Persecution Within The Family

We're talking about Christians being persecuted. Jesus certainly was. The world he came to hated him and ultimately murdered him through a manufactured and false accusation of treason. The plot was already brewing, writes John, but it was not time for Jesus to die. Jesus told his brothers to go on to the Feast without him.

Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, "Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world." For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come." After saying this, he remained in Galilee. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. - Jhn 7:2-10 ESV

How it must have pained Jesus to know that even his brothers did not believe in him. What brothers? Has not a significant portion of the historical church taught that Mary was always a virgin, that she and Joseph never had sexual relations? The English translation of the Latin Mass has these words as part of the confession of sins:

I confess to Almighty God, to Blessed Mary ever Virgin, to Blessed Michael the Archangel, to Blessed John the Baptist, to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, to all the angels and saints, and to you, brethren, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, deed: (here he strikes his breast three times) through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault, and I ask Blessed Mary ever Virgin, Blessed Michael the Archangel, Blessed John the Baptist, the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, all the Angels and you, brethren, to pray to the Lord our God for me. 

Notice Blessed Mary ever Virgin. Why is this so important to Christians who place themselves under the oversight of the Bishop of Rome, those known as Roman Catholics, as well as most of the Orthodox Churches? Here's what Orthodox teachers say about the doctrine.

When the heretics and simple blasphemers refuse to acknowledge the Ever-virginity of the Mother of God on the grounds that the Evangelists mention the "brothers and sisters of Jesus," they are refuted by the following facts from the Gospel:

a) In the Gospels there are named four "brothers" (James, Joses, Simon and Jude), and there are also mentioned the "sisters" of Jesus—no fewer than three, as is evident in the words: and His sisters, are they not ALL with us? (Matt. 13:56). 

On the other hand, b) in the account of the journey to Jerusalem of the twelve-year-old boy Jesus, where there is mention of the "kinsfolk and acquaintances" (Luke 2:44) in the midst of whom they were seeking Jesus, and where it is likewise mentioned that Mary and Joseph every year journeyed from faraway Galilee to Jerusalem, no reason is given to think that there were present other younger children with Mary: it was thus that the first twelve years of the Lord's earthly life proceeded. 

c) When, about twenty years after the above-mentioned journey, Mary stood at the cross of the Lord, she was alone, and she was entrusted by her Divine Son to His disciple John; and from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home (John 19:27). Evidently, as the ancient Christians also understood it, the Evangelists speak either of "half' brothers and sisters or of cousins.

The article continues at some length to provide evidence from various early church fathers and concludes that this teaching is securely based upon Apostolic Tradition handed down to us in a mystery and preserved in the church's worship. Such a statement places Tradition on the same level as Holy Scripture and leaves most of us Lutherans, as well as other Protestants, with a blank stare on our faces, because we do not and cannot accept Tradition on the same level of authority as the Scriptures. And yet Martin Luther accepted the perpetual virginity of Mary! In his writings on The Christian In Society, Luther said,

Scripture does not say or indicate that she later lost her virginity . . . When Matthew [1:25] says that Joseph did not know Mary carnally until she had brought forth her son, it does not follow that he knew her subsequently; on the contrary, it means that he never did know her . . . This babble . . . is without justification . . . he has neither noticed nor paid any attention to either Scripture or the common idiom. —Luther's Works, v.45:206,212-3 / That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew (1523).

But so very many, many battles have been fought over the place of Mary in the church and in the teachings of the church! These things the Bible does make clear about Mary:

• She played her part in the birth of our Lord Jesus and is rightly honored as The Mother of God (properly understood). Even Luther agreed to such a title since God worked this wonder in her to bring about so many good things that pass human understanding. 

• She is not, however, Co-Redemptrix: the idea that she gave free consent to give life to the Redeemer, to share his life, to suffer with him under the cross, to offer His sacrifice to God the Father for the sake of the redemption of mankind, and to bring about all particular post-assumption graces by way of intercession. The latter concept is included in the concept of Mediatrix which is a separate concept but regularly included by faithful Catholics who use the title of co-redemptrix.

• Nor is Mary or any other saint to be worshipped and prayed to. Jesus made it quite clear that we are to honor the First Commandment to have no other gods and that no man comes to the Father but through Him (John 14:6). 

Whether Mary did or did not have children by Joseph following the Savior's birth must remain an open question. My own church body, the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, has no objection to the teaching that Jesus had actual brothers and sisters (John 7:1-10 and Luke 8:19-21).

I mention these things because we within the church have persecuted one another across the centuries. Wars have broken out between Catholics and Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox, and between one group of Protestants and other Protestants. All this is part of the plan of the dark powers to divert our attention away from the Gospel of Christ.  With that in mind we must all ponder these words of our Lord. 

So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. - Mat 10:32-39 ESV