“And [the angel Gabriel] came to [Mary] and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you! Blessed are you among women!”” Woah, woah, woah, that sounds pretty Catholic there! Whenever Protestants, which includes us Lutherans, hear this verse from the Bible, the hairs on the back of our necks tend to stand up. We quickly chime in saying we don’t worship or pray to Mary, we make certain to be clear that Mary wasn’t perfect and that she’s not God, she’s a sinner just like everyone else.
But the truth remains that the virgin Mary is very special, and we would be wise not to speak so negatively about the mother of our God. Because she is the Mother of God, she is the Theotokos, the God bearer. Remember what the angel said to Mary: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High… The child to be born will be called holy- the Son of God.”
Within the womb of Mary, before she gave birth, for nine months God lived there as an unborn baby. At the end of those nine months, Mary gave birth to Jesus. So before we say anything negative about Mary, we ought to remember who lived inside of her. Mary was truly the most blessed woman. Since Mary was the most blessed woman because God lived in her womb, so are we blessed when the Lord is with us.
Just as St. Paul said that Christ was the second Adam, since in the first Adam all men died and in the second Adam all men live, so we could say that Mary is the second Eve. In Genesis we meet Eve during the first Spring in the garden, in Luke we meet Mary during a later spring in a town which name means sprouting plant. Both Eve and Mary are betrothed young virgins. An evil angel, Satan, appears to Eve in order to tempt her away from God’s word; a good angel, Gabriel, appears to Mary in order to bring her God’s Word. Eve stood at the base of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; Mary wept at the base of the tree of life. Eve ate forbidden fruit and all died; Mary gave birth to the promised fruit and all live.
Because of God’s Work through His handmaiden, Mary truly is a comforting figure for us. If Eve is a figure who reminds us that we shall die as sinners, then Mary is a figure who reminds us that God loves us and comes to save us poor lowly sinners. Mary was a virgin, meaning very likely that she was just a girl by today’s standards, probably a teenager. Since her betrothal is to a carpenter, Mary and her family likely weren’t particularly wealthy or high up in society.
By every worldly account, Mary was just an ordinary, nothing special, plane jane girl. Yet, through the fullness of time and in God’s infinite wisdom, the Lord chose her to be His ark and carry Him as a baby. “Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found grace with God.” The reason this is so comforting for us is that those same words of the angel can be applied to us, too.
If Eve is our mother who brought us death, and Jesus is our brother born of Mary, then Mary is our mother who brings us life. So we who are like Mary, and by all worldly standards nothing special, we receive grace from God not because of ourselves but because of Jesus. Jesus makes Mary special, and the most blessed among women, because He lived in her womb! Likewise, Jesus makes us special because He lives in us.
St. Paul writes, “Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Paul also prays for Christians, that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”
This is such a comforting thing! If we are in the faith, then Jesus Christ is in us! As great as this is, this isn’t just a spiritual presence, but when we partake of the Lord’s Supper this becomes a physical reality as well. The true body and blood of Jesus enter into our body and blood so that Jesus dwells among us and within us! That’s what the incarnation of Christ means; not just that God walked as some guy in Palestine 2,000 years ago, but that God enters into our lives through Jesus even today!
It means that Jesus, whose name means God Saves, comes to save us! We who are children of Eve, sinners with a death sentence, are saved because Jesus comes as one of us, as our brother, to fulfill our death sentence. When He was conceived as an embryo in Mary’s womb, that’s us and it’s for us, because it means that our conception and life as an unborn baby are holy in Christ. When He was born and laid in a feeding trough, that’s us and it’s for us, our births as messy as they may have been are holy in Christ. When Jesus lived as a child and then as a man, doing basic human things, that’s us and it’s for us, because our mundane lives are sanctified in Christ. When Jesus hung on a cross as a criminal and was laid in a grave, that’s us and it’s for us, because our deaths as wretched sinners are redeemed through Christ.
When you put up a nativity for Christmas, hang up a picture of Jesus on your wall, or set up a crucifix in your home, it’s not just because it’s pretty or sentimental, but because that’s a picture of your life with Christ living in you. In the nativity that’s your birth, you’re Joseph and Mary at the birth of your child; in the pictures of Jesus with His disciples, that’s you in church or at the family altar listening to Christ; in the crucifix, that’s you and all of your suffering, sadness, fear, and dying. The picture of Jesus standing after the crucifixion is a picture of you living even after this life is ended.
So before you speak poorly of Mary, remember whose mother she is, and that since Jesus lives in you, she’s your mother too. From her womb was born the Christ child who came to be your King, Savior, and Brother. Rather than speaking poorly of Mary, let us instead learn the humility of Mary, and say with her: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
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