Lenten Midweek Sermon: "A God Who Has A Mother"

+ Lenten Midweek 4 – April 3, 2019 +

Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton

Revelation 12:1-6; John 19:25-27

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

It may sound strange. It may even hurt our heads if we try and think about it too much. But it’s true. Scripture proclaims it. We confess it. We even sing it. God has a mother. 

Mary is the God-bearer, the mother of God, or the Theotokosas the early church called her. We say these things about Mary, not to draw our eyes to her, but to her Son, our Lord Jesus

We don’t think about God being born. We know He’s eternal. The one who is, who was, and ever shall be. Infinite. All powerful and so on.

And yet for us men and our salvation… God has a mother. God is born. God takes on human flesh. Jesus’ incarnation didn’t begin at His birth. His taking on human flesh was a full nine months earlier, when the eternal Second Person of the Trinity, whom time and space cannot contain, united Himself to a single human zygote cell. 

The Son of God became the Son of Mary. The eternally begotten Son of God, who like the Father is without beginning or end, at the moment of the annunciation, began to be flesh. The very Word who declared, “Let Us make man in Our image,” in His incarnation finally reveals His image renewed in man, as He becomes man. Mary became a mother and God became man for you.

And when we confess this, we confess something important about human life as well, especially infant life and life in the womb. Human life – from conception to death - is precious, sacred, and beloved in God’s eyes, so much so that he saw fit to take on human flesh to save us. 

So if we confess that God is fully man for us, even in Mary’s womb, then the unborn are fully human as well. If the One who inhabits His mother’s womb for nine months is truly God, then that means that children in the womb are more than just a random mass of cells we can toss aside – but rather, a gift from God that is to be protected, defended, and cared for. 

This also tells us something important about Jesus’ life. God became a zygote, blastocyst, embryo, fetus, baby, toddler, boy, adolescent, teenager, young man, and man. For you! As St. Paul declares, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

You see, our flesh won’t save us. Our sinful flesh isn’t up to the task our Lord requires. We cannot keep, much less fulfill his Law. It’s not just that our flesh is weak, but that on our own we utter failures. We’re completely lost. We have not loved the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind, nor have we loved our neighbors as ourselves. If there is any hope for us, it’s not to be found in our flesh and blood, but in Jesus.

Behold the man, the promised Seed of the woman sent to crush the head of the serpent who. Behold the man who redeems all men. Behold the man who cared enough to use His dying breath to care for His mother, who cared enough to use His dying breath to save her and you.

St. John shows us Jesus crucifixion through the eyes of his mother.

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”  Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

Mary, who had heard the angel Gabriel say, “Do not be afraid Mary, for the Holy Spirit would conceive in your womb a son named Jesus who whose kingdom will have no end,” now sees her son and King enthroned on the cross, crowned with thorns.

Mary, who had seen the shepherds run to find Jesus lying in the manger just as the angels had said, now sees the Good Shepherd, her little lamb, laying down his life for his wayward sheep.

Mary, who had seen Jesus’ first miracle of water turned into wine, now sees his appointed hour when blood and water would flow from his side, to fulfill the Law and manifest his glory on the cross for us.

As she was witness every parent’s worst nightmare, perhaps she remembered Simeon’s words at Jesus’ presentation in the temple: “A sword will pierce your own soul also.”

The child she saw in Bethlehem’s manger is now on Jerusalem’s cross.

The sky that was once filled with angels and Glory to God in the highest is now filled with darkness and silence from heaven.

All the things that she pondered in her heart, all that Jesus has said, done, and promised lead to this cross on this day on this hill.

As Mary bore the Savior of the world in her flesh, so now, Jesus bears the sin of the world in his flesh on the cross. As Mary looked after the wellbeing of infant Jesus, now the crucified Jesus looks after the wellbeing of his mother from the cross. And as Mary once cradled Jesus in her arms and gave him life, so now on the cross, Jesus draws us to the Father’s embrace by his death on the cross, our source of life eternal.

Behold the man! The Son of Mary. The Son of God. Crucified and risen. For you.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.