From Mary to Mom, Lessons in Motherhood

Philippians 1: 2-3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God upon every remembrance of you.

Author Tenneva Jordan once quipped, " A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie." That kind of unselfishness is rarely found outside the boundaries of motherhood within this world. The world reinforces greed and self-centered behaviors. It rewards egocentricity and a me-first mentality. But not moms. Motherhood not only bears the child into the world but it also births the mother a person who did not exist prior to childbirth. As a man, I am limited in even grasping the depth of which I speak, a fact friends of mine who are mothers are all too willing to point out.

So let us pause this Mother's Day to look at the mother of our Lord and Savior and see the qualities inherent in her motherhood. First of all, Mary was faithful above everything else. Let's remember the circumstances upon which she found out she was to give birth to the son of God. She was a 14 year old girl. While she was betrothed to Joseph, she was not married. She is visited by an angel of the Lord who brings her this revelation:

"Don't be afraid, Mary," the angel told her, "for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!" Luke 1: 30-33 (NLT)

Favor with God? How many 14 year old girls would look upon this pronouncement favorably? Her entire plans for her life are seemingly devastated. She is going to look like she had been promiscuous. Her reputation would be destroyed. What would Joseph think of her? Who would believe her that an angel from God told her that the Holy Spirit would impregnate her? But here was the response from Mary:

Mary responded, "I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true." And then the angel left her. Luke 1: 38 (NLT)

That is true faith. It is the kind of faith God wants all of us to develop. The faith that doesn't care what the world might say. The kind of faith that measures everything up to the word received from God. Was Mary scared? No doubt what 14 year old girl in this situation wouldn't be? But she knew that God was bigger and as she said, she was His servant. Her faith knew the God she served.

Don't sell this point short. It may seem easy to have such faith but let's look at the father of John the Baptist and the angelic visitation he experienced:

But the angel said, "Don't be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly." Luke 1: 13-17 (NLT)

Given the advanced age of both Zechariah and his wife, this message must have seemed as impossible as the one Mary received. But note the difference in his response:

Zechariah said to the angel, "How can I be sure this will happen? I'm an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years." Luke 1: 18 (NLT)

How can I be sure? God sends an angel to give him this news and the doubt that he had was still stronger. How can I be sure? Mary did not ask for any such assurances. Mary had faith that if God spoke it, He will bring it to pass. Zechariah would have to learn the hard way:

Then the angel said, "I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. It was he who sent me to bring you this good news! But now, since you didn't believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born. For my words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time." Luke 1: 19-20 (NLT)

Interesting that God struck silent the doubting tongue that Zechariah suffered from. Our faith sometimes is more tested by the words we allow to speak into our lives than anything else. God has spoken words into all of our lives. We have His Word directly through the Bible yet we too can stand as Zechariah did before us and ask God, how can I be sure? The devil starts whispering into our ear and instead of dismissing his lies with the truth of God's Word; we can speak doubt an uncertainty into our situations. But not Mary! Mary was faithful above everything else.

Mary was also strong beyond measure. We see this strength early on in her life. At 14 years she gives birth. Almost immediately, she is forced to flee to Egypt to avoid the oncoming persecution from Herod. Infuriated by the wise men, Herod orders all children in Bethlehem and the region under the age of two, to be killed. He is trying to kill the Messiah while still an infant. Mary must escape to a foreign country, still a young teenager, with her newborn and husband. She would stay there until Herod died. Early on we see the inner strength possessed by Mary. We do not see much of her in the Gospels during the growth of Jesus. But her strength is once more on display as Christ is being crucified. After the arrest of Jesus all of His followers scattered. They ran away. They began to hide. The shepherd was struck and the sheep scattered. Many would hide for days. Peter who had been through so much with Jesus for three years even denied knowing Him at all when questioned. He denied Him even though Jesus specifically warned him that he would deny him! Yet in the midst of all of this uncertainty, not everyone abandoned Jesus at His darkest hour:

Standing near the cross were Jesus' mother, and his mother's sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, "Dear woman, here is your son." And he said to this disciple, "Here is your mother." And from then on this disciple took her into his home. John 19: 25-27 (NLT)

What strength to watch as your son is crucified. To watch as they forced the crown of thorns into His flesh. As they whipped him with chains and tortured Him. To not turn away. To not run away. To not look away. To stay with Him until the end. Mary was strong beyond measure.

