A natural reaction, from one who was, perhaps, a mother herself. We do the same, extrapolating and imagining what things would be like if she or he were we or us. But Jesus disagrees. He confronts her reverie and corrects her conclusion: "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."
Is he denying Mary was privileged? That she herself would have had no wistful moments of nostalgia, remembering when her son was younger and embraced within her heart and home? Those experiences are an entirely legitimate aspect of life but they do not represent the peak. True and full human flourishing (which is what 'blessing' here means) is not found in physical proximity to Jesus or a cultural connection to him. It is found preeminently in a faith-filled obedience to God and his Word.
We're not liable to be tempted to eulogise a physical connection to Jesus such as those in his own day might have done. That option simply isn't on the table for most of us. But it remains all too possible to settle for a cultural closeness - for the outer rim of relationship with Jesus, sitting in a pool of reflected glory and being in the vicinity of his ongoing works of power and mercy and yet to be strangely inactive in our response to his Word and his call.
The life of a church, its busyness and activity. The joys of music, of evangelism, of Bible study. All are more than simply legitimate; they are gifts from God, valid and cherished channels of nearness to the Lord and of deepening in our discipleship, in our love for our Saviour. But they can also be the unwitting means of keeping our hearts at arms' length from a clear and uncluttered response to the Word of God, if we make them the aim in itself.
The point that our Lord makes in response to this woman is exemplified in the life of his mother Mary. When told astonishing news by the angel Gabriel, after asking how this all might be, she bows in acquiescing faith: "I am the Lord's servant...may your word to me be fulfilled." That faithful, obedient response is then acknowledged by her cousin Elizabeth who plainly affirms of Mary, "Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her."
Yes, as Elizabeth so clearly states, she is indeed blessed among women - her calling to bear in her womb the Son of the Most High is an unspeakable privilege, but the accent falls heavily on her humbly committed, believing response. And it's perhaps at that very point we need to allow ourselves to be confronted afresh: the route to genuine flourishing is in taking the Lord and his Word seriously, receiving it into our hearts and working it out in our lives as worship of the living God. Do we need to see, afresh, that there is a liberating joy in both hearing and doing all that he says to us?
Perhaps the enforced inactivity of these past months, certainly in terms of church activities, has allowed us to reflect on what we have made the centre-point of the Christian life and to renew our minds in the reality that it is Jesus himself and that we offer to him "our true and proper worship" (Rom. 12:1).
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Praise Him! praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!
Sing, O earth, His wonderful love proclaim!
Hail Him! hail Him! highest archangels in glory,
Strength and honour give to His holy Name.
Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard His children,
In His arms He carries them all day long;
O ye saints that dwell in the mountains of Zion,
Praise Him! praise Him! ever in joyful song.
Praise Him! praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer;
For our sins He suffered and bled and died.
He, our Rock, our hope of eternal salvation,
Hail Him! hail Him! Jesus, the crucified.
Loving Saviour, meekly enduring sorrow,
Crowned with thorns that cruelly pierced His brow;
Once for us rejected, despised, and forsaken,
Prince of glory, ever triumphant now.
Praise Him! praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer;
Heavenly portals, loud with hosannas ring!
Jesus, Saviour, reigneth for ever and ever,
Crown Him! crown Him! Prophet and Priest and King!
Death is vanquished, tell it with joy, ye faithful!
Where is now thy victory, boasting grave?
Jesus lives, no longer thy portals are cheerless;
Jesus lives, the mighty and strong to save.
(Frances Jane Van Alstyne, 1820-1915)
