ALL ABOUT MARY

Jesus may have been speaking rhetorically when He denied that Mary was His “mother,” but on the other hand, perhaps He did not consider her so!

The Greek word is transliterated “meter.” Regardless of other possible meanings, the Bible always translates it as “mother.” However, is that correct? Thayer’s Greek Lexicon also says meter since the days of Homer also means “to measure” and linguists still argue whether that means “moulder” (molder) or “manager.” The former is “one that molds something or someone” (Merriam-Webster 1982). Mary “managed” only in the sense that she was only the environment it took for a molding process.

Consider molding; there is a turntable, a spindle, clay, a dynamo of some sort, and a shaper; usually the hands of a person in ancient times and in addition a tool for shaping fine features. God provided some pertinent information to the prophet Isaiah, “But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our Potter; and we all are the work of thy hand” (Isa 64:8).

The Father is the Technician (Tekton in Greek). He is the advanced Designer. Jesus was the “clay,” and the Potter is Jesus by whom all things are made, according to scripture: “All things were made by Him (Jesus); and without Him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). Hence, Jesus was the work of His own hands, just as Isaiah prophesied.

Technically speaking, Jesus was the molder of Himself, but the molding machine was Mary, hence she was the “meter” — the one on whom the mold was made. The dynamo for the machine would be the Holy Spirit of God who was the Power that molded.

Jesus could have been speaking literally in the sense that Mary mothered Him — metered Him out or that Mary was the one in whom God placed the Holy Substance to be molded. As such, Mary did nothing in the birth of Jesus other than being there.

Jesus did all the work. It was Jesus who provided the Grace, not Mary. Mary conceived neither the idea nor the act. Jesus, as God in the Flesh, made Himself. He provided the grace and did the work, whereas the Father provided the Seed, or genetics.

I submit, therefore, that Jesus was correct. He could not lie; Mary was not His mother just as He inferred (Mat 12:48). That Mary metered Him is the best approximation.

Of course, the Holy Spirit was the “Dynamo” that supplied the Virtue, so Mary did nothing but accept the process of the virgin birth. In today’s jargon, Mary was the surrogate from which the babe was metered out. She was the portal from one invisible realm to another. Mary was the “door” to salvation on which Jesus knocked to transmigrate.

In the end, Mary still does nothing for salvation: 

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my Voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. (Rev 3:20)

 Grace is the “door” or “portal” from this world to the next. The only trait that Jesus received from Mary is her human genes to make Him the “Son of Man(kind).” It was her genes, pure as they were, that were mixed with the Image (Glorious Genes) of God to make Jesus both the gens of man and the Gens of God.

Mary’s genome was not of herself, but all things were made by God, and in this case, Jesus “turned” on the “turntable” of Mary the bodily shape of Himself and added His invisible Image at the baptism of Jesus by John — the Holy Ghost in the bodily shape of the Person, Jesus (Luke 3:22).

Jesus made Himself and no man or woman should ever get the credit! It was Him who provided the grace — His Glorious Genes — to Himself to make them available to all mankind. As such, Jesus was not born, but “borne,” here and Mary was the “transport portal” and perhaps the “pedestal” on which Jesus molded Himself.

(picture credit: St. Shenouda Monastery)