Only heaven will reveal how much we owe them.
All thinking men realize they depend on the ministry of women from cradle to grave. Therefore it is not surprising that He who was truly Man, although He came “not to be ministered unto but to minister,” was the object of the devoted ministry of women. This is characteristically brought out in the Gospel penned by Dr. Luke.
The Spirit takes the beloved physician from his medicine, using him to write the good news of God’s remedy for a diseased world. In addition to the many medical words preserved, there is this, the significance of which every good physician will grant, the ministry of the gentle hand and the tender heart of women.
Although the Son of God was homeless during the last years of His earthly life, this was granted to Him by His Father, this substitute for His holy angels’ ministry—the selfless service of the daughters of Eve.
Their mother was, alas, “first in the transgression,” but in the supreme act of rebellion at the cross she had no place. Rather, in the person of Pilate’s wife, her imperial representative, she would have let Him go. Nor throughout the long road which led to Calvary is there any hand or voice of woman raised against Him. No painted Jezebel’s face is seen through the lattice; no fierce Athaliah’s voice is heard in the courts. The maidservant challenging Peter is the only unfriendly feminine voice that we hear as we follow those holy footsteps.
The Sacred Ministry of Motherhood
Mary’s is the first ministry that invites our meditation. Upon such ground we cannot step too softly. We know she was chosen by the Father to be most blessed among women by virtue of her high office. The Holy Spirit came upon her so that she became indeed “the mother of our Lord.” In uttermost obedience she cried: “Behold the slave of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy word.” More than most of her sisters she was called to walk a path of faith, seeing through a glass darkly, and having to ponder many mysteries in her heart.
Her natural motherly qualities had to suffer rebuke more than once before the sword of heaven’s sorrow pierced her heart. We get one last glimpse of her in the upper room before Pentecost, and then she mingles in the throng of her sisters on earth. But we cannot forget that God gave us through her that sinless body which bore our sins on the tree; that through the silent years she ministered to His human needs with a mother’s skill, and watched with awe the unfolding of a life untouched by sin.
Her hands bathed the only sinless infant form that earth has ever seen; her ears heard the only sinless lips lisp the name “Mother.” Her breast was His resting place, whose everlasting dwelling was the Father’s bosom. She was the first to minister to Him in His cradle; she was the last to whom He ministered from His cross before including her with every sinner in His atoning death.
Mary, highly favored among women in the incarnation of the Son of God, but far more, redeemed by His precious blood and given a place with all those who are sanctified. “Blessed…are the paps which Thou hast sucked!” cried one envious woman. “Yea, rather,” He answered, “blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it” (Lk. 11:27-28).
The Winsome Ministry of Widowhood
Young Mary is followed by very old Anna, the prophetess, who had been a widow for eighty-four years, and whose home was in the temple courts. There, in spite of the clamor of the money changers and those who sold doves, she maintained her watch with prayer and fasting.
We may picture the scene in those historic precincts, hard by the place where the promise had been given long before, “God will provide Himself a Lamb.”
See the Galilean family with their humble offering of doves or pigeons, jostled by the crowd, but intent on their obedience to the law; see the old mother in Israel venerated as a saint, and the young Prince of Glory. Suddenly her long tried faith was rewarded by the beatific vision as she recognizes in Him David’s Son and Lord. She poured out her glad thanksgivings and henceforth she had one theme of which she never tired. For there were those who refused to doubt the promises of God, and in spite of a corrupt priesthood their faith was unquenched.
How the dim flame would burn as the inspired prophetess unfolded to them the glories that had been revealed to her in the face of Christ! Mercifully we are not without our Annas today; young and old, they delight to speak of their Lord in Sunday School, in the home circle, in hospital, and wherever their toiling sisters will listen; in the noisome heart of an Indian slum or in the cool refinement of an English drawing room. Can we possibly put too high a value on such ministry?
A Mother-in-law Ministers and a Nameless Sinner
Peter’s mother-in-law, fresh from her great fever, rising to minister to her Lord, is followed by the nameless pardoned sinner who in the rapture of her first love mingled her tears and her perfume and made a towel of her tresses, so that her Lord might be given the honor Simon had denied Him.
So Many Others who Served their Lord
So varied still is the ministry in the house of God, including lowly household tasks and rising to the heights of sacrificial devotion where neither name nor fame nor life are counted too dear to be laid at His feet. Would superior Simon ever forget losing that opportunity which brought out that sad complaint, “Thou gavest Me no kiss!” Is it not possible that some of us superior men are making the same mistake?
