Women of the Bible Part 25

Lift Your Heart Martha took her complaint about her sister directly to Jesus. Is someone in your life causing you trouble-your daughter, mother, coworker, sister in faith, even a rival? Rather than expressing your grievance to anyone who will listen, take your complaint directly to G.o.d. Tell him everything that's bothering you. Ask him to give you understanding about how to respond to this person, even if it means that you, not she, are the one who needs to change.

Father, you know how difficult it is for me to relate to_ _. Please help me to know what you think of our difficulties. I ask you for the grace to let go of my own sense of hurt and grievance. If you want me to do anything at all to try to improve the situation, please make it clear to me. Help me to be sensitive and obedient to your guidance, I pray.

Mary of Bethany.

HER NAME MAY MEAN.

"Bitterness"

Her Character: Mary appears to have been a single woman, totally devoted to Jesus. The gospel portrays her, by way of contrast with her sister, Martha, as a woman of few words. As Jesus neared the time of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem prior to Pa.s.sover, she performed a gesture of great prophetic significance, one that offended Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus.

Her Sorrow: She wept at the tomb of her brother, Lazarus, and must have experienced great sorrow at the death of Jesus.

Her Joy: To have done something beautiful for Christ.

Key Scriptures: Matthew 26:6 - 13; Mark 14:3 - 9; Luke 10:38 - 42; John 11:1 - 12:11 Monday HER STORY.

Jerusalem was swollen with a hundred thousand worshipers, pilgrims who had come to celebrate the annual Pa.s.sover feast. Every one of them, it seemed, had heard tales of the rabbi Jesus.

"I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't been there," one man exclaimed. "I tell you, Lazarus drew his last breath a full four days before the Nazarene ever arrived."

"My cousin saw the whole thing," said another. "According to her, Jesus simply shouted his name and Lazarus came out of the tomb, still bound in his grave clothes."

"I hear the rabbi is coming to Jerusalem to be crowned king during Pa.s.sover," said the first man.

"Better if he stayed home," said another. "The chief priests say the whole story is nonsense, that Jesus is a rabble-rouser who'll soon have the Romans up in arms against us all."

The rumors spread quickly, like floodwater spilling over a river-bank. The curious kept chasing after Mary, inquiring about her brother. Had he really been dead four days? Didn't he smell when he came stumbling out of the tomb? What was it like to live in the same house with a ghost? Did he eat and sleep? Could you see straight through him? Did he simply float through the air wherever he went?

She could hardly blame them for their crazy questions. Why shouldn't they be curious about the amazing event that had taken place in Bethany just weeks earlier? How could they know that Lazarus was as normal as any other living man? After all, raising people from the dead wasn't your everyday kind of miracle. These days she felt a rush of joy run through her, like wine overflowing a cup, whenever she looked at Lazarus. Her own flesh and blood had been called out of darkness by a man who was filled with light. How she longed to see Jesus again!

But shadows framed the edges of her happiness. No amount of celebrating could erase the memory of Jesus as he wept that day outside her brother's tomb. Even as others were celebrating the most spectacular miracle imaginable, he seemed strangely quiet. What was he thinking as he gazed at them? she wondered. She wished he would tell her, that she could plumb the secrets of his heart.

When Jesus finally returned to Bethany before the Pa.s.sover, Martha served a feast in his honor. As Jesus was reclining at table with the other guests, Mary entered the room and anointed his head with a pint of expensive perfume. Its fragrance filled the whole house.

The disciple Judas Iscariot, failing to appreciate her gesture, objected strenuously: "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." Though he cared nothing for the dest.i.tute, Judas was the keeper of the common purse, a man always looking for a chance to fatten his own pockets.

But rather than scolding Mary for her extravagance, Jesus praised her, saying: "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, whenever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her."

From her first encounter with Christ, Mary seems to have pursued one thing above all-the deepest possible relationship with him. She soaked up his teaching, took his promises to heart, listened for every change of inflection that would yield more clues about him. Love gave her insights that others missed. Somehow, she must have understood that Jesus would not enter Jerusalem to lasting acclaim but to death and dishonor. For a time, the light itself would appear to be smothered by the darkness. While everyone else was busy celebrating Jesus' triumph in raising Lazarus, Mary stood quietly beside him, sharing his grief.

