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A Marian Model

Mary's Story

What if I told you that one of my most esteemed role models got pregnant when she was a teenager — an unmarried teenager?

Had I asked you last April, it might have seemed a little shocking. But since I'm asking well into Advent, you've probably already guessed that I'm talking about Mary. (Well, Mary or Keisha Castle-Hughes.) Christmas is, of course, the time we think about Jesus … and it's maybe the time some of us think of Santa Claus … but it is also one of the seasons the Bible gives us for thinking about Mary. The fact that The Nativity Story is both in theaters and in the news only underscores the point.

This is not just the season in which we tell the story of Jesus' birth. It is also the season during which we tell the story of the annunciation — of the angel Gabriel's appearing to Mary and astounding her with really strange news. It's the season we ponder Mary's response to God. It is the season that we say with Mary those words she proclaimed in the presence of her cousin Elizabeth:

And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers" (Luke 1:46-55, NIV).

Mary: For All Christians — Not just Catholics

Of course, growing up Jewish, I didn't think much about Mary. But when I became a Christian, I was pretty excited to learn about this woman who is so important to the Christian faith. I was rather surprised that many of my evangelical friends knew as little, or even less, about Mary than I did. I figured it out pretty quickly: Some evangelicals were a little suspicious of Mary. They viewed all matters Marian as Catholic, and, frankly, worrisome.

Protestants, Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox Christians do, in fact, differ in their teachings about Mary. But saying we have different doctrines and beliefs relating to the mother of Jesus is not the same as saying that Mary doesn't, or shouldn't, play a role in Protestant spirituality.

Martin Luther, Protestantism's founding father, devoted a whole book to Mary — his 1521 Commentary on the Magnificat. Yes, Mary plays a distinct role in Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. But she rightly has a place of pride in Protestantism as well. (As an aside, I highly recommend a fascinating book I just read: Mary for Evangelicals by Tim Perry. It's pretty scholarly, but I think it would make good Christmas break reading.)

My Role Model, Mary

So, what does it mean to take Mary as one of our role models?

For starters, Mary prompts us to ask ourselves how we are expecting God to act in our own lives — and how willing we are to be interrupted when God shows up in a form that, to say the least, we aren't expecting.

I've sometimes tried to imagine how I would have responded if I were Mary and the angel Gabriel had turned up on my doorstep, bearing super-confusing (and scary) tidings.

Actually, this isn't entirely hypothetical. While it's true that no angels have ever made themselves audible to me, and certainly no angels have shown up announcing that I was going to give birth to God's baby, God has often presented Himself in my life in ways that I hadn't anticipated. Just as Mary's unexpected pregnancy was decidedly an interruption in her plans, God's appearances often seem to interrupt my carefully choreographed plans for myself.

How do I respond? I'd say I'm hovering somewhere around the Mendoza line. That is, very occasionally, I manage to accommodate myself to God's call. Far too often, I go on doing what I want to do and ignore God's sometimes very obvious word to me.

This is just one of many ways that I wish — and indeed pray — that I could be more like Mary. I wish I could receive God's holy interruptions with humility and joy.

From Manger to Cross

To take Mary as a role model also means to remember, even at Christmas, that this newborn baby was destined for the Cross. Yes, the Cross.

Admittedly, we usually associate Mary with sweet nativity scenes. We usually think of her as someone who plays a major role at the beginning of Jesus' life — and then, after she loses Him in Jerusalem and He turns up at the Temple, Mary seems to drop out of the story. Jesus' disciples — and His female followers, Mary, Martha and Mary Magdalene — seem to play a more prominent role in His adult life.

But if you read the Gospel of John carefully, you will see that Mary is with Jesus until the end: "Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene" (John 19:25).

New Testament scholar Beverly Roberts Gaventa has noted that, although John is the only Gospel writer to place Mary at the Cross, there are hints in other Gospels that Mary anticipates, and agonizes over, her Son's fate. Running through the beginning of Matthew, for example, is an "undercurrent of danger" — almost as soon as Jesus is born, His parents sense the need to protect their son from the bloodthirsty Herod.

Similarly, there are indications of anxiety and concern in Luke's Gospel. When Simeon sees the baby Jesus in the temple, he alerts Mary to Jesus' fate, proclaiming "a sword will pierce your own soul too" (2:35b).

And at the end of the infancy narrative in Luke, we read that Mary "treasured all these things in her heart" (2:51b). What does that verse mean? Not, says Gaventa, that Mary mused over her Son's childhood in a sentimental way — the way I flip though my scrapbook collection or fondly remember funny childhood stories. Rather, Luke is telling us that Mary pondered; that she reflected on Jesus' life; that she worried.

In other words, Mary is not just the kind, beatific, maternal figure we sometimes see in crèche scenes. As any mother would, Mary will share in Jesus' sufferings, perhaps more directly than any of His friends and followers. In pondering this Mary who is the suffering mother, suggests Gaventa, we Christians may find ourselves "alongside the suffering world and its vulnerable God."¹ Mary doesn't just attend to the miracle of God's being born into our humble, human world; she also witnesses Christ's sufferings.

What does it mean, then, to take Mary as our role model? It means that even now, as we are filled with good cheer, even now as we wrap presents and head home to be with family and sip eggnog, even now as we celebrate the Lord's birth, we remember that we are celebrating the birth of one who was born to die.

Mary: Again, For All Christians — Not Just Women

I've noticed that, if some of my evangelical friends are a little uncomfortable thinking about Mary, I have more liberal, even secular, friends who've embraced Mary simply because she's female. Recently, a friend who identifies as "spiritual but not religious" sent me a card that had a picture of Mary on the front. At the bottom of the card were the words, "Connecting With the Feminine Side of Spirituality."

Something about this card rubbed me the wrong way.

Don't get me wrong: It is nice, in a religion that sometimes seems a little short on pictures of faithful women, to reflect on Mary. And perhaps if I ever have children, I'll connect even more with this most important mother.

But Mary is not just a role model for Christian women — she is a role model for all Christians. Indeed, Luther, in the commentary I mentioned above, emphasizes that Mary is an exemplar, not of "feminine spirituality," but of faithfulness.²

C O F F E E  S H O P

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What does Mary's example teach us about faithfulness?

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All of us are called to be open to God's holy interruptions. All of us are called to make room, deep within ourselves, for God. All of us are called to praise the God who is already, even now, dethroning the mighty and exalting the weak. And all of us are called to welcome Jesus in the manger and abide with Him at the Cross.