"A Mother’s Day Story
5-14-06
Luke 2:51; John 19:25-27
Today is Mother’s Day. I’m sure all you remembered. There is no special reference to a Mother’s Day in the Bible, so why today? In 1907, Anna Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day. Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her mother's death, the 2nd Sunday of May. By the next year, Mother's Day was also celebrated in Philadelphia. Mrs. Jarvis and her supporters began to write to ministers, businessman, and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother's Day. By 1911, Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made it official proclaiming Mother's Day as a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.
But when I study the Bible and read about mothers and families, I believe every day should be a mother’s day. Mothers are central to our very existence. They bring us life, nurture us, protect us, encourage us, and sacrifice themselves for others. They are caregivers, sources of love, our sisters, and so much more. Where do we start?
Rather than being mushy and talk about how special mothers are, I thought we would look at how we are to honor them.
For this Mother’s Day, I chose to look at Jesus and His mother, Mary, and how Jesus honored her. We know a lot about Mary’s marriage to Joseph, about her giving birth to her first child Jesus, a little about her when Jesus was 12 years old, and a little about her following Jesus’ crucifixion. But we don’t need to know anymore about her. She was a typical mother who loved her children and would have given her life for her family.
Luke 2:51
Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.
The first recorded episode of Jesus’ life took place when He was 12 years old. You know the story. He stayed behind in Jerusalem and astonished the teachers as He heard them and asked them questions. At the end of the day’s journey, Joseph and Mary realized He wasn’t with them and they had to return a day’s journey back to Jerusalem to look for Him. It took another three days to find Him and by that time, Mary was frantic. When she saw him she said, “Son, why have You done this to us? Your father and I have been looking everywhere for you.” Jesus replied, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?" It seems they didn’t understand Him, but the next thing we learn is that He went along with them and submitted himself to them and obeyed them. Jesus honored His mother.
John 19:25-27
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
In this last recorded episode of Jesus earthly life, His mother comes into focus. In His darkest hour, suffering in agony on the cross, He looked down and saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved (John) standing by, He said to His mother, "Dear woman, here is your son!" Then He said to the disciple, "Here is your mother!” And from that hour, that disciple took her to his own home. Even in the last moments of His life, when He bore the sins of the world, He took time to honor His mother. Jesus honored His mother by submitting to her in His youth even though she didn’t understand Him and He
honored her as He faced death on the cross, seeing to her welfare for the rest of her life.
How do you honor your mother? Not just on Mothers Day, but the rest of the year. How do you honor her? Do you spend time with her, talk with her on a regular basis, recognize her value and worth publicly and privately, communicate to her that she is appreciated, thank her for her prayers or the investments she made in your life. Have you made any attempt to estimate her worth and communicate that to her? May be you have opened your home to your mother because of her needs. Less than 100 years ago, over 80 percent of families had a parent living with them. Now it is less than two
percent. Have you honored your mother simply because of her God-given position as your mother? This is not an exhaustive list, but right now, would you take a moment of quiet thought and think of a couple of ways you have been honoring your mother.
Mother’s Day may be hard for some of you. Maybe your mother has already passed away, maybe you could not conceive a child, or your children don’t make any contact with you anymore. Maybe you had an unwanted child.
For some of you, it is no longer possible to show honor to your mother directly, but you can still honor her memory and you can take the lessons you’ve learned from Jesus in honoring your mother and in turn honor others.
God tells us to honor all people and learning to honor your mother is a great place to start. I believe learning to honor one another is critically important in the process we are traveling through as a church family.
You can honor God today—by honoring your mother, whether she is with you today or not, respect her, for she is a gift from God to you;
Honor God today—by honoring your mother, by being the best son or daughter you can possibly be;
Honor God today—by honoring your mother, by learning from her, listening to her, and applying it to your life.
· Without trying to reduce your mother to a commodity, try to put a price on what she has done for you. To receive from another what you have received from her, what would it cost?
· You stretched her out of shape as she carried you inside for nine months. What value would you put on that? Try to hire some attractive young woman to gain 30 lbs, tell her she’ll have difficulty getting up and down, that she’ll walk funny, and have to wear strange clothes. If you could get her to do it, what would it cost?
· What would it cost to hire someone to be on duty 7 days a week 24 hours a day to take care of your every whim, even if it was totally unreasonable, and at 3:00 am? Can you put a price on unconditional love and acceptance?
· What would it cost to hire someone to clean, prepare meals, do laundry, change diapers, get drooled on or worse, mend clothes, make beds, cut coupons, fight traffic, clean toilets, do interior decorating, bandage bumps and bruises with genuine sympathy, and have no days off? And then after years of faithful service, after never acknowledging her work, after you’ve broken her heart by your choices, after you’ve taken her for granted, after she has selflessly poured her life out for you and suffered in silence, how much would it cost to keep that person doing the same job?
For all this, most mothers I know would be glad for a simple, but sincere,
acknowledgment of there investment, “Mom, I appreciate you, I appreciate all of the love and energy and sacrifice that you have spent on me, I love you.”
A mother’s love is so special, she would lay down her very life for her children. In fact, most mothers have gone through the valley of the shadow of death many times for there children.
I hope today you will honor your mother – on this Mother’s Day. Not about frilly things, but about the type of mother who will grovel in the dust for her child, will offer her last meal in exchange for hope for her you.
I also hope today you will think about Jesus, whose love for you is greater that that of any earthly mother, who will not turn on you, reject you, or desert you in hard times. He loves you and died for you so that you may have life.