Mary: Scariest Woman in The Bible?

A lot has been said about what The Bible about the lack of feminist rights. These people have apparently never heard of Mary, mother of Jesus.

Mary was a force to be reckoned with. Look back at the marriage at Cana for a moment; the wine had ran out and Mary asked Jesus to make some more. Jesus, like all kids, didn't want to do any work during a party, and so looked at her and basically asked if she was serious. Mary was not going to take any backtalk from a son of hers, even if He was the Son of God. She looked at Him, told him he was going to do it, and told the servants to just do what he said. When Jesus said to get six jars and fill them with water, you can bet they ran to comply, especially when they saw Mary get the last word in and walk away before Jesus could say anything else.

Putting this a little into historical context: The word of the firstborn, which Jesus was, was the Word of God, doubly so in this case. Mary had told him what He was going to do, and that He was going to do it even if He didn't want to, and He had better do it now. This was just something that wasn't done. This makes Mary officially the scariest stage mom in history: She knew what her son was capable of, and He had best start living up to her expectations or else. Jesus probably complied because it was easier to turn water into wine than say no to Mom.

This is why Jesus had to go out in the desert for his forty days of testing; that testing would have gone entirely differently if Mary had something to say about it. Sure, Satan may have been the Prince of the World, but Mary got Jesus to back down with a glance. There is no question that she would have gone to the mat for her son, and that would have been a slapdown for the ages.

Mary did a few other things, but her telling the Son of God to do something and expecting it to happen says a lot about the expectations of women in Jewish life. When Jesus questioned her order right off the bat, that should have been it. She, as the supposedly obedient wife and mother, should have had no power over her son. And yet there was no question in her mind that Jesus would do exactly as she said. There is no question that women may have been told to obey, but obviously that was not the expectation.

Another consideration is that Mary is seen as having the power to intercede on one's behalf when it comes prayers to God. That says a lot about the power of mothers, that we expect them to be able to intercede on our behalf in a world where women are supposedly powerless. Obviously there is a lot more to feminism in The Bible when what that is just not actually expected behavior.