27 ¶And
it came to pass, as he [Jesus] 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.
28 But
he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear
the word of God, and keep it. (Luke 11:27-28)
What is going on here? Why is this woman praising the womb
that bore Jesus and the breasts that suckled Him?
I think this must have been her way of
saying, “If you are so wonderful, your mother must have been amazing, and she must be one of the
happiest of women to see how you turned out.”
Jesus briefly acknowledges that yes,
His mother is blessed, but He seems to want to emphasize the blessed state of
those that hear and obey God’s words.
I was thinking about this and I
realized that Jesus knew that not all mothers would have the blessedness of
seeing their children be good.
Some would ache over disobedient children. Some women wouldn’t get to have children at all. The blessedness of having good children
is unstable because after all the teaching and nurturing, it is dependent upon
a child’s agency.
On the other hand, blessedness that
comes from one’s own good choices and one’s own agency is more in one’s own
control.
Jesus wasn’t denying the satisfaction
from raising children who make good choices, but He wanted mothers (and
fathers) to remember their own good choices could bring them happiness and they
had control over that.
I hope I can remember that when I have children.
0 comments:
Post a Comment