Are You My Mother?
“…the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother…” (Galatians 4:26)
In one of P.D. Eastman’s classic children’s books, a baby bird asks the same question over and over again to different creatures: “Are you my mother?”. The story is fun for children, but I wonder if you’ve ever asked the same thing in regards to the Christian faith.
We know that Christianity is a familial faith. God is our Father. Christ is our elder brother. We have received the Spirit of Adoption. Our fellow Christians are our family: “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.” (1 Timothy 5:1-2).
We know that God is our Father, but have you ever wondered…who is our Mother?
St. Cyprian, an early church father, famously answered the question this way: “No one can have God for their Father who does not have the Church for their mother.” Where did he get the idea that the Church is our Mother?
He got it from Paul! In Galatians 4, Paul contrasts the Apostate Israel of the 1st century with the True Israel, the Church. He writes about those still clinging to the Old Covenant that was fading away (likened to Ishmael), and those dwelling secure in the New Covenant (likened to Isaac). So Paul says, “Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.” (Galatians 4:25-26)
So, there’s the Jerusalem below (the earthly City of David), and there’s the Jerusalem above (the heavenly City of God). This Jerusalem above is the Church, as John sees in his apocalyptic vision: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation 21:1-2)
Of course, as Paul makes clear, the Bride is the Church! “ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…” (Ephesians 5:25). So the New Jerusalem is the Bride which is the Church. But is this just a heavenly reality for the future? Or do we experience this now?
Hebrews 12:22-24 says, “…you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant…”. Whenever we gather with a local congregation, we are stepping into the overlap of heaven and earth, the true Temple Mount where the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant join together in worship!
So the church is the New Jerusalem/Bride, but where did Paul get the idea that the church is also our Mother?
He got it from Isaiah! In Isaiah 66:10-13, the Lord gives this warm invitation to the maternal comfort of Zion:
“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
all you who love her;
rejoice with her in joy,
all you who mourn over her;
at you may nurse and be satisfied
from her consoling breast;
that you may drink deeply with delight
from her glorious abundance.”For thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,
and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;
and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip,
and bounced upon her knees.
As one whom his mother comforts,
so I will comfort you;
you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
Paul was taking Isaiah’s vision, and applying it to the New Covenant reality of the church!
So believer, you have God as your Father, and the Church as your Mother. As the first verse of 2 John says, “The elder to the elect lady and her children…”. The elder is John. The elect lady is the church. And the children are the Christians, the members of the local church! C.S. Lewis described it well, we belong to Mother Kirk (“kirk” is the Scottish word for “church”).
What does this mean practically?
While every believer is a part of the Bride, the way we as individuals relate to the wider Church is as a Mother. Corporately we’re the Bride of Christ, but individually we’re children of Mother Church. There are many rich, biblical metaphors for the church that are beautiful complements, not contradictions. Yes, the church is an Army, and the church is a Mother. We need the full picture.
Belonging to Mother Church re-shapes our evangelism. As we extend the gospel invitation to the world, we are inviting the orphans “lost and ruined by the fall” to come back home, to a Father and a Mother. As Jesus said with tears in his eyes “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37).
David Schrock puts it this way: “The role of the church as mother (collectively) is to raise the children of God. As every member of the church is then a royal heir, the church has the responsibility to teach newborn Christians, whether young or old, how to walk as heirs of the kingdom. The church is a mother nursing her children on the milk of God’s Word, so that these children can go into the world, walking in truth and ruling in the power of the Spirit.”
Belonging to Mother Church re-shapes our relationships. Paul described his ministry as both paternal and maternal. In 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12, Paul says, “…you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.” And then in vs. 7-8, he says, “…we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.” As we grow in our relationships with one another in the Church, we…
Love each other
Show affection for each other
Share our lives with each other
Our relationships should look like both giving and receiving maternal care and love.
So children of the living God, honor both your Father and your Mother.
“As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 66:13)