There is a strong streak of Protestant distaste when it comes to questions of Mary the Mother of Jesus. The strength of the Marion cult which emerged in the 11th and 12th centuries, not incidentally when some of the first courtly romance ballads appeared, can be a problem for taking Mary’s role seriously.

Too much talk about Mary can result in concerns about ‘worshipping’ Mary. Equally problematic has been the rise in the appropriation of Mary by pagan spirituality as a form of divine feminine. Both Marian devotion and pagan superstition miss the point.

Mary is part of a uniquely female prophetic tradition in the Bible that is deeply radical and apocalyptic. The role of Mary in the life of Jesus is also significant for how we conceive of the incarnation itself.

This post helps place Mary in her radical prophetic tradition and grounds our approach in the theology of Christology.

Biblical Mothers as Prophetic Agents

Sarah, the Mother of Isaac

The story of Abraham and Isaac is the foundation story for God’s plan of salvation for the world. Through Abraham, God establishes a covenant that will lead to the salvation and redemption of the entire world, not only Abraham’s biological descendants. But while people think of Abraham as the father of many nations, it is easy to forget that it is through Sarah that this will be made true.

When God wanted to establish the foundation stone of God’s kingdom in the world, God chose a woman who could not have children. But through the Spirit of God, she was able to bear a child.

Unfortunately, in a mirror of Eve, Sarah lacked the faith to trust in God’s act and so tried to take matters into her own hand. But that was not the last word. Sarah did trust God, and Sarah gave birth to Isaac, through whom God’s plan would unfold.

Without Sarah, God’s plan would have needed to work in a different way.

The Wife of Monoah, Mother of Samson

In Judges 13, we discover that a man named Moanoah, from Zorah, from the tribe of Dan, had a wife who was barren and unable to give birth. But God sent an angel to tell Moanah’s wife that they would have a son who would be special. Their son was to be dedicated as a Nazirite, someone who never cut their hair, never ate meat, and never drank alcohol.

The Spirit of God was at work in Samson for the sake of God’s people.

There was a need for someone to enact God’s plans. God chose a woman who couldn’t have children. She believed and had faith. Through her, God sent a man filled with the Spirit of God who brought safety and security to God’s people and allowed the promise of the covenant to continue through the generations.

Without Samson’s mother, the people of Israel would have been destroyed by the Philistines, and God’s plan would have needed to work in a different way.

Hannah, Mother of Samuel

Hannah was a woman who could not have children, who was loved by her husband, but her husband’s other wife ridiculed and mocked her because she was barren. She begged and prayed for God to give her a child to the extent that the priest thought that she was drunk.

But because of her faith, God gave her a child. A child who was to be raised as a Nazirite. A child who would become one of the most important prophets in the nation of Israel, who anointed Saul but, more importantly, chose and anointed David. King David, who became the model of the Messianic King, and in whose line Jesus would one day be born.

Without Hannah’s faith and devotion, God would have needed to work in a different way.

But there is more. With Hannah, we see the pattern of the story change. In 1 Samuel 2, she sings a prophetic song in response to God’s work. She prophecies that the mighty will be broken and the feeble made strong, that the full will work for food while the hungry will have more than they need to eat, that God will make the poor rich and raise the needy up from the ash heap.

Hannah prophecies the topsy-turvy, radically inverted kingdom of God that will change the entire world. It is revolutionary. It is sung by a mother filled with the power of God, a mother who is the agent of God’s kingdom.

Elizabeth, Mother of John the Baptist

Two descendants of Aaron, Zechariah and Elizabeth, were righteous in the eyes of God but Elizabeth was unable to have children. But God answered their prayer and gave them a son whose birth would lead many to rejoice. John was to be raised as a Nazirite, just as Samson and Samuel were.

But where in the story of Abraham, it was Sarah who showed a lack of faith, here it was Zechariah who lacked faith. Because of his doubt, he was struck silent until John’s birth.

Elizabeth did not sing, but she uttered prophetic words when meeting her relative Mary. John danced in Elizabeth’s womb at the presence of the quickening baby in Mary’s womb.

She said the words which have been prayed for a thousand years: blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Elizabeth is the first person to proclaim Jesus as Lord, and to recognise Mary’s role as the mother of her Lord.

John went on to make clear the path, fulfilling the prophecies of Isaiah, and recognising his ‘cousin’ as the coming Messiah. He was martyred for his faith, but he was central to God’s plan.

Without Elizabeth, God would have needed to work in a different way.

