The Love Of A Mother

The Love of a Mother

For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. - Mark 7:25

One day, a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast to her dark hair.

She looks at her mother and eagerly asks, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?" Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white."

The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then asked, "Mamma, how come all of grandma's hairs are white?"

There are a lot of important jobs in the world today, but not one of them is more important than the job of being a mother. After all, mothers shape and influence and impact young lives. Today, we celebrate Mother's Day. A common quality found in many mothers is: love. As we meditated before, God is love. And God’s love is exceedingly reflected through the love of a mother. This love by God and mothers can be expressed in words, attitudes, and actions.

Now, that is exactly what we see in our scripture lesson for today in Mark 7. A Greek mother comes to Jesus for help. Her daughter was sick, and she heard about Jesus and His power to heal. So, as a loving, concerned Mom, she came to Jesus. She kneeled before Him and asked Him to heal her daughter.

At first glance, it seems like Jesus is being a bit unkind to the Greek woman because He says: "Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs…" Mark 7:27

When He did that, the Greek woman realized immediately that He was speaking with a smile, and that she was with a friend. The woman was a Greek, and the Greeks back then had a great love for conversation, dialogue, and friendly debate. Not only that, but back then, men did not discuss theological issues with women.

But, Jesus honored her by including her in a philosophical and theological discussion. Because of this, the Greek woman understood that Jesus was befriending her. She skillfully responds to Jesus. “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs. Mark 7:28.

Jesus loved her spirit and faith. Here was a mother with a sick child at home, who was willing to take a chance and put her faith in Christ for the sake of her child. Jesus liked her faith and her boldness and her commitment to her child. And He answered her prayer. "You have answered well," He said to her. "And now you may go your way because your daughter has been made whole." -Mark 7:29.

The Greek woman returned home quickly and found that indeed her faith had healed her child. Just as Jesus had said, her daughter was completely healed. The illness was totally gone.

Now, this is a fascinating story, and we could look at many parts of this story: the power of Jesus to heal, or the impact of the woman's bold persistence, or we could talk about how the Greek woman symbolizes all the Gentiles and their inclusion in God's Kingdom.

But, for now, let me invite you to look with me at the illustration of love painted here. In this Greek mother's encounter with Jesus, we see three of the most important ways to express love. For we all know, God's love is exceeding reflexes in a mother’s love.

I. WITH WORDS

Love can be expressed with words. The Greek woman came to Jesus that day to express in words her love for her sick child. Also, in the whole Gospel of Mark, she is the only person who lovingly calls Jesus "Lord." Look at Mark 7: 28, “And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs”.

It may seem easy to express our love with words, but the truth is that there are only a few precious people that do it well. Why is that? Why do we have trouble speaking the words of love? If we all start to realize how powerful words are, we would work harder at expressing our love with words.

Some years ago, a woman was dying in a local hospital. She was in her mid-80's. Her son flew in to be with her. He walked over to the bedside of his dying mother. He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. Seeing her so weak, he said to her: "Mom, you have been such a good mother to me. And, I want you to know I love you."