In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. On this Sunday, the Sunday of the elevation of the precious and life given cross, the Holy Church presents to us the account of the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior from the Gospel of John. And in this account, we read something most extraordinary and moving. In the midst of his excruciating pain, as he is pouring out his life for the salvation of mankind and carrying the sin of the world on his shoulders, our Lord is concerned with the well-being of his mother.
We read, “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother.’ And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. Even in his last moments, our Lord does not forget his mother. He loves her. He provides for her.
He honors her. Nothing distracts him from caring for her, not even his own death. This morning, I’d like to address an objection that we often hear from Protestants, which today’s Gospel speaks directly to, the ever virginity of Mary. For two thousand years, Jothrak’s Church has always confessed that the Theotokos had no other children but Christ.
Think about it. If she had other sons, why would Christ bypass them and entrust his mother to the care of John? According to Jewish custom, the care of a widowed mother always fell to the next son. But our Lord gave her to John precisely because she had no other sons.
She is the ever virgin mother of Christ before, during, and after his birth. I want you to imagine Father Musa on his deathbed with his siblings gathered around him. And instead of turning to them, he turned to his friend and says, “John, take care of my mom for me. It would be unthinkable.
It would be scandalous. Yet this is exactly what Christ does. And it only makes sense because his mother is the ever virgin with no children but him. I like to go one by one through some of the common objections we hear to this teaching of the ever virginity of the Theotokos so that we might always be ready to give a defense for the faith that we hold and not be so easily swayed by opinions.
The first objection I want to address comes from an incorrect reading of Matthew chapter 1 verse 25. In this verse we read that Joseph did not know Mary until she had brought forth her firstborn son. Something this means that Joseph refrained from marital relations with Mary only until Jesus was born and afterward they lived as a normal married couple would. But this is not the meaning of the text.
The word used here that’s translated into until is the Greek word Eos. In scripture this word does not necessarily imply a change of status after some point, that after Christ was born things were different. And I’ll share two examples from scripture that use the same word to illustrate this. First in second Samuel chapter 6 we read, Saul’s daughter Michal had no child until the day of her death.
Does that mean she had children after she died? Of course not. The writer is emphasizing that Michal never had children. And in Matthew chapter 28 our Lord says, “I am with you always until the end of the age.” Does that mean Christ will abandon us after the end of the age?
Of course not. The writer is emphasizing that Christ will never leave us. So in none of these passages does until imply that the situation changed after a specific point. Rather it’s emphasizing the condition up to that point without saying anything about afterwards.
The better sense of Matthew 1.25 is Joseph did not know Mary even after she had given birth. The purpose of this passage is to emphasize the virgin birth of Christ and not to comment on whether Joseph knew Mary in the marital sense. Why would the gospel writer comment on that anyway? The second objection comes from the incorrect interpretation of the passages where the gospels mention the brothers and sisters of Christ.
For example the Jews ask about Jesus in the gospel of Matthew, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary and his brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas and his sisters? Are they not all with us?” Those who come from within the tradition of the church, those who come from within the Orthodox church, those who are part of the family tree of the church, those who are connected in an unbroken lineage of opposites accession and opposites teaching will know how to interpret the references of the brothers and sisters of Christ. The holy tradition of the church tells us that Joseph the Batrouv was an old man, a widower, who already had children from a previous marriage when he was entrusted with the care of the virgin Mary.
This is why by the way in Orthodox iconography Joseph is depicted as an elderly man standing apart from Mary. You never seem embracing her or holding her as a husband, would a wife, as we see for example in the icons of Saint Siyokim and Anam. This is deliberate. It shows that their relationship was not a typical marriage but rather a holy guardianship.
Saint Joseph the Batrouv was her protector. So those who are called the brothers of Christ are in fact his step brothers, children of Joseph from that earlier marriage that I mentioned, but they are never called the children of Mary. Notice that in Scripture the virgin Mary is always referenced as the mother of Jesus and never identified as the mother of James or Joseph or Simon or Judas. We hear repeatedly in Scripture about Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers.
The third objection comes from a misunderstanding of the term first born. For example in Luke chapter two we read about the virgin Mary that she brought forth her first born son. Some might ask, doesn’t firstborn imply there must have been a second or a third. This is a decase.
The term used for first born is a legal and theological term. In Jewish law any child that first opens the womb was called the first born even if there was no child after him. The first born was consecrated to God and given the inheritance rights. So when Luke calls Jesus the first born son of Mary it’s not to suggest Mary had more children.
You don’t have to have brothers to be the first born. The fourth objection you hear, it’s not in the Bible. Scripture doesn’t explicitly say Mary remained a virgin forever but Scripture also doesn’t explicitly say that she didn’t remain a virgin forever. As I said earlier the church has always read scripture in light of her holy tradition not in isolation.
The church existed for centuries before the canon of the Bible was codified. The Bible was not written as an instruction manual of how to be the church. It doesn’t say everything. It was written within the context of the life of the church as St.
