Shawn Moynihan - Mary of Nazareth - Class 5 - Mary's Trials

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   This is day five of the 2025 Palm Springs Bible School. Our first period teacher is Brother Sean Moynihan. His general subject is Mary of Nazareth. Today’s topic is Mary’s trials Brother Sean. Good morning brothers and sisters.

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   Today we’re going to speak about Mary’s four sword wounds. Now, we’ve discussed other wounds this week, haven’t we? Like the wound when Jesus, friends and neighbors tried to kill him and Nazareth. But this morning we’re going to focus on four. And the first is the murder of Bethlehem and the surrounding region’s children.

3. 0:48

   And then we’re going to take a look at when Jesus was quote, UN quote, lost in the temple. Then we’ll take a look at when Jesus was estranged from his half brothers and the family conflict that that caused, the anguish that it caused for Mary. And lastly, we’ll look at Mary at the foot of the cross.

4. 1:17

   Now, where do we take this sword wound idea? Well, of course we know whether it is right from Simeon when Jesus is presented at the temple. And Luke 2 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. So he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when his parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word.

5. 1:58

   From my eyes I’ve seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and glory of your people Israel. And Joseph and his mother Marvel did those things which were spoken of him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, He stopped. And he said to Mary, Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against.

6. 2:33

   Yes, a sword will Pierce through your own soul. Also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. What a powerful paradox. In the midst of celebrating God’s blessing, God’s greatest blessing, he turns to Mary and he says you will be wounded. You’ll be wounded by a sword of war. It’s a paradox, isn’t it?

7. 3:01

   But we understand this paradox. Berkeley, not to be confused with Eidersheim, totally different guy. Berkeley writes in the Gospel of Luke about the paradox of blessedness. He writes to Mary was granted the blessedness of being the mother of the Son of God. And yet that very blessedness was to be a sword that pierced her heart. That very glory was to break her heart. She was blessed, and that very blessedness meant that someday she would see that son of hers hanging on a cross. To be chosen by God so often means at one and the same time, a crown of joy and a cross of sorrow. And we know that, don’t we, brothers and sisters in our own lives.

8. 3:45

   And we we take comfort in the fact that these trials, these sorrows are always purposeful. We read in Peter and this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory. At the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not yet seen you love, though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. So Mary had a unique paradox, didn’t she? As we discussed yesterday, Jesus was the Son of her womb, but He was also her Lord.

9. 4:44

   And that was a challenge for her to separate those things and Jesus was helpful to her in reminding her about those separation. Remember in Luke 11 we read and it happened as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast which nursed you.

10. 5:04

    But He said more than that, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. So what did Simeon say to Mary? Well, in the disciples little New Testament, it really comes across. Indeed, a sword from Thea will Pierce the soul of you yourself. The Greek uses a tautology there, right? A repetition for emphasis.

11. 5:31

    And this is not the usual word for sword, makyra from Thea. It’s a sword of war, and this is an example of what it looked like now. It’s a weapon of war that created a warrior’s wound because Mary was a spiritual warrior. And I wonder if Mary’s biblical mind, because we know it was her habit of mine to turn things over in her mind if she thought of how that word was used in Zechariah 13 Awake, O sword against my shepherd, against the man who is my companion, says the Lord of hosts.

12. 6:09

    Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. And we know, of course, brothers and sisters, that that pertains to Jesus because he quotes it in Mark 14. So being a mother is like being a warrior. And we have an example of that in in Judges. In Judges 5 from the New century version, there were no warriors in Israel until I, Deborah arose, until I arose to be a mother in Israel. And the new English translation renders that warriors were scarce.

13. 6:43

    They were scarce in Israel until you arose, Deborah, until you arose as a motherly protector in Israel. So Mary was a warrior mom. And the most important of all battles, the spiritual battle that God had instituted, Brother Thomas and Elpas Israel writes, God instituted war when he put enmity between the serpent and the woman.

14. 7:10

    And you know, throughout our classes, we’ve seen how connected Mary is to the promises in Genesis. Now, is brother Jason here? Brother Jason? I’m a little bit nervous. I teach a class for brother Jason. He’s a principal. I don’t know if this is a performance evaluation. I’m not sure. Try to pay attention or at least seem like it. OK, in case he’s lucky.

