MARY MOTHER OF GOD Mary mother of God After the story of the Birth of Jesus and His visit to Jerusalem at the age of 12, very little is said of Mary. She was the mother of at least six children besides Jesus. At her suggestion Jesus turned water into wine at Cana, His first miracle. Later, she is mentioned as trying to get to Him in the crowd, where Jesus’ words plainly indicate that her family relation to Him gave her no special spiritual advantage. She was present at the crucifixion and was committed by Jesus to the care of John. There is no record of Jesus appearing to her after His resurrection, though He did appear to Mary Magdalene. The last mention of Mary is in acts 1:14, as being with the disciples in prayer. This is all the Scripture has to say about Mary. Of the women who figured in Jesus’ public life Mary Magdalene seems to have played a much more prominent part than Jesus’ mother. But still, she is only mentioned in Scripture about ten times, not really enough for Hollywood to make a movie of her and Jesus running off to some foreign country and having children! Mary (Jesus’) mother, was a quiet, meditative, devoted, wise woman, most honored of women, queen of mothers, sharing the cares common to motherhood. We admire her, we honor her and we love her because she was the mother of our Savior. Who were the “brothers” and “sisters” of Jesus, mentioned in Matthew 13:55-56 and Mark 6:3? Mary’s own children? Or children of Joseph by a former marriage? The plain, simple, natural meaning of these passages is that they were Mary’s own children. This is the opinion commonly held among Bible commentators. And it is substantiated by the statement in Luke 2:7 that mary “brought forth her FIRST-BORN son.” Why “first-born,” if there were no others? The Messiah was to be born in David’s family. It had been a thousand years since David and there had come to be thousands of families of Davidic decent. God, in looking them over, to choose the one through whom His Son should come into the world, passed up the ruling families around Jerusalem, as His eye rested on a humble woman, in a lowly home, in an obscure village of the distant hills of Galilee. What a woman she must have been, this Mary mother of God to be chosen by God to impart and mold the human nature of His Son! And how her heart must have thrilled at the angelic message that she was to be the mother of the Divine King of the Ages!
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