Have you noticed that we (Protestants) do character lessons and extol the virtue of every biblical personality there is, except Mary. When it comes to the Mother of Jesus, we walk a great distance out of our way to have nothing to say.
Why is Mary a pariah to evangelicals?
Of course, mine is a rhetorical question; for we know the answer all too well. But are we being adults about our treatment of her?
Since the Almighty chose Mary, from among every woman of the earth, as a door through which He passed into our world, I am made to wonder if He is please with the way we have slammed that door so tightly shut.
With this in mind perhaps you will grant me a license to cherish what Yahweh cherished, to bless what the Creator blessed.
So join me as I bring Mary of Nazareth from the dark corner of obscurity where we have hidden her as an object of potential shame (e.g.we seldom mention her, lest we be thought a papist) and shine upon her the eternal light of God's Word.
So join me as I bring Mary of Nazareth from the dark corner of obscurity where we have hidden her as an object of potential shame (e.g.we seldom mention her, lest we be thought a papist) and shine upon her the eternal light of God's Word.
Somewhere between the Roman Catholic Church’s position of Mary’s Immaculate Conception and their understanding of her being the incarnation of Wisdom (See #s 484-507 of the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, and Dr. Taylor Marshell’s “Immaculate Mary and Personified Wisdom in the Old Testment,” plus the writings of St Bernard of Clairvaux and St Alphonsus Liguori.) and therefore sinless, and the Protestant Evangelical position of Mary being only a sinful vessel that is due no special attention or adoration, there is the biblical Mary. It is this biblical Mary we are seeking in these writings.
Just how do we address the unique person the was Mary of Nazareth and not be drawn into the vortex of Mary worship that is perceive to be associated with Roman Catholicism, or Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy? That is our challenge as we strive to study her from Scripture and give to her the place she deserves in the story of the Gospel.
Peter, Paul, John. Matthew, Luke, Mark, James and Jude, all important New Testament figures; but none as pivotal as Mary. The names of the men just mentioned and their deeds could disappear from the Bible and secular history books but the Gospel of Jesus Christ would remain. But, this one solitary woman from Nazareth is the king-pin of this great story of redemption. Remove her and there is no Gospel. Apart from Jesus, she is the paramount New Testament figure. Without her even Jesus does not exist.
God could have entered our world in any of a multitude of ways, but He chose a peasant girl from the dusty, back water, Galilean town of Nazareth. Forever placing the words “Nazareth” and “Mary” on the lips of Christians (2,200,000,000, alive on the date of the writing of these words: June 23, Year of Our Lord, 2019) and non-Christians alike throughout the earth.
While the Roman Catholic and Eastern Christianity have elevated her almost to goddess status, the Protestant churches of the West have ignored Mary as though she was an embarrassment to them. Of course, this gross neglect is due to over compensating on evangelical Christianity’s part lest they be thought papist. (I say “papist” because it is the Roman Catholic that the West recoils from - not Eastern Orthodoxy so much.) She is rarely mentioned in the pulpits of non-Catholic/Orthodox churches except with caveats that amount to disclaimers of her importance. In this writing I want to raise my voice, as it were, to, yes, elevate her name and deeds.
If Jesus is the high priest (Heb 2:10) and even the apostle of our faith (Heb 3:1), what is Mary if not the matriarch of the faithful? From the cross Christ placed his most loved disciple, John, and His mother, Mary, into one another's care (John 19:25-27). Surely, this was a lesson to the Chruch, an allegory even: John is given to Mary as her son, and Mary is given to John as his mother. What is this allegory if not: The Church (in the figure of John) is given to Mary as her children, and Mary is presented to the Church as its mother? (Think it not something strange that we may call Mary the mother of all those who believe, when the apostle Paul declared himself to be the father of all who came to faith through his ministry.) Once the gift of Mary was given to John the Bible states: “And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home” (v27). May we, who were that day represented by John, from this very day take Mary into a special place in our hearts.
Mary, In Bible Prophecy
Mary’s debut on the pages of the redemption story was assured through the prophecies of the Old Testament. First Yahweh, Himself, decreed (at the time of the judgement in the Garden) that salvation would come from a virgin (Gen 3:15); then Isaiah echoed that prophetic word when He wrote of the sign of the virgin and her Son, Immanuel (Isa 7:14).
The teaching of the virgin-birth begins with the words of the Creator God. From Genesis 3:15, Yahweh pronounces the curse upon the serpent; the serpent was just told, in no uncertain terms, that there would be enmity between his seed and the seed of the woman. Notice that it was the seed of the woman which Yahweh mentions, and not the seed of the man. This is the first biblical prophetic utterance of the virgin-birth of the Savior of the world; it comes from the very lips of Yahweh. Yahweh says, to the serpent, that the seed of the woman would crush his head, while he would bruise the heel of the woman’s seed. In fact, Moses recorded it this way; “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” We see this drama played out on that wind- swept—rock strewn—hill, call Golgotha, where the act of the crucifixion surely did bruise the Savior of the world; but, through that bruising, the head of the serpent was forever crushed; and the victory was, once and for all, won over sin and its consequences. That the "seed of the woman" has Mary of Nazareth in view is beyond dispute. In the Garden pronouncement Yahweh sets Eve (who permitted sin to enter the human family) against her antithesis ⏤ Mary; the young unassuming maiden from Nazareth who would birth the One who would restore wholeness to the human condition.
Added to the utterance of Yahweh, concerning a virgin birth, is the testimony of the prophets, who were, themselves, the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit. We look to the prophet Isaiah where he writes in Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Matthew, the Apostle, picks up this prophecy and identifies it as a pronouncement of the birth of Jesus Christ from His mother, Mary. Matthew records it in this fashion, “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” —Matthew 1:22-23.
The uniqueness of this prophesied birth required a unique conception: I.e. between a special sire and a women who had never know a man in the sexual manner. These circumstances speak of a sire that was not human. Such a union would produce an offspring that was both human (from the virgin mother) and of the nature of the sire. The prophet Isaiah gave a strong hint as to the identity of the sire when he wrote that the child would be Immanuel (Isa 7:14): which Matthew was to interpret as “God with us” (Matt 1:23). In another place, the son of Amoz (Isa 1:1) would describe this Son of the Virgin Mother in terms no one could misunderstand: “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6, NASB).
There is no doubt the world wondered how such a birth could ever come to be. Until, “And in the sixth month” (of Elisabeth’s pregnancy) “the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary” (Luke 1:26-27).
There is no doubt the world wondered how such a birth could ever come to be. Until, “And in the sixth month” (of Elisabeth’s pregnancy) “the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary” (Luke 1:26-27).
Apostolically Speaking
☩☩ Jerry L Hayes
(Mar David Ignatius)
Read other essays from the pen of the Bishop on Mary of Nazareth at the link provided here:
The Annunciation
https://bishopjerrylhayes.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-annunciation-mary-of-nazareth-ii.html
Read other essays from the pen of the Bishop on Mary of Nazareth at the link provided here:
The Annunciation
https://bishopjerrylhayes.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-annunciation-mary-of-nazareth-ii.html
Be sure to listen and subscribe to the Bishop's Podcast: Apostolic Bishop, at:
No comments:
Post a Comment