15. 7:35

    So if I were to say that to Jason, what is the essential warrior attribute in Hebrew? He would say Chael, valor. How’d they do on the pronunciation? Very good Chael. Sarah Fisher writes that over and over. Chael is represented as someone in God’s army. It is translated as violent warriors, capable men, strong and powerful, great army, mighty soldiers. It’s a force, and that’s the word that’s used in Proverbs. The virtuous woman is a woman of Chaal, and Mary was a woman of Chaal.

16. 8:19

    And we see that this word is connected to all these Old Testament people and places and prophecies that are so closely, closely connected to Mary. We see it in Ruth. We see it especially related to Ruth slash Rachel in Ephratha and of course, in Proverbs. Now we want to take a look too, because there was another person at the temple and her name was Anna. She was a continuing presence at the temple. She did not depart from the temple. We read, and one can speculate, did Mary have an existing relationship with Anna through Elizabeth? You know, I think we can infer that, yes, that would make sense.

17. 9:08

    And it’s very interesting what Anna does. She spoke when she, when the Messiah became apparent. She spoke of him to all those who looked for redemption in Israel. So people knew who Anna was. She was a fixture at the temple. She was there all the time and she was spreading the good news about what had happened.

18. 9:32

    So she was doing that. The shepherds were doing that because we read in Luke 217. Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told to them concerning His child. And as I said, these are the special shepherds, the shepherds that were going every day with the temple sheep to the temple. So why didn’t Herod know about Jesus and Herod? As we know, Herod the Great was the most paranoid ruler in history, which is a high bar.

19. 10:09

    Herod’s paranoia, Norman Gelb writes, was deeply embedded as he graduated to greater positions of power, his insecurity expanded and deepened. When as king, he was persuaded by backbiting siblings to doubt the faithfulness of his adored wife, he had her killed. The sons executed may or may not have been conspiring against their father, but the mere suspicion that they were assured their elimination. So this paranoid Herod whose palace was over on the left side of the screen, the temple on the right side of the screen, he was unaware for the 1st at least the first two years of Jesus life that there had been one born King of the Jews. The only explanation for this I think is found in Psalm 34 where we read the Angel of the Lord in camps all around those who fear him and delivers them.

20. 11:08

    And there’s a special context for that, for that Psalm. Remember it was David in the court of a king who was jealous. It wasn’t it wasn’t Saul, it was it was a Kish right, but Saul was jealous too. But Psalm 34 is is is that the Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him.

21. 11:35

    And so that’s what happened for the first two years that that I believe God had provided a sanctuary for Mary and Joseph and Jesus to get started. But that was to end. We read in Matthew 2. Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all her regions who were two years old and under, according to the time he had determined from the wise men.

22. 12:05

    I’m going to let that murderous fact sink in and we’ll come back to it. So to be safe, the Angel directed Joseph to seek refuge in Egypt. And of course, this was to fulfill prophecy. So I believe that Joseph and Mary and Jesus went to Alexandria. According to tradition, they went down into the delta. Further down, I believe they went to Alexandria. There was a huge Jewish population in Alexandria. It would make sense that they would be able to blend in there. So they go there to fulfill prophecy. But one of the things that we know is that there was a communications pipeline between Alexandria, Alexandria and Jerusalem.

23. 12:53

    So Mary in safety would have heard about the murder of the children. And we know how Mary felt about that. Brother Robertson, as she visited, does an amazing job of of kind of extrapolating on how she would have felt Rachel weeping for her children, he writes. Thereupon a rose, a whale rarely heard upon earth, the whale of a multitude of bereaved mothers.

24. 13:30

    It is impossible to conceive a cuter natural agony than inflicted on the mothers of Bethlehem. As no human affection is stronger than that of a mother for her child, so no suffering could be greater than that caused by this cruel slaughter. Many have been the efforts of the pencil to depict the scene, various, the success tragic enough, all but doubtless none of them coming up to the reality. It is one of the most harrowing episodes in the story of human suffering.

25. 14:03

    A long, dark, dreadful story. Remember, Simeon said for a sign which will be spoken against. How can we understand the impact on Bethlehem and the regions around?

26. 14:25

    How can we understand the impact on Mary who knew these families who for two years went to synagogue, went to the well? We know how important community was to Mary.

27. 14:42

    Mary knew these families. Mary knew these children, in fact, because of David’s house living there, she was probably distantly related to many of them.

