Mary, the mother of John Mark Mother's Day

A couple of years ago, Barbara Bush was invited to speak at the commencement ceremonies of Wellesley College. However, some of the women students at Wellesley protested the invitation. They rather ungraciously suggested that Barbara Bush’s recognition and accomplishments stem mainly from the fact that she is married to the President of the United States.

Barbara Bush devoted most of her adult life to raising five children and accompanying her husband through a series of high-level government jobs. That, in the eyes of those young women at Wellesley, made her unsuitable as a role model for the women of today.

Mrs. Bush responded to their insult with typical grace and poise. She said that she wasn’t offended by their observations. “They’re 21 years old, and they’re looking at life from that perspective.” she said. “I do hope they won’t opt not to have families, and I hope they won’t opt not to be great parents. I don’t care who you are, the best job you can do in life is raise your children.”

When a woman invests her life in being a faithful mother, she isn’t going to make the headlines of the NY Times. Her impact isn’t going to be calculated on the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

But her contribution to the quality of life on this planet is enormous, because she holds in her hands the power to shape the lives of the citizens of tomorrow. Whether you are a teacher, a doctor, a politician, a scientist, or a business executive, the way you approach your role in life is influenced to a significant degree by the impact your mother made on you.

Today I want to examine the life of a woman in Scripture who is not well-known, although she had a well-known name. She is a woman who, for the most part, remains in the shadows. But her impact as a woman, and as a mother, was enormous, for she helped to shape the life of a young man who would one day write part of the Bible.

I’m talking about a woman named Mary, who was the mother of John Mark. There are six Mary’s in the New Testament, and at least four of them were more famous than this one.

Evidently Mary, which comes from the Hebrew name Miriam, was a pretty popular name in those days. Perhaps that was because King Herod was married to a well-loved Jewish princess named Mariamne.

At any rate, in the NT, we have Mary the mother of Jesus. She came from a little town called Nazareth in Galilee. We have Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who lived in Bethany, not too far from Jerusalem. She was the one who sat at the feet of Jesus while her sister made bagels and lox in the kitchen.

We have Mary Magdalene, so called because she came from the town of Magdala on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The Bible tells us that Jesus cast out of her seven devils, and yes Martha, he got them all.

Then there was another Mary, who was the wife of Clopas and the mother of James and Joses. She was present at the crucifixion of Jesus and was one of the women who went to the tomb to anoint his body. That made her one of the very first witnesses to the resurrection.

There’s yet another Mary, who lived in Rome. Paul mentions her as being a hard worker in Romans 16:6, but we don’t know anything else about her.

Finally, there is Mary the mother of John Mark. She’s only mentioned once in the Bible, in Acts 12:12.

Acts 12:12 When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying.

With a little detective work, we can piece together a profile of this woman. The first thing we can observe about her is that she was probably fairly well-to-do. She had a big house - big enough for the Christians to be using it as a meeting place. The fact that Peter, after being miraculously released from prison, went immediately to her house indicates that it was a habitual gathering place for the early church.

She was wealthy enough to have at least one servant, a young girl named Rhoda. Rhoda went to the outer door when she heard Peter knocking, which indicates that the house was large enough to have had an outer entrance and an inner entrance, with probably a courtyard in between.

There’s another bit of evidence that might indicate that Mary was wealthy. Over in the Gospel of Mark, which was written by her son, there’s a rather intriguing tidbit of information that you won’t find in any of the other gospels. It happened in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus was arrested. After a brief skirmish in which Peter cut off the high priest’s servant’s ear, the disciples fled.

Mark 14:51-52 A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.

That young man was probably John Mark. There is a very old tradition that says that the upper room, where Jesus and the disciples ate the Last Supper, was in the house of Mary the mother of John Mark. If that is so, then perhaps John Mark had followed Jesus and his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane only wearing his pajamas, so to speak.

At any rate, his outer garment was made of linen, which is a very fine cloth. Jesus told a parable about a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen. Joseph of Arimithea, who was a rich man himself, bought some linen cloth to wrap the body of Jesus in when he was taken down from the cross. If that young man in the Garden was John Mark, he was wearing linen, which means he was from a wealthy family.

It seems that Mary, his mother, had placed her resources at the Lord’s disposal. She had opened her home to the disciples. Her house had become an important meeting place for the early Christians. She was exercising the gift of hospitality.

But she may have had a good excuse not to do that. When we meet her in Acts 12, there is no mention of her husband. In fact, the house is spoken of as “the house of Mary”, which almost certainly indicates that Mary’s husband was dead. She was a widow. She was a single parent, with a young boy to raise. She could have become so preoccupied with that demanding role, that she withdrew into herself. But Mary didn’t do that. She reached out instead.

Women, one of the most significant things you can do as a homemaker is to practice the art of hospitality. Your house doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be large like Mary’s, with a courtyard and servants to answer the door. But it can be a place where strangers are welcome; where people can come and be refreshed and nourished physically and spiritually.

The ministry of hospitality was important in the early church, and it’s important in today’s church as well. Sometimes we have a tendency to regard our home as our castle. It’s a fortress with high walls and a drawbridge: a place where we find refuge from the world. We’re sometimes reluctant to have outsiders come in, even when they are from the family of God.

But Carolyn and I have found that hospitality reaps incredible benefits. We’ve enjoyed the many times we’ve had our church family in, whether individually or in groups. Whenever a visiting speaker or missionary comes through, we try to have him in. It’s great to be able to sit around the table and talk about the Lord’s work. You learn an incredible amount about what’s going on in the world.

There’s something about eating together that breaks down barriers. When a person leaves your home, he leaves as a friend - a new-found friend. Carolyn and I could literally travel around the world and have a place to stay in almost any country we cared to visit because of the friends we have there.

Hospitality has another benefit as well. It makes an impact on your children. When they are exposed to the servants of the Lord, they begin to grow an interest in the work of the Lord.

My Mom and Dad were not rich. We lived in a humble three bedroom flat, and there were six of us children. But my folks would always be having missionaries and guest speakers in for meals. I can still remember, from my childhood, meeting some outstanding Christian leaders in our home as my mother and father practiced hospitality.

That is one of the ways that Mary made a highly significant contribution in John Mark’s life. Her home was a gathering place, a clearing house for the work of the Lord. Imagine having men like Peter and Paul and Barnabas sitting around your table! It’s no wonder that John Mark became a missionary.

John Mark grew up to become a key player in the early church. After an initially rough start, where he bailed out on Paul’s first missionary journey, he eventually worked his way back into Paul’s good graces. A lot of the credit for that has to go to his cousin Barnabas, who took John Mark under his wing and served as a mentor for him.

At the end of his magnificent career, Paul was awaiting execution in a dungeon in Rome. In 2 Timothy 4, he asked Timothy to get John Mark and bring him to Rome because he was so helpful to him in the ministry.

Tradition has it that after Paul’s death, John Mark teamed up with Peter and, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, wrote a report based on Peter’s eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ ministry. That document became the Gospel of Mark, the second book of the New Testament, which has had an impact in the lives of countless millions of people in the two thousand years since he wrote it.

I like to think that that all began with a faithful mother named Mary, who opened her home to the servants of the Lord, who placed her resources at the Lord’s disposal, and who cared enough about prayer to make her home a house of prayer. Her son grew up in that environment. And he turned out pretty well, don’t you think?

Mothers., you can have such an impact in the lives of your children.