Scottish Baptist Lay Preachers Association

Jim McNulty (Perth) & Committee member

Her testimony has been spoiled. Not by anything she has said. Not by anything she has done. Not even by her attitude or demeanour. Her testimony has been spoiled by what others have attributed to her after her death.

Poor Mary!

Someone has said, “You could copy on one side of an A4 sheet everything there is to know about Mary in the New Testament.” You can, I have done it. (How sad is that!). Mary is continuously reinvented in each age. People keep changing and adding new and unjustified attributes to her to fit their own circumstances. With each new incarnation, the old is not thrown away but simply added on to what was there previously. Her testimony has been spoiled.

Let’s get the negative stuff out of the way. There is no scriptural justification for the belief that Mary was a co-redeemer with her son or that she can be a co-mediator to allow men and women to approach God the Father. There is one mediator, her son, Jesus Christ. There is no back door into heaven via Mary or anyone else. The only way is through her son Jesus.

There is much to be positive about Mary. An article in a magazine caught my attention, “MARY ONE OF HISTORY’S TOP EVANGELISTS”.  This article proclaimed that, “the Magnificat is a model for preaching and witness because it contains the four elements that are at the heart of all faithful preaching and witness: praise, judgement, mercy, hope.” Read it and you will find it to be true. Mary was one of the last Old Testament prophetesses speaking to her times after that long 400 year prophetic gap.

God chose Mary for her special task because she already knew Him and His Word and was willing to lay the whole of her life open to Him. In the heart of Mary, God saw someone who would respond in faith & love to His calling. Scripture calls Mary “blessed” and in Luke we read that others said referring to her son, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth & nursed you.” What was Mary’s response? She replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God & obey it.” It was Mary’s obedience, not only her childbearing which gained her blessing from God.

We think of Mary at the cradle and perhaps even at the cross but we cannot leave her at either of these. We also read in Acts that she was present at Pentecost with the early disciples. Someone noticing this proclaimed that Mary, “The Old Testament prophetess had become the New Testament Charismatic!” She was now a follower of her Son who had become her Saviour.

Mary’s testimony is clear. She knew God and was willing to put her trust in Him and obey Him. We have much to learn from this lady who gave her all in commitment and trust to the God she loved. Let us learn from Mary as we hear her words of testimony, “I am your servant. Do what you want with me.”