28. 14:58

    So we asked God why in situations like this. And we won’t know until by grace we’re in His Kingdom. But we know this, like Abraham said, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And we take comfort in that. And brothers and sisters, Kyle gave Mary the courage to act in faith even when she was hurting at the most profound level.

29. 15:23

    And out of this tragedy comes hope, the understanding of Mary as a new spiritual Rachel for a new spiritual Israel. Now we see in Route 4 from the Wickliffe translation that the people around Bethlehem said to Ruth, may the Lord make this woman who enter thy house like Rachel, who built the House of Israel, and may she be an example of what of Kyle in Ephrata. And of course that word is very key because it’s connected to the birth.

30. 16:01

    So David Fletcher writes that in Matthew, Rachel is a symbolic figure for the suffering mother, in this case the suffering Jewish mother. And Rachel’s pain for the dead children is also symbolic for the suffering of Mary in relation to her illustrious son. So Mary becomes the new Rachel. That’s something that we had kind of previewed at the cross right when we talked about that in Matthew 2.

31. 16:26

    We read then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying a voice was heard in Rama, lamentation, weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more. So the connection of Rama is is also connected to all those Old Testament things that are so kind of interwoven into our understanding of Mary, the idea of Deborah and of course Hannah.

32. 16:58

    It’s close to Efrata Bethlehem that Rachel dies in childbirth. And so here we see the thoughts of Mary and her feelings about the murder of so many children that that she would have known so well weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted. And so we see her as the new Rachel. We have the literal and the figurative. So we talked about this at the at the cross woman. Behold thy son and John taking Mary into his home. So literally, It’s interesting.

33. 17:33

    John already has a mother who’s Mary’s sister Salome. Mary has other children to take care of her. At that time they were doubting, but they soon became believers like James. But Jesus explicitly creates this new relationship, establishing Mary truly as a figurative new Rachel. So figuratively, Jesus creates this new spiritual family relationship.

34. 18:03

    Mary is a mother to a new Israel under a new covenant and she becomes Israel’s mother. It’s kind of interesting. Brother Thomas recognized this in in 1853, he writes. Rachel, being the constitutional matriarch of Israel, is the mother of the tribes according to the adoption pertaining to Israel. So we see the types here.

35. 18:26

    And of course, Joseph is such a powerful type of Christ. Joseph, Christ the first born, and Benjamin and John the second born. She’ll call his name. Joseph and the Lord add to me another son. Of course another son is added. Benjamin and John are the second born. Both are beloved. Both are born out of sorrow. Of course, the initial name was Ben Onai, the son of sorrow. Mary had her new son added in her sorrow at the foot of the cross.

36. 19:05

    So even out of unspeakable tragedy, there’s hope as Rachel has a new role and a new community. So let’s go to the other example of in his father’s house at age 12. So brother Lane Rittenmeier talks about this, right? That that would have been going down to become the son of the commandment, to become an adult, practically speaking, in that culture.

37. 19:35

    So this happens. And of course it came about that after three days they found him in the temple. It you know, they looked they couldn’t find Jesus when they returned home and his mother said to him, Child, why did you? And this is from the disciples little new translation. Child, why did you do us like this?

38. 19:56

    Behold, your father and I were looking for you while suffering pain. And he said to them, why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in the things of my father? And they did not understand the thing which he spoke to them. Mounts translates it.

39. 20:11

    Child, why did you treat us like this? Look, your father and I have been terribly worried trying to find you. OK. Now, Sister Kathy and I were blessed with four kids. Have you have you ever misplaced one of your kids?

40. 20:31

    You know, it’s kind of like what they what they said to Daniel Boone. They asked Daniel Boone if he’d ever been lost and he said no. But I was a Mike bewildered for three days once. So I can remember 1 occasion coming back from a Bible school. Our oldest was 12 and we stopped at one of those big malls on the way back.

41. 20:52

    And so we said to Brayden, I want you back by this time. You can go afternoon, but I want you back by this time. And because we’re teachers, we said, and what time do are you going to be back? I’m going to be back at this time, dad. So he’s not back. He’s not back in 10 minutes. He’s not back in 20 minutes.

42. 21:15

    He’s not back in an hour. He’s not back in an hour and 15 minutes. So we start looking for him and people start helping us look for him. And finally I see him and I have this picture of him in my mind that I’ll never lose. He’s ambling along. He’s got his baseball hat on, he’s got a red check shirt that’s open and Michigan State Spartans basketball shirt there.

