We Protestants do not believe in many of the teachings of the Catholic Church regarding Mary. However, have we failed to remember her enough? She was after all, the birth mother of our Lord. She was especially chosen of all the women living, to be his earthly parent.
Nowhere does Mary herself or any of the apostles or disciples of Jesus, try to deify her in any way. She is His mother and a faithful Jew in all ways. She fulfilled the role given to her. We find no evidence that Jesus told any of his followers to pray to her as an intercessor to God. However, in reaction to Catholic dogma, must we never have good words to say about her or the fact that she was the chosen vessel of the Lord? She is rarely studied in her own right except perhaps at Christmas when we find her in a manger scene, a halo above her head, kneeling beside a wooden trough filled with straw…….which presumably holds baby Jesus.
I want to come to the defense of Mary and in regard to what is written about her in scripture. She is at the intersection of the Old and New Testaments. She is in the lineage of other pious mothers…Hannah, Sarah, Rachel, Ruth. When she appears in the temple with infant Jesus, Anna and Simeon, worship this baby who is called the “consolation” of Israel. This child will be the promised Messiah of the world and will fulfill the promises made by the prophets of old.
Has she the right to be called Blessed? Remember the word itself means, “set apart”. Mary earned that right. Not because of her virginity, or even her humility, but because she was chosen as the person and “place” where God’s glory would enter into this world. She was in the lineage of David, and she was faithful to all the commandments of God. These she taught her son and raised him in the words of the Torah and obedience to live a life of a pious Jew.
She was perhaps a teen. Marriages were usually arranged by the family and the daughter was expected to marry the one chosen for her. We know the story, of course. Joseph, “adopted” Jesus as his own son although can we imagine the villagers all knew that Jesus was “illegitimate.”
Mary herself was called blessed by her cousin Elizabeth. “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:42) Mary herself declares that all generations will call her blessed. Not because she is without sin but because of what God has bestowed upon her. (Luke 1:48) In fact we might view Mary as the Lord’s first disciple.
In our last glimpse of Mary, we find her in the upper room in a gathering of believers where they were told to go after the Lord’s resurrection. She lived to see what had been foretold of her son. That He indeed was to be the Savior of the world.
She bore Him and then lived for Him. She honored herself in bearing Him and was His mother and His teacher. He revered her and she worshiped Him. We need not go through Mary in order to get to Jesus but we can join with Mary in pointing others to Him. This more than anything else will honor her as she honored Him.
AbideLines 