This blog is about “admiring Christ.” I hope that’s obvious
by now. So I’m not usually interested in a negative slant. I simply want to
talk about the greatness and glory of our Savior.
But in this post I want to recognize a competing and
counterfeit admiration—for Jesus’ own mother. Some people worship Mary. I don’t just
mean that she is honored as a godly role model. Some people actually worship her.
I was reading the story of a church planting missionary to
Mexico. He and his wife were sight-seeing in a little Mexican town, trying to
get acquainted with the culture. They visited a church in the town square, and were
shocked to find a huge, 30-foot statue of Mary suspended over the sanctuary.
Below Mary stood a much smaller image of Jesus Christ. Literally and
figuratively, that church honored Mary above Jesus.
What was Jesus’ attitude toward worship of His mother?
There’s no doubt that Christ loved her. Even on the cross, He was concerned for her and entrusted her
to the care of His apostle (John 19:27). But what about revering her? What
about worshiping her, as a “co-redemptrix?”
The Lord Jesus actually spoke to this question. Once as He was teaching a crowd, a woman who seemed enamored of Mary cried out, “Blessed is the
womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed” (Luke 11:27).
If ever there was an opportunity for Jesus to lift up the
status of His mother, to exalt her and commend her to worship, this was it. He
could easily have agreed with the woman and said, “You’re right! My mother is
indeed blessed, and you would do well to worship her just as you worship Me.”
Here’s what He actually said, in a gentle rebuke of the lady
who “blessed” Mary: Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep
it. Luke 11:28.
God will not share His glory (Isaiah 42:8). Worship is
reserved for Him alone. And the people Jesus reveres are those who hear and
obey God’s holy word.
