Luke 11:27-28 :

It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!”

But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”

These verses make it very clear that it was not Jesus’ intent to exalt His earthly mother above other believers. This woman in the crowd would not have been rebuked in many Catholic groups. I would imagine that, instead, may would agree with her. This has become a big problem today as many people even pray to Mary. This is not a Christian activity according to the Bible. You won’t find any prayer made to Mary and you do find verses like these. In a sense this woman who speaks out embodies a philosophy that needs to be addressed.

Jesus, as we read before, makes it very clear that spiritual relationships are more important than physical ones. This time Jesus emphasizes the “keeping” of the word of God. This is very interesting to me because it really is a special blessing of God to be capable of not only hearing the word of God but also having the power to do what it says. The Bible tells us that, without the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives, we are unable to obey God’s word. We can’t just decide to obey. We need God’s blessing in order to be capable of it.

I believe that the Bible shows us that Mary, the mother of Jesus, had help from God. As we read earlier, the Holy Spirit did come upon her and she was made to be capable of hearing God’s word and keeping it. Jesus didn’t put Mary down by saying these things. Instead, he made it clear that Mary was not to be exalted above anyone else who hears God’s word and obey it. The exceptional one is God and the power He gives us by faith in His word. We need to hear what Jesus says here and follow these words of the Messiah and not be distracted by human ideas that go against what He says.