Role Models: Mary
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Luke 1:30-31
How do you describe parenthood?
Why is parenting hard?
What is the most important part of parenting?
Describing parenthood to someone who has never had a child is difficult. It is like trying to describe a painting to someone who cannot see or singing a song to someone who cannot hear.
Until someone has experienced the love, exhaustion, joy, challenges, concerns, and the heavy responsibility they can have a difficulty fully appreciating and realizing what all goes into parenting.
Some people waited years to become parents, others became parents at a young age. Regardless of when we become parents, God entrusts children to a mother and father.
3 Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.
6 Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.
There are many different methods of parenting. One psychologist described parenting styles as “permissive, authoritative, neglectful and authoritarian.” There is one more category she could have included—Godly parenting.
How does God change our parenting methods?
What benefits come to children who are raised in Godly homes?
Of all the parents in Scripture, one had a responsibility greater than anyone else, that is Mary, the mother of Jesus. This lesson will look at her principles from her life that will positively effect our parenting.
We do not know everything Mary did as a mom. She shared some, but not all of her life with Jesus.
19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Mary was Committed
Mary was Committed
Luke 2:22-27
Becoming pregnant when she did was a challenge for Mary. She lived in a culture that not only looked down on unwed mothers, they ostracized and ignored them. Mary had the challenge of sharing the news of the promised Son with Joseph.
At first, he did not believe her, but God spoke to him in a dream and he committed his life and future to Mary. After the unforeseen events surrounding Jesus’s birth, hours of traveling and an unsanitary stable, she held her son in her arms.
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Though she was committed to being a Godly mother to the Son of God, she also stayed committed to God. According to the Law, Mary was to travel with Joseph to the Temple to bring Jesus.
Jesus would have been forty days old and they would have had to walk seven miles to get to the Temple.
How would it feel to travel this far on foot with an infant?
What made Mary do this?
God honored her commitment and when they arrived at the Temple, the Lord used an elderly man named Simeon to prophesy over Jesus. He declared that Jesus would be the salvation of all people and would bring revelation to both Jew and Gentile.
When parents put God first and stay committed to Him, He will honor their efforts.
Luke 2:41-50
Every year of Jesus’s life in the home of Mary and Joseph, they prioritized going to the Temple to celebrate the Feast of Passover. Now, the journey was much longer. Instead of going from Bethlehem, they traveled from Nazareth, which was ninety miles, a total of thirty hours on foot.
Every year they made this journey. They were committed to raising Jesus the way a faithful Jewish child should be raised. When he was twelve, they did not realize he was not with them as they journeyed home.
It was three days and they recognized he was gone. When they returned, they found Jesus in the Temple, being about the Father’s business.
What was this like for Mary?
How do you think Mary and Joseph felt when Jesus told them about the Father’s business?
Mary epitomized the importance of being a committed parent and the positive effects it has on children.
Mary was Understanding
Mary was Understanding
Why is understanding important in parenting?
How was Mary understanding as Jesus’s mother?
John 2:1-4
The incident surrounding Jesus’ first miracle was a lack of planning on the part of the wedding hosts. Jewish weddings differ from modern weddings. Back then the weddings were arranged by the parents.
Once the contract was prepared, the couple would recite their vows in the synagogue, exchange gifts, and then the man and woman would go to their respective homes for two months.
This two-month period was called the betrothal. After the betrothal, there would be a processional, usually at night. The groom would go to the home of his bride where friends and family would line the streets holding lamps to lighten his path.
When he arrived at the home of the bride, they would feast and celebrate for as long as week. Mary could be Mary’s daughter, or close relative, because of her involvement, being an involved mother had a solution, “Jesus, come over here, you need to help them because they have run out of wine. Now Jesus, these are out friends and it will be embarrassing to them.”
Jesus response seems harsh. In reality, woman was similar to saying ma’am, it was very polite, and therefore Jesus was not disrespectful to his mother. But Jesus also knew that the situation was not theirs to solve.
Jesus further explained that it was not yet His time; the hour had not yet come. Helping a family from disgrace was one thing, but establishing His Kingdom to early was another.
Nevertheless, Jesus looked at this incident and used it as an opportunity for His disciples to believe.
John 2:5-8
Evidently Mary was not offended by the answer Jesus gave, for she passed along instructions to the servants. Jesus began to speak and they instantly obeyed Him.
Even though His mother’s motivation was misguided, He gladly helped the host of the wedding party. He instructed the servants to fill six stone water jars.
She was understanding of Jesus’s call. She believed in Him and trusted that God would use Him.
Luke 8:19-21
Later in Jesus’s ministry, someone informed Him that His mother and brothers wanted to speak to him.
How would most parent’s react to Jesus’s response?
Mary was understanding that God had a plan for her Son’s life. She allowed Him to flourish in His destiny. She knew how to let go and allow Him to grow into a Man of God.
Mary was Supportive
Mary was Supportive
John 19:25-27
Believing in your child is important. Supporting their calling and passion is necessary. But Mary had the hardest task, because being supportive of Jesus meant being present for His death.
Mary witnessed the events that led to Jesus’s death. Everyone around saw the Man on the cross, but she knew Him when He was first born. She walked with Him, supported Him, helped Him, and loved Him.
How do you think Mary felt when she witnessed the crucifixion?
Jesus saw His mother there and remembered her, entrusting her to His disciple, John. Though she endured the heartache of seeing her Son die, she also enjoyed the miracle of His resurrection.
Acts 1:9-11; 14
Mary saw her resurrected Son and Savior. She also listened as He instructed His followers to wait in the Upper Room for the Holy Spirit. She was present on the Day of Pentecost.
She was numbered among those who were baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. She supported His Kingdom and the spreading of the Gospel the rest of her life.
She knew Him while He was alive, then she got to know Him as her Savior when He ascended to heaven. Undoubtedly she anticipated His return and prayed for Him to rapture the Church.
What do you think it was like for Mary to be present on the Day of Pentecost?
How was it for her after Jesus ascended to heaven?
Application
Application
Mary had a heavy responsibility— being mom to the Son of God. Her entire life centered on His work, death, burial, and resurrection.
Years after He left, Luke the doctor, investigated the life of Christ to write in a letter to a man named Theophilus. Because he was not a follower of Jesus until years after the resurrection, he would have interviewed that knew Jesus while He was alive.
When he got to Mary, she shared some of the details of His life, but also couldn’t talk about it all.
19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.
19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
Mary just couldn’t talk about everything. She held a unique position as one who was both Mother of Christ, but also a daughter of God.