And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." – Luke 1:38 (ESV)
As Protestants, we often recoil at accolades given to Mary. We make statements to distance ourselves from any sort of Catholic thought: “She’s just a girl the Lord used,” “She sinned just like everyone else,” and so on. But what we often miss is that Mary is a model for Christ-followers. When confronted with the plan of God, her attitude is one of submission. I can’t help but reflect on what Jesus says later in Luke:
Luke 8:20-21 (ESV) And he was told, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you." But he answered them, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it."
Luke 11:27-28 (ESV) A woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!" But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
In Luke 1:38, Mary is showing herself to be a true mother of Jesus – she hears the Word of the Lord and submits to it. She is not blessed simply because of how God used her, but she is blessed because of the work of the Lord in her life, a work which enables her to say, “I am the servant of Lord.” Mary is a true servant – not to be deified, but someone whose faith is to be imitated.
