BLOG 12/24/16. AN AWESOME MODEL OF TRUE FAITH: MARY

On this Christmas Eve, let me pass on to you, my readers,…  that I can never come to this Christmas story without being totally blown-away by the example of Mary the mother of Jesus. One has only to stop and think about it for a moment. We are presented with a young girl (perhaps 14 years old, or so?). She appears on the opening page of the gospel of Luke with no introduction, and immediately is confronted by the angelic messenger Gabriel, who greets her by name. That’s enough to jolt anyone—being confronted with a real angel from wherever! But then imagine being this young lady, and having that angel greet you by name, and tell you that you are favored by God to have a son, to whom God will give the throne of his father David, who shall be called the Son of the Most High, and whose kingdom there would be no end. Face it! That’s unbelievable, and that was exactly Mary’s response. “How can this be?” After all she wasn’t even married (and certainly not promiscuous).

I love it, … the innocent candor: “But I am a virgin, how can I have a child?” So, the angel explains that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and overshadow her, and she would conceive a child. Humanly impossible, even outrageous. Whoever heard of such a thing? Ah! but the faith of this young lady becomes a model for me: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord: let it be unto me according to your word.” (The most of our own acts of obedience to which our Lord Jesus calls us to do in the gospel enterprise are humanly impossible, like: opening eyes blind to the gospel, and unstopping ears deaf to the gospel, … or delivering persons out of the dominion of darkness and into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, … or dealing with impossible personalities, all humanly impossible.) So, my own response to the humanly impossible mission mandate of Jesus given to his church: First: “How can this even be possible?” and secondly: “I am you servant. Be it unto me according to your word.”

I began my life as a card-carrying Protestant kid who was suspicious of my Roman Catholic buddies who venerated Mary, and I acquired something of a resistance to all of their Mariolatry. But the longer I became a New Testament student, the more it grew on me what a quiet, but incredible figure she is. Her faith became a model for me whenever the Lord provoked me into some overwhelming act of obedience to himself.

First of all, … did you ever stop and ponder that Mary had to be one of the major sources of information for the writing of the four gospels. Only she could have known so many of the details. So, yes, it was a patriarchal society, but you can’t hide the evidence—like: the nativity accounts. Only she could have known all of that. Jesus lived with her until he began his public ministry at about thirty years of age. She was his mother. When my Roman Catholic colleagues designate her as the ‘mother of God’ I am forced to acknowledge that there is a very real sense in which that is a true designation.

Or consider that when Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the temple when he was twelve years old, that he amazed the priests and teachers with his questions, and his knowledge. Who do you think imparted that knowledge of scripture to him? Who processed his life, and shared with him his miraculous birth, and related to him the promises given at that time? Only Mary could have done that. The young lady must have been wonderfully informed on the writings of the Jewish scriptures, and the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah.

From the very beginning of Jesus’ life, right down to the foot of the cross, who was there? Mary! Faithful presence, loving mother, true believer from beginning to end.

I need her example of faith. She was so gentle and steadfast and enduring as a mother, and as a follower of her Son. “I am thy servant. Be it unto me according to your word.” I have incorporated her faith and response and love for Jesus into my own prayer disciplines, and I commend her to my readers on this Christmas Eve 2016 as a model.