He Gets Us: Who Did Jesus Love? | Plan 4Sample

Jesus loved his mom.

Look behind the scenes of many familiar stories about Jesus, and you’ll find Mary. Three times we have a good record of Mary and Jesus. Look closer, there she is in the most important moments of Jesus’ life.

The first—in an animal stall. She was just a teenager then—a young girl far from home in a desperate and dangerous situation. We may sing about it as a “silent night” but you can bet it wasn’t so quiet. Nor was Mary as poised and reverent as our manger scenes make her out to be. No, that night there was screaming in pain and shouting for joy, maybe at the same time. There was a mess, a bloody, human mess that just comes with natural birthing. But of all people, Mary knew this birth was far from natural or normal. No matter if anyone believed her, she knew she had not been with a man and this baby was something outside of everyone’s imagination.

She thought about these things her whole life. She knew Jesus was more than any other person. Maybe that’s why she asked him to do a miracle before he had ever done one. Perhaps it was out of love that he did it. No question he respected her. Likely Jesus learned from Mary how to honor women in the counter-cultural ways he modeled his whole life. She had been quietly shaking up people’s expectations for years.

Mary was there when Jesus entered the world; she was also there when he left. And what a fearful, dark mess that was. When all but one of his students (John) hid in fear, in all that gore and shame of this illegal execution, Mary stood close enough to the cross that she could hear Jesus whisper. What did he say? Among other things, Jesus was making arrangements for her. “Take care of her, John. Be a son to her.” In his final moments, Jesus loved on his mom.

But it wasn’t the last time she saw him. Three days later, Mary and a couple of her girlfriends showed up before dawn to where Jesus’ corpse had been taken. Everything had happened so fast that his ravaged and ruined body now needed to be properly cared for. It’s the least a mother would do.

But Jesus’ body wasn’t there. Imagine the terror that seized her. A whole lifetime of memories with Jesus led to this moment. Mary knew something bigger was going on and now this.

She was the first one on earth to know who Jesus really was. An angel told her. Her response then influenced her whole life. When the angel said God was blessing her with the privilege of being Jesus’ mother, Mary said without hesitation, “Whatever you want, Lord.” (We should learn by her example.)

No wonder Jesus loved her so much.