Christ found Mary's extravagant act of adoration a beautiful thing, a.s.suring everyone that she would be remembered forever for the way she lavished herself upon him. Mary of Bethany was a woman unafraid of expressing her love, determined to seek the heart of G.o.d-a prophetess whose gesture speaks eloquently even from a distance of two thousand years.

Tuesday HER LIFE AND TIMES.

THE Pa.s.sOVER.

All able-bodied and ceremonially clean Jewish men, usually accompanied by their families, were required to attend Pa.s.sover in Jerusalem as well as two other major religious feasts, Pentecost and Tabernacles (Exodus 23:17), throughout the year. By New Testament times, with Jews living all around the known world, most devout men attended these feasts when possible, but that was only occasionally.

The Feast of Pa.s.sover took place in Nisan, the first month of the ancient Jewish year, our April. The most significant feast celebrated by the Jews, Pa.s.sover commemorated their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. At that time, Moses had commanded each family to kill an unblemished one-year-old male lamb. He had instructed them to take the blood from the lamb and, using a brush made of hyssop branches, spread the blood on the sides and top of the door frame of each household. When the tenth and last plague came to Egypt, the angel of death entered only those houses without blood on the doorpost and killed the firstborn son in each family. Any home with blood on the doorway was "pa.s.sed over."

Jewish families ate the meat of the lamb for their Pa.s.sover supper, sharing with neighbors if the family was too small to finish the lamb alone. The meal also included a salad of bitter herbs as well as unleavened bread (bread made without yeast and hence unrisen). Before Pa.s.sover, the house was thoroughly searched and cleaned to be sure no yeast was in the house to spoil the unleavened bread. This bread reminded the Jews of the haste with which they had to eat their last meal in Egypt before leaving slavery there. Psalms 113 - 118, known as the "Egyptian Hallel" (or Praise) psalms, were sung before and after the meal.

Often during their history, the Jews neglected to celebrate the Pa.s.sover, as well as many of the other religious feasts G.o.d had inst.i.tuted. The times when the Pa.s.sover was reinstated are mentioned specifically in the Old Testament, and the ignorance of the people regarding the sacred nature of the feast is apparent. Most often, the restoration of the feast came about because of a religious revival (2 Kings 23:21 - 23; 2 Chronicles 30:1; 35:1 - 19; Ezra 6:19 - 22).

The Last Supper Jesus ate with his disciples, on the night that he was betrayed, was the annual Pa.s.sover meal. Jesus gave specific instructions to several of his disciples for preparing this important meal. While he and his disciples reclined at the table, Jesus revealed that one of his twelve disciples would betray him and that he would be crucified. With the words, "This is my body" and "This is my blood," he gave new meaning and significance to the Pa.s.sover lamb. When he was crucified the next day, he himself became the Pa.s.sover Lamb, the Lamb of G.o.d who died in the place of sinners condemned to death.

Wednesday HER LEGACY IN SCRIPTURE.

Read John 11:28 - 44.

1. Do you hear verse 32 as an accusation, a statement of fact, or what? Why?

2. Put yourself in Mary's place. Your brother, who lives with you and supports you, has died. Then Jesus raises him. How do you react?

Read John 11:45 - 12:8.

3. Why do you think Mary made such an extravagant gesture, using perfume worth a year's wages?

4. Could Mary or anybody else at this dinner have predicted that Jesus might be arrested in less than a week? What makes you say that?

5. How can you express your love for Jesus? Where does money fit in, if at all?

Thursday HER PROMISE.

The Old Testament Pa.s.sover lamb was only a shadow of what was to come. As our Pa.s.sover Lamb, Jesus has completely and thoroughly accomplished our redemption from sin. Just as the little lamb died so that the firstborn in the Hebrew families would not die and would go free from Egypt, so Jesus, our Pa.s.sover Lamb, has died so that we can be freed from our slavery to sin.

