Sunday, August 15, 2021

Without Equal. . .

Luther said a whole lot more about the Blessed Virgin Mary than we typically do today as Lutherans.  It is a sad reflection not only of our fears but also of what we have lost in our appreciation for her role in God's plan of salvation and her example of faith and humility.  We are bereft of good examples in the faith today and too many of us have no role models from Scripture or the history of the Church to help us contrast good piety and faith from the world's heroes of media, fame, money, and sports.

Read Luther's commentary on the Magnificat.  That ought to open a few eyes.  Luther addresses how we should and should not honor this “Most Blessed Virgin Mother” from the vantage point of her own words.  There is no need to add to the honor God gives to us but neither dare we depreciate “her unique place in the whole of mankind, among which she has no equal” as the Theotokos, the Mother of God. The Lutheran Confessions (Article XXI of the Augsburg Confession and Apology) give a threefold outline for how Christians may appropriately honor Blessed Mary and all other saints.

We are reminded that the Blessed Virgin Mother lays no claim to honor except the honor God has given to her as His handmaiden and servant.  God chose her because she was a woman of faith and that faith is evident in her consent to His will.  Her blessedness flows not from her personal holiness but from God's abundant grace and because God placed on her the honor of being mother to His Son. As Luther puts it:  “She does not say men shall speak all manner of good of her, praise her virtues, exalt her virginity or her humility, or sing of what she has done. But for this one thing alone, that God regarded her, will men call her blessed. [She] lays claim to nothing and counts only Him as great.”  He is not afraid to admit the ancient title accorded her of “Queen of Heaven” and calls it a “true enough name,” while cautioning us not to magnify her place beyond what God has and she has sung.  Like the Spirit, she points us not to herself but to Christ.

In the early Church, there was no excessive devotion to the Virgin Mary like that of later times. There was, instead, the rightful honor bestowed upon Mary’s role in the salvation narrative and the symbol of her as the “new Eve,” whose faithful obedience to the angel’s message was a counterpoint to Eve’s disobedience.  Interest in Mary grew as conflict over Jesus was encountered.  The Church had to confront heretical views of Jesus, specifically of His two natures, and so with the 3rd Ecumenical Council, at Ephesus in 431, the place and role Mary was very much on the agenda. Was she just the mother of the human Jesus, or the very Mother of God (Theotokos, God-bearer), like any human mother or unique among women? The Church came down solidly on the latter interpretation.  To call Mary the Mother of God was not only thoroughly biblical but critical to the faithful confession of Christ. 

Devotional piety to the Virgin Mary grew faster than the theology but by the Middle Ages the teaching began to catch up with that piety.  Blessed Mary was often contrasted with a more somber image of Christ, the stern and foreboding Judge and thus she became a refuge for the fearful and a means of convincing the unwilling Son of God to be more merciful and compassionate.  After the Council of Trent the rosary added “pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death,” as Roman Catholics pray to this day.   Eventually such titles as Co-Redemptrix, her immaculate conception without sin, and her bodily assumption (August 15) to avoid mortal decay developed.

Our focus lies with Blessed Mary's own words in the Magnificat, her example of faith and obedience, and her pondering of the great mystery of the child in her womb who was Son of God and Savior of the world (including herself!).  Among the last things Scripture records of her are her words in John 2:5 ("Do whatever He tells you") and the example of our Lord's devotion in commending her to the care of St. John from the very cross (John 19:216-27).  It would be foolish to ignore the devotion of Jesus in the last moments of His life and now ignore her whom God chose to be the Mother of His Son.  It would actually be worse than foolish.  It is an affront to God Himself.  We confess that Mary is the first true Christian who heard the Gospel and believed it from the Angel of the Lord, that she is our model of faith and obedience still, and that she has the highest place of honor apart from Christ Himself.  We call her blessed because God did.  He hailed her as one full of grace and as the angel promised, "The Lord is with you."

So, on this day when we remember, give thanks for, and seek to emulate the faith of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it might be good to ponder a question.  Can we afford to be less Lutheran than Luther in the honor we accord her?  Or, by our refusal to admit such honor as God has bestowed, are we in danger of also dishonoring Christ as well?  For the Lutheran way is to look at both Mary and Christ together and not to separate them.  In this, we are exactly following the example of our Lord and His Word.  In iconography,  the Blessed Virgin is pictured this way -- almost always with her Son!

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