Blessed

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

BLESSED

Luke 11:27-28

27 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you." 28 He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it." 

NIV

There is no doubt that Mary, who was visited by an angel and was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, who conceived in her womb, was the mother of the Son of God, and a special woman. She did give birth to Jesus who came to earth in the form of man. Although Jesus is not disrespecting Mary in any way by his response to this woman in the crowd who calls out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you”. Surely this woman did not know that it was Jesus who gave himself birth in a woman, at least in the sense that God is three persons in one, so as the Holy Spirit conceived Jesus within Mary, it was all God giving birth to himself in the form of man, and not of the will of man. Nevertheless, the response of Jesus brings us to this one truth. Our position in life bears no meaning when it comes to being blessed. It does not matter what title we hold, how much education we have, or what our financial picture looks like. There is only one condition that Jesus described as being blessed. Once again, this Greek word, makarios, means to be happy. In Paul’s letter to Timothy, he uses this word connected to the name of God. Jesus used it throughout what we call the Beatitudes. The sense of this being blessed is to be happy, content, fulfilled, satisfied, and connected to God, being his child. This is what Jesus is saying here that we are among the blessed because we have and continue to hear the word of God and make every effort to obey it. Do we fail? Of course, but it is the desire of our heart to follow Jesus, obeying the word of God. Now, this obeying could be seen simply as the act of repentance, changing the way we think, and accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. That we have done completely in obedience to the word of God. As this woman thought Mary gave birth to Jesus and nursed him, Jesus has given us new birth, new life, everlasting life, and He nurses us, each and every day bringing us from being a new infant in Christ to being a full-grown mature believer who follows the way of God. We are always growing, as we have never, and will never attain the fullness of God until we are resurrected in glory. But we are still growing, always being built up by God's word.