Luke 10:38-42, 11:27-28, 2024/10/13, Osaka Church
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit
The Gospel for the Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos is a little unusual. First of all, the story itself is not about the Theotokos. Mary appears, but it is a different Mary. Moreover, two separate passages from the Gospel of Luke are joined together. One is the famous story of “Martha and Mary.” Martha and Mary welcomed Jesus as a guest. However, Martha, the older sister, is growing increasingly angry at her younger sister Mary and complains to Jesus: “I’m so busy serving you, but Mary is sitting at your feet pretending not to notice and is engrossed in talking to you. Doesn’t that bother you?” Jesus probably smiled gently and said, “Martha, you try to do everything, this and that, without leaving anything out, so you miss out on one important thing. Mary has chosen that one important thing. Please do not get in her way, and watch over her.”
Then in the Gospel translated by the Japanese Orthodox Church, we jump three pages further.
The woman who heard the words of the Lord’s admonition to Martha cried out, “Blessed is your mother, Mary, the womb that bore you and the milk that nursed you.” Jesus’ answer was, “More than that, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.”
“She who hears the word of God and keeps it.” Here, not only is his own mother Mary overlapping with Martha’s sister Mary, who is at his feet and listening intently. The Lord’s gaze extends to all who hear the word of God and keep it. To the woman who exclaimed, “How blessed,” and to those who were with her, and to all of us who are listening to this Gospel here and now, I say, “Yes, you are blessed; rejoice in this blessing that you are in grace, and listen more to the word of God, keep it, and enter into more happiness and more joy…”
The very beginning of this overflowing blessing that will reach the whole world was the obedience of the Theotokos Mary to God’s will, as revealed by the angel Gabriel, “Congratulations, you will give birth to a son who will be called the Son of the Most High.” However, even though she was obedient, she did not submit in fear and trembling. Her agreement to “let it be according to your word” was not immediate after receiving Gabriel’s words, but after “thinking about it.” This is important. Mary was not unilaterally “mobilized” by God without any say or answer, as a kind of “borrowed womb” to give birth to God’s Son. God suggested to Mary, “What would you like to do?” He “offered” her. The “Most High One” who created the world asked one of His creatures, a woman who was merely His “handmaid,” what she wanted. This means that the same “blessing” overflows from Mary and is given to each and every one of us. God knows our sinfulness well, but He sees us as people who “listen to God’s word and keep it,” and He offers us, “Would you like to receive my grace and enter into my joy?” God is not commanding us, but suggesting, “What would you like to do?” That is how much God loves us!
When the woman exclaimed, “Blessed is your mother,” God praised all of us as human beings by saying what he did. We must understand that what was possible for Mary is possible for us as good news. If Mary accepted God’s offer and gave birth to the “Son of God,” then we too can become like God throughout our lives by continuing to obediently accept the suggestions God graciously offers us at each stage of our lives. In other words, we can “give birth to God” just like Mary.