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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
This is “Mother’s Day” weekend, but I’m sure we’d all agree, it will be quite different from any previous “Mother’s Day” in recent memory, thanks to the restrictions of the Coronavirus in almost every part of the world.
Do you remember that from His cross, in the agony of His horrific crucifixion, Jesus looked down and saw His mother Mary, John the beloved disciple, along with some others who were friends of Jesus, standing near the cross. They were in shock as they witnessed the unthinkable.
John records for us in John 19:26 that “When Jesus saw His mother there, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Dear woman here is your son’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on this disciple took her into his home.” So may I ask you, what questions do you suppose John asked Mary in the personal conversations they had in the weeks and months which followed?
I imagine John wanted to know about Jesus from the beginning, from Mary’s first visit awareness that she was going to be involved in the miraculous incarnation of God. So on this Mother’s Day weekend, let’s sit with John and Mary as Mary shares some of her motherly memories, and let’s see if the Holy Spirit speaks to us, about how Mary’s experience should be a guiding light for our lives today.
As I’ve been contemplating ‘motherhood’. Here’s a phrase which has developed in my heart over the past few days: “The only way into the human race is through a mother – even for God!” Now ponder that a moment.
The incarnation of Jesus is God coming into the human race, through Mary! While both a man and woman contribute to every human conception, the fetus-mother relationship is profound, it is life giving, it forms a bond between child and mother that is quite different from child and father. Regardless of your relationship with your mother, or even if you don’t know who she is… you would not exist without God’s miracles inside her as she was pregnant with you! Of course Jesus eternally existed BEFORE Mary’s pregnancy with Him, that’s why it’s called ‘incarnation’. But Jesus’ entrance into the human race, as the God-man, required His fetus journey inside Mary’s womb. We remember Joseph was not involved in Jesus’ conception, it was a miracle of the Holy Spirit of God. (Luke 1:30-35)
As I’ve been pondering pregnancy, I’m seeing it is a picture of the relationship Jesus wants with every person who has trusted Him for their salvation! Think about how the tiny fetus is ENTIRELY dependent upon its mother for life, for nourishment, for development! Psalm 139 tells us clearly that God does the miraculous work of developing the tiny baby in every detail, but He doesn’t do it out in a field someplace, or on a store shelf, or in a factory. God accomplishes this miraculous human development inside a mother’s womb, preparing this person for life outside the womb.
Now think about how a vibrant, healthy, nurturing relationship with Jesus, should develop, nurture, sustain any person who has an authentic, born again relationship with God through Jesus! Do you see the similarity? Do you see the lunacy of a fetus saying…’mother, I don’t need you, I can develop on my own, I can survive in this womb on my own…’. Ridiculous! And yet isn’t that what so many people who claim to be Christians do with Jesus? They try to do life without any authentic relationship with the ONLY One who can sustain their live, nurture them, develop them for survival in this world and a joyful eternity in heaven!
But here’s another insight that has come to me. Just as the baby is undeniable in a pregnant woman in her 8th or 9th month, so should the Holy Spirit be undeniable in an authentic follower of Jesus Christ! You can tell a woman is pregnant in her 9th month, just by seeing her, even from a distance. She can’t hide the obvious, right? So how does the Holy Spirit alive in you and me change our appearance?
A pregnant woman is often very careful about what she eats, or drinks, or what kinds of activity she gets involved with, right? Why? She’s respectful of the baby inside her and doesn’t want to do anything to harm her baby. In the same way, are we who have the Holy Spirit in us, very careful about to how our lifestyle might shame or grieve the Holy Spirit? (Ephesians 4:30)
Have you noticed how a pregnant woman often finds her identity in her pregnancy? She’s delighted, she talks more about her developing baby then anything else! She talks about her future plans for her baby, about how her life is forever changed because of her baby, even about her love for her baby? May I ask how much of our identity is defined and shaped by the Holy Spirit of God within us, and our desire for Him to become the focal point of our lives?
Now perhaps you can continue this line of comparison thinking. What other similarities can you find between how God has designed human pregnancy, with how God has designed an authentic, growing relationship between a born again sinner, a new creation in Christ, and God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit?
