THE VIRGIN MOTHER
John 2:1-11
Extremes have characterized the treatment, which the Mother of our Lord has received at the hands of the Christian Church.
On the one hand she has been worshipped, and on the other, largely neglected. In the rebound of Protestantism from Mariolatry we have been terribly in danger of relegating the Virgin Mother to a position far inferior to that which she really holds in the counsel and purpose and power of God, and in the work of God in human history and human life.
I am not proposing to debate this matter, but make the statement as an introductory affirmation. There is no authority whatever in Scripture for worshipping her; but there is equally no authority for neglect. She certainly ought to occupy the place in our thinking that she does in Scripture. In the New Testament Mary is never presented as the principal figure. There is only One such, and that is the Lord Himself. All the appearances of Mary are directly connected with Him, and form part of the background, flinging Him up into brighter and dearer relief. Nevertheless the very fact that she is thus always associated with Him, gives her a place of prominence and importance. It is impossible, necessarily, to read all that is written concerning her, but we may, having familiarity with the New Testament, pass over the ground.
Let it be remembered that our purpose in this article is exactly what it has been in others, not merely to see Mary herself, but to watch our Lord's dealing with her. In the Gospel narrative she is presented to us as a virgin of the house of David, betrothed to a man named Joseph. Luke gives us her genealogy as descended from David, and consequently the genealogy of Jesus after the flesh, through her. In passing it may be said that much has been written concerning the difference between the genealogies of Matthew and Luke. Personally I cannot see any difficulty. Matthew has given us the legal genealogy of Jesus, due to the fact that He was legally adopted by Joseph, and consequently in Jewish archives, according to Jewish law, He was entered in Joseph's line as his adopted Son. In Luke, on the other hand, as we have said, we have the genealogy traced through His Mother.
We see her then as a quiet, simple village young lady. Her parentage is obscure. We learn the name of her father through Luke's genealogy, where it is said that Joseph is the son, which means in this case the son‑in‑law of Heli. In this connection it is illuminative to remember that in Jewish writings concerning her subsequent to our Lord's life she is referred to as the Mother of Jesus, and named directly as the daughter of Heli. Through this line of descent the royal blood of David was coursing in her veins. Joseph was also of that line, but coming from David through Solomon, while Mary descended through Nathan.
She is seen, dwelling in Nazareth, with all its limitations, its perils, and its advantages. Its limitations are self‑evident. Nazareth was at that time a town of perhaps about ten to twenty thousand inhabitants. It was therefore a busy town, but a small one, and as distances then counted, suffering the limitation of being far removed from Jerusalem. The perils of the town were undoubted. Careful investigation during recent years has shown that Nazareth was a hotbed of corruption. This is what Nathanael meant unquestionably when he asked, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" When I speak of its advantages, I am referring to the fact that it is advantageous to live in a small town in many ways. In the smaller towns people think more, personally and individually, than they do in a great city, where life is in danger of becoming too busy for any such activity.
The character of Mary is at once revealed in the angel's address to her. This commenced with the word “Hail." This is a translation of the Greek verb Chairo. We have a similar word Cheer; but the Greek word meant more than we do when we use the word. We have understood by the “Hail," a word of adoration, as for instance in the lines: "Hail to the Lord's Anointed, Great David's greater Son." Now from the standpoint of strict etymology, Hail is right as a translation of Chairo, but it should be spelt Hale. It is a part of the old Anglo‑Saxon word halig, which means whole. Hale therefore really means Good health to you. It is a wish expressed that the one addressed may know the blessings of health in every form and fashion. Thus the angel addressed Mary.
The following words reveal her character. Here, again, our rendering is at fault. “Thou art highly favored." This would suggest that the angel was referring to the fact that a great favor was being conferred upon her. Now while that was true, the true rendering is, “Thou art endued with grace," which was a declaration of a fact concerning her. To this he added the further illuminative statement, “The Lord is with thee." A careful consideration will show how in this address of the angel we have a remarkable presentation of truth concerning this maiden in Nazareth. In that city, with its limitations, its perils, its advantages, lived this maiden of Jewish and royal blood. Living in the midst of impurity she was pure. Living in the midst of limitations she triumphed over them. Living in the midst of disadvantages she had the highest advantage of walking in fellowship with the God of her fathers.
As we follow the account, incidentally we are brought face to face with another fact revealing her character. Luke tells us that she was troubled at the saying of the angel, that is, perplexed by it, wondering what manner of salutation this could be. Mary was not alarmed or perplexed by the vision of the angel, but she was perplexed that the angel addressed her in this way. He had said to her, "Thou art endued with grace," and she was quite unconscious of the fact. This, in itself, is a revelation full of suggestive beauty.
We come then to the announcement made to her, and this was introduced by the words: "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God."
