FOCUSING ON THE TRUTH

Matthew 1:24-25

"When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.  But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.”

Mark 6:3

"Then they scoffed, “He is just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.”

There is a theological postulation that has been asserted for some time by some that has no grounding in the Word of God written. It is not to be found in the recorded by Apostolic eye-witness to the life of the Lord Jesus. Falsehood does not become more credible because it has been asserted even for centuries. This religious proposition appeals to the mystical and somewhat Gnostic ideology that would have Mary, the mother of Jesus, to have remained a perpetual virgin.

 As recorded by Matthew, Joseph did not have sexual union with her until she had given birth to Jesus. After her time of purification, it would have been utterly unheard of for a Jewish husband and wife to not consummate their marriage through sexual intimacy. Mark recorded the angry words of those from Jesus’ hometown talking about Jesus’ siblings. We also know that Joseph was still alive when Jesus was 12 years old. 

The idea that Mary was a “perpetual virgin” seems to have grown out of the Gnostic idea that sexual intimacy between husband and wife was somehow something unclean (Gnostics believed that matter was evil), rather than the gift God gave it to be in the covenant of marriage.

That strange gnostic-like reasoning follows in the same vein which would affirm that Mary was sinless. Biblically, the only One who has ever lived without sin was Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Holy One of Israel, Messiah, the Word of God incarnate. Jesus Christ died for Mary’s sin as much as He did for the sins of the whole world, as St. John declares in his first Epistle.

Such ideologies affirmed over time have caused a veneration of Mary that the Word of God never foresaw. She is assuredly the most blessed among women because of the amazing grace given to her to say “Yes!” to the Lord and to have the Son of God conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. She said, “Yes”, but we must remember that God did the work. Jesus took His humanity from His mother Mary and He honored her, but when Mary and Jesus’ siblings came and wanted a “word” with Him we find Matthew recording the event.

Matthew 12:46-50 “While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, His mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to Him. Someone told Him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” He replied to him, “Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?” Pointing to His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers. For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

Commentators have commented that it seemed that Mary and Jesus’ siblings were worried that Jesus had lost touch with “reality” and had come to fetch Him. Whether that is the case or not, Jesus’ Words did not dishonor His mother, but put things in proper context.

There could be no interpretation of this interchange that would cause anyone to believe that Jesus intended for His mother to be venerated to a point of bordering on worship, where one could justify the idea that they could not possibly approach the Son of God in prayer (an idea utterly foreign to the Apostolic record), so they would go to His mother, Mary, for her to pass their prayers on as an intermediary.

She is honored, yes; remembered as a living example of what it means to say, “Yes!” to God even when things were humanly impossible, yes. But taken to an extreme gnostic-like elevation, so that some have called Mary “the Queen of Heaven” is a grave error which takes the focus off the singular work of salvation done by and through Jesus Christ alone. Mary mediates nothing between God and humanity. Jesus Christ alone in that singular, only Mediator between God and mankind Who ever lives to make intercession for us.

Mary is a saint in heaven among all the other saints in heaven who have put their trust in the completed and finished work of salvation through the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus. We honor those faithful ones who have gone before, that great cloud of witnesses who are, in a way, like icons through whose lives we can see and recall the faithfulness of God, the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace to persevere in life, being given grace to love and obey the One Who loved us and gave Himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.

If it was an orthodox necessity to venerate Mary, to pray to her and others we could call saints, the Apostles would have included that in their Epistles to the young churches, the New Testament, that we believe and receive as the Word of God. It is no where to be found. If it were to any degree important to the heart and mind of Christ, they would have told us clearly as they did on other matters important to following Jesus. Our focus as followers of Jesus Christ must be to have our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, the One upon Whom our faith depends from start to finish. That is the only way we can run the race that is set before us.

God used an ordinary husband and wife, an ordinary family through whom He did His extraordinary and Sovereign work of salvation. God still lives in and lives through ordinary people who have surrendered their lives to Him in faith, and He still does extraordinary things. He still displays His power, grace, mercy, and love through every-day saints, made holy by the Holy Spirit living out in them the Resurrection Life of Jesus Christ.

I thank God for His grace demonstrated in Mary, but my focus is on the One she bore in Bethlehem, The Word of God Incarnate, Jesus the Messiah, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.