Holy Mary, Mother of God?
Note: This sermon was preached by my colleague, Paul Stolwyk. As Paul grew up Catholic, I believe he has a unique perspective to address this important issue.
Introduction: The cover story to this week’s Life magazine is entitled “The Mystery of Mary.” The byline reads, “Two thousand years after the Nativity, the mother of Jesus is more beloved, powerful and controversial than ever.” I may be adding to the controversy this morning.
Before we get started, I would like to know, how many of you grew up Catholic or attend Catholic Church now—because I did as well. I grew up going to St. Elizabeth and St. Clement parish. I attended Catholic grade school. I am a graduate of DeSmet Jesuit High School. I know by memory more hymns from the Catholic hymnal than the hymnal in the seat in front of you. I still have many friends who are Catholic, some of whom are true believers and some whose faith I question, and I pray for them.
As a kid, I learned to pray a prayer known as the Hail Mary which goes like this:
Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners.
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
The Hail Mary is a prayer asking Mary to pray for me before the Father, asking her to seek God’s mercy and grace in my sinful state—even at the hour of my death. After confessing my sins to the parish priest, I would be instructed to pray a certain number of Hail Marys and Our Fathers as penance. The number would go up or down depending on the severity of my offense. I got pretty good at the Hail Mary.
While I consider myself today an evangelical Protestant, I do not hate the Catholic Church. I am very appreciative of my Catholic heritage. In 1985, when I personally trusted Christ as my Savior, my ability to understand the gospel was built upon a foundation of understanding that I had gained by being taught in Catholic schools and attending the Catholic Mass. But that understanding left some large holes. I took full advantage of those holes, too! They allowed me to be Catholic for an hour on Sunday and pagan for the other 167 hours in the week. And only by the grace of the Father through the work of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit, do I stand before you today as a pastor.
As Mike Andrus promised last week, my task this morning is to speak the plain truth about the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. Please know that as I do it, I do so respectfully for the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has been the leader in Christendom in important moral areas like the rights of the unborn, care for the poor, and focus on the family. We owe them a debt of gratitude.
What the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy teach about Mary[i]
She experienced an “immaculate conception.” Many think that the immaculate conception refers to the conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb. It does not. Rather, it has to do with Mary’sconception in her mother’s womb. In 1854, Pope Pius IX pronounced that Mary had been kept free from the stain of original sin from the moment of her conception. This act of grace was accomplished by God through the application of the future merits of Jesus Christ to her life.
This doctrine developed because many people found it difficult to believe that a perfect child, namely Jesus, could have been born to someone who participated in the sin and rebellion of the fallen human condition.[ii] So one way to solve the dilemma was to hold that though Mary was born of human parents, God preserved her from original sin from the moment she was conceived. In doing this, God purified Mary to be able to later bear the perfect Son of God in her womb.[iii]
She remained a virgin after Jesus’ birth. As Pastor Andrus taught last week, the virginity of Mary, prior to both the conception and birth of Jesus, is a clear teaching of Scripture from both Old and New Testaments. The Catholic Church believes this as well, but in addition it teaches that Mary remained a virgin throughout her life. She freely chose celibacy in order to honor God, just as she had freely accepted God’s invitation to be the mother of Jesus.[iv]
She was the mother of God. A general church council held in Ephesus in A.D. 431 stated that Mary was the Mother of God “according to the flesh.” The Church has argued that since Mary was the Mother of Jesus and Jesus is God, therefore Mary was the mother of God. Their intention is to recognize that Mary is the mother of the child who was God incarnate and that the infant who nursed at Mary’s breast was Immanuel.[v]
She was received into heaven without dying (bodily assumption). On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII declared as an infallible statement the belief that at the end of her life Mary was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory without the experience of physical death. So, according to Catholic teaching, Mary never died. She just went to heaven.[vi]
This doctrine follows directly from the belief in an immaculate conception. Since Mary was conceived without sin, she was able to lead a sinless life. Since physical death is a consequence of sin, a sinless life could not have resulted in death. Therefore, Mary did not die. Instead, her soul and body were taken up into heaven without the experience of physical death.
She is “Co-redemptrix, Mother of the Church, and Mediatrix.” It is taught that Mary, through her obedience, faith and charity became a partner in the work that Jesus would do to redeem people from their sin.[vii] This is the origin of the idea that Mary is a Co-redemptrix. While this doctrine has not yet been established as dogma in the Catholic Church, it is widely held and is currently being studied by the Vatican as a candidate for an ex-cathedra pronouncement.