The word rendered "favor" here is the same as the one already used, when the angel said, “Thou art endued with grace". With perfect accuracy therefore, we may read so, “Thou hast found grace with God." "Thou art endued with grace," his declaration concerning her character. “Thou hast found grace with God" introduces the statement concerning her high office in the economy of God. That office was then declared in the words: "And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David; and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His Kingdom there shall be no end." Every sentence, every phrase in that declaration is full of suggestive meaning. To summarize it all we may say that the angel told Mary that there fell to her the honor of becoming the Mother of the long‑looked‑for Messiah. It was a tremendous and almost overwhelming announcement.
Still further looking at Mary, we are brought face to face with her complete honesty. She said to the angel: "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?"
In that question she expressed the biological difficulty, which, by the way, men are still discussing. It is well that we keep in mind when we hear such discussions, that it was Mary, according to the record, who herself first raised the difficulty.
She was answered with great simplicity, and inspiring finality as the angel said: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee."
That is the one and only answer to this biological problem. It is an answer removing all difficulty to those who believe in the God of the Bible.
There was however another question that she did not ask, but which was involved. It is as to how the Child of a sinning woman could Himself be sinless. The angel messenger answered that deeper problem, even though Mary had not expressed it, as he said: "Wherefore also that which is to be born shall be called Holy, the Son of God."
That is to say that by this self‑same power and activity of the Most High, Jesus should be immaculately conceived.
To these stupendous statements of the angel, Mary replied, as bowing her head she said: "Behold, the; bond‑maid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."
In this saying she submitted herself to the Divine purpose, program, and power.
In the development of the account we may now follow her a little further as she took her journey into the hill country, a journey of at least a hundred miles. Why that hurried visit to Elisabeth? The whole activity of human salvation has been wrought out through pain and misunderstanding. Imagine this maiden in Nazareth, with this awe‑inspiring secret, tremendous in its significance, but which could by no means be explained to Nazareth. To recognize this is to understand why, for those first three months, she found refuge with someone else who knew something of the deep secrets of God.
There can be no escape from the conviction that Mary lived all her life under suspicion. The fact comes out more than once in the account. One day they said of Jesus, We know this Man, we know His father, and His mother. On another occasion they said, when putting themselves into contrast with Him, "We were not born of fornication." It was impossible for Mary to explain. There are things which are beyond the realm of explanation, except to those of like spiritual capacity.
When she arrived, Elisabeth greeted her as the Mother of the Lord, and she at once broke out into song. As we study the Magnificat, we find that it is pure Hebrew poetry. It was a weaving together of sentences found in the Psalter. In that hour they merged in her thinking, and she poured them forth in this great song.
The next view we have of Mary is in Bethlehem in the hour of the birth of Jesus. In that utmost hour we see her away from all that is dear and precious to the heart of motherhood; and so in the very circumstances of travail, she was in fellowship with the suffering of the One to be born. The appalling loneliness of it fills the heart with brooding sorrow. Away from home, no room in the inn, no woman by to help, she brought forth her First‑born, she wrapped Him‑in swaddling clothes, and she laid Him in the manger. Nevertheless the brightness and the joy and gladness of it is equally evident. The first sound of the voice of the Child turned all the discords of the wayside into harmonies for that Mother. The first gleam of light from His eyes as He looked up into her face caused the shadows to merge into the infinite light. I shall always believe that Jesus was thinking of His own Mother very near to the end, when He said that unutterably beautiful thing: "A woman when she is in travail bath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world."
The shepherds arriving told of the song they had heard and the chorus that accompanied it, and of Mary it is said, she pondered these things in her heart. Here we have the first revelation of Mary's imperfect understanding. She had submitted herself to the will of God as the bondmaid of Jehovah. Nevertheless when she heard this account from the shepherds, she pondered these things.
She is next seen in the home when the rite of her people was administered in the case of her Son, and she gave Him the name which the angel had declared. We have no details of that ceremony, but simply the statement of the fact.
Next she is seen in the Temple, when Simeon took the Child in his arms, and uttered his great Nunc Dimittis. She heard him declare that a sword should pierce through her own soul; and again her limitation is revealed in the declaration that she was marveling.
In sequence there follows the account of the visit of the Magi, the flight into Egypt, the return to Nazareth; and then we know how for twelve years her life was devoted to the nursing and training of that Child, the little one, in Hebrew language, the taph, learning His first lessons in Scripture from her teaching.
When we turn to examine our Lord's dealings with her, we find that the first thing we are told is that after His presentation in the Temple at twelve years of age, He went down to His home, and was subject to His parents. He having now arrived at the age of twelve, and having become legally a Son of the law by His own choice, yielded Himself in submission to her, and to His adopted father.
In the Temple He had uttered to her the first words of which we have any record as falling from His lips: "Wist ye not that I must be in the things of My Father?"
