Mary in Jesus' public ministry according to Luke

Abstract

It is true that Gospel writers centre all their attention on the meaningful presence of Jesus Himself. Matthew and Luke attach great importance to the infancy stage in Jesus' life. We are going to leave out reflection on Mary within the infancy narratives because it merits a complete study on its own, as R.E. Brown's "The Birth of Messiah" has amply shown. Yet we notice that Luke gives great importance to Mary's role in his own Gospel. It is no wonder that Christian tradition has attributed various paintings of Mary to Luke, the writer of the third Gospel. However, more ably than a painter he describes the role of Jesus' mother throughout his Gospel and the Book of Acts. We are going to examine the various references to Mary as they occur in the third Gospel, but we will also refer to Mary's presence in Acts. It is from Chapter 3 onwards that Luke begins to speak in terms of Jesus' Public Ministry and it is also from here on that the author, directly or indirectly, refers to Mary(3:23; 4:16-30; 8:19-21; 11:27-28;Acts1:14). Mary certainly enjoyed a privileged place in Jesus' life, and Luke is well aware of this fact, given the number of Texts that mention her by name or refer to her. Still, she seems to be a term of comparison for all those who want to belong to Jesus' circle. All these have her as the only model : believers establish a unique relationship or union with Christ in such a way that it goes even beyond all blood ties.