Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin. For our Catholic and Orthodox brethren this day celebrates the Assumption (or Dormition) of St. Mary the mother of our Lord. At this point many of our evangelical readers have closed the article and have moved on. For those who haven’t I’d encourage you to keep reading. Mary plays a crucial role in God’s plan of salvation and for that reason, we would benefit from pondering the faith of this Galilean peasant girl who became the most famous woman in world history.
While the Bible does not record what happened to Mary after the early days of the Church, tradition tells us that she was either taken to heaven before death (the Catholic belief), similar to Enoch and Elijah or her body was taken to heaven and not allowed to decay (the Orthodox belief). It stands to reason that one of these is likely the case because there is no known tomb of Mary anywhere in the world. If there were, there would almost certainly be a shrine dedicated to her at her tomb, as there are countless other saints throughout church history. Yet that is not the point that we are here to argue today. Instead, on this Feast Day of St. Mary the Virgin, let us ponder her faith and seek to emulate it.
St. Mary is rightly called the Mother of God at the Council of Ephesus in 431AD. This likely causes many evangelicals to pause. Yet it is absolutely correct. Mary is not the Mother of God in that she created God, that would be impossible. She is the Mother of God, however, in that she gave birth to Jesus, the second member of the Trinity. As the Nicene Creed states “For us men and for our salvation he [Jesus] came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” Jesus has always been God, the second member of the Trinity, but he received his humanity and “took on flesh” from his mother Mary. For this reason, Mary is not just an accident of history or an “empty vessel” through which Jesus could come to earth. No, she plays a crucial role in the plan of salvation and rightly deserves honor for her faith and obedience to God’s will.
The Gospel of Luke records that after the angel Gabriel appears to her to tell her that she will give birth to the Messiah her response is awe inspiring, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38, ESV). She then goes on to pray one of the most beautiful prayers in history known as the Magnificat recorded in Luke 1:46-55. You are likely familiar with this prayer, or at least parts of it. Often it is used at Christmas. Mary begins her prayer, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46-47). She goes on to praise the Lord for bringing salvation to his people through the Messiah. In the moment Mary does not fully understand the implications of her task, and the great sorrow she will experience when her son is beaten, whipped, and crucified. Yet she knows enough to pray, “For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:48).
If you’ve hung around long enough to still be reading, I hope you have gotten a taste of why St. Mary is crucial for not only our salvation, but our spiritual formation. Through her faith and obedience came Jesus, our Messiah, who would give his life as a ransom for many, and rise again victorious on the third day. Through his divinity and humanity, he would be the perfect sacrifice for fallen humanity. He would rightly become the second Adam, as St. Paul so beautifully expounds in his letter to the Romans (see Romans 5). As through one man, Adam we all die, and through one man, Jesus (the New Adam), we all have life. All of this is made possible through the obedience of one Galilean girl, Mary.
On this, her feast day, may we emulate the simplicity of her faith. Her deep trust in the Lord is almost childlike. Although she did not fully know the full meaning of her decision to follow the Lord, she knew that she could trust the God who had always come through for his people. Through faith in her Son, our Lord Jesus, we too can look forward to the day when we will be called home to spend eternity with the family of God. As we reflect on St. Mary the Virgin today, let us ponder this Collect (prayer) and reading from Scripture.
Collect (Prayer) of the Day
O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (taken from the Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
Bible Reading
Luke 1:26-38 (ESV)
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
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