Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck. Proverbs 1: 8, 9, NIV
Heavenly Parent, thank you so much for walking us through this series. May we be blessed as we study today, and may this study prove a blessing to all who visit this site. For Christ’s sake. Amen
Yesterday we rejoiced as we studied the life of Timothy. A young man, who from his infancy, clung to the teachings of his mother Eunice, and his grandmother Lois, and became a blessing to the aged apostle Paul, and to the church on a whole. Today we look at one of my favorite Bible characters, Mary Magdalene, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. We do not have much to build upon as far as her upbringing goes. So we will look at her life as an adult. We will also take a look at her siblings, in an attempt to evaluate their family life.
I chose Mary, because I wanted us to see a real – life Biblical character that many parents, as well as children, could relate to. There is never a one hundred percent guarantee that if fathers give good instructions, and mothers provide good teachings that nothing will go wrong with our children. Children have their part to play. They are asked to “listen,” and “not forsake” the instructions they receive. Even so, there are no guarantees. However, the advantage of instructing and teaching, as well as listening, and not forsaking those teachings, is that there is always the possibility that something taught, will be remembered, and by God’s grace, acted upon, to the salvation of a soul.
Mary lived with her sister and brother in Bethany (Luke 10: 38, 39; John 11: 1). Not much is said of Lazarus within the home. But the manner in which his sisters mourned his demise says tons about the kind of brother he was (John 11: 21, 32-34). Jesus loved this family (John 11: 5)! Martha seemed to be the typical Jewish female who was very hospitable, preparing meals and serving the guests (Luke 10: 40; John 12: 2). Mary was more people-oriented, she was a disciple. While it was Martha who opened her house to Jesus and invited Him in, it was “Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what [H]e said” (Luke 10: 39, NIV).
But it was not always this way. Though raised as a typical Jewish girl, in the same way her sister Martha was raised, who knew her place in society, and the role she was expected to play; her feet had strayed into forbidden paths. Mary had been wronged by one who professed much piety. “Simon had led into sin the woman he now despised” (The Desire of Ages, p. 495). It seems that one bad decision had led to another, and soon her mind, had become, “the habitation of demons” (The Desire of Ages, p. 496). But oh, the mercies of a loving God! “…where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Romans 5: 20, NKJV).
Jesus is constantly searching for His sheep and His lambs! He comes to us when the gap of sin is too wide for us to go to Him! He found His child hurt, confused, rejected by all, and unable to free herself, but no doubt, with a longing deep within, somewhere, where only the eyes of God can see; desiring the innocence of the home of her childhood. It was under these conditions that Jesus had cast out seven demons out of Mary (Luke 8: 2). For the rest of her life she would turn around, and follow her Master. Hallelujah!
You see, sometimes children who have been taught and instructed in the ways of the Lord will go astray, but by God’s grace, many do come back and find their places in the household of God! As a garland to grace her head, and a chain around her neck, Jesus allowed her to anoint His body for the burial (Matthew 26: 12). She was the first to see, and proclaim, the risen Savior (John 20: 1,2, 10-18). And wherever the gospel is preached in the entire world, what she has done is repeated in her memory (Matthew 26: 13)!