What else do we know about Mary?

Besides the information already revealed here about Mary what else does Scripture say? 

In Mark we see Jesus healing and crowds of both the relentless apostate religious rulers and leaders and the regular people many wanting to be healed. And it becomes overwhelming at one point. 

This is knowledge that comes back to His family - comes back to His family. They’re in Nazareth; they’re just not a long walk away, and they are beginning to be concerned about Him. Probably Mary is concerned about Him. His half-brothers and half-sisters, who were the children of Joseph and Mary, they’re concerned about Him.

And so, it tells us, in verse 21, “When His own people heard” – when His own people, literally a preposition phrase “when those of His,” generally referring to family. “When His family heard, they went out to take custody of Him.” The verb for custody is a verb that means to seize. It’s used 15 times in the Gospel of Mark, 8 of those times of seizing Jesus, including arresting Him. It’s also used of the seizure of job when He was taken and imprisoned to be beheaded.

They really wanted to go and rescue Him and seize Him. If you will, kind of arrest Him and get Him away from the threatening crowd. They were convinced that He had brought it upon Himself, for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.” What did the family think of Jesus? They think He’s a lunatic. That’s not very good thinking. Did Mary think that? Of course not. Mary knew exactly who He was. The angel told her before He was born. Right? He’d be the Son of the Most High, the holy child. She knew she was a virgin. She knew He was her Savior; that’s her Magnificat. She knew. But Mary pondered all these things, kept them in her heart. And whatever she might have said to the rest of the kids who were born to Joseph and Mary, they didn’t believe it. Surely somewhere along the line, Mary had said to them, “By the way, your brother, whom you think so odd, is in fact God.” The holy child. And Joseph, your father, was not His father. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. They didn’t believe it; they didn’t buy it.

John chapter 7, verse 5, says they didn’t believe in Him. They were not believing in Him. You can just imagine what family life was like with a perfect child in the mix. A perfect child would be alienated, ostracized, labeled odd, strange. Because He was perfect - not in the sense of just innocent, but perfect in the sense of being righteous - every comment He ever made would be perfect; every response would be perfect. Something none of you parents have ever even come close to experiencing. Every reaction to what anybody did would be perfect. Everything would be exactly the right thing to do, and do it in the right way, with absolutely the right attitude. That would be a formula for complete alienation from a pile of sinful siblings.

He drew no attention to Himself, in those 30 years He grew up in Nazareth, with those half-brothers and sisters. Joseph now is dead. In the 30 years that Jesus was growing up, before He began His ministry, others were born. New Testament tells us He had brothers and sisters. And in Mark chapter 6, it even names some of them. Verse 3 of chapter 6, it says that, “He’s the son of Mary, and the brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So much for the perpetual virginity of Mary. Mary was not a perpetual virgin. She and Joseph had a whole family full of children. The New Testament is crystal clear about that.

And growing up with Him, they would have seen His perfection. It would be inescapable. But He doesn’t really – as He’s growing up, doesn’t act in godlike ways. That is He doesn’t create anything. He doesn’t go into the shop, where they’re making a table, and saying, “The easy way to do this is ‘Table!’” He doesn’t do that. He doesn’t hold classes; He doesn’t teach theology.

And so, I think the best that could be said was the family probably thought of Him – at least the siblings – as odd. They definitely did not believe in Him. Scripture makes it clear, John 7:5, they were not believing in Him.

And now, this very odd child, this child with whom they cannot relate, to whom they cannot connect, the one who’s very presence sat in righteous judgment on every childlike sin they ever committed, has gone over the edge. He has now lost His mind. He is now declaring Himself to be God. He is now proclaiming that He has supernatural powers, and He’s going to get Himself killed because He’s literally creating a stampede coming right at Him.

And so, they decide maybe the best thing to do is to rescue Him. To rescue Him before what's going on costs Him His life or, for that matter, brings further embarrassment on the family. 

His family came to seize Him, to rescue him. They show up at the end of the chapter in verse 31. 

So, His mother and His brothers arrived and were standing outside. They sent word to Him and called Him. Where he’s inside the house and He’s surrounded by the crowd. And verse 32 says, “A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, ‘Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.’”