Promises in Scripture John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of G.o.d, who takes away the sin of the world!"

-John 1:29 But thanks be to G.o.d that, though you used to be slaves to sin ... you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

-Romans 6:17 - 18 Christ, our Pa.s.sover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.

- i Corinthians 5:7 - 8 370 MARY OF BETHANY.

Friday HER LEGACY OF PRAYER.

Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.

-Matthew 26:10 Reflect On: Matthew 26:6 - 13.

Praise G.o.d: For giving us the ability to please him.

Offer Thanks: For all the beautiful things G.o.d has done for you.

Confess: Any unwillingness to embrace the difficult parts of the gospel as well as the joyful parts.

Ask G.o.d: To give you a greater hunger to live in his presence and to seek his face.

Lift Your Heart Lovers like nothing better than to please their beloved. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a woman who loved G.o.d extravagantly Famous for her work with the poorest of the poor in India and throughout the world, she was always looking for a chance to do "something beautiful for G.o.d." How easy it is for us to neglect our Divine Lover by always asking him to do beautiful things for us rather than by developing our own capacity to please and delight him.

You don't have to travel to the other side of the world to find opportunities to do something for G.o.d. Look for him in the poorest of the poor in your own community - those who are emotionally impoverished, isolated, ill. Find a way to bring the light of G.o.d's love into their darkness. Spend time simply praising G.o.d for who he is and how he has revealed himself to you. Honor him by giving him something precious in your own life. Even the smallest gesture can become a beautiful gift for G.o.d.

Lord, you have done so many beautiful things for me, pursuing me when I cared nothing for you, restoring my hope, giving me a future worth living for. I want to offer myself generously-not as a miser doling out her favors in hope of a return, but as a woman completely in love with her Maker. Make my life a sweet-smelling fragrance to please you.

Salome.

Mother of the Zebedees.

HER NAME MEANS.

"Peace"

Her Character: A devoted follower of Jesus, whose husband ran a fishing business, she shared the common misconception that the Messiah would drive out the Romans and establish a literal kingdom in Palestine. Her name wa probably Salome.

Her Sorrow: To have stood with other women at the cross, witnessing the death of Jesus of Nazareth.

Her Joy: To have seen an angel at Christ's tomb, who pro claimed the resurrection.

Key Scriptures: Matthew 20:20 - 24; 27:56; Mark 15:40 - 41; 16:1 - 2 Monday HER STORY.

Salome loved Jesus nearly as much as she loved her own two sons, James and John. She would never forget the day they left their father and their fishing nets to follow him. Lately, she, too. had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah of G.o.d.

She had smiled when she heard Jesus had nicknamed her boys "the Sons ofThunder." Surely he had recognized the seeds of greatness in the two feisty brothers from Capernaum. Why else would he have invited them into his inner circle, along with Simon Peter? She had heard how Jesus had led the three up a high mountain. When they came down, her garrulous sons could hardly speak. But then the story came out.

"Jesus' face was blindingly bright like the sun. . . .

"Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke with him. . . .

"Suddenly a cloud surrounded us and a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!'"

Salome had listened. She had seen the glory and the power that radiated from the man. Though she had heard ominous rumors that Jerusalem's men of power hated Jesus, she also knew that the great King David had faced his own share of enemies before establishing his kingdom. And hadn't Jesus promised his disciples that they would sit on twelve thrones in his kingdom? "Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake," he had said, "will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life." How could she doubt him? Even with faith as small as a mustard seed, mountains could be moved.

Salome had left behind her comfortable home on the northwest sh.o.r.e of Galilee to join her sons. Now, as they journeyed up to Jerusalem, she remembered other words Jesus had spoken: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." She would no longer deny herself the one favor her heart desired. Prostrating herself before him, she begged, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom."

But instead of replying to her, Jesus turned to James and John and said, "You don't know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?"

"We can," they answered.

Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father."

