Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

We Protestants seem to be more uncomfortable with Mary the mother of Jesus than centrist Republicans are with Sarah Palin.  We cannot criticize her because that would be risky, but we certainly cannot praise her because that is too close to worship.

Okay, so the comparison breaks down pretty quickly.

But it seems to be the case that we talk to each other about Mary at very specific times and in very specific ways.  We use carefully chose words so as not to cross the imaginary line between “respect” and “worship”.  I read a blog post from a sincere and well-meaning Baptist pastor (I am presuming that he is) about Mary.  He asserts that we should “venerate (or worship) her but that we should hold her memory in great honor” (sic).  This view is not dissimilar from what many of my fellow-traveler evangelicals would also hold.  But it seems to me that a confusion reigns in the minds and hearts of Protestants over this Mary enigma.  Perhaps some discussion is in order.

In the first place, what is the difference between “honor” and “venerate”.  Several versions of a typical thesaurus list them as synonyms, close cousins with “revere”, “cherish”, and such.  What practical difference is there for the believer?

In the second place, why the cautionary tone?  About what are Protestants in a dither?  Perhaps a little reflection on the Great Commandments might be in order.  The LORD gave Israel Torah.  Prominent in Torah are the Ten Commandments, of which we find the first:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  You shall have no other gods before me.

Exodus 20:2-3

Jesus taught that the Shema captured the Greatest Commandment:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Deuteronomy 6:3-4

So, an aversion to false worship is well grounded in our Hebrew roots heritage, and also affirmed by our LORD Himself (Matthew 22:36-40).  And if someone were to worship the created thing (that is, Mary) rather than the Creator (the Almighty One) he would be engaged in false worship (perhaps it could be called “idolatry”, but this would be a loose definition).

But what then do we make of Mary?  How should we regard her, if we want to give her the respect, honor, veneration, etc. she is due, without veering into idolatry?

The reasons for giving this consideration are significant.  Firstly, she is the very model of the humble follower: “I am the LORD’s servant.  May your word to me be fulfilled,” she said, foreshadowing her son’s words in the Garden (“not my will, but Yours be done”).  Her character and submission are exemplary for all Christians since then.

Perhaps most obviously, she is the very first human to be “Christ-bearer”, a calling we are all asked to undertake.  Hers is a literal bearing of the Messiah.  And as such, she is Mother of God. 

This one, I think, gives us Protestants some trouble.  “Wait a minute, Dysmas,” they might say to me.  “Nobody gives birth to God.  He is the uncreated one who existed before all things.”  To which I will answer: was Jesus not born?  And is Jesus not God?  “But Dysmas, she gave birth to his human nature only.”  And I will reply, humbly but firmly, mothers do not give birth to natures.  They give birth to children.  Is Jesus fully God and fully man?  (This was settled way, way back in church history at the Council of Ephesus – yes, THAT Ephesus – when Nestorius’s heresy was refuted.)  Mary is the Mother of God, a role she took on and carried willingly and humbly, perhaps even with the knowledge that He was born to die (Luke 2:35).

So, how then shall we live (with regard to our treatment of Mary)?  I agree with the blog writer who says we should honor her (without the Protestant condescension which seems typical).  And as “honor” and “revere” are really the same, I am going to go so far as to say I will revere her.

After all, Elizabeth gave us the model, when – filled with the Holy Spirit – she proclaimed upon greeting the God-bearing Mary: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”