Sifting Through the Sorrow and Joy or The Real World

God knows Mary got a dose of the real world didn’t she?

First she went through all the fear and uncertainty of being an unwed mother. And she lived in a society in which there was enormous stigma attached to it.

So she went through that.

On the other hand she experienced the real world when she experienced one of the most miraculous things a human being can experience…the experience of carrying and giving birth to a child.

And Mary had to be amazed at the response to her son’s birth.

Shepherds came from all over to see her baby saying that angels had sent them…and then there were those wise men from the East who brought expensive gifts and told her and Joseph that their child was even more than special.

So when Mary had Jesus there was the news of the unwanted pregnancy and the poverty too

But there was also the birth surrounded by unexpected blessings.

Then we come to our scripture passage for today and can’t we see Mary again getting a dose of the real world.

Joseph and Mary and probably other family members visited Jerusalem and then returned to Nazareth, only to find that Jesus hadn’t returned with them.

They made the one day trek back to Jerusalem and probably spent a whole day looking for Jesus .

So by the time they finally found him…in the temple listening to the teachers and asking questions…they pulled him outside…and Mary said to him…”Son, how could you treat your father and I this way? We’ve been searching everywhere for you, out of our minds with worry.!

So they took Jesus the days’ journey back to Nazareth….and the next passage tells us of the contrast of things that Mary probably experienced.

The passage reads like this:

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Can you imagine anything that would make a mother feel more satisfied and gratified?

One day Mary is so frightened running all over Jerusalem trying to find Jesus wanting to wring his neck……….In the days ahead she probably couldn’t have felt better and proud of her son.

Of course the most difficult thing that she ever had to experience was seeing her son executed.

It says in Luke 19 that she stood by his cross and Jesus charged John with taking care of her after he died.

How did she react to this brutal event?  

And did she see him in any of his resurrection appearances?

Was there any kind of experience which gave her at least some consolation after Jesus death?

Did Mary end up a bitter woman?

Or was she able to sift through the joy and the sorrow and realize that’s what living in the real world is all about.

It’s taking the sorrow with the joy.

It’s taking the tears with the laughter.

It’s taking the wrenching apart with the coming together.