During the Christmas season I spoke on Mary and why we
should not venerate (or worship) her but that we should hold her memory in
great honor, as that is what the Scripture teaches. (Luke 1:42) One of the
reasons that I tried to highlight as grounds for her deserving honor is her example
of faith in the word of God. This is evident in how she received the message
delivered her by the angel Gabriel. Her response was one of great faith as she submitted
to God’s plan, “May it be done unto me as you have said.”(Luke 1:38)
As I began to study in preparation for Easter Sunday I was
again reminded of Mary and the honor due her as the faithful mother of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. I was struck by the events involving Mary that played
out leading up to the crucifixion, and how these events, and Mary’s experience,
provides us with the heart wrenching reality of the price our sin demands.
The first scene we are given to imagine is in Luke 2:22-35
where the priest Simeon blesses the baby
d against Jesus’ purpose in providing salvation, and this opposition that reveals the division between those who are looking for God’s saving work and those who do not see the need for it will break Mary’s motherly heart. This effect on Mary I think illustrates God’s own heart in the division. Jesus said in Luke 13:34, in reference to Jerusalem and her resistance to those whom God sends her, “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” I believe that Mary experiences this heart break as she stands weeping beside the Apostle John as Jesus breaths His last breath on Good Friday.
But Mary’s experience of her Son’s purpose in saving the
world is not all heartache. About 21 years prior to His crucifixion they were
in Jerusalem for Passover as a family. You can imagine Joseph and Mary with
Jesus and all the brothers and sisters in tow heading up the hill to worship,
as they did every year, for this most important of holidays. The service is
reverent, the fellowship is uplifting, and the reminder of God’s faithfulness
to save His people is inspiring, and as they are heading back home to Galilee,
they realize they have forgotten something. Jesus is nowhere to be found. He’s
not out playing football with His cousins or wrestling with His brothers, so it’s
back to Jerusalem they go to find Jesus. Finally they locate Him in the Temple,
and He is amazing. No one can believe the depth of understanding in the twelve
year old boy. Luke 2:46 says that He was with the priests asking questions and
listening. Often the most impressive intellect is that of one who asks the
right questions, and Jesus thinks and digs deep into the Scriptures in this
way. Aside from the frustration of losing your Son in the crowds of people while
heading back to their lives after the holiday feast Mary must have been filled
with pride and wonder. I know when my little girl comes home to show me an
award she has earned I am filled with pride over this beautiful, intelligent little
angel. At the same time I wonder how I am so blessed, because it isn’t because
of me that she is so amazing.
Luke reports, after this story that “Jesus increased in
wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52, ESV) And Mary,
as His mother, was the recipient of the blessing of the increase in Jesus. This
was some of the joy that filled her heart, as Jesus came into His purpose, and
nothing can match the joy of His return from the grave and the realization of
the extent of salvation He came to provide. He, as it turns out, is the very
mediator of peace between God and all men. How do other mothers top that when
they are all boasting of their child’s accomplishments around the water
cooler!?
And we could go on to talk about Mary pressing Jesus to turn
water to wine at 
the wedding in Cana (John 2), or how Jesus, even while
suffering on the cross for every crime ever committed (that He had no part in),
was thinking of His mother and set John up to take His place and responsibilities
as the eldest son (John 19:26-27). The point is Mary’s experience illustrates
the normal Christian experience in some manner. We all must come to grips, as
Mary did, that Jesus had to suffer for our sake, because we cannot save
ourselves. We all, as Christians, experience the joy of Jesus increasing in
stature and wisdom through us as we mature in the faith. We all, as Mary did, need
to come to know the joys of the progression from glory to glory even while
holding ever so close to the reality that Christ died for us who were His
enemies. We all as Christians must come to the place where we behold the beauty
of the cross of Christ even while having an acute awareness to the horror of
it. And then, we can truly give our lives as worship, because He bore the
burden so that we don’t have to. We are spared from experiencing the hell of
the cross ourselves, even though it would be justice for us to do so. We
celebrate Easter as we witness the mercy of God in one another as a changed
people of God. And we can declare the unsurpassed mercy and love of God in
Christ Jesus to a lost world as we move out from our pews this Sunday morning.
Easter morning, and every Sunday morning, is an opportunity
to come together to witness the sorrow and the joys of the cross, and to
recognize that while Mary’s sorrow in the experience turned to rejoicing so too
can ours. It is our sorrow that it is our sin that put Jesus on the cross, but
it is our joy too. We rejoice because our Father in Heaven put Him there
instead of us. Mary’s heart was pierced by the opposition Jesus faced, and our
hearts should be pierced at the realization that we were the ones who opposed
Him. And Mary rejoiced at the news of His resurrection, and so too must we as
we partake in the benefits of His victory this Easter.
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