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Today is Mother’s Day 2023 in the United States. I expect that there will be messages about Jesus and messages about mothers at church. My mind is caught pondering how I should interpret the many motherly symbols and scriptural passages that reference a motherly Jesus. How was Mother Jesus originally understood by the ancient prophets? What did Jesus mean when he referred to himself with motherly references when he clearly lived as a man on earth? How was this understood in ancient cultures? What am I to make of this? How can I expand my mind to understand the concept of Mother Jesus?
The scriptures refer to Jesus as both the Father of Heaven and Earthi as well as the Son of Godii. To humankind, Jesus is a representative of Heavenly Father. To know Jesus is to know his Fatheriii. However, the scriptures also allude to Jesus as Mother. The motherly references when viewed as a whole are difficult to ignore. A sampling of references are listed below in no particular order.
1) The symbolism of Jehovah as the sacrificial red heifer. The red heifer is an adult female cow that has never given birth and is without defect. The sacrifice symbolically cleanses a person from being ceremonially unclean from the effects of deathiv.
2) Various words like truth, wisdom, and other divine attributes of Jehovah are spoken of in feminine terms.v This suggests a feminine, Eve, tree of knowledge, tree of life, Jehovah connection.
3) Just as Jesus is compared to Adam, Jesus can also be compared to Eve. Jehovah and Eve are the Mothers of All Living. Jehovah and Eve birthed humanity. A portion of Eve’s genetics are found in everyone. Likewise, we are all made in Jehovah’s image who is in turn in the image of Heavenly Parents.vi Jehovah made humanity and all will rise in the resurrection with our bodies physically changed through his power. In essence it will be as if we will carry the eternal genetics of his immortality. Jehovah is a parent figure who is the source of life for the world.
4) In Isaiah 49, Jehovah’s love is compared to that of a loving mother who remembers the child of her womb. Jehovah will not forget her children.vii
5) In Isaiah 66, Jesus will birth a nation in a single day when he returns. He will come to his covenant children before he destroys the wicked. The birth (conversion to Jesus and recognizing him as the Messiah) will happen before the labour pains (destruction of the wicked). Both Jesus and Jerusalem are mother figures that birth and then care for their children by giving nourishment (mother’s milk) to the people. “Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? Saith the Lord: Shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? Saith thy God…That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory…As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”viii
6) Deuteronomy provides imagery of Jehovah who is the rock birthing us and then nursing us with honey that is sucked out of the rock.ix
7) Jesus calls out and gathers Israel as a mother hen gathers her young under her wings.x The great gathering is to gather all of the children of Christ and all of humanity like chicks back to their mother hen whose wings are outstretched on the cross.
8) The mother treexi and the tree of lifexii are symbolic of Jesus’ suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. As we come to Jesus on the cross, we taste God’s pure love
which is greater than the bonds of death. Through Jesus‘ sacrifice on the cross we are born to new life.
9) King Benjamin taught that we are spiritually begotten and born of Jesus.xiii
10) Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be born again of water and of the spirit to enter the kingdom of God.xiv Baptism is symbolic of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Through faith in Christ, we are symbolically and spiritually reborn in Jesus as Christians.xv
11) Isaiah compared the suffering of Jehovah to that of a mother in labour. When the soul of Jehovah is offered as a sacrifice for sin, then Jehovah will see his/her children. Jehovah will see the travail of his/her soul.xvi
12) Jesus compared his suffering and the sorrow of his disciples at his crucifixion to that of a mother in labour. After he would be resurrected, the suffering and sorrow that they experienced would be replaced by a joy similar to a mother who rejoices in her new baby and forgets her labour pains.xvii
13) Jesus compared his sacrifice and burial to a piece of grain that is planted springing up to new life.xviii
14) The mother earth is symbolic of Jesus. Jesus is compared to the promised land in the Book of Mormon.xix He is the God of the land.xx When Jesus suffered and died on the cross while birthing humanity, the earth trembled in labour pains.xxi In the Pearl of Great Price, the earth and Jesus are connected.xxii The earth which is symbolic of Jesus who is the creator of heaven and earth is moved with compassion and weeps for her children.xxiii Jesus is the parent of humanity who suffered for the sins of the world and wept for Jerusalem.xxiv
15) On the cross, Jesus’ side was pierced by a spear causing blood and water to spill out.xxv This calls to mind Moses striking the rock which sprang a stream of water to quench the people’s thirst. It is also compared to God piercing Adam’s rib to create Eve. The ribs protect the breath of life and the heartbeat of life. Christians are born from the water and blood of Christ on the cross just as they are born from the water and blood from their mother’s womb. Jesus is simultaneously symbolically represented by Adam’s rib and Eve’s womb. The symbolism suggests a womb of the heart [water and blood] and the lungs or breath of life [spirit] from which we are reborn in baptism and confirmation.
