A Mother's Perspective

In my Mother’s Day message, I observed that most scholars don’t believe that Mary was yet a disciple of Jesus when she and her other sons came to visit Jesus in Mark 3:31-35. Yet Doris Maruna posed the question to me, “Given her experience, how could Mary not have believed that in the extraordinary nature of her son?” Doris makes the rightful point that if she had already observed Jesus turning water into wine at Cana of Galilee, it would seem very unlikely that she would be embarrassed or antagonistic toward Jesus at this point in his ministry.

So why would Mary and her other sons have come to visit Jesus? Doris suggests that Mary brought her younger sons to see for themselves that Jesus was the Messiah. We know that Jesus was known to say, “Come and you will see” (John 1:39), so it is not so far-fetched to imagine that Mary might have said the same thing on this occasion. “Come and see Jesus in action and decide for yourself!” Mary, who had observed many miraculous events surrounding her eldest son, may have been working to introduce the rest of her sons to the same truths.

One of the challenges of studying the Gospels is that very little is said about the characters’ motivations or states of mind. All we are told is what they said and did. Obviously most biblical commentators are men, meaning they cannot bring a mother’s perspective to the Scriptures. Neither can I! I am grateful to Doris for providing that valuable point of view!

Blessings, peace, and joy,

Pastor Thomas

And here is the rest of it.