"Jesus was the "son of Mary"
The implications of this are less clear than they might be, and I have tried to take a scan of some of the ways in which Jesus and Mary's lives intersect. The temptation is to make Mary a saint to the point we don't deal with her seriously. I want to avoid that.
There seem to be three times in Jesus' life when he and Mary's lives were united and determinative and influential to each other.
a. When the Madonna thought about the Messiah. It is probably true (I wouldn't know, of course) that every mother thinks her child is the solution to the problems in the world. Mary heard voices. She thought Jesus would do wonderful things for his people. Did she knew where it would lead for him? I doubt she knew it would lead to the cross.
b. When he was thirty-years-old they went to a wedding at Cana, and they ran out of wine. Jesus really hadn't taken off with his life at this point. Mary was a "mother" and Jesus was "the master", and Mary without hesitation began ordering her son around, and you could tell from the dialogue he was annoyed with her. She wanted him to get on with the purpose of his life.
c. The final scene was one that was stark and sad. Mary stood at the foot of the cross. Jesus had made his witness in Jerusalem; he was the martyr. Jesus was the "martyr" and Mary was the "mourner". I have been surprise that, as vocal and bossy as she was at Cana when she told Jesus to turn water into wine, Mary was silent when Jesus made the decision to go into Jerusalem and she said nothing while she stood at the foot of the cross.
Some writers have thought Mary had come to see she could do nothing about the crucifixion, but she could do something about the factors that led to it. Some have imagined Mary spent the remainder of her life trying to confront hatred, anger, jealousy, meanness, prejudice, and dispair.
Maybe that's why we are inclined to make Mary a saint. She spent her life trying to make certain Jesus was the last person ever crucified.
What do you think?
If you have a response to this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles
Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors.
1 comment:
This may not have much to do with the sermon as it now stands, but every time I've read the posts for this week, I keep on thinking of the time when Jesus first started teaching and his mother and brothers came to where he was preaching and he said he did not know them, that they were not his kin. When juxtaposed with the scene at the crucifix, this seems like a resolution between Jesus and Mary over their relationship.
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