For Robert Stewart
As we enter Advent, we will meditate on the mystery of our Lord Jesus' birth from the blessed virgin Mary. During the 3rd and 4th centuries when the doctrine of the Holy Trinity was coming to its fullness, it became an element of common devotion for some orthodox Christians to call Mary "theotokos" - Greek for "God bearer" or "one who gives birth to God". They were more than happy to call Mary "mother of God" because they believed that the Lord Jesus Christ was the divine son of God in our flesh; the blessed virgin not only bore the savior of the world, she bore divinity in humanity.
This week I came upon an interesting commentary by John Piper (emphasis mine):
“Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” a woman cried out to Jesus. And he turned and said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:27). The mother of God is the obedient Christian—married or single! Take a deep breath and reorder your world. (By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org)
I do not want to offend my fellow Christians who have a high esteem of the blessed virgin, for I think they are right in calling her blessed. (See Mary's Song, more traditionally known in the west as Magnificat, esp. @ Luke 1:48. In an advent sermon last year, Dr. Steve Lennox said he considered it the obligation of all Christians to call the virgin Mary blessed.) However, it seems to me that if we are to take Jesus seriously, the virgin mary is no more blessed than anyone who obeys Jesus - "those who hear the word of God and keep it." To rephrase, those who keep God's message from the lips and life of Christ are just as, or perhaps even more blessed than the virgin Mary (noting Jesus' use of the word "rather").
It would be common for many of us to be sanctimoniously sentimental in our reverance for Jesus' nativity this Christmas. But if our devotion has nice thoughts for the holy family and no thought for Christ's teachings, we are of all people most to be pitied: outside of blessedness, according to Jesus. In Luke 11:27 Jesus tells us that he did not come so that his birth would be remembered fondly once a year, but so that we would obey his teaching and be born from above. Jesus cannot save us if we will not obey God's word through him. If we want the blessedness of Christmas to last year round, the solution is to obey Jesus always.
God's word to Mary was that she, a virgin, would bear the son of the most high God, who would receive an eternal kingdom. She assented, saying, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said," and so was blessed. When we kiss the feet of that same son Jesus, and agree to serve him by obeying his word, we will be blessed as well. "The mother of God is the obedient Christian." Or, the obedient Christian is more blessed than the mother of God.
So perhaps this Christmas, after (or before) we read the nativity story from Luke's gospel, we would not count ourselves blessed until we read and seek obedience to the words of Jesus that fill the rest of the gospel and bring us the salvation that was so enigmatically lauded by angelic hosts two milennia ago in a town called Bethlehem.
3 comments:
Christ our God didn't take on flesh and enter history merely to be a great teacher. Jesus Christ came to give life to mankind. He has given mankind the opportunity to become a member (not literally a finger, foot, etc., but think along those lines) of His very Body, the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, and participate with Him in Eternal Life (Life outside of time). He has given us His very own precious Body and Blood that in this Mystery we may partake of and receive Christ God Himself in the fullness of His Divine glory, but also the fullness of His perfect Humanity.
He has given us the opportunity to participate with Him in Theosis, in casting aside the sinful passions and taking on Godliness. In the second century, St. Irenaeus said "Gloria Dei vivens homo", that is: "the glory of God is man fully alive." The blessed Fr. Dumitru Staniloae, a great Romanian theologian of the 20th century, said “the glory to which man is called is that he should grow more godlike by growing ever more human”
Obedience to Christ's teachings is a very important part of living a Christian life. I am a great sinner, and I fail miserably at keeping Christ's commandments. I try my best to do better, but it is in vain without the Christ's Holy Mysteries. Even if I try my best, my righteousness is as filthy rags before the Righteous God. Approaching God in repentance and confessing my sins before Him, the tears of repentance act as a new baptism, washing my soiled baptismal garment white as snow.
There is more to Christianity than just following Christ's teachings as recorded in the Bible. Christ didn't come to give us the Bible. He didn't break into space and time to live a perfect life so that the Holy Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John would have some good material to work with when writing the Gospels. Christianity is spiritual Life, a mystery; it is not a set of teachings nor is it something that can be apprehended by human reason or his limited mental faculties. We are missing out on what Christ came to give if we are merely looking at Him as a teacher. Christ has given us the opportunity to participate in His Life, through the great Mystery of His Holy Church, so that sinners may become truly Human, and in that, divine.
Brother Brian,
What glorious truth you proclaim! I have many thanks to give you for sharing Orthodox truth with us.
Don't worry that your comment is longer than most. When I write long comments, I worry that I'm saying too much. But blogging is to be an online discussion, not an online lecture with students contributing their two cents.
I would love to continue this discussion here, friend. Let me first say that I agree with everything you said. I didn't write this post to minimalize the utmost significance of our Lord's incarnation; I meant to say that we treat Jesus' mysteries with contempt when we only look to Jesus as our priest, and not as our prophet and King. We are God's children though holy baptism, eucharist and faith, but we will not be called God's children unless we obey Jesus. If we are baptized and have faith without deeds, then we are no better than demons - indeed this was the error of Jesus' greatest opponents, the Pharisees. They were far from the kingdom of God, and the tax collector who begged for God's mercy went home justified.
Jesus, God's divine and eternal Son did not take our flesh just to deliver us spiritually or mystically. He took on our flesh to be human the right way, to be the second Adam, and succeed where the first failed. He delivered us from evil and death not only through his cross and resurrection. True, these are the primary, premier mysteries, without which we are lost. But, having been saved through these mysteries, Christ desires us to obey him. When a woman in the crowd blessed Jesus' mother just because she bore him, he disregarded such praise, and valued obedience to God through him (Jesus) rather than praise. In the same vein, "Many will come to me saying, 'Lord, Lord,' and I will tell them, 'Go away from me you doers of evil, I never knew you.'"
I will not enumerate the countless scriptures which emphasize obedience over false faith and sacrifice, pretend religion. I wanted to say this: Christ's incarnation means nothing to us if we will not listen to what he said.
I think you and I agree. We are only emphasizing different, equally important divine truths.
I briefly looked up the verse in "The Bible and Holy Fathers". It has the appointed readings for each day of the year, with a commentary from the Holy Fathers (for example: the 22nd Monday after Pentecost, etc.). I had a hard time finding commentary on that verse specifically, but I thought that the translation was interesting. Instead of "rather, blessed are...", this text said "more than this, blessed are..."
"Rather" sounds like "Mary's not blessed but my followers are" "more than that" sounds like "Mary is blessed, but so are all of my followers". Which is closer tot he original greek?
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