Answering them, He said, ‘Who are My mother and My brothers?’” Wow. He accepted the interruption. I don’t know what He was saying at the time; we don’t know, but He accepted the interruption. He could take any interruption and turn it into a critical lesson, couldn’t He? He begins with a question, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” Well, He’s not saying, “I don’t know My family.” Of course He knows His family. He knows exactly, from a human standpoint, who His mother is. And He knows exactly who His brothers and sisters are. Nor is He showing disdain toward them on a human level. It isn’t that He is unloving toward Mary. After all, when He was hanging on the cross, according to John chapter 19, He saw Mary. Do you remember when He was hanging on the cross, and He looked to John, and He said, “Behold, your mother”? And He looked to Mary and said, “Behold, your son.” And He committed His mother, in a loving act of care, into the protective care of John. He loved her right down to the very moment of His own death, when He was preoccupied with making sure that He was cared for. And that is not an issue. But maybe He didn’t love His siblings? Oh, He loved them, too. In fact, He loved them right into His kingdom. Hmm? Because in Acts chapter 1, verse 14, when the believers were gathered in the upper room, on the Day of Pentecost, it says, verse 14, “Mary was there with His brothers.” And it may even include His sisters. Did He love them? Sure, He loved them enough to save them. He loved them enough to draw them to Himself.

In verse 34, He answers His own question, “Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, ‘Behold My mother and My brothers!’” – all of you who believe in Me - “‘For whoever does the will of God, he’s My brother and sister and mother.’”

Jesus didn’t single out Mary. Far from it. He said, in effect, that relationship isn’t important. That relationship doesn’t matter. The relationship that matters is the relationship of obedience to the will of my Father.

In Luke 11, Jesus is speaking about issues regarding demons and following up that other conversation with the Pharisees about Him being Beelzebul. And in verse 27, “While Jesus is talking about this, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed. Blessed is Your mother.’” That was a very kind gesture on her part, wasn’t it? That was the Jewish way of giving honor to Him and to His uniquely privileged mother, kind of a Jewish expression.

What His response? Verse 28, “On the contrary” – on the contrary – “blessed are those who hear the Word of God and obey it.” The only relationship with Jesus that matters is the relationship of one who obeys the Word of God. Who obeys the will of God as expressed in the Word of God, and therefore obeys the Gospel of Christ. “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him, believe in Him, confess Him as Lord.”

Well, back to verse 34, “Behold My mother and My brothers!” And who does Jesus say those ones are? “Whoever does the will of God, He is My brother and sister and mother.”

How do we know the will of God? By reading and knowing the Bible. What is the ultimate will of God? For humans to obey the Gospel. In Mark 1:15 Jesus said, repent and believe the gospel. 

So what do we learn about Mary here? 

> That Jesus was not linked to connected to Mary. In fact when he came of age at 12 he really had nothing to do with her, as he is about his Father's business. 

> That Jesus didn't accept her help when she and her sons and daughters came to try to rescue him. 

> Even though she was his mother, she called him her Savior, and was a believer who was also in the upper room, and she and his brothers and sisters were saved and joined other believers in Heaven once they died. 

> That he said she isnt his mother or brothers and his focus was on the eternal and spiritual sense.

> That he did not accept the Jewish woman's praise towards Mary, and instead pointed to God.

> Jesus focus and pointed to people following the Will of God and not putting any weight or focus on his earthly mother or his siblings. 

> That Jesus did his final "child duty" to care and provide for her according to Jewish Law by giving her to John at the crucifixion [She was now John's mother and John would provide for her]. She was no longer Jesus mother. 

* There is nothing that Roman Catholicism claims is "special" about Mary in Scripture. It is all bogus & used to deceive people. 

*Mary herself knew she was a sinner who needed a Savior. She stated this in Luke 1:46-47

"And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour."- Luke 1:46-47 KJV

"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"- 1 Timothy 2:5 KJV

"And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it."- Luke 11:27-28 KJV

Mary, like all married women back then, had sex with their husband and no married person was a virgin forever. They had other children. Scripture tells us of his brothers and sisters. And some went on to believe in Jesus and write NT books. 

In the very beginning of the Gospels, the first one in fact, God clearly tells us Matt 1:24-25 that Joseph married her and did not have sex with her *until* Jesus was born. Indicating they *did* have normal marital sexual relations. They were a normal married couple. Just like Christians today who marry and have intimacy; the two being one flesh. 

Note about what happened to his brothers in Scripture...they went on to write books in the Bible and started them by saying they were slaves of Christ. That He was the Savior and they served Him for who he really was - God in the flesh.

So you need to decide if you are going to follow God or religion. Catholicism or Christ. You cannot serve both. Follow the truth or lies. 

I do hope you turn to the true Jesus and submit to the True Word of God found in the 66 books of Scripture and hold to it alone as the authority in your life for it is directly from God and no one can supercede nor change God's Word. 

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