"Moments in Mary’s Life"

This Mother's Day we want to take a look at different times in the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus - from her pregnancy, through his ministry, to his death.

Moments In Mary’s Life

(Luke 2:33-35)

Introduction:

A.   We come together today to worship God.  We do that by sharing our hearts with him and each other through our singing, prayers, the communion at the table and the honoring of His Word.  As we open God’s word to understand how to live as he would have us live, we are challenged by teaching and people.  Today, I would like to examine one person whose life is one that touched every person for the last 2000 years.  Her name is Mary.  In Hebrew her name would be Miriam.  We know this woman as the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ.

B.  This day that we honor God we also honor the great role of motherhood that God ordained and seek to look into the life of Mary to find lessons that help us understand this particular mom and her relationship to Jesus and in doing so help us to understand our relationship with Jesus.

C.  Some of you understand the idea of making a will that includes guardianship of your children.  I am sure if you have done that you thought very hard who would be best to raise your children.  Who would trust with your children?  Who could love them like you do?  Who would raise them in style and with the desires that you would?  The truth is no person that you could entrust your child would ever do the job of parenting exactly like you.  You simply have to pick the best person to do their best.

D.  Before the foundations of the world Jesus was.  Through him all things were made, but then he gave up that equality and became flesh, not born an adult, but born a baby to Mary.

I.  The Young Mom

A.  Kerri likes to remind me that she was still 19 when we got married.  When we first got married, we didn’t have very much in our duplex.  Our kitchen table was a borrowed card table and the church let us borrow folding chairs.  Anyway, after a little over 2 years Elizabeth was born to us in Parkersburg, WV.  Looking back at those pictures, Kerri looks so young.  But when you think about Mary, she was probably a teenager when Gabriel appeared to her.

B.  Luke 1:26-38.  Mary was considered “highly favored.”  She was told that she had “found favor with God.”  It is the same type of wording that was used of Noah in Genesis.  When you think of all the people Noah was one that God found blameless and able to become a new type of Adam.  Now, Mary, hundreds of years later is told something similar.  God has found favor with her and she would become a mother to the one who would save the world and become the Son of God.

C.  Why did God choose this young lady?  I think verse 38 gives us all the answer we need.  She was the Lord’s servant.  Understand how important is.  From that moment on she became a willing slave to God.  It is strong word that she chooses to use.  She was willing to give up all her dreams, all she believed would happen in her and become God’s slave.  She had to know that it could cost her betrothal with Joseph, it could cost her reputation, it could cost her family status in Nazareth.  But no matter what the cost, she was willing to be God’s slave.  What about us?  Mom’s this is not just directed at you.  We all need to see ourselves as belong to God, owned by God and willing to do whatever he asks.  When we think about the moments in Mary’s life, it was this moment that changed her life.

D.  When that baby conceived of the Holy Spirit and born to her was presented at the table, she was told the words that must have haunted her (Luke 2:34).

II.  A Mom of a Rabbi

A.  There is so much I desire for my kids.  I want to see them grow up to become independent Christians who live for the glory of God.  I want to see them become productive people in society and people who touch lives as God directs them.  I don’t know that Mary was any different.  She knew that Jesus was born because God came over her and impregnated her, but I am not sure understood all that it would mean to become the mother of the Son of God.

B.  Mary, along with her husband, Joseph, were “church-going” people.  By that I mean worship was important, and special observances like Passover were held in honor.  Jesus was raised by parents who loved him as a child and loved God.  But even at age 12 Mary knew Jesus understood his real father.  (Luke 2:48-52)

C.  As Jesus grew he left his home and family about the age of 30 and would become a wandering Rabbi.  That title was impressive and normally would take people being schooled by the right teachers to be called “Rabbi” or “Teacher.”  I would think that Mary was very proud her son as her world began to see him for something greater than just a son of a carpenter from a small community.  But there are two occasions during his ministry that include his mother.  We are more familiar with the first, the wedding at Cana.  Now I am sure that all you moms out there enjoy a nice party, especially if it is someone you care about.  But at the same time I am sure you would not want to see a person you care about embarrassed at their own party.  When the wine was running out, Mary turns to her son and tells him, “They have no more wine.”  Jesus calls his mother “woman” in that story, not out of disrespect, but to point out that times have changed and so has his role.  He is no longer under her authority.  (John 2:1-5).  She accepts that change of roles and simply asks the servants to do as Jesus directs them.

D.  The second time we meet Mary is not as pleasant.  In fact, some would take this meeting to sound very harsh.  Matthew, Mark and Luke all record the situation (Luke 8:19-21).  Jesus was not angry with his family, but even they needed to understand that they needed to become his spiritual disciples also.  Jesus began to exercise his Messianic authority and his mom and brothers needed to respond.

E.  We talk about giving our children their independence, and Mary, like every other mother had to cut the apron strings and when she didn’t, Jesus did.  It is step in life, but one that is needed.

III.  A Mother In Pain

A.  The most heart wrenching moment for me in Mary’s life must have been at the cross.  Remember, when Jesus was presented at the temple that Mary was told a “sword would pierce her soul.”  That sword could cut no deeper than watching her son be executed for something she knew was not true.  I have been with parents who have suffered the death of a grown child and heard their pain.  They know that the order of death is not for the parent to bury the child but the child to bury the parent.  How much she had to hurt.  I want you also to see the love Jesus has for his mom as he died (John 19:25-27).

B.  The OT command to “honor your father and mother” was given to adult not to children.  It was something some in the days of Jesus did not keep because they simply said, “What I have belongs to God” and in doing so nullified God’s command to honor their parents.  Jesus would not leave this earth without taking care of his mother.  His love for her was great.  And as God had chosen her to take care of the baby Jesus, Jesus now chooses John to take care of his mother.

C.  People we too are called to honor our father and mother.  Kids, that starts with you at home.  In the NT that command was specifically given to you, but it does not end with kids at home.  As adults we are called to continue to honor our parents and the best way we can honor them is to live a life that brings glory to God.

Conclusion:

A.  I pray that you mothers would have Mary’s spirit of servanthood to God and devotion to your children.  I pray that we who are children will see in our mother the love that God has given us through them.

B.  Loving your children may not always be easy and some of you understand the pain of death.  But may each of us never give up on the calling God has placed upon us.

C.  If you are called by God to respond to his invitation and allow us to pray with you and lift you up before Him who is able to make you stand, then come as we stand together and sing.