It is also taught that Mary is the Mother of the Church. Just as Eve is the mother of all who perish through sin, so Mary, the new Eve, is the mother of all those who are in Christ.[viii] Catholics find this idea in John 19:25-27, where Jesus places Mary into the care of his beloved disciple, John:
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. 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.
Catholic theologians see John as a representative of the whole church. So when Jesus says to John, “Behold, your Mother,” Jesus is telling the church that Mary is the spiritual mother of the body of Christ on earth.[ix]
As mother of the church, it is taught that Mary still has a ministry of prayerful intercession on behalf of the Church she loves. Because of this role, she is also given the title Mediatrix. This is why Catholics will pray, “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” It is taught that like other saints, both living and dead, Mary is interceding before God’s throne on behalf of the Church, but always united in the intercession that Jesus does on our behalf before the Father.[x]
Protestant believers react negatively to terms like Co-redemptrix and Mediatrix, because the Scriptures use the titles redeemer and mediator only in reference to Jesus. But it is important to realize that the Catholic Church, at least at the teaching level, goes to some lengths to say that Mary in no way diminishes the unique mediation that Jesus brings to people. The problem, of course, is that in practice what goes on in the hearts of men and women often looks a lot like worship, lordship and submission to Mary, not just to Jesus.
How did these doctrines develop? They developed because the Roman and Orthodox churches have a dual source of authority—the Scriptures and the teaching tradition of the Church. And through the centuries, when these two authorities have been in conflict, tradition has generally won out. Over time, Marian doctrines have often focused more attention on the Mother of the Savior than on the Savior himself.
Frankly, I find the Scriptures do a wonderful job by themselves of showing the greatness of Jesus’ mother. Nothing needs to be added. So let’s look together at what the Bible teaches about Mary.
What the Bible teaches about Mary
She was a virgin when Jesus was conceived, but only until he was born. I have a biblical problem with the Catholic doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary. After Jesus was born, the Scriptures give evidence that Mary had a normal marital relationship with Joseph. In Matthew chapter 1 an angel visits Joseph and encourages him not to be afraid of the fact that Mary is going to have a child. It says in verses 24 and 25, “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son.”
Matthew is stating that Joseph and Mary did not consummate their marriage until after Jesus was born. His purpose is to remove the possibility that Jesus was the fruit of Joseph and Mary’s sexual union. Had he wanted to say more, namely that Mary continued to be a virgin, he never would have used the term “until.”
The Scriptures also teach that Mary was mother to at least six other children. Look at Matthew 13:54. Jesus has been ministering in some other towns and villages when he returns home. The text begins in verse 54,
Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him.
The people of the small village of Nazareth are having a difficult time understanding and appreciating who Jesus is. Their questions reveal that Jesus has four brothers and some unknown number of sisters, at least two and quite possibly, a few more, perhaps even too many to list. So there are at least seven kids in the family. It is obvious that Jesus came from a large Catholic family!
In the face of the biblical evidence, why would the Catholic Church teach the perpetual virginity of Mary? In the Middle Ages, Catholic theologians focused too heavily on the corruption and sinfulness of man. They came to see the flesh itself, and all that goes with it, as evil to be avoided. The highest, most spiritual life one could live was to be a monk or a nun and renounce the world and all the pleasures of the world. Sex itself came to be seen as something evil and polluting. So to “protect” the moral character of Mary, the Church began to teach that she could never have had sexual relations with Joseph, since that would have somehow made her less holy.
But to abstain entirely from sexual intercourse within the marriage relationship has never been part of God’s design for marriage. For Mary to remain a virgin would mean that God would have had to absolve her of the need to obey his word regarding the sexual relationship in marriage, as found in 1 Corinthians 7:1-7.
She was the mother of our Lord. As we have already noted, Catholics refer to Mary as the Mother of God. I understand that they mean “God incarnate,” but I do not believe this is the wisest of terms to use. Does everyone who hears, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,”recognize instinctively that what is meant is God the Son and not God the Father? Probably not. Without explanation, it leaves wide open the possibility for people to assume that Mary is herself divine. Protestants have generally preferred the term Elizabeth uses in her declaration, namely, “Mother of our Lord” (Luke 1:43). But it’s important for us to be honest and recognize that informed Catholics do not believe that Jesus derived his divinity from Mary.
She was highly favored by God. Turn to Luke 1:26 and let’s read again this account.
