Mother Mary (?-c.30)
Image by Hennie Niemann Jnr.
Mary’s discipleship arguably begins even before Jesus’ birth when she faithfully responded to God’s call. Mother Mary was the first to witness and testify to what God was doing in the world by the Spirit through Jesus. When Mary was a teenager, an angel appeared to her declaring, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). The angel announced she was to give birth to a son, and she was to name him Jesus. He would be the long-awaited fulfillment of her people’s ancient scriptures and change the history of the world.
The trouble was Mary was a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph. Her reputation and future, if not her life, were at stake. Mary was an unwed teenager, in a time and place where women were considered property and had little agency of their own. Yet young Mary, a faithful Jewish girl, responded to God’s call and agreed to birth God into the world. Mary was open to what God was doing, however things appeared and whatever the risk to herself. Her response of consent, “I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38), has echoed throughout history as the faithful seek to allow God to be birthed in them and through them, also.
In Luke’s Gospel, Mary has a prophetic voice of her own in what is commonly known as Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:47-55) and is perhaps the most loved and recited prophesy delivered by a woman. Mary’s words show she knows the prophetic writings and fully understands what the angel asked of her, and that she believed everything God said would come to pass. Mary’s words, “He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away,” resound across the centuries as words that are as authoritative as the oracles of Isaiah, Amos, or Ezekiel; yet Luke does not call her a prophet, nor has history.
Mary was Jesus’ first follower and arguably the first to teach others to follow him, as can be seen at the Wedding of Cana. Referring to Jesus, Mary directed the servants standing by, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). Jesus obliged his mother’s request, whilst prophetically foreshadowing his own divine purpose when he turned the contents of six stone water jars, used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, into delicious wine. Mary acts out of a deep awareness that God cares about her and what was important to her.
Mary is our first example of a woman who lived, taught, and proclaimed what would become known as the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ male disciples were notably transformed from men who scattered the night of Jesus’ crucifixion to those who declared the gospel in the city centres and willingly faced death to declare the good news of Jesus. Mary acted courageously and trusted in God even prior to Jesus’ conquering death in his resurrection and we can still learn from her example today.
Mary was the first witness. She sees and tells of what God is doing. She is not silent or passive, she uses her agency to birth God into the world. Mother Mary made way for generations of faithful servants of God to follow her example. German theologian Meister Eckart (c.1260-c.1328) also regarded Mary as a model of discipleship when he wrote, “We are all called to be mothers of God – for God is always waiting to be born.” Another woman who did an exemplary job of modelling this sort of devotion to Jesus is Mary Magdalene, our next disciple.
Sources:
Bessey, Sarah. 2020. Waiting, Accepting, Journeying, Birthing. Abbotsford, BC: Field Notes Media. sarahbessey.com.
Swartley, Willard M. 2013. John, 86-87. Waterloo, ON: Herald Press.
Torjesen, When Women Were Priests, 128, quoting from Robert L. Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, 202.