Three mothers were talking about how devoted their sons were to them. One
bragged, ““My son is so devoted to me, for my birthday he gave me an all-expenses-
paid cruise around the world.”” The second boasted, ““That’’s nothing. Mine threw a
huge catered affair for me, and he flew in all my friends from the East.”” The third
woman smirks at them both. ““Without a doubt, my son is the most devoted. Three times
a week he goes to his therapist. A hundred and thirty dollars a session he pays. And
what does he talk about the whole time? Me!””
On May 9, 1914 by an act of Congress, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the
second Sunday in May as Mothers day, a day for public expression and remembrance of
our Mothers. But 3500 years earlier God said, “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy
days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
The laws of God do not seem to be equally challenging. Some may seem to be
easier to keep than others, but I have found that the laws of God point to potential areas
of weakness in our lives. If God set it down as a law, then it must be an area in which by
nature we are prone to failure, for by nature we break every law of God and this law is
no exception. All the way from You shall have no other gods before ME to you shall not
covet your neighbors possessions there is no law that the society of fallen man has not
broken, reworded, watered down, replaced, changed or simply ignored.
Jesus argued this point in the sermon on the mount. Matt. 5:21-22; 27,28. In both of
these examples Jesus goes to the heart of the issue. What is it that leads one to
murder? It begins in the heart with anger, jealousy, contempt, impatience or some other
issue. It was anger that moved Cain to murder his brother. The term Raka denotes an
attitude of contempt and is probably the motivation for the cruel treatment and killing of
many of the African/Americans in the earlier years of our country. Fool is a term that
means empty headed or idiot, a term that I used last week when a thoughtless driver
pulled out in front of me as I was driving my truck. After thoughts of what I could do with
80,000 pounds of truck to that car in front of me, it occurred to me that I was feeling
what is now called road rage, and then Jesus words in Matthew 5 came to mind. And
yes I did confess my sin, and I have to tell you that I’m glad God is so ready to forgive!
Jesus argues His point again in Matt. 15:1-6...
We must infer by this passage that at least part of God’s intention in the law “honor
your father and mother” had to do with financial support in their old age if necessary.
Some of Jesus audience in this passage had made a loophole in the law. It’s a rather
technical issue but allow me to illustrate it like this. Supposing you had an apartment in
your home that you used to generate supplementary income. At some point your
parent... no, lets change that... your mother-in-law finds herself in a situation where she
needs financial assistance for her living accommodations. Because you are frustrated
with your mother in law you decide to tell her that you’ve promised the Lord that you
would dedicate the proceeds of the apartment to the missions pledge you made at
church. So you can’t really help her right now without robbing from the Lord.
Thus vs 5... By this action you make the command of God of no effect, and incur
Jesus accusation in vs 7.... It again comes back to a heart issue.
Jesus brought up the issue of honoring parents multiple times in His ministry, and
again later through the Apostle in the epistles, so it must be an important issue to Him.
How important is it to us? Do we honor our parents, and on this Mothers Day specifically
do we honor our mothers?
One girl was struggling with this issue as she reviewed how unreasonable and
difficult her parents were, but she also had a desire to honor the Lord, so as she argued
with herself on this issue she reasoned that, the Bible DOES say "Honor thy mother and
father." Yes, said the other side of the argument, but I wonder if the Lord actually knows
my parents and if so does this still apply to me. She finally concludes, It doesn’t say,
"Honor thy mother and father if they are worthy of being honored." It doesn’t say, "Honor
thy mother and father only if they treat you well." It simply says, "Honor thy mother and
father." No excuses, no clauses, nothing. Just honor them...
Honor for your father and mother is not an optional issue. God is very clear when He
says honor your father and mother. Whether you think they deserve it or not it is God’s
command. Jesus reiterated it during His earthly ministry and He set the example for us
to follow. So it behooves us to give serious consideration to how we honor our mothers
(and our mothers in law).
So what does it mean to honor... The word used for honor in the OT is used in a
variety of ways. It could be to thank, to value significantly, to support or contribute to the
support of, to publicly express value for a person, to praise, to seek the good of
someone, to respond with sincere respect. Taking the various uses and applying them
to honoring a mother might mean that you actively seek her out and publicly recognize
her value and worth. It implies that you would be thanking, prizing, supporting, and
communicating with her. I saw an example of this yesterday at my nieces graduation.
As the grads walked in line toward the front many parents were waving or taking
pictures from the sidelines. As one girl walked by she stepped out of line came over to
her mother and gave her a kiss. With that simple act, she honored her mom.
In the NT the word for honor has two possible shades of meaning. One has to do
with value. Can you attach a value to your mother? Without trying to reduce your
mother to a commodity, try to put a price on her. To receive from another what you have
received from her what would it cost?
You stretched her out of shape as she carried you inside her for nine months. What
value would you put on that? Try to hire some attractive young woman to gain 40 lbs, tell
her she’ll have difficult getting up and down, she’ll walk funny and have to wear strange
clothes. If you could get her to do it what would it cost?
