Mary Among the Believers

A small group of people walks down a hillside, back toward the city. They have just watched their friend and teacher disappear into a cloud. And they are not sad. They are going home to pray.

For forty days after he rose from the dead, Jesus appeared to his followers, eating with them and teaching them about the kingdom of God. He told them to wait in Jerusalem for the gift his Father had promised, the Holy Spirit. Then, on the Mount of Olives, just outside the city, he was taken up before their eyes, and a cloud hid him. Two men in white appeared and said, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus will come back in the same way you saw him go. So the disciples turn and head back to Jerusalem.

Luke tells us that the Mount of Olives is a Sabbath day's journey from Jerusalem, not far at all. They walk down the slope, past the olive groves, across the Kidron valley and up into the city. And they go to an upper room, an upstairs room where they have been staying. Luke lists who is there: Peter, John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. Eleven names. A few weeks earlier, most of them had run away when Jesus was arrested. Now they are together again.

And they are not alone. “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.” With one accord means with one mind, together, united. The women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and stood near the cross and found the empty tomb are there. Jesus' brothers are there too, the same brothers who, the gospels say, did not believe in him during his ministry. Now they believe. And Mary is there. The young woman who said to the angel Gabriel, be it unto me according to your word, is now an older woman, praying with her son's followers.

Think of all Mary has seen. An angel's visit in Nazareth. A baby born in Bethlehem. Shepherds at the door and wise men with gifts. Simeon's warning in the temple. Her twelve-year-old son lost and found among the teachers. The wedding at Cana. The cross. The empty tomb. And now she is simply one of the believers, waiting and praying with the others for the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised. Luke does not give her a speech or a special place. She is there, in the room, praying. That is the last time the Bible shows her. A few days later, at Pentecost, the Spirit comes.

A Sabbath day's journey was a measure of distance. Jewish teachers, drawing on the law, set a limit on how far a person should walk on the Sabbath: about two thousand cubits, a little under a mile, or roughly one kilometre. The rule is discussed in the Mishnah, the collection of Jewish teaching written down around the year two hundred. Luke uses it simply to tell his readers how close the Mount of Olives was to the city.

Mary among the believers. You can read it in Acts chapter one, verses twelve to fourteen. The story that began for Mary with an angel's message ends, as far as the Bible tells it, in a room full of prayer. At Christmas, we remember the young mother in Bethlehem. Here we see her years later, still trusting, still waiting on God, together with his people. So here is a question to carry with you. The last time we see Mary in the Bible, she is praying with others. Who could you pray with this Christmas?