Mary, Mother of God

Then of course there is Mary. A young girl from a backwater part of the world. A nobody. God did not choose a princess or a priestess but a peasant. But through her the salvation of the entire world was brought forth. She was young, all the other women were old or barren. She displayed her faith, Sarah failed in her faith. She was a highly favoured woman, full of grace, with whom the Lord dwelled.

Through Mary, God became human and took on flesh. Took on her flesh. Her child. Her baby boy grew up to die for the sake of all humanity. Without Mary, everything would be different. Her entire life was a prophetic witness to the love of God for humanity. In how she raised Jesus, took care of him, taught him, and prepared him for ministry. In how she stayed with him through his suffering and crucifixion. In these things, Mary was the final prophet of God’s kingdom.

Without Mary, who knows what God would have done?

Jesus – Human and Divine and Had a Mummy

According to Christian orthodoxy, Jesus was truly and properly God, and truly and properly Human. Jesus was not 50% human and 50% God. Jesus was not a mix of human and god like making some kind of divine smoothie.

Jesus was 100% God and 100% Human. Two natures, united in One person, Jesus. It is not that there was the human ‘Jesus’ and the God ‘Christ’ as some popular books like to think. The Divine and Human natures were united in one Person, Jesus. There was only Jesus – not the God bit and the Human bit – just Jesus, true God and true Human.

This means that when Jesus was in Mary’s womb, he was also both human and divine. Jesus did not become God at some point later in his life. His baptism did not suddenly incarnate him. Jesus was true God and true Human from the point of his conception. Mary bore within her womb God’s being. And, as orthodox Christian belief holds to be true, the trinitarian God is united in nature.

So Jesus is not one fragment of God but all of God. So Mary carried God in her womb. God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, God the creator and preserver of the universe.

Mary Mother of God

This means that when we talk about Mary, we are talking about the Mother of God. She did not create God. Jesus was begotten, not created. But, she did conceive, carry, give birth, and mother God.

I cannot begin to understand what it would have been like for Mary. To parent God. To raise Jesus. To have angels and wise men and shepherds and prophets and priests all attend to you and honour you and your child.

Mary is not someone to be worshipped, or someone to be prayed to. She has no special powers, no authority over the world or in heaven. But she is deserving of honour and respect. She is unique in the entire history of the world, no one has ever been in her position.

She was the inheritor of a prophetic tradition of women through whom God changed the world. Women who couldn’t have children but through whom a child came who changed the world. Women who uttered prophetic words of promise and hope for God’s revolutionary kingdom. Women whose faith, whose willingness to say yes, changed everything.

The Significance of Yes

This is perhaps the most amazing and honourable thing which can be attributed to Mary. What if she had said no to God? What if she had said, I don’t want this to happen? Did Mary have a choice? Mary had to have a choice in the matter. God would not compel or force Mary into pregnancy. Mary could have said no, just as Jesus could have said no in the garden of Gethsemane. They both act according to their nature, to be faithful to God.

Mary’s yes is absolutely at the heart of what it means to follow Jesus, to be a loyal disciple of God. It means even when everything seems lost, when things seem confused and uncertain, when the future is unknown and beyond belief, we maintain our faith in who God is and that the promises of God will be kept.

When God asks us to serve, to go where God wants us to God, or do something that God has asked us to do, will we say yes? Will we be faithful like Mary was faithful, or will we walk away and say no?

The Radical Mary

With Mary’s yes, we see a mirror of Hannah’s story. Hannah sang a song prophesying the coming Kingdom of God and what that would look like. After meeting her relative Elizabeth and having the identity of her unborn child confirmed, Mary sings a prophetic song as well. A song that is almost exactly the same as the one that Hannah sang. A song equally radical, equally revolutionary, a song that promised what God’s kingdom would look like.

In God’s coming kingdom, which would be brought into existence through her child, the proud will be scattered, rulers will be cast down from their thrones while the humble are lifted up. The hungry are filled with good things while the rich are sent away hungry.

The values and systems and structures of the world will be turned upside down in God’s kingdom. Everything is going to change. Nothing will stay the same. God is king now, Jesus has taken up his throne. Mary’s prophecies are going to come true because of her child. Because of her yes.

Conclusion

There is so much we can learn from Mary and from the prophetic tradition of the mothers of Israel. To trust God’s promises and that God will be faithful to what God says. To ask for what we need in prayer. To trust where God is leading us, even if we don’t know what that will look like. To say yes and trust in faith that God will add God’s yes to ours. Perhaps we need to spend a bit more time thinking about the Mother of God and learning from her life and legacy.

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