A Mother's Love - Exodus 2:1-10
I have to confess that
when it comes to watching television, Anita and I are crime show junkies. We used to watch CSI—all the variations of
them—but they have ceased to air, so after the last episode of CSI: Cyber
(which I was glad to see come to a close, worst of the variations), we had to
decide what to watch. With Netflix on
hand, we settled on trying Criminal Minds—that became our new show (but we have
only watched what’s on Netflix, so please don’t talk to us about anything from
this last season). The fourteenth
episode of the first season was probably the clincher for me. It was called “Riding the Lightning.” In this episode, the Behavior Analysis Unit
is sent to interview a husband and wife who are on death row for the murder of
12 girls and their son, whose body has never been found. The husband has confessed to the murder of
the girls (the number of which, during the show goes from 12 to 13 to 14 to
18), the wife has only confessed to killing the son after being directed to by
her husband, but is on death row, considered an accomplice of her husband. As the show moves forward, it becomes evident
that the husband had succumbed fully to the lure of evil and was guilty of all
the crimes and more. However, the more
the team learns, the more convinced Gideon, the team leader, believes that the
wife had no comprehension of what her husband had done, and furthermore, that
she had not killed her son. Piecing
together evidence, Gideon and the team discover that Sarah had found someone to
adopt her two-year-old son, and raise him as their own, completely oblivious as
to who his parents were. Gideon wants to
use this information to save her from being executed…she begs him not to…to let
her son live his new life in peace without the burden of being connected to his
dad…Gideon reluctantly agrees and Sarah goes to the electric chair, offering up
her life to ensure her son has a good life, free from the burden of his
father’s sins.
A mother’s love…a
mother’s sacrifice…all during the show, there were three paintings present that
were hand painted by Sarah during her imprisonment. Those paintings were key to Gideon and his
team figuring out that Sarah’s son was still alive. Among those paintings was a painting of a river
twisting and turning through some reeds…connecting her story to another well-known
story.
Through the God-given
resourcefulness of Joseph, the Egyptians, the Hebrews people, and others
survived the drought that struck the region.
The Hebrew people that had moved to Egypt during the drought remained there
and began to thrive…they thrived so well, that the new Pharaoh who rose to
power long after Joseph’s death felt that the Hebrews were overrunning the
Egyptians and so Pharaoh made the decision to enslave the Hebrew people and
then commanded the midwives to kill any male Hebrew babies they delivered. The midwives refused, lying to Pharaoh as to
why they hadn’t killed the babies, and so Pharaoh, in his anger, demanded every
male child born to the Hebrew people was to be thrown into the Nile. One of the moms, a Levite woman, gave birth
to a baby boy. She couldn't bear to see
him drowned, so she hid him, for about three months. When she realized she couldn’t hide him anymore,
she devised a plan…a plan that would rip her apart emotionally, but a plan that
would hopefully give life to her son.
This mother took some
papyrus, bitumen, and pitch and formed a basket. She placed her little boy in the basket, and
when she knew that the daughter of the Pharaoh would be bathing in the river,
she placed the basket holding her little boy into the river, near the bank,
among the reeds. Pharaoh’s daughter, as
she was bathing, discovered the baby, her heart broken with his crying, refused
to see her father’s orders carried out, took the little baby and raised him as
her own, naming him Moses. This mother’s
love and sacrifice not only saved the life of her son, but ended up saving all
of God’s people from slavery in Egypt.
The love of these two
mothers is reflective of the source of that love, in fact it is reflective of the
source of every mother’s love for their child, the source of of all love. Sarah’s love of her son, the love of Moses’
mother for her son, is reflective of the love of God—it fact they offer a perfect
image of the love of God.
Some may balk at this
idea for a variety of reasons.
One objection springs
from the idea, somehow, that God is male.
Why? Because the language we find in much of Scripture uses masculine language
about God and most of Church history and tradition depicts God as a man with
long, flowing white hair. We have to
remember that many of those paintings were done by men looking in the mirror,
remaking God in their image, and we forget that it is the other way around, we
are made in God’s image. God is neither
male nor female. In fact there are
references to God in very feminine terms in Scripture itself, such as the words
of Jesus, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…how often I have desired to gather your
children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings….”[i] Yes, most of us typically use male pronouns
to reference God…but even in that God is not a guy…nor is God a gal…God is
beyond that…in His Image both male and female…both fathers and mothers are
created…and that image is love…Love that is reflected in a Mother’s Love for
her child.
Others may object
suggesting that God didn’t sacrifice Himself to save His Son, He sent His Son
to die. Here’s where I am going to push
us, this morning, in a way we don’t usually go in this setting, though I’ve
referenced it in Bible Studies from time to time. Yes, we read Biblically, that God sent His
Son to die for our sins…and people are horrified that any parent would send
their child off to die, particularly for someone else. When we get all worked up this way, we forget
another truth about God. We worship a
Trinitarian God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—One God in Three…the Father, Son,
and Spirit are not three separate entities, they are one acting together,
though one aspect of God may take the forefront, all are present together. In the coming of Jesus, God decided that it
was time to intervene in the world in a way that had never happened. God came to offer His every own life as God
the Son, as Jesus…God did not force His Son to come die…God offered His very
own life for ours…sacrificing Himself that His Children might not be bound to
sin…that His Children might not be trapped by their past or the past of their parents’
sin…God sacrificed Himself that each of us might have life—that we might live
into a future freed of slavery to any sin, and freed of the threat of
death. This, my brothers, this, my
sisters, is a mother’s love outpoured.
The love that God has for each of us…the love that God has placed within
all of the women here, whether they sacrifice themselves for their biological children
or for other children…the love that God actually places within each of us…
In the Name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…Amen.
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