2024
There’s a word that I’ve used many times in the past which comes up with this lesson again and again: Theotokos. It’s a Greek word that means God-bearer, though it is often translated, for the sake of simplicity and impact, Mother of God. If such a term makes you feel uneasy, that’s unfortunate, but it’s understandable that it would cause some level of unease.
Mary was officially given the title by decree at the Council of Ephesus in AD431. It’s not that she wasn’t referred to as God-bearer or Mother of God before this, but at that council the doctrine was officially codified. Given the Lutheran Church’s respect and admiration for the past, and the deep connection she still maintains to the past, the doctrine codified at Ephesus is Lutheran doctrine. Codified or not, however, it is still meet, right, and salutary to call Mary Theotokos, God-bearer, and the Mother of God.
In using that term, I’ve also stated that it says more about Mary’s Son than it does about Mary. Mary is the bearer of God, the birth-giver of God. Whom she bore in her womb is God—God-in-the-flesh. Yes, He is God, “of the substance of the Father,” but He is also man: flesh like yours, bones like your, blood like yours, but conceived and born and lived without sin. Jesus is man and God, and that is why the Council of Ephesus decreed that Mary is to be called Theotokos. Jesus is unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, and inseparably God and man, and the title Theotokos confesses this in opposition to teachings condemned at Ephesus, specifically that Mary is the mother only of the human nature of Jesus Christ which the divine later mysteriously inhabited.
So, if you confess that Jesus is God and man, and if you believe what you say when you recite the Creeds, then you do confess as much, and for you Mary is Theotokos, God-bearer, the Mother of God. There is no real need to feel uneasy about or shy away from such a title, because it confesses what you believe regarding her Son, Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man.
The unease should only come from the abuse of the title by the church of the Papacy. To them, Theotokos also means that Mary is co-redemptrix—that she played more of a part in your redemption than as the bearer of God—and co-mediatrix—that she can be approached in prayer in order that she can bring your petitions to her Son and the Father. Consequently, they elevate Mary to a position as if she has a throne in heaven: the Queen of Heaven. While the Scriptures teach and confess that she bore God in the person of the Son, nowhere do they claim she had a part in your redemption, that you can pray to her, or that she is somehow the Queen of Heaven. As an aside, I believe it is this false theology results in the Muslim thinking the Holy Trinity is the Father, Son, and Mary.
So, Theotokos… When announcing that she would bear God, Gabriel also told Mary that, “[Y]our relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.” (Luke 1:36) So, having conceived in her womb the Savior of the world, Mary packed up and headed to the house of Elizabeth. Upon entering the house, she greeted Elizabeth, and John leaped for joy in her womb. Then Elizabeth said,
What did Elizabeth say when she called Mary the mother of my Lord? Well, recall that Elizabeth lived in a time when the common practice was to gloss over God’s name when reading it and say Adonai instead, a word which translates as Lord. No one dared say God’s name, YHWH, for fear of misusing it—a Pharisaical abuse of the Second Commandment. This practice is still in play today, even in your own Bibles: as you leaf through the Old Testament, you’ll find places where LORD or GOD are spelled in all capital letters—the technical term for this is the Tetragrammaton, which literally translates to “four letters;” in the Hebrew text, that’s where God’s name is written (albeit, the Masoretic text omits the vowel points, leaving a Hebrew Tetragrammaton: yod, he, waw, he). So, while the text records her words as “Mother of my Lord,” what she was saying is Mother of YHWH or Mother of God.
Gabriel’s greeting announced to Mary that she would bear God: “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” And to fill in the gaps, lest there be any confusion, Elizabeth called her the Mother of God. Therefore, the council convened at Ephesus declared what had long been rightfully confessed, that Mary is Theotokos, God-bearer, the Mother of God. Those who are uneasy with this terminology because of the abuses, would likely want to skip over this passage, or if reading it, slightly ignore it.
Hopefully, at this point in the sermon, if you had any unease with the term Theotokos, you have started to grow past that. Congratulations, you are growing in your understanding of orthodox theology, which is this: Elizabeth confessed what the Church of all times and places has confessed regarding Mary and, more importantly, her Son. He whom Mary bore in her womb is YHWH in the flesh. There, growing merely as a clump of cells these first few days or week after being conceived, was the One who made the Universe and holds all things together. He who is ageless was younger than Elizabeth, developing and growing in the womb of a young maiden, taking on flesh and blood like hers, attached to her via umbilical and completely dependent on her for sustenance and life. How about that! The Lord of Life required a young maiden for life! The doctrine continues: YHWH assumed flesh and blood in order shed that blood and give that flesh over to die as the propitiation for the sins of the world. Jesus, Mary’s Son, is Mary’s Savior. Furthermore, He is Elizabeth’s Savior, Zechariah’s Savior, John’s Savior…your Savior!
And John was there preparing the way for Jesus. Mary greeted her relative, and John proclaimed for his mother that Theotokos was in her presence, that the Lord, YHWH, her Savior, her God is in her midst. John pointed Elizabeth to Mary as the bearer of God, and she replied, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
Why? Listen to what Theotokos said following Elizabeth’s Spirit-filled words:
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent empty away.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.
Why is Mary blessed? Why do the generations still call her blessed? Because He who mighty has done great things for her. That, dear hearers, is the only way to be blessed, the only means by which one can be called blessed: that the Mighty One has done great things for you!
Mary’s song, the Magnificat, is a song sung by the Church, now, and was sung here just moments ago, because what she said of God is true of Him still, to this day:
- “God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5) So it is that the Lord has regarded your lowly state, under the law, under the yoke of the law, weighed down by it’s accusations and condemnations and removed them from you by bearing them for you in His Son, Jesus Christ, as He died on the cross.
- He has shown strength with His arm by rising again from the grave, sanctifying the graves of His saints, victoriously rising to life over death, and giving you that victory over death. You will rise from your graves just as Jesus rose from His because you are baptized into His death and resurrection. (cf. Romans 6:4-5)
- Jesus scatters the proud, sends the rich away empty, and puts down the mighty in the thoughts of their hearts because in those hearts they proudly imagine that they have no need for Jesus and the redemption He has won for them; for them, the way to God and salvation is in their own works, their own status, their own possessions, their own standing in society. But the lowly He exalts; on the Last Day when Jesus returns, having ascended far above all the heavens (cf. Ephesians 4:10), your resurrected flesh will be exalted like His as He takes you to be where He is (cf. John 14:3), while those who refused Jesus will rise to eternal torment.
- In the meantime, He fills the hungry with good things as those who hunger and thirst for righteousness receive Him in Word and Sacrament for the forgiveness of their sins, life, and salvation.
God in Jesus Christ remembers the promise of mercy that He made to His servant Israel, helping them to newness of life and righteousness, giving it to them as a gift on oath, just as He has promised through Moses and the prophets to Abraham and the fathers. You heard one such promise this morning from the pen of Micah:
Or, perhaps, this promise from Isaiah is more appropriate to today:
Those promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who at just the right time was conceived by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and given over to die for your sins. He has promised to return for you, His brothers and sisters, just as He ascended. God is faithful to His promises, as He has demonstrated by the birth, life, death, and resurrection of His Son, as sung by Theotokos herself. He will do as He has said, and bring you and the whole Church into the new creation because He has forgiven you for all of your sins.
