BIBLICAL BRIEFS 45
The Roman Catholic Church believes that Mary is the so-called mother of God because as a virgin, she was expecting and gave birth to Jesus – the Son of God, who is also God. However, Mary was an ordinary human being, prone to sin and mortal. She merely fulfilled her divine purpose (Luk.1:38). It was a huge privilege, and she was undoubtedly favoured to hold this honorary position. But – this does not remotely make her to be a saviour like her Son Jesus (in the flesh): “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). In a poem about Mary, written by Elisabeth Eybers, this poetic speaker time and again sets the positive encounters which she experienced around the birth of Jesus against the terrible pain He had to endure to fulfil His task. At the end of the poem, the once “favoured” maid from Nazareth is called “woman of sorrows”, analogous to “the man of sorrows” (Isa. 53: 3). She identified herself with her son to such an extent that, as his mother, she felt at one with him in his suffering. Indeed, the prophetic words of Simeon concerning her became true: “and a sword will pierce even your own soul” (Luk. 2:35). The word that can be used for this, is compassion. This single word, from Latin, means “to suffer with”. God not only chose Mary for that which she offered in terms of the pleasant and good things regarding the Messiah. Above all she was also chosen to be part of his suffering throughout, even though it was at times from a distance (Mark. 15:40). And throughout she is there: when she anxiously looks for Him when He gets lost as a child (Luk. 2:48); at the crucifixion (Joh. 19:25); at the grave (Matt. 27:61); in unison with the apostles in prayer (Acts 1:14) for the outpouring of the (Holy) Spirit, also afterwards (Acts 12:12) – always there to demonstrate solidarity and compassion. That’s why Eybers rightly calls her “woman of sorrows” – she certainly suffered with. The gospel of the kingdom of God is not an easy undertaking. It’s all or nothing – either Christ is formed in you, as in Mary, or not – as Paul said, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). We all have to “become partakers … of the suffering” (2 Cor. 1: 7), “that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:10). Of this, Mary is undoubtedly a miraculous sign and prototypical example to us, but alas not a figure of salvation. She deserves no contempt from anyone as result of the Roman Catholic Church’s wrongly idolisation of her. This false position is demonically driven by the principality called the queen of the heaven (Jer. 7:18; 44: 17-25), who uses her eminence amongst others, to establish misplaced authority in the church.
Dr. Tom Gouws
