For your ping list.
He didn’t condemn her, just gently moved her in a different direction.
The Bible says in many places that such are blessed.
Will it include pictures?
“This teaching is similar to that in 8:19–21. Family relationships are not the most important things in life. A woman noted that it must have been wonderful to have been Jesus’ mother. The idea of physical relationship was more important in that day. The whole nation took pride in the fact that they descended from Abraham (cf. John 8:33–39). “
“Jesus pointed out that a physical relationship was unimportant compared with hearing and obeying the Word of God. As Luke emphasized, the gospel is not limited to Israel but is for but is for all who trust in Christ.”
Bible Knowledge Commentary
To state that someone is blessed is hardly venerating him or her.
The Bible states that many people are blessed, and indeed they are. That doesn’t mean they are to be objects of worship.
A much more important verse is the following:
Matthew 7:6
"Do not give what is holy to dogs [to the unworthy]"
Clearly, Mary is a holy person to have the title Mother of God, which Mary clearly has unless you consider that Jesus is not God.
The passage you are referring to does not condemn Mary nor praise Mary. I have heard Biblical scholars state that Jesus wanted Mary to have a low profile.
And yet, for the miracle at Canaan, Jesus clearly tells Mary: Woman, it is not my time.
She in turn does not TELL JESUS WHAT TO DO, but just tells the servants Do whatever He tells you to do.
If Jesus had used the phrase mother, it is not my time, he would have broken the 4th commandment.
However, by using the phrase Woman, it is not my time, he is repsecting the FATHER's WILL at the same time respecting his mother. By using the term woman, he is letting Mary know it is the FATHER's WILL that he is stating, not his.
That the Lord is sustaining the saying of the women affirming the blessedness of the women who nursed the Lord according to the flesh should find no objection, and evangelical commentators such as as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown affirm He was, for indeed Mary was blessed to be that instrument of the Almighty, but as with "blessed thou among women," (Judges 5:24; Lk. 1:28) this type of affirmation was not unique.
Gill states ,
This was a form of blessing among the Jews: so it is said (s) of R. Joshuah ben Chananiah, a disciple of R. Jochanan ben Zaccai, who lived about these times, אשרי יולדתו, "blessed is she that bore him": and they had also a form of cursing among them, much after the same manner, as ליט ביזא דכן איינק, "cursed be the paps that suckled him" (t).
Yet being the earthly mother of the Christ is a blessing surpassing that of others, but it is not said that this was because Mary was more holy and righteous than all others, though was holy and righteous, but she was blessed in grace, having been graced to be the vessel, or handmaiden of the Lord.
Others have consented to be the Lord's instrument, and God used imperfect men as instruments to bring forth His pure word into tangible form, and sinlessness is not a requirement to be such. Nor is it said of Mary that she was sinless, and it is the manner of the Holy Spirit to make mention of even lesser deviations from the norm among the notable characters in Scripture, from extreme age to extreme devotion. And while the things ascribed to Mary by Catholics, and level of adulation, without a word of censure, largely parallel Christ and almost render her a 4th person of the Trinity, the one character whose labor, devotion and passionate love for the church is most described , and without any clear attribution of sin as a believer, is relatively marginalized among RCs.
Thus the evangelical objection should not be against Mary being recognized as honored and holy, but against the egregious extrapolation of the record of Mary and use of tradition to support a level of adulation is is far beyond and even contrary to what is written. For this includes bowing down to statues of her and making prayers to an already crowned Mary as the Queen of Heaven, with almost unlimited power, and whose words are almost like commands to God, and who suffered for our sins as co-redemptrix, and formally titled the Mother of God. Etc. And of where the logic behind this leads to has been already exposed on FR.
Please don't take offense but the logic of this is just absolutely stupefying. The example used is Mary. Yet Catholics tell us that Mary was protected by God from sin to be a pure vessel for our Lord. Consequently, one has to wonder why would Mary NOT be obedient to God, since God instilled grace into her so she would not sin? So even if Catholics believe that Mary was pure from birth, her obedience wasn't based upon her action or her works because she hadn't done anything nor would she ever sin because of God's grace. Instead Mary's purity was based upon God's action. That is, unless you believe that Mary was responsible for her purity. If that's the case then you're off the reservation.
God puts into us a new heart and spirit to cause us to walk in His ways and obey His commandments. Why Catholics cannot make this leap into believers' lives is the real mystery.
I ain’t worshippin’ - I is veneratin’!
“blessed rather”, means you are completely wrong in your thinking.
This was a very good post I’ve been meaning to save it for reference. I hope to remember tonight.
This thread is not nearly as interesting or as lively as the other one.
“Generations shall call me blessed” except for the protestants..um. I mean post-reformation Christians.