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:26-33)
First, the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she is highly favored. She has received grace that will allow her to handle God’s will for her life. But Gabriel also says, “You have found favor with God.” Carol and I are very cautious about leaving our children with just anyone. God was no less careful when he selected the woman who would be the mother of His Son. God entrusted Jesus to a woman with remarkable qualities, qualities we observe as we continue through this text.
She was submissive to God’s will regardless of the consequences. When the angel announces to Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth will have a son, Zechariah responds with doubt, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years?” (Luke 1:18). Mary’s response to a similar announcement is quite a contrast. “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am only a virgin?” Mary’s question arises from a point of faith, not doubt, and is more a question of mechanics. “You know, Gabriel, help me out here. I just finished biology 101. And I know I didn’t get a good grade, but if I remember right,… how is this gonna work?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:34-37).
To this Mary has an incredible response in verse 38: “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
We have very sanitized pictures of Mary. She is often visualized as a slender young woman, dressed in blue, kneeling with hands folded at the clean feeding trough with a halo above her head. Let’s make sure we have the proper perspective. Even though she is highly favored by God, He has also placed a tremendous burden upon her. Here is a young woman, maybe 16-18 years old. She will soon be pregnant. Imagine the scene at home. Her father will immediately assume it is Joseph. He will need to repent of his initial response. Mary will explain that it is not Joseph. Her father will ask, “Who is it then?” “Well, Dad, you may find this hard to believe, but God has done this?” “Where did you get that idea?” “An angel told me!” “Hmm …. Honey, get Minirth-Meier on the phone.”
Let’s imagine that she gets through the home front. Now she must travel to Bethlehem during her ninth month, not by car or plane or train, but on foot. All that walking causes her to have some initial contractions just outside of town. They stop at Motel 6. Joseph is sweating despite the cold and Mary is worried; she wishes she had a midwife. There is a “No vacancy” sign outside the inn, but the innkeeper says they are welcome to bed down in the shed out back, the shed where the animals are kept. After a long labor, she delivers her firstborn, Jesus.
The glory of God is brought into the world through human hardship, human pain, human shame. But Mary believed God could be trusted for what she could not see or imagine. In her faith, she says, “Let it be. I am God’s slave. I surrender to the will of God.” Some of you may be in Mary-like situations. Through no choice of your own, you may be experiencing physical pain, emotional hardship, or possibly ridicule for your faith. The glory of God is often revealed through the veil of human hardship.
When we list the great examples of faith, we often leave Mary off the list. But she belongs near the top of an elite group in my opinion, a group including Abraham, David, Job, and Paul. She was a teenager showing us how to walk with God and respond to heavy burdens.
After this visit by the angel, Mary goes to see her cousin Elizabeth, who greets her in verse 42 with a loud voice: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear!” Then in verse 45 we read, “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.” The beginning of the Hail Mary is a combination of the greeting of Gabriel and the greeting of Elizabeth: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed art thou among women.”
In response to Elizabeth’s benediction, Mary breaks out in a benediction to God. We see her song in verses 46-55. Those of you with an Episcopalian background know this song as “The Magnificat.” Follow along as I read it aloud:
And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his
name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to
generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers.”
This song reveals a number of significant facts about Mary.
She herself needed a Savior. Tom Woolsey and I returned last week from Tatarstan where we taught young church leaders how to carefully study the Bible. One of the important concepts that we attempted to teach them was that words are very important, even small, seemingly insignificant words. There is just such a word in the first line of this song. Notice what Mary says about the Catholic doctrine of the immaculate conception in verse 46: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.”
Mary herself puts an end to the discussion concerning an immaculate conception by stating clearly that God is her Savior. Only sinners need a Savior. Before a holy God, she recognizes her personal need for a redeemer. This is, of course, a biblical argument against the immaculate conception. There is a logical argument against it as well, for while postulating that Mary had no original sin may help to explain the sinlessness of her Son, how does one explain how Mary’s mother could have a sinless child? All that has been accomplished is that the dilemma (i.e., how to explain how a sinless child could come from a sinful parent) has been pushed back one more generation.
Furthermore, the fact that Mary herself needed a Savior also argues against the bodily assumption of the Virgin. Sinners experience the consequences of sin, one of which is physical death. While God received Elijah into heaven without experiencing death, his was clearly a unique case, and without biblical warrant, we should not assume that others have been granted the same privilege.
