A Mother's Faith

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Mother's Day, Sunday, the 14th of May, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

I’ll return to our letters from the Apostle Peter next week, but today is a very special day that celebrates very special people so I’d like to talk about a very special kind of faith – a mother’s faith.

That word “faith” plays so many roles in any person’s life, but especially in that of a mother who is also a follower of Christ Jesus.  She is given faith by God to believe in Jesus.  She has faith in God and Jesus, and is faithful to them.  She has faith in her child, that the child will grow and flourish, and will also follow the path Jesus laid for us.  And perhaps most of all, she is faithful to her child, providing for their needs, helping them learn what they must know, giving them nourishment for both body and spirit, preparing them for this life and the next.

All of us have or have had a mother, even Jesus.  She may not have been with us for very long, she may not have been what some would consider the greatest mother, she may not even have been the woman who gave birth to us, but each mother has a definite and strong impact and influence on her child’s life.

I also consider mothers to be a gift of God.  They are the foundation of the human race, after all, for without mothers, there’d be no children and no children means no more people after a while.  Either that, or God would have to keep making us out of dirt and spit.

Fathers may be great protectors and providers, traditionally speaking, but it’s our mothers who bring us to life and nourish us.  And in some cases, our mothers can be pretty good protectors, too.

There was this one mother, long ago, doing everything she could to protect her daughter.  She even went so far as to approach someone she shouldn’t have, desperate for help.  Please listen and follow along to a time when Jesus may have tested this mother’s faith, as recounted in the 7th chapter of the Apostle Mark’s Gospel account, in verses 24 through 30, and I’ll be reading from The Living Bible this morning…

24 Then Jesus left Galilee and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon, and tried to keep it a secret that He was there, but couldn’t. For as usual the news of His arrival spread fast.

25 Right away a woman came to Him whose little girl was possessed by a demon. She had heard about Jesus and now she came and fell at His feet, 26 and pled with Him to release her child from the demon’s control. (But she was Syrophoenician — a “despised Gentile”!)

27 Jesus told her, “First I should help My own family — the Jews. It isn’t right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

28 She replied, “That’s true, Sir, but even the puppies under the table are given some scraps from the children’s plates.”

29 “Good!” He said. “You have answered well — so well that I have healed your little girl. Go on home, for the demon has left her!”

30 And when she arrived home, her little girl was lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone.

--Mark 7:24-30 (TLB)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for our mothers.  You created the family unit so that we could be nourished and protected as we grow.  You gave us a place to belong, a place where we are loved.  Thank You, Father, for loving us this much and caring about our welfare.  Thank You for touching mothers with Your love so they can share it with us.  Sadly, though, Father, there are some mothers who probably shouldn’t be, who aren’t capable of taking on the huge responsibility of motherhood.  And there are some of us children who rebel against our families, even our mothers, turning our backs on the one place we should feel loved.  Please forgive us these lapses, Father.  Forgive us when we don’t accept and cherish the gift you have given us.  Show us what family really means, to You and to us.  Remind us that You chose us to be part of Your family, too.  And Father, please protect us from Satan, who tries to turn us from our families and rob us of our faith.  Please shield us from those who are so willing to help him in this endeavor.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe in the days ahead.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Watch over all mothers that still live with us in this life, and smile on those who are with You now, in heaven.  Help us to always feel their love in our hearts.  This we pray in the precious name of Christ Jesus, our risen Lord.   Amen.

I can't take credit for this, and sadly I don't know who to give credit to, but this came to light on Mother's Day in 1989:

This is a Mother's Day sermon.  I’m preaching without apology and with appreciation for that time-honored institution without the benefit of which we wouldn’t be here!  As ministers, we’re reminded not to get too sentimental about motherhood because for some, motherhood is an accident, and not always a welcome one; for some, biological motherhood isn’t possible; for some, mothers weren’t all that nice; and for some, motherhood under the very best of circumstances is still less than a bed of roses and a primrose path.  If I can take some liberties with poet Wilhelm Busch’s words, I’d have to say: “To become a mother is not so difficult; on the other hand, being a mother is very much so!"

So, with all those qualifications, why bother with Mothers’ Day at all?  I’ll tell you why — because for all its stumbling blocks, pitfalls and broken dreams, for all the soiled diapers, soiled wallpaper, and spoiled plans, we’re talking about a beautiful ideal, a natural part of God’s creative plan to bring love and caring to light.  Motherhood is a constant demand for the gift of love and caring.

That preacher made some very good points, right?  It can be quite tricky to celebrate Mother’s Day, and maybe especially in a Sunday message.  Not all mothers are good at the role.  Not all wanted it in the first place.  Some left us all too soon and raising the subject once a year only brings the pain to the surface yet again.  And then we have the current culture, which is working against God to make it easier and more attractive for a mother to reject her role entirely, and for children to ignore their mothers.

But without mothers, we wouldn’t be here.  And case studies through the years have shown that without the touch of a mother, or a mother-figure, a child can not properly develop.  We need that love, that loving touch, that loving presence.

And this is why God gave us mothers.  Yes, the job is tough and comes with great demands.  But the good ones carry on and do whatever it takes.

