Here’s another huge character to guess from this description in Smith’s Bible Dictionary (first published in 1884):

“There is no person perhaps in sacred or profane history around whom so many legends have been grouped . . . and there are few whose authentic history is more concise.”

Don’t have it yet? The dictionary entry continues, “So far as ---- is portrayed to us in Scripture, she is, as we should have expected, the most tender, the most faithful, humble, patient and loving of women, but a woman still.”

Smith’s is quick to remind the reader that in some of Christ’s very last words from the Cross He commends His mother into the care of disciple John, saying, “Behold thy mother!” Just before that, He says to His mother whose standing at the foot of the Cross, “Woman, behold thy son!”

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Funny as it might seem, every single time Christ addresses Mary personally in Scripture, He simply calls her “woman.” At the marriage in Cana of Galilee, for example, when Mary informed son Jesus, “They have no wine,” He responded, “Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.”

What people don’t realize is that “woman” is a title for the nation Israel and Mary is used repeatedly in the Bible as a representative of the “believing remnant” in the nation.

As Jordan explains, “In Jeremiah 6:2, the prophet says ‘I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman,’ and what he’s talking about is not just all of Israel but the believing remnant in Israel. Sometimes she’s called ‘the daughter of Zion’; sometimes she’s called ‘the virgin daughter of Zion.’ But she’s exemplified in this woman who really is the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15: ‘The seed of the woman.’ ”

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In his Mother’s Day sermon last month, Jordan called the “little virgin maiden in Israel” the “most famous mom in the Bible.”

He began her amazing profile with, “When the angel Gabriel came and said, ‘You’re going to be the mother of the Messiah; the Holy Spirit’s going to create that little baby in you,’ she says, ‘How can it be?! I never had a husband! I never had sex with a man! I’m a virgin!’ Gabriel says, ‘God’s gonna do that for you,’ and she agreed to it.

“I think ‘WOW!’ You know that was a risky thing that was to agree to?! You ever thought about that?! Joseph, when he found out about it, was going to put her away privily not to shame her because there was going to be shame involved in it. And I think about the faith she had; the courage she had. But there’s something about Mary most people don’t pay attention to.

“If you look down at Luke chapter 2 it says that according to the law the baby had to be taken to Jerusalem and circumcised on the 8^th day. Mary goes up there, has Him circumcised; she offers the offering, and the sacrifice for her purification, because she’s a sinner and she has to go through that rite.

“In verse 34 there’s a guy there to bless them, Simeon a prophet, and when he sees the Lord Jesus Christ, he says to Mary (and watch the parenthesis): ‘Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;
[35] (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.’ ”

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As Jordan emphasizes, “Mary is a picture of a broken mom because what Simeon said is, ‘This little boy you’re holding is gonna bring a sword that pierces your heart,’ and that’s the way Mary’s life was from then on.

“She goes back to Nazareth and the little boy begins to grow and He’s not even 18 months old and all of a sudden the government is after Him, trying to kill Him. And in order to keep her baby safe, she and Joseph have to abandon Israel and flee to Egypt.

“The next time you see Mary and Joseph, there’s no Joseph. Mary’s by herself. You go to Mark 6:3 and you’ll see she had a big family by then. Jesus has got like five or six brothers and sisters. You don’t know how many there is. It names the brothers and then it just says ‘daughters,’ and that’s plural without their names, so He came from a big family and Mary was a single mom through most of that!

“People conjecture about what happened to Joseph. Most people think he died—he was older than Mary and that somewhere along the way after he had all those kids and died. You’d think Mary would have been the one to die after having all of them!

“But anyway, she raises those kids in that world and the Lord Jesus Christ, her oldest son, at age 30 has this incredible ministry. Imagine being his mom watching Him in that ministry! An incredible ministry that causes His fame to go all through the nation of Israel, and she’s always going to be on edge as a mom would because there’s always—after Matthew 12—somebody out there trying to kill Him.

“The Pharisees get plots against Him. Herod wanted to kill Him. He goes to His hometown and they try to throw Him off a cliff. He kind of lived a dangerous life! If you’re a mom, you’d relate to that like a mom would and that sword pierces her. She’s anxious about her boy.

“I mean, when she got word that they hated Him without a cause, she’d get words about the threats. There’s one time they go and say, ‘We think maybe He’s a little touched in the head. A little mad.’ All kind of bad things about Him.

“Listen, if you’re a parent . . . we see things done to our kids that leave an unbearable pain in our heart. Well, Mary can relate to that. Now, here’s the deal—you can let it make you bitter or you can let it make you better. Instead of running FROM God, you can run TO Him and that’s what Mary did.

“Mary went on to become, well, in Acts 1 she’s there (after His ascension in the upper room) and is a central figure in that early church—that Pentecostal church there. She became a woman of influence among the saints.”

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When Catholicism uses the term “magnificat” in reference to Mary, that’s a Latin word meaning to magnify, and it stems from what Mary says in Luke 1:46 upon first receiving news she’s giving birth to the Messiah: “My soul doth magnify the Lord.”

Jordan says, “This is a fascinating expression. There’s a popular Christmas song Mark Lowery wrote a few years ago called, ‘Mary did you know?’ and it asks questions about Christ, like, ‘Did you know that your baby boy was going to grow up to walk on water?’ and all this kind of thing, and it’s fascinating to ask yourself, ‘What did Mary know about what was going on in her life?’ This passage (in Luke 1) indicates she knew an awful lot.

“Mary is in Israel, and in the accounts here, especially in the Book of Luke, where Luke is looking at that human side of things, you see in Mary the believing remnant of the nation Israel exemplified.”

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Nearly every statement Mary goes on to make in verses 47-56 of Luke is a quotation from Old Testament scripture. Basically, she’s just repeating back what the scripture says and her understanding that they’re being fulfilled in her—rejoicing in the understanding she and other Believers have about the coming of their Messiah.

In Luke 1:47-49, for example, Mary says, “And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
[48] For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
[49] For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.”

Jordan says, “That is complete, total dedication—spirit, soul and body given over to the Lord.

“You remember in chapter 10 of Luke, where the lawyer asks, ‘Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ the answer was, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself’? Well, Mary loved God just that way! She was a part of the ‘believing remnant.’ ”

(Editor’s Note: To be continued . . . )