A Mother's Day Reminder of Mary's Prophetic Words: 'All Generations Will Call Me Blessed'
“None can say of [Mary] nor announce to her greater things, even though he had as many tongues as the earth possesses flowers and blades of grass: the sky, stars; and the sea, grains of sand. It needs to be pondered in the heart what it means to be the Mother of God.”
Upon reading that quote, one would immediately assume it originated with a Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox theologian. It might be surprising to learn that this quote originates from a post-reformation Martin Luther.
Luther — as everyone knows — was the father of the Protestant Reformation in 1517, a movement to which most every non-Roman Catholic church in the West can trace itself.
Protestants are not known for their charitable views toward Mary, the mother of Jesus. Most of these feelings are actually rooted in the Protestant aversion to Roman Catholic theology. Mary is usually brought up to level accusations of idolatry, such as “Catholics worship Mary.”
On this Mother’s Day weekend, I feel it’s important to address this rift between the ancient and reformed churches to make sure we are paying Mary due respect — whether we are erring in excess or in deficit.
Mother of God
In the first few centuries of the Christian church, several heresies arose regarding the nature of Jesus. Theology surrounding the Son of God is known specifically as “Christology.”
The most influential of these Christological heresies was known as “Arianism” after its originator, Arius of Alexandria. Arianism claimed that Jesus was not co-eternal with God, but was himself created by Father God — denying his eternal divinity.
Arianism was condemned as heresy at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. In the following decades, a flurry of new heresies sprang forth as Eastern theologians, largely influenced by Greek philosophy, grappled with the idea of a divine Jesus.
Apollonarianism, Eutychianism and Nestorianism were the three most significant challengers to the divinity of Jesus in this period. All three, like Arianism, came from Eastern, Greek-influenced theologians.
Platonic dualism believes that a man’s being is divided into his physical nature and his spiritual nature. When the body dies, it ceases to exist, but the soul lives on. It thusly follows that the body is a sickly, weak cast that must be shed in order for the soul to thrive.
The influence of this philosophy is painfully apparent in the heresies of the early church. Eastern theologians seemingly refused to believe in a perfect Jesus Christ who could be both God and man.
The Nestorians particularly taught that Christ had two natures in two people, formed together by a close union. His human nature belonged to his “undivine” human form, and his divine nature belonged to his divine spiritual form.
This teaching was rejected as heresy by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, forming a doctrine we know as the “hypostatic union,” that is, that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, one person with two essences or natures. He is not a deified man or a humanized spirit, nor is he a third kind of being, but a perfect union of both.
The reason I go into such historical background here is to establish the theological precedent for Mary’s title as “Mother of God.” Also referred to as “theotokos,” this supernatural peerage is one rejected by nearly all modern Protestant evangelicals as blasphemous or heretical.
However, it’s simply logical.
Where Protestants Went Wrong
All of Christendom will agree to the Chalcedonian Creed and affirm the hypostatic union of Christ’s being. Which means, we all believe that when the Virgin Mary gave birth to her son Jesus, she was giving birth to one person, fully God and fully man. This is simply the only logical train of thought.
Do I mean to intimate in any way that Jesus’s supposedly eternal existence actually began in a manger in Bethlehem, or that Mary herself created God? Of course not, and neither do Roman Catholic theologians:
“By saying Mary is the Mother of God, the Catholic Church is not saying Mary is the source of the divine nature among the three persons of the Blessed Trinity, nor is she the source of the divine nature of the second Person. But she doesn’t have to be in order to be the mother of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity incarnate,” according to Catholic.com.
When a mother gives birth to her child, she is not creating that child’s soul in her womb, nor is she merely creating a human body. She’s birthing an entire person — body and soul.
The great Protestant reformers all affirmed theotokos to varying — but undeniably reverent — degrees: Luther, Calvin and even Zwingli.
The first reformer to bear truly anti-Marian thought also serves as a case study in modern Protestant rejection of the Mother of God. Scottish Reformer John Knox bore a deep-set hatred of the Roman Catholic church. He held a personal, bitter, sinful ill will toward anything he could remotely tie to it.
While Luther initially was overwhelmingly humble, wanting to reform what he viewed as erroneous teaching, Knox wanted to annihilate the system entirely. Luther’s 95 theses were a surgeon’s scalpel to John Knox’s shotgun.
While in French captivity, John Knox’s Catholic enslavers passed around a portrait of the Virgin Mary and forced Knox and his fellow Protestant captives to kiss it. When it was handed to Knox, he said words to the effect of, “let’s hope Our Lady can swim,” and tossed it into a river nearby.
When Knox assumed leadership of the formerly Catholic St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, his first order of business was a complete purge. Ancient Catholic frescoes were whitewashed, stained glass knocked out, altars removed and a pulpit installed.
He had a raving, obsessive compulsion to destroy anything and everything he deemed idolatrous or extra-biblical. He even hated and preached against Christmas, for no reason other than its celebration within the Roman Catholic church — leading to the legal ban of its observance and even gift-giving during Yuletide in Scotland.
Protestants Have “Church Hurt”
“Church hurt” is a phrase used by evangelicals to describe the emotional trauma they receive from clergy or parishioners of churches they attend or used to attend. Church hurt is a unique kind of pain amplified through the intimate relationship one usually holds with the perpetrator — a pastor or brother/sister in Christ.
Church hurt leads us to do silly, nonsensical things. As someone who has spent more than a few years in vocational ministry, I have seen individuals refuse to serve at church or even tithe out of bitterness toward their former church or from some perceived slight by the clergy at the church they attend.
Those nonsensical things include refusing to honor or revere the woman God chose to bear His only son out of a bitter relationship we may have with the Roman Catholic denomination we, as Protestants, used to “attend.”
Mary breastfed Jesus, she taught him how to read and write, and she tucked him into bed every night. She dressed his scrapes and cuts and poured his ancient Israelite Cheerios in the morning. Scripture says Jesus “increased in wisdom and in stature.” Many make the mistake of thinking of Jesus like a plant — water and feed him, and the end result is inevitable.
Jesus was once a child and young man, and he didn’t raise himself — Mary and Joseph did.
Out of all the women in the entire course of human history, God chose one to bring forth the Savior into the world. Her name was Mary, and she, with Joseph, raised the God-man who atoned for the sins of his people.
The Proper View
“To this day we cannot enjoy the blessing brought to us in Christ without thinking at the same time of that which God gave as adornment and honour to Mary, in willing her to be the mother of his only-begotten Son.” – John Calvin
There certainly are some Roman Catholic doctrines surrounding Mary that many Protestants can and should take valid issue with.
She was not sinless, for then she would have had no need for the Savior in which she rejoices in Luke 1:47. Jesus was born sinless, as no human man was involved in his conception, exempting him from the curse of Adam.
She was not perpetually a virgin, as scripture refers in several places to Jesus’s brothers, or to certain apostles as “the Lord’s brother.”
However, none of these theological disagreements preclude us as Protestants from fulfilling Mary’s prophecy regarding herself in Luke 1:48, “… For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”
Jesus had a special relationship with his mother and treated her with a unique, reserved love and affection. He honored her special request at the wedding at Cana, in spite of his personal preference. In the midst of his immense physical suffering for the sins of many on the cross, he made sure to tell John to take care of her.
Mary is beloved by Father God and by Jesus. She is an incredible example to Christians, especially to Christian women and mothers. Let us remember this on Mother’s Day of all days. God forbid we get to heaven and Jesus asks, “Why were you so mean to my mom?”
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