Luke 11:27-28 - Homiletics

The voice out of the crowd.

The preacher never knows how far his words reach, what responses they elicit, or what chords they cause to vibrate. Here is one "out of the crowd," a witness for the emotion of many hearts which had felt the mighty power of the Prophet. That she had any real insight into the mission of Jesus, or that she was really attracted to the truth uttered by him, cannot be affirmed. It was, perhaps, only a passing excitement, "a most artlessly unintelligent outcry of mere womanly feeling." But the soul had been stirred; "while it had mused, the fire burned, then spake she with her tongue." A woman's word!—the idea with which it is charged being the honor which had been put on her whose relation to the Prophet was that of mother. She was the echo of the angel in his salutation, the pioneer of the generations who should call Mary blessed. The answer of Christ is very striking in respect of—

I. THAT WHICH IT IMPLICITLY CONDEMNS . We see, in this incident, the germ of Mariolatry. A natural interest in the one who had been so highly favored grew, and corrupted as it grew, into a veneration for her person, and the supposed influence of her motherhood. Instead of recognizing the sacredness which had been put on motherhood, and dwelling on the very and real humanity of the Lord, the reverence of the mind was gradually transferred to the image of the woman, as that rose before the imagination of the nameless one of the crowd, nursing the babe. And the mother and her motherhood became, like Gideon's ephod, a snare to the Israel of God. Observe how constantly and expressively Christ bids away from the region of such veneration. His silence as to his mother implicitly condemns it. He recognizes her, not as mother, but in the title "Woman." His last earthly care was for her, but the sentence which conveyed it was," Woman , behold thy Son!" and to John, "Behold thy mother!" And his declinature to allow the praise to pass unchallenged, his call to consider something else as the only legitimate blessedness, confirms the reproof. "What is the preaching of the Reformation more than the word which the Lord here speaks? In the Council of Trent they heard not that voice, but repelled it with anathema—for a maranatha to themselves" (Stier).

II. THAT WHICH IT OPPOSES TO THE CRY OUT OF THE CROWD . Mark the "yea rather." The woman's saying is not denied, but thought is directed to the only legitimate cause of blessedness. The mother herself was blessed because she had given herself entirely to the Word of God. She had felt herself the Lord's handmaiden when the salutation came at which she was troubled; and when the Divine Son, even as a Child, spoke, she kept his sayings in her heart. This, then, is singled out as the "yea rather , blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it." It is a word both of encouragement and of searching. There is a tinge almost of jealousy in her who accosts him. One had been selected for the honor which she might have coveted. "Nay," is the encouragement, "this is the honor which thou canst share with her. If she had it not, whilst thou hadst it, she would have no lasting honor, whilst thou wouldst have praise evermore. If thou hast this honor, thou art near me as she is." The vital question is—What is the relation of the life to the Word of God? To have heard it is well, but there must be both the hearing and the keeping. "He that hath my words, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." The only relationships which Christ recognizes are spiritual relationships. They are the blood-relationships in the family of heaven. "He stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!"