43. 21:45

    And I didn’t know whether to kiss him or kill him. Think of Mary’s anguish. Think of Mary’s anguish. Think of the great mission that she had with the Son of God.

44. 22:07

    Indeed, the sword pierced her. And again, three days. Three days. See, all these clues are helping Mary along the way. Understand that she needs to separate herself from the Mother role and become a disciple. 3 days. The wedding at Cana. Three days here, 3 days in the tomb, and you see the force of Mary’s personality just jump off the page, don’t you?

45. 22:33

    Because Joseph doesn’t speak, Mary does. And Mary blames Jesus for hurting her and Joseph and Jesus rebukes her. Why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I would have to be in my father’s house? Notice that he doesn’t address Mary’s hurt feelings, and he establishes the Father as a priority. It’s quite intentional.

46. 23:04

    Your father and I sought the sorrowing, Jesus said. I was in my father’s house, in my father’s things. So we know that Mary thought about this, and we know that Mary thought about her unique discipleship challenge, Brother Khan Mitsos writes. Mary had a natural relationship with Jesus by virtue of being his mother.

47. 23:30

    Mary had a religious relationship with Jesus by virtue of them both being Israelites under the Law of Moses. However, like the nation, Mary needed to transcend the natural and the social and develop a true and spiritual relationship with Jesus based on the New Covenant. And there are some interesting parallels that we’re going to take a look at now.

48. 23:48

    We know Mary was a thinker. She thought about things deeply, and this is one of the things she thought about. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them. And his mother treasured all that was said in her heart. She thought about these things.

49. 24:11

    You know where else that word appears in the Septuagint? It appears here when they’re trying to make sense of Joseph’s dream. When he told his father and his brothers, his father criticized him by asking, what’s this dream that you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers come and bow down in front of you?

50. 24:34

    So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept thinking about these things. So I’m sure, I’m sure that this type and anti type are coming together in Mary’s mind. She’s trying to make sense of what God requires of her.

51. 24:56

    The next sword wound that I’d like to take a look at is I have become a stranger to my brothers and an alien to my mother’s children because zeal for your house has eaten me up. It seems like from the record in John that the first sign done at the wedding and then Jesus and his family and his disciples went to Capernaum and things were great.

52. 25:21

    Everyone was on board. And then he goes S for the first cleansing of the temple. And I would suggest to you, brothers and sisters, that that’s when his brothers start to peel away. We know this, right? I’ve become a stranger to my brothers and an alien to my mother’s children, because zeal for your house has eaten me up.

53. 25:42

    And of course, that last part of that verse is quoted at the cleansing of the temple. John 217 Then his disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your house has eaten me up. But you notice it doesn’t say I’ve become a stranger to my mother. No, because Mary always believed.

54. 26:05

    Now we have the great examples of this strife between the brothers and Jesus. This recorded for us in Matthew 12 and in Mark 3 and in Luke 8. So we see that the purpose of the visit is in Mark 321. But when his own people, that literally means the people from beside Jesus heard about this.

55. 26:28

    They went out to lay hold on him, for they said he is out of his mind. That’s a horrible translation. That word’s used 21 times. It’s only twice translated this way. It literally means knocked from standing. It doesn’t mean that he’s unwell or unstable. Basically, they thought that he was working himself to death and they needed to kind of intervene, not because he was out of his mind, but because he was just working himself past exhaustion.

56. 26:57

    So as you know, they go and they they try and see him. Mary goes with the brothers. Mary’s there for a different reason. Mary is there because she still feels like she needs to keep her sons safe.

57. 27:14

    Mary was trying to do God’s will by keeping Jesus safe. Because we know the record tells us that the Pharisees and Herodians were plotting to destroy Jesus already. They were plotting to kill him. We know that the crowds were so out of control that Jesus was almost trampled. We read in verse 9 and we know that Jesus literally didn’t have time to eat. He was so busy.

58. 27:42

    I think that’s the one that really got married. As a mom, you’re not eating. She need to go there. But when Jesus refuses to see Mary, he’s telling her that you want to do God’s will. Do God’s will by letting go. Isn’t that a hard lesson for us to learn? That sometimes doing God’s will is letting go?

