Sermon: There's something about Mary

This sermon was preached at Grace Anglican Church in Edgeworth, Pennsylvania for the Feast of Mary the Mother of Jesus as celebrated on the Christian calendar.

• Isaiah 61:10–11
• Psalm 34
• Galatians 4:4–7
• Luke 1:46–55

Earlier we prayed, “O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son…”

As today’s collect (assigned prayer) implies, we gather to commemorate the death of Mary the Mother of Jesus, Mary the Mother of God, the Theotokos, Godbearer.

Fourth-century Church Father “Athanasius declared that it was necessary to keep a ‘commemoration’ of Mary in order to remember her faithfulness and relationship to Jesus.”^[1] Why in the middle of August? We can thank the Armenian Church. “Beginning around AD 450 in Jerusalem, the feast was celebrated on August 15 as the Memory of the Theotokos.”^[2] 

In today’s Galatians reading, we hear:

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

“Born of woman” is the phrase that caught me here. “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman.”

Why born of a woman? Why did God come down to us in this way? And why Mary?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created humanity, they were called Adam and Eve, or if you translate their names, they were called Human and Mother of all Living (Gen 3:20).

Human and Mother could eat anything they liked from the Garden, except that one tree. Then Temptation came as a serpent and said, “Did God really say not to eat from this tree?” So Mother and Human ate, and sin and shame entered God’s beautiful creation.

When God came to judge the living and the liars, he had words of rebuke but also of hopeful promise:

14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this…
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
  and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
  and you shall bruise his heel.”

That’s a bit unexpected. God references Mother’s or woman’s offspring, not Adam’s offspring. Literally, God says, “I will put enmity…between your seed and her seed” and this Seed of the Woman shall bruise the head of the serpent and the serpent shall bruise the Seed’s heel.

So, at the very beginning, God reveals to humanity that some hero, some champion will come from woman to defeat the Tempter, the enemy of humanity’s soul.

All through the Hebrew Scriptures, God continues to add to the promise of this hero who will save the damsel and all creation from our distress:

• In Genesis 12, he promises Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. (Gen 12:1-3, 17:5-8)
• In Genesis 49, he promises that Judah will rule over the Sons of Jacob (Gen 49:8-12)
• In 2 Samuel 7, he promises David that his seed will rule from his throne forever (2 Sam 7:16, cf Ps 110)
• In Daniel 7, he reveals that a Divine Human will rule all the nations from heaven (Dan 7:13-14)
• In Isaiah 52 & 53, he promises that a Suffering Servant will atone for the sins of Israel and all the nations (Isa 52:13-53:12)

This champion who washes, blesses, and rules the nations is the Seed of the Woman.

King David was promised a kingly heir. Kings are anointed for service with oil. Anointed One in Hebrew is mashiach, from which we get Messiah. Anointed One in Greek is christos, from which we get Christ. So the great awaited champion promised in the Garden of Eden, promised to Israel and the nations is Christ, is Messiah.

The Seed of the Woman then is Messiah, the ruler of Israel and the nations.

In ancient times, when messianic expectation was strongest among the Israelites, every young woman’s hope was that she would have the great honor to give birth to the Messiah.

I wonder if Miriam of Nazareth prayed for this great honor. I wonder if this desire was there in her heart. When she worshiped and prayed, did she sometimes say, “Father, is it not time for the Messiah to come? Here I am, Adonai. I am ready to help birth your salvation for Israel.”

Suddenly, God’s answer appears with the Archangel Gabriel:

Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!... Do not be afraid, Miriam, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Yeshua. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. (Luke 1:28-33)

Gabriel said three things that, if Mary knew her Bible, would have jumped out at her:

• Yeshua will be called the Son of the Most High, echoing Psalm 2
• The Lord God will give Yeshua the throne of his Father David, as promised in 2 Samuel 7
• Yeshua will reign over the House of Jacob forever, from Genesis 49
• His Kingdom will have no end, Daniel 7

Mary also knows basic biology. She is merely betrothed, not married. She knows women don't have seed. She also doesn’t assume the conception will come from Joseph: “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God."

And Mary says yes. Mary says ‘yes’ to God's unexpected plan and worships him:

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. (Luke 1:46-49)

How could the champion of Israel and the nations be the Seed of the Woman? God answers the question with the virgin birth that we celebrate every Christmas.

We honor Mary because she gives us the example of how to say “yes” to God even when we don’t really have an idea of the cost and the pain that come with the joy and the glory.

If you have not been watching The Chosen, I recommend it. Season 4 ended just before the triumphal entry we commemorate on Palm Sunday. They're at the point where the male disciples are struggling to process Jesus’ hints of his death while the women – including his mother Mary – are resonating with Jesus’ growing sorrow.

Throughout the series, Mary his mother has been the only one that really understands where Jesus is headed. In that, she serves as Jesus’ closest disciple. In one scene, after spending the day healing the masses in Syrian territory, Jesus stumbles exhausted back into camp. The disciples are at the fire pit arguing about something, and only Mary notices her son. As she helps him prepare for bed, she takes a wet cloth and wipes blood from his hands and his brow. It is not yet his blood, but he is already suffering with the broken and she stays close by to serve him.