To my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you!

This Lord’s Day is Mother’s Day. I want to greet every Christian mother and offer you my special tribute. Every unique relationship is created by God and holds profound meaning within the history of redemption.

For example, as wives, sisters are specially chosen by God in marriage to symbolize the church for whom the Lord Jesus gave His life on the cross. You are called to embody, through your submission to your husbands in marriage, the spotless church, cleansed and filled by redeeming love.

However, I want to pay honor to you today not because you are wives, but because you, as mothers, are chosen by God to symbolize the Lord’s church. In Galatians 4:26, Paul called the church the mother of believers: “But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.”

Paul said that in Christ, you are not “giving birth to children for slavery,” but raising “children of promise.” He referred to the church as our mother. Does the world truly understand the greatness of mothers even as it praises motherhood? If this magnitude is credited only to your devotion, selflessness, relentless attention to your offspring, innumerable sleepless nights, and perseverance through suffering; or your ceaseless work, struggle, and harsh burden; then it becomes a curse, not a blessing. For in Genesis 3:16, this is precisely God’s curse upon Eve after the fall: “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.”

Motherhood without the gospel is pitiable, not great. The more a mother gives, the more pitiful she becomes. The more a mother worries, the more tragic her outcome. What a mother loves, she will eventually lose. A mother clings not to her children, but to life itself. And under that curse, although life comes through the mother, she ultimately cannot grasp it. For the pain of motherhood is a mark of humanity’s fall. A mother will lose what she has raised; a mother will reap death from her children. This is the harbinger of humanity’s ultimate demise. The life of every toiling mother reflects this foreshadowing. If humanity is destined for extinction, if death will ultimately reign over us, then, like Job and Jeremiah, it would be fitting to curse the womb that bears children. The pain of childbirth is meaningless without a greater purpose than just bearing the next generation.

Let me remind you of the greatness and transformation of “motherhood”. A mother transitions from tragedy to joy solely because of the gospel proclaimed in Genesis 3:15. “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

In this promise, childbearing shifts from a curse to a blessing. The Messiah of humanity, the only begotten Son of God, our Savior Jesus, is prophesied to come forth from a mother’s womb, becoming the “seed of the woman.” Humanity is not rescued by a mother; rather, all mothers are redeemed by the Savior of mankind.

Among all the infants born to mothers, one humbled himself to enter a mother’s womb: Jesus. Without the incarnation of the Lord, mothers could not give birth to living beings; all they could bring forth was death. Mothers who trust in the Lord Jesus, what you bear is life. For “in him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4, ESV).

Dear mothers, and sisters called to be mothers, I salute you because within your wombs lives the life that comes from Jesus, the light of men that comes from Jesus.

The gospel has illuminated the role of “mother” through Jesus’s cross. In redeeming love, mothers are once again entrusted with the mission of being “fruitful and multiplying” in God’s kingdom. Due to our gospel-centered mission, mothers symbolize the church.

We can now truly acknowledge the greatness of mothers. For your “dedication, sacrifice, constant care for your children, countless nighttime awakenings, and enduring pain”; all your tireless labor, hardship, and bitter toil are worthy of remembrance and praise. They no longer point to the righteous curse upon Eve, but to the labor pains Christ endured for His church. As mothers, you share uniquely in the sufferings of Christ and will also share uniquely in His glory.

To the young women, I want to say that in the Bible, Christ gives you a special promise. And it is given only to you: “Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness, with self-control” (1 Timothy 2:15, ESV).

To those women whose husbands and children have not yet believed, I want to say that in the Bible, Christ also gives you, and only you, a Mother’s Day gift. “For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy” (1 Corinthians 7:14, ESV).

Women who have lost or not birthed children, the Lord has not forgotten you. Paul called the church the mother of believers and compared mothers to the church. The following verse holds a personal promise and mission from Jesus for you. “For it is written, ‘Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.’” (Galatians 4:27, ESV).

Dear sisters, let me tell you, in the gospel, every woman will eventually become a mother, whether married or single, a physical mother or a spiritual one. A woman in Christ becomes a cherished symbol of “Jerusalem”, the beloved church. Her greatest

act is channeling her life into developing children and adolescents, through the pain and sacrifice of motherhood.

In Song of Solomon 6:4, Solomon described the graceful bearing of his beloved woman. “You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners.” (ESV)

A mother is lovely because she symbolizes the Jerusalem loved by Christ. A mother is also exceptional because the innumerable and glorious army of the Lord emerges from their wombs and cradles.

Dear mothers, may the hands that rock the cradle also shake the gates of hell. May the tears you shed in secret become a branching river in the holy city. May your efforts as a parent be now and forevermore blessed with eternal life’s crowning glory.

Because of your great calling, Mother’s Day can also be called “Church Day”. Has anyone not experienced rebirth through the Holy Spirit’s outpouring, like from a mother’s womb? Who among us has not been nourished by the pure spiritual milk in the Lord’s church? Therefore, the apostle John called one church an “elect lady” with many children and another church her “elect sister” with many children (2 John 1:1, 13, ESV).

Finally, I sincerely hope that each of you mothers, together with the Lord’s church, our common mother, will rejoice in the days to come. May the entire church be blessed by the service of the mothers in your families. May each of you mothers give thanks to the Lord for His church, the Jerusalem above. And may each of you mothers feel the glory of motherhood because of Jesus, the “Son of Man.”

In Christ, your servant who blesses every mother,

Wang Yi

May 13, 2017, in Yueqing, Wenzhou