Mary: A Model Of Motherhood

Mother’s Day 2006

MARY: A MODEL OF MOTHERHOOD

JOHN 2:1-11

INTRODUCTION: {Video Clip: Gospel of John - Chp. 3:12:50 - 16:08 - 3:18}

A wedding took place at Cana, in Galilee. Now, weddings are almost always times of great joy, but sometimes, even with the best of planning, things go wrong. So it was at this wedding. Vs:3- “When the wine had given out...” Here the imperfection doesn’t show up in the ceremony but at the reception. The family in charge ran out of refreshments before the party is done. For the man in charge of the banquet, it was a most embarrassing moment! And so, Mary, Jesus’ mother is asked to help.

Now, when we think of the life of Mary, I think our minds would often think of that young girl in Bethlehem giving birth to the Christ child. But at this particular time, as the video clip accurately showed, she is around 50 years old. And Mary, knowing her son, tells Jesus about the problem inferring, as only mother’s can do, that he should solve the situation. Now, it’s important to understand that Jesus is 30 years old and has probably been the head of the home for the last decade. Most think Joseph, Mary’s husband, died when Jesus was a youngster. We read of Joseph for the last time when Jesus was 12 and taken to the temple. After that Mary is always mentioned alone and the assumption, by most scholars, is that Joseph had died. So, Jesus would’ve taken over the carpentry shop and been the provider for the family. So as Mary looks to Jesus, I think, by looking at his response, saying, “My time has not yet come,” that it’s pretty clear she is asking him to provide a miracle. And he does!

But using this incident as a spring board I want us to focus on this Mother’s Day on Mary, the mother of Jesus. Over the years a number of legends have developed about her. There are those that suggest that she was a virgin all of her life. But the Bible says in Mk 3:35 that Jesus had other brothers and sisters. Mary had children after Jesus by Joseph. Some say that instead of dying Mary ascended into heaven and now she’s our mediator in prayer. But the Bible says nothing about such an event and 1 Tim. 2:5- “For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and people. He is the man Christ Jesus.”(NLT) But since Mary has occasionally been elevated to a position not found in Scripture there’s a tendency for some to go to the opposite extreme and say little or nothing about her. She is called in the Bible: “The mother of our Lord” and it says she was "highly favored among women." So Mary deserves a great deal of respect among Christian people. And from this passage and others I think we can see 3 things that show her to be: “A model of motherhood.”

I. MOTHERHOOD IS OFTEN A DIFFICULT ROLE:

I want you to see first that motherhood is often a difficult role. You know all mothers have difficulties at times raising their children. It doesn’t matter how smart they are or how special they are - there are always challenges.

{Video Clip: Forrest Gump - Start: Chp. 1:4:27 - Stop: Chap. 1:6:42 = 2:15}

Now Mary didn’t have to deal with leg braces or a low IQ and none of Jesus’ relatives started the KKK but as you trace her life through Scripture it is easy to see that Mary did not have an easy time. Before Jesus was even born she had difficulty. Her husband Joseph, was a frustrated fiancé. Mary had to tell him she was pregnant, not by another man but by God. How would you respond to that news? “Let me get this straight. You’re telling me you’re pregnant but you didn’t fool around. God put a child in your womb.” Who would believe that? Mary knew the truth but in the eyes of others she was guilty of sexual immorality. To Joseph, as much as he loved Mary, this idea about being impregnated by the Holy Spirit had to seem ludicrous and blasphemous. And even after an angel had appeared to Joseph, convincing him that what Mary had told him was true, she still had difficulty.

You would think that giving birth to the Son of God would carry some fanfare and prestige. But the commencement of Jesus’ life was an unglamourous birth that must of been very difficult for Mary. She gave birth to Jesus 90 miles away from home. Not only was she far from home but the baby was not born in a sanitary hospital but in a stable, not laid in a crib but in a feeding trough. And then Mary and Joseph had to flee, for 2 years, to Egypt because their son had a price on His head. And when they came back, Matt.2:21 tells us that Joseph wanted to settle in Judea, which makes a lot of sense. Why go back to Nazareth where the people of that small town thought the worst about this girl? Judea would be a fresh start. But God made it clear that they were to go back to that difficult place and reside in Nazareth. I think Mary may have lived the rest of her life under a partial cloud of suspicion.