Not all swords are metal

When Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the Temple as a baby, one of the people who prophesied about him turned to Mary and said that a sword would pierce her soul. By the time she had been through the various traumas associated with bringing him up, lost her husband and had to let Jesus get on with a lifestyle that looked like just the workload would kill him, she probably thought the there had been enough of a sword gone into her. However, that wasn't the main meaning of the prophecy. It was probably in the autumn of 32 AD when Jesus left the family home in Capernaum and set out for Jerusalem, where there was already a plot in place to kill him.

We don't know when his mother undertook the journey to the capital herself, whether she went along with Jesus' core team of 12 apostles and the associated women, or if she made her way later. However, by the time he had been arrested and was on trial, she was definitely in Jerusalem. She would presumably have witnessed the crowd clamouring for Jesus' death while the Governor, Pontius Pilate, tried desperately, but in vain, to release this innocent man. She certainly was at Golgotha when her son was crucified, and stayed there with him until he died, along with several other women and one of the apostles. She would have seen Jesus being nailed to the cross and the darkness come over the land for the last three hours of his life, heard him forgive his executioners, heard him forgive one of the thieves who were crucified with him, heard his heart-rending cry when he was abandon by the rest of the Godhead at his lowest time physically, and heard the final groan as he died. She would have then experienced the earthquake that accompanied Jesus's death, followed by the silence of despair as she, along with all his other followers, were left with having to make sense of the fact that the one who clearly going to be the saviour of the world - and her own son - had just been rushed through an unfair trial and subjected to the agonizing, slow death of a criminal. I don't know if anyone can really understand exactly how she must have been feeling at that point.

Jesus had known that she would need support and so, even while dying on the cross, had asked the one disciple who had stuck with him to the end to take her into his household and be a son to her. Mary must have thought that that was it: Jesus was dead and she was going to have to make sense of her now meaningless life as t second mother to one of her son's friends. She had devoted her life to bringing up the Messiah, and he had died without finishing his mission - how could that be? Certainly the thing about the sword and her soul had been right though, so somehow God had understood this in advance. What was that all about?

If you know the end of the story, of course, Jesus came alive again. Some of the women went to the tomb where his body had been laid, to prepare it for burial, but he wasn't there, because he had risen from the dead. It seems that Jesus' mother couldn't bring herself to go along with them, but left it to the other women. I think that we can all understand that. Yet, alive he was, and it wouldn't have taken long for Mary to find out. Again, fully understanding how she could take all this in is probably beyond most of us. We do know, however, that she became one of the faithful followers of Jesus who waited for the arrival of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem and then became the core founders of the Church.

Mary's life went through ups and downs like that of few others, but in the end God trumped all that had come against her and her son. The world had been changed forever, and Mary had been right at the centre of the events that brought that about. Let us not overstate her position, but let us also never sideline her. She is not the mother of God, as if to suggest that God needs a mother, but she was the mother of the man who was also God. She was chosen for that position because she had been faithful to her maker, and she continued to be so through thick and thin, right to the end. She may have started out as an ordinary girl, but she became a remarkable woman.

Leading Ladies Summary

Summary of weeks 1-5

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Be careful what you sign up to!

We saw previously that Mary accepted the role of becoming the mother of the Messiah, despite the major disruption and misunderstanding that it caused for her. However, she presumably thought at first that after returning from her extended visit to her cousin in Jerusalem, she would settle down in Nazareth, have the baby and bring him up until his ministry was to begin. Have you ever thought that God was asking something of you and agreed to do it, only to find that the consequences along the way were more than you had originally signed up for? "You didn't tell me about that, God!" we sometimes find ourselves saying. Some of the Old Testament prophets did the same. Mary was no different in that the goalposts seemed to keep moving for her, but we don't actually hear about her complaining.

Instead of having a peaceful pregnancy in Nazareth, just before the baby was due she had to go on a long journey, on foot or horseback, from Galilee in the north of the country, to Bethlehem a few miles south of Jerusalem. This was due to a Roman census, fair enough, but God could have arranged the timing just a little bit differently, surely. Anyway, the baby was born safely, even though that had to be outside in what seems to have been a stable. Angels appeared and sent some shepherds to go a visit the boy, so Mary and Joseph were made to know that their supernatural story was still on course. Some prophets in the Temple confirmed this as well. A couple of years later, when they were well established as a young family in a house in Bethlehem, some exotic looking wise men even turned up from Persia (modern day Iran) to worship Jesus and bring him expensive gifts.

So that was great. They had a new home in Judea, rather than in out of the way Galilee; Joseph presumably had set up successfully as a carpenter there; people were still coming from all over the world, sent prophetically by God to confirm that everything was still on track. And then the dream came: Joseph was told to get out of the country straightaway, because the king was sending people to kill the boy. This time they ended up in Egypt, alone in a foreign land with an unknown language and a two year old boy. Can you hear Mary at least thinking, "You didn't tell me about this, God!"?

Mary committed her life to bearing and bringing up the Son of God, but she found that such an existence was not a bed of roses. Yet she remained faithful throughout.

After maybe a few years in Egypt, having got settled again and probably learned some of the language, God told Joseph to take the family back to Israel, and then not to return to their home in Bethlehem, but go north again. So they ended up where they had started in Nazareth. Upheaval after upheaval, but I suppose all's well that ends well, back in their home town. They could go to the Temple to worship regularly at the feasts again as well. That must have been great after their exile in Egypt - until they lost him there one day, or two or tree, or four. Yes, it must have been at least four days he had been missing. "We've lost the Messiah. He's only 12. Have you seen him anywere?" They probably said, "Jesus," rather than, "Messiah", but Joseph and Mary knew that the names were synonymous. This was the greatest of all disasters for them, losing the Son of God after looking after him so carefully for 12 years.

Ok, all ended well again when they found Jesus in the Temple. Then things settled down. Joseph and Mary seem to have had several more children, but then it appears that Joseph died by the time Jesus was in his mid-thirties. Mary must have started to understand some of Jesus's supernatural powers, though, because one day she asked him to produce some extra wine to prevent embarrassment at a friend's wedding, which he did as a start to his public miracle working. Gradually he became more and more well known and was followed about by enormous crowds who would give him little rest if they had their way. Mary started to get concerned for his welfare and one day went to try to intervene, but Jesus wouldn't listen; from her point of view, it probably seemed that he wouldn't see sense. However, it must have been then that she realized that she had to release her boy fully into the ministry of his real father, God almighty rather than Joseph the carpenter.

Mary's life with Jesus had not been all plain sailing. Yes, there had been the confirmations that God his Father was around and on the case; however, there had also been at least a whiff of scandal, dangerous journeys, a death threat, a disappearance and finally the need to let her son go so that he could fulfil his busy and dangerous life. God could have smoothed the way and had his Son brought up in peace, safety and comfort; instead he had him born into the midst of the difficulties and traumas of human life. I'm not sure that Mary knew quite what she was signing up for all those years ago - and the worst was yet to come - but she saw it through faithfully.