Scot McKnight has produced a volume that is academic and devotional, and irenic and polemic, sometimes in the same chapter. The Virgin Mary is not the one-sided character of the creche (a new word for me) but she is a woman of numerous facets upon which we might meditate. One side of her life that is too easily hidden by the oft-pictured passivity is the Mary of sorrow, the topic of today’s chapter in The Real Mary today.
Joseph and Mary take their baby to the temple in Jerusalem for a two-fold ritual in obedience to the Law. (Luke 2:21-39) Mary is to be purified and restored to normal community relations after her delivery and the boy is to be consecrated to the Lord. Mary cannot be approaching this ceremony without considering its place in the triumphal theology that has been developing in mind since the moment of conception. The baby she carries up to the temple is the newborn King and the consecration may be the end of one cycle as He is given over to the service of God. She must have wondered if this become his coronation, the beginning of the public recognition for all that she has kept relatively secret in her heart.
That is, until the moment that the man named Simeon swoops over to take the child in his arms, lifting his voice in praise to the God who had promised him that he would not die before seeing the long awaited Messiah. Was Mary alarmed at this stranger? He had not only taken her child from the safety of her grasp but he was also receiving revelation similar to hers. Perhaps though, she had come to recognize that the little King would not remains hers alone for very long. Perhaps it was the praise with which Simeon buoyed Jesus above all other temple activity at that moment saying that God could call him heavenward as the promised Christ had come. Perhaps she was relieved that the important announcement of the coming of the King had been made by Simeon in the holiest locale rather than by her. Perhaps her simple joy at the immediacy of God’s presence overwhelmed all other streams of thought. We do well to consider all of these possibilities.
We do well also to consider the immediate reshaping that Mary’s triumphal soteriology takes upon Simeon’s following words. The Christ will divide rather than unite; he will become a person to be opposed by many rather than followed. As Mary certainly struggles to assimilate this new revelation, she is struck personally by Simeon. Her son will be a sword that pierces her own soul. How does she gaze upon the baby now? She knows now that Jesus will break her heart and she knows that she can do nothing to stop it. Mary is now a woman of sorrow.
LOVE | ACCEPT | FORGIVE 