By Reverend Laurie DeMott

Luke is writing a gospel not only to teach us about Jesus but also to show us what it means to follow Christ and he chooses to present as his first and fullest model of discipleship, Jesus’ mother, Mary. If you read through the other gospels, you’ll discover that most people remembered Mary as a little more complex that Luke portrays her. In the other gospels, Mary acts more like a normal mother: she sometimes bosses Jesus around, sometimes she wonders what’s gotten into her son and scolds him for his crazy behavior. I suspect that the portrait we get of Mary in the other gospels is closer to the historical woman because it would be normal for any mother to worry a little when her son decides to give up his job and tramp all over the countryside saying things that are going to provoke the anger of those in power. Luke, however, chooses to remember only her moments of dedication, showing her faithfulness from the moment Gabriel announces her pregnancy through the crucifixion and resurrection and even to Pentecost where she joins the other disciples as they are praying in an upper room. Luke wants to give us a model for our own discipleship, and let me just say as an aside that in an age when the church is still being torn apart over the question of whether women can be leaders in the church, it is frankly kind of cool that Luke goes right to Mary as a prime example of what it means to a model Christian. While Peter and James and John dither around messing up and not even managing to get to the tomb on time, Mary remains in Luke’s eyes, true through it all. “Be like her,” he tells us.

And so, if Mary is Luke’s model disciple for both men and women, we need to clear out of our heads all of the modern elaborations on her story and look at just what Luke gives us. What is it that he wants us to learn from her? If this is a story simply of God’s call and our response, then what is Mary’s response and what does it teach us?

So back to the story. When Gabriel tells Mary that she has been chosen to bear God’s son, she responds, “Let it be with me according to your word.” The Beatles made these words famous in their song, “Let it Be.” Remember those lyrics? “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, Let it be, let it be.” Because of the influence of these Beatles’ lyrics on our collective imagination, we might envision Mary standing with Gabriel, sipping celestial seasonings tea, and nodding acquiescence with a “Hey, man, whatever. Let it be.” Or because Mary is a woman, some have heard her words, “Let it be with me according to your word,” uttered demurely with downcast eyes and a proper tone of subservience. When we combine that soothing Beatles’ message with a Victorian feminine self-abasement, we end up with the idea that the slogan for good discipleship should be “Doormats for Christ.” Sacrifice and never complain, suffer with a smile, give up all of your needs for those of your children, your family, your friends, your neighbors, and those starving in Africa, saying, “Now never you mind me, I’ll get along somehow,” and great will be your reward in heaven – thank goodness, because it won’t be much of a life down here!

But when we listen to the words of Mary not through the lyrics of the Beatles but as written by Luke in the original Greek, we hear the tones of challenge implicit in Mary’s response. The Greek says literally, “Behold the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word." Behold, the servant of the Lord. Not "here I am", not "your handmaiden", but with a determined eye and a bold voice, "Behold! The servant of the Lord."

My sister once had a member of her church who was tall, broad, bearded man with a deep voice to match. Whenever he called Wendy on church business, he liked to begin his conversation with the statement, “Behold! The word of the Lord!” The word “Behold” is a tall, broad, deep word. It is a word used by angelic beings trumpeting God's proclamations. It is a word of prophets seizing the attention of their wayward people. Behold is not a mild word, nor a subservient word but a word of confident demeanor and determined intent. In the word “Behold”, we do not see Mary politely curtsey before the towering angel Gabriel offering her humble services; we hear a woman rising to a call. She has considered God's need; she has set aside her fears, and now she boldly commits herself to union with God's will. “Yes,” she answers to Gabriel's unspoken question. “Behold the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.”

In Luke’s understanding of the gospel, discipleship means responding boldly to the call of God, and we are able to respond with boldness because we can trust in God’s wisdom and ability to use whoever we are to fulfill God’s needs. Unlike Sarah who laughed at God’s announcement of her pregnancy, or Zechariah who doubted the angel’s word, Mary accepts God’s ability to use her to accomplish God’s purpose. Mary accepts that God will not ask something of her that she is incapable of doing or ask her to be someone she is incapable of being but will match her personality and her strengths with the purpose God wishes to accomplish. God used Abraham’s wander lust to bring a people to a new land; God used David’s sometimes annoying self-confidence to slay giants. God even used Paul’s prickly personality to travel through Asia Minor brashly proclaiming the gospel in places no one more sensible would ever think of going.

William Lloyd Garrison is famous for having accomplished the abolition of slavery in England but it is said that for all of his persistent and commitment to good, he could also be a man of raging anger. One day one of his best friends, Samuel May, tried to calm him down: “Garrison, my friend,” Samuel urged, “try to moderate your indignation and keep more cool. Why, you are all on fire.” Garrison replied, “Brother May, I have need to be all on fire, for I have mountains of ice around me to melt.”

God calls you and is ready to use you to heal the wounded places of the world, to bind up the broken-hearted, to pave the way for salvation. You may feel small in the world, you may be afraid or have doubts about your abilities but remember the model given to us by Mary: Be bold in the Lord. When God calls, may we be ready to say, “Behold, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.”