Mary's Agony

I have been reading The Crown and the Fire by N. T. Wright in my personal preparation for Easter. Today he discussed the agony Mary endured as the mother of Jesus. In her was the Messiah and the hope for Israel. Jesus was to be Israel's rescuer and victorious conqueror. He fulfilled, however, few of the Jews' expectations as Messiah. He associated with people of disrepute and confronted the scribes and Pharisees who were just trying to uphold the law. Now she finds herself at the foot of a cross watching her hopes and dreams and future of a nation being ridiculed, spit on, abused, and murdered. Surely, this was not the way it was intended to be.

The pain and agony, though, was not an indication that something had gone terribly wrong. "We are called to be the bearers of God-in-Christ to his world, pondering in our hearts the mysteries we do not yet understand, seeking him in and through our own sorrow, ready to search for our Lord wherever he may be found, whether discussing with the learned, partying with the riffraff, or dying with the outcasts" (Wright 1992, 16). So we continue to walk in obedience even when we do not understand.

I will close with the prayer written at the end of this section in the book:

“Almighty God, by the agony of Mary teach us to see your hand at work not only in our joy, but in our pain; not only in our victories, but in our defeats; not only in our strength, but in our weakness; not only in our hopes, but in our disappointments; not only in our lives, but in our deaths; that we may believe in your love revealed on Calvary, and believing, may know your peace which passes understanding: through Jesus Christ, your crucified Son, our Lord. Amen.”
(Wright, N. T., The Crown and the Fire, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1992, p. 16).

Pastor Gary