59. 28:10

    He’s being silent and trusting. That’s hard, isn’t it? That’s a hard lesson. And so we see the rich type and anti type of Joseph and his brothers and Jesus and his brothers. He is beloved of his Father just as Joseph, the mother, Rachel, and we have the new Rachel. Of course they’re half brothers. And then we see jealousy and a lack of action puts their brother in life threatening danger. And we read in John 7 in such a sad passage, starting in verse one, the Jews sought to kill him. That’s why he wasn’t going to Judea. His brothers said to him, depart from here and going to Judea, that your disciples may see the works that you were doing. For no one does anything in secret, while he, he himself seeks to be known openly.

60. 29:05

    If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For even his brothers did not believe in him. Their jealousy was putting his life in danger, just as the jealousy of Joseph’s brothers put his life in danger.

61. 29:24

    Now Mary has to make a sacrifice. We know how much Mary loved God’s Word. How much do you think that she wanted to go with Jesus during his ministry? More than anything, But Mary’s sacrifice was to stay at home. We know that women travelled with Jesus as his disciples. We know that that’s recorded throughout his ministry, even at the end.

62. 30:00

    We know that Mary’s sister was one of those people who could do that. And Mary’s sacrifice was to stay at home at a time when she would have loved to be with Jesus, to hear his teaching. Oh how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day. And she would have loved to hear Jesus speak about and embodied God’s Word, but she had to stay at home to keep the family together.

63. 30:29

    So after the accounts that we just talked about, Mary is absent from the gospel record until the cross. Blessed is she who believed, right? Elizabeth said that, and it’s a characteristic of Mary throughout her life. And so as we talked about last day, she started to understand very early that Jesus was the Lamb of God, right? We talked about yesterday how it was common practice to keep the Passover lamb in the Manger, and that’s where Jesus was. We talked about the role of the shepherds and things like that very early John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God.

64. 31:18

    And Mary’s deep biblical mind would have gone to all those passages in Isaiah, passages like he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And there was a progression that Mary understood. Rejected by his closest friends and family at Nazareth, where they sought to kill him.

65. 31:39

    Rejected by the larger community and finally to the cross. And she would have understood the cross. Mary knew what lifted up meant. And again, I think she would have made some connections to Isaiah. The verse right after this talks about how Jesus was so beat up on the cross. And here we see in 13.

66. 32:07

    See, my servant will act wisely. He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. When Jesus talked about lifted up, I think Mary went here because Jesus and Mary were very familiar with crucifixion, because Romans had a habit of lining highways with crucified people.

67. 32:33

    In fact, it’s it’s likely that when Jesus and Joseph and Mary returned from Egypt and went up to Nazareth, there was a great rebellion that happened and and Sepphoris what has in the process of being destroyed and then rebuilt. But they would have probably been arriving back in Galilee at the very time that Veras, who put down the rebellion in a cruel way, put a line of crosses, hundreds of crosses on the the Wiameras, the road that they would have taken to go back to Nazareth. Blessed is she who believed, you know, Jesus. It wasn’t a mystery to the 12 what was going to happen, right? He says at about least three times after Peter’s great confession that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

68. 33:32

    Jesus is clear what’s going to happen to him. Similarly after the transgression, sorry, after the transfiguration, clear about that. And as he set his face towards Jerusalem, he’s equally clear about what will happen to him. And isn’t it interesting that the 12 were afraid even to talk about it, but Mary had the kale like Mary of Bethany to believe in Jesus.

69. 34:03

    Clear teaching about his death because as our brother has alluded to in earlier classes, Mary was Abraham’s daughter. We know that that triumphant note in her song to Abraham and to his seed forever. And she was his daughter. And just like Abraham did when she’s tested, when those sword wounds were piercing her, she concluded that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. So let’s take a look at Mary at the cross. Every week Jesus parents went to Jerusalem for Passover. So what did Passover week in Jerusalem look like? Well, this was the crown of joy, right? Great celebration.

70. 34:50

    And it would have been triumphant. Mary would have been in the audience as she saw people acclaim her son as the son of David. We will give to him the throne of his father. David cleanses the temple and and children are claiming again the Son of David. He teaches in the temple and Jesus silences the rulers with a question about the Son of David.

71. 35:24

    And then we see the cross of sorrow. Jesus last Passover isn’t with his natural family, is it? It’s with his spiritual family. His natural family was full of strife at that time. And Mary’s early Mary’s earliest fears that the rulers like Herod would plot to seize and kill Jesus. She’s seen that play out in front of her and all betray her son.