16) Jesus speaking of the future sacrament stated that his flesh and blood would be the best kind of food and drink. Many disciples stopped following him because of those words.xxvi Who eats and drinks from the body of another? The answer is babies who are nursed. We are spiritually born again through baptism. After being born in baptism, we are then nursed by the sacrament which provides symbolic food and drink to our souls. Our souls are nursed by Jesus’ love as we remember his body that was sacrificed for us. The memory of his body nourishes our spirit and changes our hearts so that we are aligned with him as he holds us near his heart. Like an infant nursed by their mother, we are spiritually fed with Jesus’ divine light, love, and grace.
I’m confident that the dedicated seeker will be able to find additional feminine symbols, interpretations, and passages that represent Mother Jesus. Many of these will simultaneously also represent our Heavenly Mother. For example, the Book of Mormon states that the spirits of all people when they die are taken home to that God who gave them life.xxvii Who gave us life if not our mother?
When Jehovah gave the ten commandments to Moses, among them was the commandment to honour our father and our mother so that our days may be long upon the land.xxviii During his ministry, Jesus combined the commandment to honour our father and mother with the commandment to love our neighbour.xxix Jesus also taught that the greatest commandments are to love Jehovah and love our neighbour. When these two teachings are placed side by side, we see that honouring our father and our mother is likened to loving Jehovah. Jesus is both a father and mother to us. He is in the image of our Heavenly Parents. Hence, honouring our Heavenly Parents is to love Jesus. Jesus said that the greatest commandments are for us to love Jehovah and to also love our neighbour.xxx
There is another layer of interpretation that we can gain by comparing the commandment to honour our parents. We can honour our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Mother so that our days may be long upon the land. The concept that our days are long upon the land can be likened to walking with Jesus. Jesus is the creator of the earth and the Book of Mormon often compares the promised land to Jesus.xxxi If we keep the commandments which are the words of Christ, we shall prosper in the land (or in Jesus).xxxii The words of Jesus that we plant with faith will grow within our hearts into a tree of eternal life.xxxiii Jesus is the promised land and the garden of Eden which we hope to grow within our hearts. Jesus would have us honour and love our Heavenly Parents while walking with him all the day long.
Like the lawyer who asked Jesus who is my neighbour, we might ask who is our father and our mother?xxxiv Who is it that we honour within the ten commandments?xxxv Who is it that we came from? Who is the source of our identity? In whose image were we created? Who is it that cares for us? How many fathers and mothers do we have?xxxvi Of course, the answer in one way or another is connected to Jesus. We have Heavenly Parents. We have Jesus as a divine mother and father to us. Jesus also answered this question and stated that we have many mother figures among the family of saints on earth who are disciples of Jesus.xxxvii
Students are like children to their teacher. They replicate the thoughts, actions, and example of their teacher. Those thoughts and ways of being are born in the students so that they become like seedlings of a mother plant. Their thoughts and actions grow into a likeness of their teacher. It is as if they were born in their teacher’s image. The ideas and teachings replicate and reproduce from the teacher to the students.
