and her place in the redemptive story of Scripture. Then I’ll give you some space to discuss at your tables before we come back together and conclude our time together.
Key Texts
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
Little known about Mary prior to this point. Virgin. Debate over whether that means simply “young woman” or virgin in the sense we tend to use it today. Silly debate, as its both. Scripture records this was to fulfill what was spoken by Isaiah:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Mary now stands as fulfillment of what was promised through Eve long ago:
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
Mary is singled out for tremendous blessing, as we will see in a moment. But from the beginning of her story, her being chosen also destines her for social ostracism. This social trauma was so great that even Joseph considers ending the engagement to Mary.
And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
She likely endured this repudiation all her life, as we’ll see in a few minutes.
It’s worth noting here that Joseph is regarded as a just/righteous man precisely because of his instinct to divorce Mary. It is not until the angel comes that he decides to do otherwise. Jewish law demanded that a man charge his wife immediately with infidelity. Roman law treated a husband who failed to divorce his wife as a panderer exploiting his wife as a prostitute. Mediterranean society at large viewed with contempt the weakness of a man who let love for his wife outweight appropriate honor in repudiating her. (Keener, pg 91). So Joseph is a Christlike figure in that he takes Mary’s shame and reproach upon himself and endures it with, or maybe even in some sense, for her. He would remain an object of shame in a society dominated by the value of honor. Joseph’s obedience to God cost him the right to value his own reputation.
Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009), 94–95.
So Mary (and Joseph) not only become social outcasts, but for a time they also face the hardship of being refugees. In his jealousy, Herod the Great determines to kill all boys two and under in Bethlehem in an effort to rid himself of any threat to the throne:
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.
So Joseph, Mary and now Jesus would carry around with them not only the shame of sexual infidelity, but the reputation of having survived genocide.
Mary is portrayed as an example of great faithfulness in the gospels. It is not a stretch to say that her responsive and faithful heart is, at least in part, what found her favor in the eyes of God:
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Upon hearing these things, Mary not only responds in faith
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
But she is depicted as one who will continue to meditate on these things as her life with Jesus continues:
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
Mary fills the role of a second Eve, not only in that she fulfills Genesis 3:15, but like Eve, she and Elizabeth are women who are first to profess faith in the New Testament. She is also the first hymnwriter for the New Covenant people, writing beautiful poetry about the work of salvation for his people and his defense of the poor and oppressed:
And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
Mary’s faithfulness is also on display at the wedding in Cana,
English Standard Version Chapter 2
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
I think there is a beautiful, motherly instinct on display here. Jesus nearly rebuffs his mother at her request. I can almost picture her in her response smirking while saying, “Do whatever he tells you.” Almost like, “Yeah, OK, but I know you’re going to do this as I requested.” Jesus’ obedience to his earthly mother lies at the intersection of the Divine will of his Father to begin his earthly ministry.
But it’s not all roses for Mary’s story in the gospels. As we said before, Mary carried social identities with her that would result in being repudiated and distanced under a shroud of mystery. She was regarded as promiscuous, adulterer, refugee, survivor. At some point, Joseph passed away and was not there to carry those burdens with her. We see hints at this social shame in Mark’s gospel:
He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
That Jesus is regarded as “the son of Mary” without mention of Joseph is likely a veiled way of saying, “This man was born by infidelity and does not know who his father is.”
Life for Mary was hard. Hard because she had to release her son into his Divine mission, hard because of the social stigma she endured. She did not always respond faithfully. Mark, as the first gospel writer, portrays this most pointedly:
And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
This passage often fuels the protestant/reformed posture to downplay Mary’s role. Perhaps taken in isolation this passage might warrant such a response, but read within the wider scope of the gospels, in regards to Mary we merely see her flawed humanity on display, and Jesus’ value of his spiritual family, of which Mary was certainly a part.
Our last exposure to Mary is a sad but beautiful one. As Jesus hangs on the cross, the Apostle John tells us that Jesus’ heart went out to his Mother, and with his dying breaths he sought her care and provision:
English Standard Version Chapter 19
So the soldiers did these things, 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Jesus loved his mother. He loved her all the way down. He loved her enough to identify with this woman who carried such social shame and stigma. He was not ashamed of her in the slightest. He loved her deeply, personally, with the most perfect love that a son has ever loved their mother. It’s beautiful. Even as he suffered, his thoughts were not of himself, but on his mother, whom he loved.
And this love extends all the way down in his family tree to all his Grandmammys and Great grandmammys too. He loved those women with the same intense kind of love that he had for Mary, and he was pleased to say, “These are my ancestors. I belong to them, and they to me.” That’s love.
1. Identify 2 or 3 key texts from above that stood out to your table. Discuss them together. What insights do these passages bring to your understanding of Mary? Do these passages raise any further questions for you? How does Mary’s example strengthen your own faith?
2. Mary had many identities: woman, mother, wife; adulterer, refugee, survivor. What does Mary teach us about the Kingdom of God? About whom Jesus loves? About who God uses to advance his purposes in the world?