72. 35:58

    See, Mary’s life like ours, we have things that prepare us for other things, and the betrayal at the synagogue in Nazareth prepared her for being in the audience and hearing his blood be on us and on our children. She would have seen him bear his cross, the petabulum from the Antonio Fortress to Gogotha.

73. 36:33

    Brother Andrew Walker notes that it was a tremendous act of courage even to attend a crucifixion. If you are in any way empathetic towards the person being crucified, he writes, it was a dangerous thing to approach the cross of a dying criminal to show any support for him. Such behavior was likely to end an arrest and death for opposing Rome’s sentence. Hence there was a little group standing afar off, well away from the cross, watching the dying Jesus. It consisted of some of his acquaintances from Galilee and a group of women supporting Jesus mother who had insisted on being there.

74. 37:09

    How sad it was that apostles who had spent three years following Jesus did not have the strength, the Khayal, to witness the cross. Yet their mother’s dead, and she would have seen her son prophecy in Isaiah 52 from the contemporary Jewish Bible. Just as many were appalled at him because he was so disfigured that he didn’t even seem human

75. 37:41

    and simply no longer looked like a man. Brothers and sisters, the beatings and the scourgings left him unrecognizable except to his mother who remembered what he looked like when he was 3 and when it was 13 and when it was 23 and she sees him now at 33, she would have looked up and said and seen a sign that said Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And she would have thought of Gabriel’s message and she would have reflected, this isn’t how I thought it was going to turn out then, but now I understand.

76. 38:31

    I understand God’s plan. He has a greater plan. And all the way along, brothers and sisters, we’ve kept referring to that great promise in Genesis 3. And when Mary looked at Jesus feet, she would have seen the nail driven through the heel because that was the Roman practice, driving the nail through the heel to that strong Achilles tendon to make sure that they would not get out of the cross. It’s inevitable that she would have thought of that. It seems like Jesus was repeatedly reciting Psalm 22 when he was on the cross and it was hard to hear. I bet we know that he had was able to get some clarity of speech out because John understood and the other people on the that were being crucified and understood him when he spoke.

77. 39:26

    But Can you imagine when Jesus got to Psalm the part of Psalm 22 when he said but you are he who took me out of the womb. You made me trust while on my mother’s breast. I was cast upon you from birth from my mother’s womb you have been my God. Can you imagine Mary hearing none? And there’s a part in Psalm 22

78. 39:56

    that cries out, deliver my soul from the sword. And when Jesus gets to that part, did Mary not think, Oh yes, please, Lord, deliver my soul from these sword wounds.

79. 40:15

    Now there’s no record of Jesus appearing to Mary, but it is to all these other people. And honestly, for folks that are into Mariolatry, the worship of Mary, this drives them crazy and they make stuff up about to explain it. But if there’s a simple explanation, it didn’t need to be recorded. The risen Christ appearing to her because she didn’t need that to support her faith.

80. 40:43

    She knew that Jesus would be resurrected. She had the faith of Abraham. Just like Abraham, she concluded that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. Unlike the 11, Mary believes that he has arisen without seeing the resurrected Jesus. Mary believed right from the start because as her song cries out, she believed in the covenant love, in the covenant promises.

81. 41:13

    She believed the God of Israel who promised to Abraham and to his seed forever. So the fruit of Mary’s sword wounds is her incredible faithfulness was recognized. We read in Acts 1. Then they return to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, Peter, James, John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholemy and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, Judas the son of James. They all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication and with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus. Mary’s faithful example enables her to have the credibility to become an integral part of this ecclesia, this new ecclesia. So let’s sum up, brothers and sisters. Mary says henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

82. 42:12

    We call her blessed, her identity as Phillips translated, that I belong to the Lord, body and soul. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be unto me according to thy word. We’re blessed by the example of her voice. On her lips is Kassad the covenant love, the sure belief in the promises made.

83. 42:41

    We count her blessed that she shows us how to act in community. And the way to do that is simple. Whatever Jesus says to us, do it. We’re blessed to have the example of her mission, the example of the Torah. Do not forsake the Torah of your mother.

84. 43:06

    And lastly, we’re blessed to have the great example of her faithfulness of her Kyle through trials. Blessed is she who believed we call our blast, and we’re so thankful for her example.