She was a student of God’s word. Mary’s song is steeped in Old Testament concepts. In this one song she alludes to more than twelve separate passages of Scripture. As she reflects on what God is doing in her life, her mind flips back through the Old Testament, page after page, to the promises God made to Abraham, the father of Israel, to bless all the people of the world through one of his descendants. Her song ends with Mary declaring that her pregnancy is a sign that God has remembered and kept His promises, just as He said. To compose a song like this, Mary must have had a breadth and a depth to her understanding of Scripture that puts a thirty-four-year-old pastor to shame.
She was a woman who consistently walked with God. Turn to Luke 2:18. After the shepherds tell the people of Bethlehem about all that the angels had said to them about Jesus, we read that all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said. “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” We are told that Mary did the same thing when as a young boy Jesus stayed behind at the temple during Passover to talk theology with the teachers (Luke 2:51).
Mary was thoughtful, reflective, meditative. She was tuned into the things of God. She attempted to understand God and how He was working. In her idle moments, her mind was dwelling on things above rather than on things below.
Her consistent walk with the Lord is shown, too, in Acts 1. She is mentioned as one of the people who gathered for prayer after the Lord’s ascension into heaven (Acts 1:14). At this point over 30 years have passed since Jesus’ birth, and Mary is probably nearly 50 years old. She is part of the church, finding hope and comfort in the fellowship of the saints, praying together while they wait for the promised Holy Spirit. There she is on the front lines as God prepares a new work. No spiritual retirement for her!
Conclusion: The Bible presents Mary as the person God set apart to play a vital role in His plan of salvation. She was a godly woman, even at a very young age. She was a woman surrendered to God. She was a woman who walked with God. Mary’s cousin Elizabeth said it best about Mary: “Blessed are you among women.” From what the Bible teaches about Mary, I agree wholeheartedly. Protestants make a big deal about Deborah, Priscilla and another Mary who sat at Jesus’ feet. Our lack of emphasis on Mary, the mother of Jesus, is inexcusable.
Mary should be recognized by all generations as the most blessed of women. Her life and character are worthy models for all Christians to follow, whether men or women, whether Protestant or Catholic. But she was still a woman, and in need of a Savior. Her mediator was her Son, Jesus—the infant who became a teenager, then a carpenter, eventually a teacher, and finally a sacrificial lamb on a Roman cross. As she watched him die on the cross, she watched him die for my sin … your sin … and her own sin.
I was at the ICU at Children’s Hospital a year ago, and I met a couple from Indiana whose son was seriously ill and eventually died. They showed me a prayer that someone gave to them, encouraging them to pray to Mary for help. They asked me what I thought. I told them, “You don’t need to go through Mary. You can go right to the Father through Jesus. You don’t need to be afraid.” If you are going through Mary to get to the Father, it is unnecessary. If fact, I don’t believe it has any eternal value at all. Mary was a good woman, but she is not a mediator.
But there is a mediator. Saint Paul says quite clearly, “For there is one God and one mediator (that is, only one) between God and men—the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). The mediator is not Mary. It is the son of Mary, Jesus. We don’t need to ask Mary to pray for us sinners now or at the hour of our death. We, who are sinners now, need to simply ask Mary’s son, her Savior, the son of God, the only mediator between God and people, to forgive our sins. And he will, once and for all time.
Prayer: Father, we approach your holy presence in the name of your son, Jesus. Thank you that you have provided the way to have our sins forgiven so that we can approach you confidently and boldly. I want my life to be a reflection of the godliness and heart of Mary and, Lord, I am a long way off. I would love it, Father, if by the work of your Spirit, my children may at age 18 be like the woman you chose to bring your son into the world. We desire as a congregation, Father, to have a character like Mary’s that responds to your will with a whole hearted, “Let it Be!” With minds that search you out and understand life through the lens of your Word. All glory be to your son, we pray. Amen.
Tags:
Mary
Roman Catholicism
Virgin birth
Immaculate conception
Bodily assumption (of Mary)
Co-redemptrix
Mediatrix
Magnificat
[i]. Sources for Roman Catholic doctrines about Mary were taken from Alan Schreck, Catholic and Christian: An Explanation of Commonly Misunderstood Catholic Beliefs, (Servant Books: 1984); The Compact History of the Catholic Church (Servant Books:1987); and Catechism of the Catholic Church, (Libreria Editrice Vaticana : 1994). They will be referred to in endnotes as Explanation, History, and Catechism.
[ii]. Explanation, 176.
[iii]. Explanation, 177; Catechism, 123.
[iv]. Explanation, 175.
[v]. Explanation, 176.
[vi]. Catechism, 252; Explanation, 180.
[vii] Catechism, 254.
[viii]. Catechism: 192.
[ix]. History, 148.
[x]. History, p. 148.