Many Bible figures have been the center of debate over the centuries, but probably none any more than Mary, the mother of Jesus. I have also noticed that Catholics have just as much reverence for Mary as they do Jesus.

“You will never get anywhere talking bad about a fella’s mother!”

Jesus had the utmost love and respect for his mother and it seems she deserves to be treated with more respect than just as a doctrinal issue.

Many of us were deeply affected a few years ago by the movie “The Passion of the Christ”. Though I am sure no man could ever fully capture the scope of His suffering, the vivid images of Jesus paying the price for our sin will forever be imprinted on my mind. For me, telling the story primarily through the eyes of His mother greatly deepened the emotional impact. I could identify with a mother’s love – something all of us relate to on one level or another. I became hungry to know more about her and exactly what her life speaks to us today. What I discovered was that Mary’s life is a divine example of the goodness of God, not only to her but to us all. She was so right when she declared in Luke 1:46 “my soul magnifies the Lord.”

Many Unfavorable Circumstances

It didn’t take much effort to learn about Mary’s life and the circumstances surrounding it. I don’t know why I hadn’t heard more about her before. We so often focus on the glory of the angel’s visit and forgot that there were nine months between that day and the delivery of her Child.

There were many unfavorable circumstances surrounding Mary’s life that might have caused a weaker, less-devoted woman to crumble. The Galilee area was then, and had for a long time, been a hotbed of revolt against the Roman government. Mary had most likely been witness to some very violent situations. The pressure and probable persecution from family and community concerning the suspicious timing of her pregnancy may have stayed with her even into Jesus’ childhood.

The dangerous journey to Bethlehem in the final days of her ninth month was, at best, harsh on both body and soul. There were phenomenal events surrounding Jesus’ birth that she didn’t understand and prophecies she couldn’t interpret. But through it all, she was unmoved, never complaining or giving voice to question the pan of God. She never gave her mouth to words of doubt or fear. Instead, she pondered those things in her heart and pressed forward, obviously raising Jesus in the things of God. That is, until Jesus’ ministry began to challenge the hypocrisy of the synagogue leaders. At that point she and Jesus’ brothers would no longer attend His meetings but would call to speak to Him from “without” (Matthew 12:46-50; John 7:1-9).

It would be easy to criticize her for those actions and indeed she should never have backed away from Jesus’ ministry. On the other hand, she was probably under a kind of pressure few of us could ever relate to. The social as well as religious implications were hard to reconcile as part of the pan of God that she had so long envisioned.

Instead of Jesus embracing the religious community, He was challenging it head-on. It’s possible that there is no further record of her presence in His ministry because she just couldn’t bear to face what she could not understand. But then, glory to God, there she is at the foot of the Cross (John 19:25-27). She was no doubt there for Him, loving Him and letting Him see that she had not abandoned Him. What she most likely did not know was that she was there for herself as well. Surely, what she saw that day still did not fit the picture of God’s plan that she had imagined. But then, maybe the word of Simeon the prophet came back to her: “A sword will pierce your very soul” (Luke 2:35)

Maybe those words comforted her that somehow, in a way she could not yet comprehend, this was part of God’s plan. But whatever her thoughts that day, the important fact is that she was at the Cross and she was in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. She was one of the 120 who were filled with the Holy Spirit. She staggered into the streets of Jerusalem with the others, drunk on new wine. No doubt that day the Day Star dawned in her heart and the pan that had been hidden from her for all those years suddenly became clear.

History tells us that she actually became part of Timothy’s church in Ephesus. I can picture the young women gathered around her time and again pleading with her to tell the story once more. How glad she must have been to recount the glories of God and His work of grace that rested on her life. How thankful to God she must have been that she had finally seen the plan of God, not only for herself but for all mankind.

An Assignment Only She Could Fulfill

Though its true that Mary’s moral and spiritual quality is worthy of great recognition, her life bears testimony to a greater message that specifically impacts our lives. there’s a lingering idea that God searched and searched all over Israel to find a woman who could be worthy enough to be the mother of His Son, and that her worthiness created her opportunity for greatness. But the beauty of it is that we do not create our own destinies, we are simply privileged to discover and fulfull them. God had an assignment, an appointed plan for Mary that literally only Mary could fulfill. That plan was initiated when He created Adam and followed a bloodline down through the centuries (Luke 3:23-38). Think of all the family infighting, wars, displacements and general craziness in the Old Testament. Think of the odds He had to overcome to produce a little girl in Nazareth with the perfect, royal DNA, with ideal stamina and fortitude, with the right parents to teach her to love God and hear His voice and to be the mother of our beloved Savior. Only He could see to it that everything that was necessary for Mary to fully complete her destiny was instilled within her. By divine design she was born fully equipped to carry out the plan of God for her life. The good news is: So were you! Thank God she yielded to His plan and thank God we can too!

None of us can live a life so good and so holy as to earn our destiny. Your destiny is set before you ever arrive here and it, like Mary’s, is a destiny of greatness. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God has a plan for us and it is for good, not evil. There’s no need to ever try to embrace another man’s destiny. Yours is wonderful and everything you need to fulfill it is in you. God made it to be that way.

In Luke 1 the angel told Mary she was highly favored of the Lord. This doesn’t mean He liked her a lot. The word favored in English is from the Greek word also translated “grace.” He was actually telling Mary that because of the favor of the Lord she was high graced, or highly equipped to carry out the assignment she ws about to be given.

I believe being a mother is one of the weightiest assignments given by God to any woman. It, of course, is so much more than just giving birth. Somehow we are to impart into and draw out of our children all that is needed for them to fulfill their God-given destinies. We are accountable before God to do so in the might and power of His Word and His Spirit. That is an awesome task. But, thanks be to God, we have within our very being all DNA, both spiritual and natural, to get the job done. The same holds true for all the varying assignments from heaven that our lives hold.

Even though Mary had been distant from Jesus during much of His earthly ministry, His glorious grace brought her to the foot of the cross, just like it did you and me. It took her to the upper room, just like it did you and me. If you and I will do what Mary did and simply say “be it done to me according to Your word” and then obey what he tells us to do, we too will have the opportunity to step up to greatness in the Kingdom.