What would it cost to hire someone to be on duty 7 days a week 24 hours a day to
take care of your every whim? Even if it was totally unreasonable, and at 3:00 in the
morning. Can you put a price on unconditional love and acceptance.
What would it cost to hire someone to clean, prepare meals, do laundry, change
diapers, get drooled on or worse, mend clothes, make beds, cut coupons, fight store
traffic, clean toilets, do interior decorating, bandage bumps and bruises with genuine
sympathy, and have no days off? And then after umteen years of faithful service, after
never acknowledging her work, after you’ve broken her heart by your choices, after
you’ve taken her for granted, after she has selflessly poured her life out for you and
suffered in silence, how much would it cost to keep that person doing the same job?
For all this, most moms I know would be glad for a simple but sincere
acknowledgment of her investment... Mom I appreciate you, I appreciate all of the love
and energy and sacrifice that you have spent on me, I love you.
The second shade of meaning is to honor a person because of their rank or state of
office, giving them deference or reverence. For example in a court of law you address
the judge as “your honor”. He deserves your respect by reason of his position wether or
not you respect him as a person. We see this concept in Jesus words, “Render to
Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” or in Peters admonition to Honor the King.
Even if you cannot attach honor to your mother because she earned it, she deserves
your honor simply by reason of the position God gave her as your mother. In fact in
spite of what kind of mother you have, you must recognize that the family He put you in,
with all its warts and wrinkles, is the family that He chose to use to shape you into the
person He wants you to become. Part of that shaping process is to honor your mother
regardless of what kind of a mother she is. It is a command to be obeyed...Honor your
father and mother... No excuses, no clauses, nothing. Just honor them...
Not only does God tell us to Honor our mother, He says, give her credit for what she
does. Pro.23:22 says don’t despise her when she is old. Don’t do things that would bring
her shame. Prov 6:20 My son...forsake not the law of thy mother Prov 28:24
Whoever robs his mother, is the companion of a destroyer. Prov 30:17 The eye that
despises to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young
eagles shall eat it. Exo 21:15 And he that hits his mother, shall be surely put to death.
Lev 19:3 You shall respect your mother, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your
God. Deu 27:16 Cursed is he that makes light of his mother.
Consider the example that Jesus Himself left for us.
The first recorded episode of Jesus life took place when He was 12 years old. You
know the story. He stayed behind in Jerusalem and was astonishing the academic elite
as He heard them and asked them questions. At the end of the days journey Joseph
and Mary realized He wasn’t with them and they had to return a days journey to
Jerusalem to look for Him. It took another three days to find Him and by that time Mary
was frantic. When she saw him she said, Son, why have You done this to us? Your
father and I have sought you sorrowing. Jesus replied, Why did you seek Me? Did you
not know that I must be about My Father’s business?" It seems they didn’t understand
Him, but the next thing we learn is that He went along with them and submitted himself
to them... Jesus honored His mother.
Then again in the last recorded episode of Jesus earthly life, His mother comes into
focus. In His darkest hour, suffering in agony on the cross, He looked down and saw His
mother and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, "Woman,
behold your son!" Then He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" And from that
hour that disciple took her to his own home. Even in the last moments of His life, when
He bore the sins of the world, He took time to honor His mother. Jesus honored His
mother by submitting to her in His youth even though she didn’t understand Him and He
honored her as He faced death on the cross seeing to her welfare for the rest of her life.
How do you honor your mother? Not just on mothers day, but the rest of the year,
how do you honor her? Do you spend time with her, talk with her on a regular basis,
publicly and privately recognize her value and worth, communicate to her that she is
appreciated, thank her for her prayers or investments she made in your life. Have you
made any attempt to estimate her worth and communicate that to her? May be you
have opened your home to your mother because of her needs. (Less than 100 years
ago over 80 percent of families had a parent living with them. Now it is less than 2
percent.) Have you honored your mother simply because of her God given position as
your mother? This is not an exhaustive list but right now, would you take a moment of
quiet thought and identify a couple of ways you have been honoring your
mother....................
For Some of you it is no longer possible to show honor to your mother directly, but
you can still honor her memory and you can take the lessons you’ve learned in honoring
your mother and in turn honor others. For God tells us to honor all people and learning
to honor your mother is a great place to start. I believe learning to honor one another is
critically important in the process we are traveling through as a church family.
If in this little exercise you haven’t’ been able to identify ways that you have honored
your mother, or if instead God’s Spirit has brought to your mind some ways you’ve
dishonored her, may I encourage you this morning to confess this to God, and you will
find as I did when I confessed calling someone an idiot driver, that God is willing and
ready to forgive. 1 Jn 1:9...If we confess our sins.... And in the light of the instruction
we’ve been receiving from Jim Van Yperen if you’ve had to make confession to God
concerning this issue you may need to practice some confession, reconciliation and
restitution with your mom as well.
If on the other hand, you are able to identify ways you have been honoring her then
may you enjoy the blessing God has attached to the keeping of this commandment. He
says Honor your father and your mother; That it may be well with you, and you may live
long on the earth, or as the New living translation puts it, “If you honor your father and
mother, "you will live a long life, full of blessing."