Now, I think we can all agree that Jesus knew what God had in mind when He created motherhood.  And I’m sure He knew what this particular mother was all about when she approached Him.  Maybe He was just tired – He was human, and we do grow weary at times.  And after all, He had come to this region of Tyre and Sidon in secret, hoping maybe to get away from it all and rest up some.

Of course that didn’t work, since He was followed everywhere He went.  Word quickly spread anytime He and His disciples went from one place to another.  His reputation as a great healer was well known, even outside the traditionally Jewish lands, even among the Gentiles.

This woman was proof of that.  She was a Gentile – a “despised” Gentile according to Mark – and yet she had already heard about Jesus and learned He was entering her village.  Her daughter was sick.

We aren’t told what was wrong other than that she was possessed by a demon, an evil spirit.  Nor do we know what the demon was doing to the little girl, or what it was making her do.  We don’t even know if there was a father in the picture anywhere.  All we know is that this mother was very deeply concerned about her daughter’s well-being.  She cared enough to risk approaching this Jewish healer to plead with Him to release the girl from the demon’s control, to rid her of the evil spirit.

But Jesus’ response seems quite out of character for Him, sounding a bit harsh and uncaring.  “My first duty is to helping the Jews, not to give what they need to people who are no more than dogs to them.”  Immediately, this conjures up the vision of taking a well-prepared meal and tossing it out the door to the dogs.  I’m sure a cartoonist of our day would have drawn it up like that.

To her credit, the woman didn’t appear to take offense at this, what to us would be an obvious insult.  Instead she countered that, yes, it’s true one shouldn’t give the children’s meal to the dogs.  But it’s also true that the dogs scamper around under the table licking up the crumbs that drop to the floor, and are often given the uneaten scraps from the children’s plates.  This is all she’s asking for – just a little morsel, a crumb, a scrap of Jesus’ healing power for the sake of her daughter.

What Jesus says next is why I think He was testing her faith just a bit.  “Good!  You answered well.”

It would have been easy for her to smart off at Jesus for effectively calling her and her daughter dogs.  She could have gotten mad and screamed and raised a fuss.  Or she could have simply taken the insult as befitting her place in His society, turned around, and walked away.  But instead, she showed her faith – the faith in Jesus that He could heal her daughter, and faithfulness to her daughter to do whatever it might take to make her better.  And immediately the little girl was healed and the demon vanquished.

There are many more instances in our Gospel accounts where Jesus interacted with mothers, including His own.  One of my favorites was at the wedding feast in Cana, when Mary told Jesus that the feast manager had run out of wine and needed help.  Jesus replied, “What has that got to do with Me?”, and she quickly set him straight on that point.

It didn’t matter that Jesus was the Almighty God in human flesh – His mother had the last word, and she made it His business.  So He did what she wanted Him to do without another word.

There’s one other time when some mothers tried to approach Jesus, even when they were told not to, and again they did it for their children’s sake.  This comes a little further into Mark’s Gospel account, from verses 13 through 16 in chapter 10…

13 Once when some mothers were bringing their children to Jesus to bless them, the disciples shooed them away, telling them not to bother Him.

14 But when Jesus saw what was happening He was very much displeased with His disciples and said to them, “Let the children come to Me, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as they. Don’t send them away! 15 I tell you as seriously as I know how that anyone who refuses to come to God as a little child will never be allowed into His Kingdom.”

16 Then He took the children into His arms and placed His hands on their heads and He blessed them.

--Mark 10:13-16 (TLB)

We are to come to God as if we were innocent children, cleaned of our sin by the blood of Jesus, empty of pride and self-importance, filled with the Holy Spirit.  Just as the woman in our reading had the faith to approach Jesus, we have the faith to approach God through Jesus.  And like that mother and these other mothers, we should let nothing stop us, let nothing get in our way.

We are God’s children and He loves us and wants us to come to Him as children.  And He loves us so much that He gave us mothers, who love us with His love during our life on earth.  So let us celebrate our mothers today.  Let us thank those still with us for giving of themselves for us.  And those who have already gone home before us, let us hold them close in our hearts.  Let’s show them all our love, today and every day.  For they are a gift from God.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You again for our mothers.  Only a mother knows exactly how much they do for us, how much of themselves they give for us.  Like You, Father, they love us even when we are unlovable.  Thank You, Father, for infusing Your love in them.  Thank You most of all for letting us feel Your love through them.  Forgive us, please Father, when we are rebellious children.  Forgive us when we do what we know we should not do, and for when we don’t do what we should.  Forgive us of our times of disobedience to our mothers; forgive us of our times of disobedience to You.  Please, loving Father, help us remember to honor and respect our mothers while they live, and to honor their memory after they have departed this life.  Help us hold them in our hearts.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, a mother came to You seeking help for her child, and You tested her faith and her faithfulness.  She was persistent and passed Your test, and You rid her daughter of the evil spirit.  I wonder, Jesus, how often do You test us?  How often do we pass, or fail?  Thank You for Your faithfulness to us, Lord Jesus.  Thank You for healing us where we need it the most – in our spirits.  Lord, please rid us of the demons that wreck our lives.  Please help us be ever faithful to You.  And help us be faithful to our mothers, or to their memory.  Remind us of the great sacrifice You made, and the sacrifices they made just for us.  

And Jesus, please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us remain trusting and obedient no matter what we go through.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.