Category: Faith

The Influential Real Mary

Scot McKnight turns the page on our discovery of the story of Mary. We have followed the biblical record to the foot of the cross where we find Jesus’ mother suffering the crushing realization of her fears. She is not recorded as having witnessed the resurrected Lord and the next encounter that we have is to see her huddled in an upper room with other disciples and Jesus’ brothers. Her faith in the promise of God, made so many years prior, has not been shaken by the events of the weeks prior. Mary has fully committed her life to the Way.

The question proposed in this chapter of The Real Mary is, what influence did Mary exert on the life of Jesus? Much like the divisive controversy of Mary’s perpetual virginity, there is a school of belief that gives Jesus full realization and maturity while he simply played the role of a child and adolescent in human form. The Scriptures lead us to understand kenosis, and the simpler explanation for Jesus’ development points to Mary and Joseph and the influence that they had on the boy’s life.

We must always be conservative when filling in our understanding of the ‘missing parts’ of the Lord’s life. It is safe to conclude that Mary and Joseph had at least the normal input into the boy’s life. This input would have been colored by the facts that His parents knew about but nonetheless, he grows and develops,  affected by His parents just as the majority of the people on this planet have.

This same knowledge, combined with Mary’s eyewitness memories of the Lord’s early years, point to her later influence on the life of the nascent Church. Surely she was consulted by the Apostles as they sought to fill in their own knowledge of the Savior and the fullness of His life. So, it is here gathered with the others in Jerusalem that we say goodbye to the biographical account of Mary in the Bible. Her influence does not end, however.

(See the broad international portrayals of Mary at www.biblia.com/Mary)

 

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On the Mountainside with Jesus: Lent Reflection 4

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

When Peter and the other Apostles stand before the Sanhedrin and proclaim “We must obey God rather than men!” he gives us the practical definition of meekness in the biblical sense. It is hardly the mousy, weak, and cowardly connotation that the word takes on today. Quite the opposite; the one who is fully surrendered to God’s will, despite the pressures of man, is meek. God’s will becomes their will.

The closer we become to the Source, the more that our meekness will radiate in our lives. This is a winsome power that can attract others to throne and cause still others to make that U-turn in their lives. Meekness in the face of threat is ultimately a sign of trust in God and it will be reflected as such. So much so, that the Gamaliel’s of our day will also be forced to confront the origin of our meekness saying “…if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will no be able to stop [it]…” (Acts 5:38-39)

I suppose that during Lent we can meekly sacrifice the right of way on the freeway for a few weeks. Or, we can fully surrender our wills, our rights, and our lives to the One who has paid the price for our restoration.

 

 

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Lenten Encounter with Jesus 3

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

The mourner’s heart is not one that has simply been touched briefly by sorrow, a tear drop that evaporates on a sun baked cheek. It is a heart that has been broken because it has been willing to care deeply. It is a soul that has made itself vulnerable, exposing the most tender of flesh to the elements and risking that sorrows will embed themselves like irritants, slowly to become pearls. To mourn is to be moved to action by these heartbreaks. To have loved and suffered loss like the God of creation.

As we walk toward Golgatha, we must allow our hearts to be broken again and again by the injustices of a sin-shattered world. We grieve at the single mother who desperately lets her infant slip away. Tear are shed as we witness the public video of two young people who have so devalued one another through casual unfaithfulness and then subject each other to further humiliation. We mourn our relatives who refuse to be humbled by the cross, oblivious to their eternal fates. We are moved to act to stop the slaughter in Darfur.

Yes, let’s just give up secular music for the next forty days. We can mourn at not hearing the latest cultural contribution by Beyonce. Or, shall we expose our tender hearts to the arrows that pierce the Lord’s heart?

 

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The Real Faithful Mary

Scot completes his excursus of the biblical account of Mary’s life, locating her at the foot of the cross with John , Mary Magdalene and others. Their desire to remain close and committed to Jesus is beautifully and horrifically portrayed in the pen and ink by Pietro da Cortana to the right. Our view of Mary is radically changed by this vignette of discipleship; she can no longer simply be the passive Mary who nods her assent to the angel informing her that the Messiah is about to be brought into the world through her service. She is here, her heart pierced by the sword of sorrow, seeing both her son and her Lord radically changing the course of history.

Does she know at this moment that her messianic understandings are being completely upturned or does she fear that Jesus’ whole life has gone wrong, ending disastrously? Mary possesses the most complete revelation of His vocation so it is reasonable to read into her discipleship a resignation to the horror of the cross that is leading to the long expected salvation. To quote McKnight,

Jesus would not wear the crown of Caesar Augustus or the fine apparel of Herod Antipas. He would hang there, naked and beaten, and give to Mary and the world a radically new view of what it means to reign in this world. To reign in this world, Mary began to learn, was to give one’s life for others as Jesus had given his.

This is the real Mary, the mother and disciple, who followed her Son and her God to what might have seemed like the bitter end. Her transformation from an unknown young woman to becoming a member of John’s and Jesus’ families is complete. Though her biblical story comes to end in the nineteenth chapter of John, her legend expands through extra-biblical accounts. Perhaps though, the best way to view Mary is as we see her here, at the feet of the Lord, following him despite the personal cost. Faithful. The same faith that we all pray to be able to demonstrate at our most critical moments.

 

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Lenten Encounter with Jesus 1

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them…

As our Lenten reflection on the Sermon on the Mount begins, we are brought immediately to consider the nature of our own discipleship. Are we sitting at the feet of Jesus on a regular basis and allowing Him to teach us? Discipleship for many becomes simply a scholastic process; read-answer-listen, lather,rinse, repeat. If this is where we locate ourselves upon considering our spiritual growth, we would do well to meditate on this introductory line to the passage.

Our relationship with Him expands and matures when we are intentional about approaching Him and sitting at His feet. We must ‘go up the mountainside’ and seek out an audience with Him. Allow Jesus to sit first, assuming the position of the teacher, and then circle in close so that we miss none of His words. When we are leaning in close, the proximity amplifies the words and makes them more than that, they are active and alive and they ignite in us a passion to emulate them until the point at which they become a part of who we are. 

Shall we give up chocolate, or give up our personal agendas to be formed by the Master?

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Bearing Your Cross for Lent

For many, Ash Wednesday is the most public display of their faith that is seen by the world at large. The sign of cross is drawn in palm ash on the forehead, ostensibly to indicate the penitent status of the bearer. Other will observe Lent without the observance of this tradition but will focus on the sacrificial nature of the Easter event.

In the forty days that follow, how will your faith be affected? Will your sacrifice become works? Will you examine your faith in light of the public and private personae that we tend to develop? Will any injustice in the world be addressed? There are so many avenues for reflection as we approach Easter that it is an excellent avenue for personalization of your relationship to the Christ.

I’m going to meditate deeply on the Sermon on the Mount and its call to action rather than passivity this year.  Perhaps you can join me.  

 

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