So we reach the three of whom it is written: “The twelve were with Him, and certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others which ministered unto Him of their substance” (Lk. 8:1-3). The Lord Jesus was the leader of this company of disciples that consisted not only of poor fishermen but of women of substance, who, greatly blessed, made themselves of no reputation by becoming the servants of the Man of Galilee.
Mary was His countrywoman, for she came from Magdala near the lake of Genessaret. How thrilling it will be when we hear the story of how her heart became empty, swept and garnished and made the sanctuary of peace and purity!
Joanna was a lady of consequence, by reason of her husband’s post under Herod. What comforts she despised, what criticism she aroused by her discipleship. She might have served “that fox” of Esau’s line and enjoyed his glittering prizes, but how wise she was in choosing the service of Jacob’s Lord.
Of Susanna’s history we know nothing as yet, but her name has been preserved in the life of many an English family; she lives for us as one of the immortals in the glorious company of Deborah, Hannah, and Ruth, the forerunners of the noble company of sister-servants whose praise is in all Christian homes and churches.
We get three more fleeting glimpses of these disciples; from afar they look upon the tragedy of Calvary where even their ministry could have no place. In the dawn of the resurrection day we see them making their mournful way to the garden, laden with the needless spices, meeting the shining ones who remind them of their Lord’s promise of victory over death, so that they return to the despairing eleven with a message, so wonderful that it seemed like an idle tale.
“Not she with trait’rous lip her Saviour stung;
Not she denied Him with unholy tongue:
She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave;
Last at His cross, and earliest at His grave.”
The final view given to us, before we see them face to face, is in the upper room, where to them all was given the promised Comforter who led them into all truth, enriched them with His gifts and instructed them in the fine art of ministering to the Church with the deep devotion they had shown to Christ.
The Sisters at Bethany
Martha and Mary were especially honored in that their Bethany home was ideally situated as a resting place for the Lord Jesus on His way to and from the Jordan valley and also during His Jerusalem ministry. From Bethany, Jerusalem can be surveyed as a sentinel on the eve of battle surveys the peaceful fields so soon to be sown with the red seed of war.
Bethany is about a mile beyond Olivet, which is about a mile from Jerusalem. The inhabitants of the home were two sisters and one brother. Martha, with her active nature, was the mistress, and therefore concerned that her guest should have her best. Mary, with her meditative nature, was her assistant as became a younger sister. Of Lazarus we know little, except that he was their adored brother, sharing their great joy in the affection of the Lord Jesus.
We must not weigh too heavily the gentle rebuke that was laid upon Martha. The tone of the voice and the glance of the eyes could make a caress of the correction. He who put such a premium on the value of a cup of cold water would not lightly regard Martha’s skilful, if elaborate, preparations. She wanted Him to have the best; He wanted her to have His best. Her best was temporal, His was eternal: and this was what her sister had learned, a simple lesson indeed, but one that we find as difficult as Martha did. The two ministries are complementary, but the spiritual must have precedence of the natural. It is good to minister to the body with the meat which perishes; it is better to minister to the spirit with the meat which endures unto eternal life.
It was not the design of the Lord Jesus to change the characteristics of the sisters; each had her calling; each could learn from the other. When we see Mary for the last time she is busy with the sacred task of preparing her Lord’s body for its experience of cruel death, brief burial, and certain resurrection. Our last glimpse of Martha shows her serving still.
Blessed ministering sisterhood, embracing the mysteries of birth and life and death; humble and patient, gentle and wise, pouring out the choice gifts of motherhood and sisterhood, upon the one Person who alone could truly appreciate their priceless worth, and give them back refined and glorified in the gift of Himself.
Nor is it too late to continue such ministry; the body of which the Lord Jesus is the Head is with us now, marred by many a spot and wrinkle, calling for selfless, patient service, The “certain women which ministered to Him of their substance” handed on their unfinished task to Phoebe and Priscilla, to Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis; to Julia and another Mary who bestowed much labor on Paul; to Claudia and Lydia, to Euodias and Syntyche and those women which labored in the gospel.
These in their turn passed on the trust through what gentle or work-worn hands, hands twisted by torture, torn by beasts, shrivelled in the fires, into sister hands today. So the Galilean few have become the world encircling family, and that word of scorn has become the expression of reverent gratitude, “And His sisters, are they not all with us?”