Paul reminds us in 2 Thessalonians, “Stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught whether by word or our epistle.” And this tradition of the ever virginity of Mary is proclaimed every single time the church gathers for prayer. Every divine liturgy, every vespers, every orthrows, we call her our all holy, immaculate, most blessed and glorious lady the Theotokos and ever virgin Mary. The church’s worship itself confesses her perpetual virginity. Another point I want to mention here, one of the earliest images of Mary’s virginity, her ever virginity, actually comes from Scripture from the prophet Ezekiel’s description of the east gate of the temple.
A reading, if you did not know, that’s read at every vespers in which we celebrate the feast of the Theotokos. In chapter 44 of the book of Ezekiel verse 2 we read, “This gate,” and again this is a reference to the womb of Mary in the symbolism of the church, “this gate shall be shut. It shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it for the Lord God of Israel has entered by it, therefore it shall be shut. The church has always understood this vision of the shut gate to be a prophecy describing the womb of the Theotokos forever sealed after the entry of the Lord.” And what’s interesting is that even the products and reformers themselves understood this passage in the same way.
Martin Luther, Ulrichs Wingley, John Calvin, John Wesley all upheld the perpetual virginity of the Theotokos. They all believed that she had no other children but Christ. And finally, the fifth common objection I want to address, some say, “Isn’t it strange or unnatural for a married couple not to have marital relations?” Let me ask, what’s easier to believe the miracle of the virgin birth or that someone commits themselves to a life of virginity and purity? Why does a life of virginity seem impossible but a virgin birth seems possible?
For us Orthodox, there’s no difficulty in believing in the ever virginity of Mary because we have the monastic tradition and we know so many people committed to virginity. So many people who have heeded the call of Christ, if you want to be perfect, sell what you have, give to the poor, come follow me. It’s not impossible but in the Protestant world, monasticism doesn’t exist and the idea of dedicating yourself as a virgin solely to God is so foreign. And there’s something else to think of.
The Theotokos contained in her womb God in the flesh. The goal of Christian life is union with God. She was the first person to experience a perfect union with God quite literally. Now would someone who has tasted of the sweetness of the love of God still be interested in earthly things?
Would someone after partaking of the Holy Spirit in such an intimate way desire anything fleshly? Would someone who became the dwelling place of the uncontainable God and therefore more spacious than the heavens require any other type of consolation? Never. St.
Augustine of Hippo once said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O Lord.” The Theotokos found her rest in him. Her whole being was consecrated to God, body and soul. Her virginity was not just physical, it was spiritual as well. It was the outward expression of her total dedication, her purity of heart, her perfect obedience to God.
Another thing to consider from the perspective of St. Joseph the betrothed. The Holy Church calls the Theotokos the Ark of the New Covenant in contrast to the Ark of the Old Covenant. Do you remember in 2 Samuel 6 what happened to Uza when he touched the Ark of the Old Covenant?
He died. Even though his intention was good to study the Ark and to prevent it from falling, he was struck dead. What was it that made the Ark of the Old Covenant so holy? God chose to make his dwelling place there.
And what was contained in the Ark of the Old Covenant? The tablets of the law, the staff of Aaron that butted, and a jar of manna. Now compare the Theotokos to the Ark of the New Covenant to the Ark of the Old Covenant. God chose to make his dwelling place in her womb.
She contained not the tablets of the law, but the lawgiver himself. Not the staff of Aaron, but the good shepherd himself. Not the jar of manna, but the heavenly bread himself. There is no comparison because the Theotokos contained within her womb what the heavens could not contain.
God himself. Can you imagine St. Joseph approaching the Theotokos, the temple of the living God, without fear and reverence and trepidation? He knew who she was, and he knew her role in the divine economy.
He knew that she was full of grace, and there was no other woman greater than her. If Uza died for touching the Ark of the Old Covenant, how much more would Joseph, a righteous man, never dare to approach the Ark of the New Covenant, she who held God himself in her womb. She who became the fiery throne of God. And so, my beloved family, today, as we lift up high the cross, we remember that at the foot of the cross stood our all holy, immaculate, most blessed, and glorious Lady Theotokos, never Virgin Mary.
Even though Christ was in extreme agony and pain on the cross, saving mankind, he never lost sight of his mother. And in his final few breaths, he entrusts her to the care of his disciple John. Why? Because she had no other children.
Because she is the ever virgin one. But Christ also does something else on the cross. He entrusts us to the care of his mother. When he’s set to John, behold your mother.
He speaks to the church. In that moment, the virgin ceased to be only the mother of Christ in the flesh, and became the mother of all those united to him in the spirit. We who are baptized into Christ become co-heirs with him, so that everything that belongs to him now belongs to us. By grace, his father becomes our father.
His mother becomes our mother. May we always have her prayers and intercessions, name the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.