No doubt Mary enjoyed telling John about the angel Gabriel’s shocking visit, don’t you think? Luke 1:26-38 gives us the detail. May I draw us this weekend and the next few days, to focus on several key statements in her story, and ask us how they should apply to you and me and our relationship with Jesus today?
First this one today: “The angel went to Mary and said ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The LORD is with you.” (Luke 1:28) Can you see Mary’s big smile and her eyes wide as she tells John about this angelic encounter, remember she was only a teenager! Now, here’s my question for you and me… Can we claim those words for us? Are you, me and every other person whom Jesus has purchased from our sin bondage by His blood, “highly favored”? Oh my goodness YES, YES, a thousand times YES!
How do you put a value on the grace and mercy, the favor of God, poured out on you and me by what He did for us… sending Jesus to die in our place, so we could be forgiven and have an eternal relationship with God, and never see hell? Ephesians 2:1-9 is one of the most powerful, graphic, clear explanations of this. If you have a moment, I urge you to read it, and take a moment to pray and thank God for what it means in your life!
Notice the second part of what Mary told John the angel had said to her? “The LORD is with you!” So I ask you the same question…can all followers of Jesus claim these 5 words as DAILY truth for us today, in 2020? YES, yes, a thousands times YES! Do you remember Moses greatest fear when he and the Hebrew slaves had run out of Egypt? It was that God would NOT go with them! Do you remember how the horrible Golden Calf crisis happened? Moses had been up on the mountain with God for 40 days, as God was describing for Moses the remarkable and unique relationship of worship that He wanted with His people whom He had powerfully delivered from slavery. Down below, at the foot of Mount Sinai, the people got bored, and assumed Moses had died up on the mountain, so they asked Aaron to fabricate gods for them, and take them back to Egypt! You’ll find this story in Exodus 32.
When Moses came down from the mountain, with the tablets of stone which God Himself had cut out of the mountain and inscribed with His own finger, the 10 Commandments… Moses was shocked to see the people celebrating and worshiping a golden calf idol they had made! Moses got so angry he threw the tablets out of his hands and shattered them! He reprimanded the people and warned them that they deserved to die for their rejection of the God who had delivered them from slavery and kept them alive every day with a miracle manna delivery. Moses destroyed the golden calf, and then he went back up the mountain, for another 40 days, to meet with God and beg Him to forgive the people of this great sin. (Deut. 9:16-21) God’s response was shocking… yes He would forgive them, but He would no longer accompany them, or lead them as they left the mountain and continued their journey toward the promised land. They would have to find their way and provide their own daily provisions without Him. Oh my what a terrifying thought!
Moses’ response to God is one of the most powerful statements ever made by a human being to God, and I wonder if this came into John’s mind, as Mary told him what the angel had said to her. Moses said “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here…what else will distinguish me and Your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:15,16)
Moses records for us that God replied “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” As John pondered that powerful, historical moment, I wonder if he remembered that Jesus had said “I will be with you always, even unto the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20) Or that Jesus had promised “I will ask the Father and He will send you another Counselor, to be with you forever – the Spirit of Truth. You know Him for He lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16,17)
Finally, I imagine John thought of Psalm 33 as he listened to Mary explain Gabriel’s assurance that she had found favor with God and the LORD was with her: “From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind, from His dwelling place He watches all who live on earth, He who forms the hearts of all, considers everything they do… We wait in hope for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. May Your unfailing love rest upon us O LORD, even as we put our hope in YOU.” (Ps. 33:13-15, 20-22)
What if you and I acknowledged these great God truths, and embraced them as His promises for us today? What if we asked the Holy Spirit to use them to refine us, to powerfully shape our thinking and our awareness of God’s love for us and His watchcare over us? What if we integrated these powerful truths into the very fabric of our lives. . . could this Mother’s Day weekend change how we see ourselves and others? Could these truths change how we live our lives for the rest of our lives? Could they shape your legacy and mine?
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapters: John 19:26-27; Psalm 139:13-18; Psalm 33:13-22. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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