Wednesday: The Mastery of Privilege Based on Blood
WEEK 8
WEDNESDAY
THE MASTERY OF PRIVILEGE BASED ON BLOOD
Genesis13:8; Matthew 23:8
We now pass on to another mastery that emerged with the coming of the Holy Spirit: the mastery of privileges and standing based on blood relationships.
Among those who waited in that upper room for the coming of the Holy Spirit was “Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers” (Acts 1:14). Into that innocent-looking statement is packed a world of new meaning and a world of emancipation from nepotism. For a great deal of our society is based on privileges based on blood relationships.
But note what happened: Mary, the mother of Jesus, did not sit out apart, superior, smiling patronage on this group who were waiting for the Holy Spirit. She took her place among them and sought and found the Holy Spirit on the same basis as the rest—on exactly the same basis. That simple happening canceled all rights and privileges based on mere blood relationship. Mary was equal to, but no higher than, any other human being. She needed the coming of the Holy Spirit within her just like the rest. The angel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one who is to be born . . . will be called God’s Son” (Luke 1:35).
Note the “Holy Spirit will come over you,” and the “power of the Most High will overshadow you”; “over” and “overshadow” but not “in” you. The Holy Spirit came over her for that particular work, but nowhere is it said that Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit as her own continuous personal possession. That came only at Pentecost and on the same conditions as the rest—surrender and faith. This was the divine plan. If people had planned it, they would have slipped into the prevalent pattern of special privileges based on blood; and the ages would have gone astray with them. This happened in Islam, where there are many modern blood descendants of the prophet Mohammed, all receiving special privileges and honors and standing.
We were saved all that by a simple seed happening; Mary was equal before God, but not more than equal.
O Lord, I thank you that you have no favorites, all on the same footing with you. Help me to grasp that and take it in its full meaning for myself and others. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My blood relations through ancestry may be poor; my blood relations to the Son of God are wonderful.