Palm Sunday/Passion SundayB, March 29, 2015 Sullivan Park
Care Center by Annette Fricke
In the Oxford Book of Carols, on p.
82, there is a song titled, “The Seven Virgins” that goes like this:
All under
the leaves, the leaves of life, I met with virgins sev’n, And one of them was
Mary mild, Our Lord’s mother from heav’n.
‘O what are
you seeking, you seven fair maids, All under the leaves of life? Come tell, come tell me what seek you All
under the leaves of life.’
‘We’re
seeking for no leaves, Thomas, But for a friend of thine; We’re seeking for
sweet Jesus Christ, To be our guide and thine.’
‘Go you
down, go you down to yonder town, And sit in the gallery; And there you’ll find
sweet Jesus Christ, Nailed to a big yew-tree.’
So down they
went to yonder town, As fast as foot could fall, And many a grievous bitter
tear, From the virgins’ eyes did fall.
‘O peace,
mother, O peace, mother, Your weeping doth me grieve; O I must suffer this,’ he
said, ‘For Adam and for Eve.’
‘O how can I
my weeping leave, Or my sorrows undergo, Whilst I do see my own Son die, When
sons I have no mo’?’
‘Dear
mother, dear mother, you must take John, All for to be your son, And he will
comfort you sometimes, Mother, as I have done.’
‘O come,
thou John Evangelist, Thou’rt welcome unto me, But more welcome my own dear
son, That I nursed upon my knee.’
Then he laid
his head on his right shoulder, Seeing death it struck him nigh: ‘The Holy
Ghost be with your soul,---I die, mother dear, I die.’
Oh the rose,
the rose, the gentle rose, And the fennel that grows so green! God give us grace in every place, To pray for
our king and queen.
Furthermore for our
enemies all Our prayers they should be strong.
Amen, Good Lord! your charity Is the ending of my song.
Who are the
seven virgins? Mary, the mother of God
is the only one who is identified by name.
And if you look at the canon of scriptures, Mary was not a virgin with
only one son. Mark 3:31 states clearly
that Mary had brothers and we also know that one of Jesus’ brothers later
became a follower of Jesus’ teaching.
Later scholars also discovered that the translation in the book of
Isaiah, commonly translated as the Messiah will be born of a virgin is not
accurate. The actual Hebrew word means
young woman and could either be a virgin or married. The sense of the song, regardless of whether
or not Mary was a virgin also begs the question as to whether or not the others
were virgins. Maybe we need to put on glasses
that are able to see a snippet of another culture. We know that Paul thought that remaining
celibate was a way to honor God in the body.
This, of course is a way of life that doesn’t pay attention to the
particulars of what happened prior to that.
A person can be married, divorced, and then remain celibate either for
the rest of that person’s life or until getting married again. If you follow a strong Biblical teaching, one
cannot marry again after a divorce. If
one were to judge from the frailty of life in the early years of the church and
the short life expectancy, you can see how this biblical injunction would prove
to be wise advice. As we move further
and further away from when Jesus walked this earth, we discover more and more
that some of those things in the Bible thought to be absolute truths simply
aren’t; for example, the whole practice and concept of slavery. To go a step further, the relationship
between husband and wife has also been brought into question. Most people no
longer hold to St Paul’s concept of a man as the head of the household and see
marriage more as a partnership of separate, but equal roles.
So how do we
make modern sense of the seven virgins, only one of whom is identified? In the gospel according to Mark, we have
identified 1) women looking on from a distance, 2) Mary Magdalene, 3) Mary the
mother of James the younger and of Joses, and 4) Salome. I would have to conclude that the number
seven is not to be taken literally, but is a representation. In the book of Revelation, the number of
churches is seven. Seven, in this sense
is a representation of the entire church since the actual number of churches in
the province of Asia at the time was more than seven. If we go with this
understanding, these women all together comprise the seven virgins. Women
didn’t count in that culture, so nobody would have kept track of the exact
number. It was common to list the number
of men, not including women and children.
As for
virgins, the term means far more than just a physical state. It can mean innocence, modesty, and purity,
not previously exploited, cultivated, tapped, or used.[1] Considering what we know of the male
followers of Jesus which is far more, I would suggest that this is a very
accurate term to describe the women.
These followers who supported Jesus with their hospitality as opposed to
some of the Pharisees who questioned Jesus’ every move were generally
accepting. They were accepting of Jesus
because Jesus accepted and listened to them in a way that they probably never
experienced before. Jesus took the time
to impress upon them that they also were viable human beings who mattered to
him and to the world around them.
Do the women
of today feel the love of Jesus in a similar way? And do they respond to Jesus in the same way
as so many years ago all the way to the cross?
When I think about Mary in particular, she surely had a relationship
with Jesus like no other. She and she
alone raised Jesus from birth after carrying him in her womb. She probably had only a partial understanding
as to the pain she would go through watching him die at such an early age. Back then, the age of 30 was thought to be
when a person reached maturity. That
means that Jesus died just three years after reaching maturity. Yet she and many other women remained faithful
to the very end. They watched as Jesus
hung on the cross, as he was taken down by Joseph of Arimathea and put in his
own grave spot. They were eye-witnesses
and did what they could to show their undying respect for the one who cared for
them so much. They saw how Joseph
wrapped up the body for burial. More
than anything, I am sure that the words of the centurion echoed in their minds
for weeks and years afterwards, “Truly this man was God’s Son.” And just as surely, their lives were changed
forever by this one life and this one death.
No comments:
Post a Comment