In that sentence He would seem to have been largely correcting something she had said, namely; “Thy father and I sought Thee sorrowing." While He was the adopted Son of Joseph, He evidently knew His true relationship, and revealed His sense of responsibility.
He is next seen in contact with her at Cana. Eighteen years had passed, and we have no account of anything that transpired during that period except that He "Advanced in wisdom and in stature, and in grace by the side of God and men."
When we see Him at Cana we realize that the relationship between them had changed. He was not subject to her now in any sense. It was here that she said to Him, “They have no wine"; and to understand Mary we must come to a recognition of her meaning in the light of what He Himself said to her in answer to her declaration. Addressing her tenderly as “Woman," He said to her quite literally, “What is there to thee and to Me?” By which He evidently was reminding her that there were things which they had nothing in common. It is perfectly evident that when she told Him they had no wine, she was hoping for some action through which the profound secret of His Personality might be manifested in glory. To that He replied, “Mine hour is not yet come." It is evident that He did not mean that His hour was not come for a supernatural act, for He turned the water into wine. There was a deeper significance in the statement than that. He was declaring to her that not by the working of supernatural power in such a way as would accomplish this turning of water into wine would the true glory be manifested. The account of Mary at this point ends very beautifully as she said to the servants, trusting Him completely, even though she did not understand: "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it."
A later account concerning her, the full significance of which can only be gained by the study of it as it appears in Matthew and Mark, is a further revelation of her misunderstanding. They were crowded days. He was so busily occupied that He hardly had time to eat. She at the time, was evidently in Nazareth, and heard of these activities, and with a mother's heart, became anxious about Him. She had an awful fear that He was going out of His mind, and she journeyed from Nazareth to Capernaum to find Him, in order to take Him home, and this for very love of Him.
His dealing with her at this point may appear rough, but it was not really rough. Told that she was there, and seeking Him, He said, Who is My Mother, and My brethren and My sisters? That is, My real kinsfolk; and He declared in answer to His own question, They that do the will of God, My Father Who is in heaven. He revealed by that statement that there was a higher relationship than that which existed between Him and His Mother on the level of the physical. It was the kinship of those who were with Him in consecration to the Will of God. By this statement He was still dealing with her, rebuking an affection which would interfere with His own Divine purpose, and yet by the rebuke calling her into a higher kinship than that of Mother and Son on the earthly level.
We see her again in that unutterable hour when He hung upon His Cross. I sometimes am inclined to say that only a mother can understand that sorrow of Mary watching at the Cross. As she looked at Him, probably with breaking heart and in amazement, suddenly she saw His eyes rest upon her, and heard Him say, “Woman, behold thy son." Quite evidently His hands were transfixed, and only by the glance of His eye did He communicate the one to whom He was referring, as then looking at him, He said, “Behold thy mother." Thus in all the mystery of that hour of unfathomable pain, Mary found Him thinking of her on the earthly level, and providing for her for all the years to come.
We see her once more, on the day of Pentecost, mingling with the others of His waiting disciples. In that great hour when the Spirit fell upon all of them, Mary was one of the number, and in that act He enfolded her in His own life in a closer relationship than she had ever known, even though she had kept Him under her heart, and had been the instrument through which a body was prepared for Him, in which to carry out the mighty enterprises of God. She would surely remember in that hour how that long ago the angel visitor had said to her: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; wherefore also that which is born shall be called holy, the Son of God." Now again, that self‑same Spirit came upon her, and He Who had formed in her womb the body of Jesus, now united her to Him forever in spiritual life, and thus she came into the closest and final union with Him.
The personal values of such an account are in some senses difficult and unique, because the fact is lonely and unique. There are nevertheless great principles underlying the account. First of all it is a revelation of the fact that personal character does count with God. It was a woman endued with grace that was chosen for this high and lofty office.
Again we learn that highest service for God in this world must always involve pain. And finally, all such service is eventually in order to the glory of Christ, and His crowning. Mary is never named in the Apocalypse.
Perhaps the chief value of all this is its revelation of the sanctity of motherhood and childhood. It shows also that Christ can only be understood by the interpretation of the Spirit. Not even the Mother who bore Him ever understood Him until the Spirit came to her on the day of Pentecost.
We may fittingly close this meditation by the quotation of words which Dr. Burton wrote concerning her.
"The Virgin Mother takes her place in the focal point of all the histories. Through no choice, no conceit or forwardness of her own, but by the grace of God and by an inherent fitness she becomes the connecting link between earth and heaven. And, throwing as she does, her unconscious shadow back within the paradise lost, and forward through the Gospels to the paradise regained, shall we not 'magnify the Lord' with her? Shall we not 'magnify the Lord' for her, as, with all the generations we 'call her blessed?'”
The blessed Virgin!
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