Reflections on Mary
I’ve seen more tweets and such this year about
Mary, the mother of Jesus. Evangelicals are criticized for not emphasizing Mary
enough, although I don’t know why we should emphasize a Bible character in the
first place. But I suppose that since we create Bible character studies on
every personage in the Bible except Mary, they make a good point.
We know as much about Mary’s life and biography
as we do most characters: her lineage, birthplace, husband, other children,
some of her experiences as a mother, her activities during Jesus ministry and
death, and how John was given custody of her at Jesus’ death (interesting since
his brothers should have taken care of her). We know she was part of the early
church. So we don’t have a dearth of information about her. Since I don’t think
much of character studies as a Bible study tool, I don’t have much use for a
character study of Mary, but that is a personal matter; if we study Esther,
Abraham, or Joshua, we should study Mary.
So why don’t we? Two reasons: fear of Catholicism
(yes, fear) and fear of women getting above their place.
The first seems silly at this point in history.
It’s highly unlikely anyone in an evangelical church is going to start
venerating and praying to Mary. The second is the real fear, as much as I hate
to admit it.
Mary’s role in the Scripture is far more than
keeping herself a virgin and having her uterus occupied for nine months. If that is
how she is seen, she is done a disservice, as are all women who are seen as
biological incubators. She didn’t just birth the Savior, she mothered Him, and
all of us who have raised a child know the mothering is far more difficult than
the birthing (not to diminish what’s involved in those nine months!) And she
underwent shame because of it, a shame we can’t imagine. Jesus' opponents say
“We were not born of fornication,” and that is not a random comment. They are calling Jesus an unholy name.
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