Jesus, who knew Zebedee's sons better than anyone, realized that Salome was only voicing their rising ambitions. Like any loving mother, she had simply asked for what she thought would make her children happy. But as Jesus' reply and subsequent events proved, this mother didn't begin to comprehend what she was asking. Soon, the man she had approached as a king would himself die on a cross, and she would be one of the women witnessing his death.

After it was over, Salome may have remembered the anguished faces of the men who had been crucified with Jesus, one on his right hand and the other on his left - an ironic reminder of her request on the way up to Jerusalem. Such a memory would only have increased her terror for what might now happen to her sons.

Along with other faithful women at the cross, Salome was present on the morning of Jesus' resurrection. Surely the angel's words -"He has risen! He is not here!"-would have comforted her later in life when her son James became the first martyred apostle, dying at the hands of Herod Agrippa.

Instead of asking Jesus what he wanted for her sons, Salome acted as though she knew exactly what he needed to do on their behalf. She must have forgotten that Jesus had exhorted his followers to leave behind not only houses, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers for his sake, but also children. In Salome's case, it didn't mean turning her back on her children but surrendering them to G.o.d. It meant putting Jesus above everything and everyone, loving him better than her own sons. Only then would she understand the meaning of what they would suffer as followers of Christ. Only then would she really know how to pray.

HER LIFE AND TIMES.

MOTHERING.

In biblical times, when a man married, he gained another possession. Every wife was under her husband's absolute authority. When a man decided "to marry a wife," the meaning of the phrase was closer to "become the master of a wife." But even though a woman's position in the household was one of subservience to her husband, she was still in a higher position than anyone else in the household.

A woman's princ.i.p.al duty was to produce a family, preferably sons, who could ensure the family's physical and financial future. Mothers generally nursed their youngsters until they were about three years old. During that time, husbands and wives did not usually engage in s.e.xual intercourse, a natural form of birth control that gave the mother time to devote herself to her youngest child.

Mothers had total care of their children, both sons and daughters, until they were about six years old. The children helped their mother with household tasks, and she taught them basic lessons on living in their culture. After six years of age, most boys became the family shepherd or began to spend the day with their father, learning the family business. David, as the youngest son, took care of his family's sheep and goats (1 Samuel 16:11), and Jesus probably spent time with his father, Joseph, learning his carpentry trade (Mark 6:3). Daughters stayed with their mothers throughout their growing-up years. Mothers taught them spinning and weaving and cooking, as well as how to behave and what to expect in their future roles as wives and mothers.

Gradually the role of mothers came to include activities like those described in Proverbs 31. Throughout Scripture, the role of mothering is given dignity and significance, so much so that G.o.d describes his love for us in terms of mothering. "As a mother comforts her child, so will I [the Lord] comfort you" (Isaiah 66:13). Paul describes his care for the Thessalonians as the care of a mother for her children: "We were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children" (1 Thessalonians 2:7).

When you find yourself lost in the chaos and clutter of caring for young children, remember the important part you play in keeping their world safe and happy. When you find yourself buried in the mess and muddle of raising elementary school children, remember how much they rely on you for their security. When you find yourself struggling with the disaster and disarray of raising teenagers, remember how much you love them and how much they need you to believe in them. Never forget: If you have children, they are one of your greatest legacies.

Wednesday HER LEGACY IN SCRIPTURE.

Read Matthew 20:20 - 27.

1. In asking from Jesus what she did (verses 20 - 21), what do you think Salome wanted for herself?

2. What "cup" (verse 22) was Jesus talking about?

3. What did Salome fail to understand about Jesus and his kingdom?

4. What, if anything, do you do to seek status or recognition for yourself? For your children?

5. Where do you think Jesus would draw the line in our ambitions for ourselves or our children?

Thursday HER PROMISE.

Though the typical woman in biblical times was in a subservient role, her position as a mother is exalted by Scripture. G.o.d the Father recognized from the very beginning the important role a mother would play in her children's lives, and he promised to bless her. Those same promises apply to you today.

Promises in Scripture G.o.d also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her. "

- Genesis 17:15 - 16 He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children.

-Psalm 113:9 Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: "Many women do n.o.ble things, but you surpa.s.s them all."