Lastly, Mary embodied love; the love of God. We can see this within her opening lines of the hymn she wrote in the Gospel of Luke The Magnificat:

And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, Luke 1: 46-47 (ESV)

Note the purposeful division Mary expresses between her soul and her spirit. One commentary states that when both terms are used simultaneously in Scripture it is to differentiate between our understanding the spirit; and the seat of our affections the soul. Mary wants to be very clear. While her spirit certainly rejoices in her Savior; she has made the conscious decision to magnify the Lord within her affections and emotions. It is within our soul that we often mess things up. That is where our anxieties can develop. Where our doubt can fester. Where our momentary sadness can become worldly depression. The devil can't touch your spirit but he can wreak havoc in your soul. What Mary is teaching us all here is that the best way to combat those very human tendencies is to magnify God from within our emotional base. The dictionary defines magnify as:

To cause to seem greater or more important

The truth is that when we find ourselves in times of trouble we can often do the opposite of what Mary is suggesting. We actually diminish the God we serve. Something comes up against us and suddenly God doesn't seem as big as He needs to be to help us overcome what we are facing. Whatever mountain we find ourselves facing suddenly changes our perspective on God. The mountain appears bigger.

One of the best examples of this in the Bible is when the spies were sent out into Canaan. Twelve spies went out to spy the land God had promised to Israel. Joshua and Caleb came back with this report:

Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them." Numbers 14: 6-9 (NIV)

The other ten spies came back with this report:

But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." Numbers 13: 31-33 (NIV)

All twelve saw the exact same thing. But the perspective they employed was vastly different. For the ten spies with the negative report, they magnified their problems in their soul. Their own words betray them when they say that they "seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes." When you magnify the giants in your life you will become as insignificant as a grasshopper both to them and to yourself. But when you magnify God instead of the giants, like Joshua and Caleb did, then your giants hold no power over you. David slew Goliath not because of the stone. It wasn't because of the slingshot. It was because of his perspective. When David looked at the nine foot giant that made every fighting man in Israel cower in fear, all he saw was God. In his soul, where his emotions rule and his affections sit all he saw was God. The same was true for Joshua and Caleb. The same was true for Mary. She was a woman who embodied love the love of God. No matter what she faced she saw God. Pregnant at 14 and facing ridicule God was bigger. Fleeing to Egypt to make sure her newborn son wasn't killed by Herod God was bigger. Watching that same son suffer and die on the cross for all mankind God was bigger.

The reality is that we all will face our mountains and giants in our lives. We must be like Mary to be the conqueror God has called us to be. We must be faithful above everything else. We must be strong beyond measure. We must embody the love of God. The key verse today was not chosen for its relevance to mothers because it has none directly. It is the opening line from the opening prayer of the Apostle Paul to the Church at Philippi. What I found particularly touching was that Paul expresses that every time he merely thinks about that church he thanks God for them. As I was seeking a key verse for this Mother's Day devotional I stopped and thought shouldn't we do no less for our mothers? I thank God for Mary and the life she lived and I thank God for my mother and the life she gave me, the life she nurtured in me, and for helping me to become the person that I am. God saved me no doubt, but mom brought me into the world (and she was fond of saying she could take me out of it too...). Let me leave you with the word of God for this and every Mother's Day:

...May she who gave you birth be happy. Proverbs 23: 25b (NLT)

Reverend Anthony Wade May 5, 2011