Mary’s Influence on Jesus

Honor your father and mother (this is the first commandment with a promise).Eph.  6:2

A Tribute to Mothers

Yesterday we focused on the tenacious love of mothers. Mothers also need to be saluted for the tremendous impact that they have had on the lives of each and every one of us.

Mary’s Influence on Jesus
I am totally convinced that the person who influenced Jesus the most, second only to God, was Mary. That is not to diminish Joseph's role. Had he lived, I like to think that he would have been on Cavalry's Hill standing right next to Mary. But very clearly Mary's role in God's plan did not end at the birth of Jesus. God used her, along with other persons and events, to help mold the personality and ministry of Jesus.

Listen to how John begins the 2nd chapter of his Gospel. "The mother of Jesus was there." The event that he was specifically referring to was the wedding in Cana of Galilee. Yet, in a real sense, Mary was always there for Jesus. Her love surrounded him, her values influenced him, her trust supported him. And the last thought that Jesus had on the cross, with the sin of the world upon his shoulder, was for his mother. He looked at John the disciple and said: Behold thy mother. And then he looked at Mary and said: Behold thy son.

That same type of influence can be seen in other individuals. Many scholars have concluded that you cannot really understand John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, unless you understand his mother Susanna Wesley. She was so instrumental in his life that she inevitably affected the movement and its direction. Americans know that Abraham Lincoln led this nation through perhaps its time of greatest crisis; but who was it that made Abraham Lincoln the man that he was? I know what Lincoln thought. He said it was his mother.

I would suggest to you that there is not a person that in one, five, ten, a thousand different ways has not been forever influenced by their mother. I firmly believe that you cannot understand who a person is and what motivates them until you understand their past. And you cannot understand a person's past without understanding the source that co-created that person along with God-their parents.

Mothers should be saluted because where they are, is where home is.
A minister was visiting a family who had just moved to Memphis from Baltimore, Maryland. The minister asked the man if he was originally from Baltimore and he said: No, family transferred around quite frequently and there is really no one place that I can say was home. The he said something I shall never forget. He said: I suppose that wherever mother was that is where home was.

Wherever mother is that is where home is. Maybe a lot of us can identify with that. A house is a physical place. A home is where our loved ones are gathered.  Wherever I wander; wherever I roam; wherever mother is; there is home.

It is appropriate that we single out a day in the year to recognize mothers, but when we really think about it, there ought not to be a day that goes by that we do not rise up and call our mother blessed. The highest tribute that we can give to our mothers is not to praise her, not to give her a gift, not to pay a visit, and not even simply to come to church on her day. The greatest tribute that we can give to our mother is to be the kind of person that she, and our Heavenly Father, want us to be.

Scripture to Claim: My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.  Proverbs 6:20