The symbolism of a person acting in the roles of both father and mother was not limited to Jesus. Paul seems to have also picked up on the idea. In the epistle to the Galatians, Paul used birthing language when he stated, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.”xxxviii In his epistle to the Thessalonians, he used both birthing and nursing language while also providing fatherly counsel. He said, “But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children…For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail; for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God…we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children.”xxxix
In Genesis 49, Jacob blesses his son Joseph before he dies. In the blessing, Jacob states, “Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:” Jehovah is a God over both a new physical and spiritual life as well as the nourishment of that new life.
In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus explained that his disciples were to be united with him in a symbolic mother-infant relationship. When Jesus saw infants being nursed, he told his disciples that the infants are like those who enter the kingdom of God. Both mother and baby are united as one in a loving connection as a mother nurses her baby. His disciples didn’t understand. Jesus then went on to state, “When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place of a foot, and a likeness in the place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom.”xl
After being born in baptism we are nursed by the sacrament. We are nursed from the body of our mother. Jesus is the bread and waters of life. He is food, drink, and nourishment. Like the fruit of the tree of life, mother’s milk is pure, sweet, and white.
When we are united with Jesus, we become one with him. When we see others with his eyes, we regard others as ourselves. With loving empathy we conceptualize and make the two as one. The boundaries that separate us melt away. We are all of the same family. Your pains and joys become my pains and joys which are God’s pains and joys.
When we are genuine and authentic in our thoughts and actions we are the same inside and outside. In Jesus’ day, there were the religious proud who regarded themselves as better than others. They were hypocrites that were different on the inside than they were on the outside. Jesus calls us to be authentic and genuine with ourselves so the inside is like the outside.
Jesus died for everyone. He represented all of humanity in his atoning sacrifice. When we regard those outside of our circle as also being divine, then we break down walls that separate us. We see others with the eyes of Jesus’ divine love. Then we can begin to make our church society a heaven on earth so that what is above is like that which is below.xli
Jesus calls us to be perfect or whole like he and his Heavenly Parents are. He calls us to love perfectly and completely.xlii This completeness and wholeness can be applied to us individuallyxliii as well as collectively.xliv Throughout religious history, different minority groups have from time to time been socially rejected by the members. In recent history, church leaders and many church members have recognized that our LGBTQ members have not been welcomed in many of our congregations as they should have been. In Nephite society, the Zoramites rejected the poor from their places of worship. In ancient Israel, new converts, eunuchs, lepers, and others were often ostracized from the community.xlv In the early church, the membership was not always as inclusive as the Lord desired. There were sometimes conflicts within the church on how to integrate Jew and Gentile converts. Paul in his epistle to the Galatiansxlvi taught that after we are baptized and have put on Christ, there is no longer Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female. When we are born again, we are to be one in Jesus. Class systems are to be destroyed and every member is to be valued. The church which is the body of Christ, should not reject members because they are different. Rather the church should value them for those differences and the spiritual gifts associated with those differences. When Jesus visited the Nephites he reaffirmed that he invites all to him and that no one is to be sent away.xlvii
The Lord who gathers the outcasts of Israel will yet gather others to him in preparation for his second coming.xlviii When members allow themselves to be vulnerable and to understand each other’s wounds and unique spiritual gifts, they begin to see each other and value each other. When we truly see each other, we can then see eye to eye. Then our hearts can be knit together so that we can mourn with those that mourn and truly become united as one body in Christ.xlix We will see the miracles of God through the life of each member. Everyone will be valued for their spiritual gifts within the body of Christ. A hand will be valued as a hand and a foot will be valued as a foot. Then as the Gospel of Thomas states, we as a divine community will enter the kingdom as a whole and complete child of Christ.
Mothers give us life and they nourish us with their own bodies. We each have a physical mother. We also have other types of mothers who care for us spiritually. They share their light with us and birth us into a new way of thinking, doing, feeling, and being. They nurse us with their tender love and words of Christ. Jesus told his disciples that those who follow him would have a hundredfold of mothers now in this life and also in the world to come.l Paul said to respect every elder woman in the church as a mother indicating that mothers can be spiritual figures.li When Jesus was on the cross, in an act of compassion he told his disciple to adopt his mother and for his mother to adopt his disciple.lii Mothers and children can also be adopted into a new mother-child relationship.
There is ample evidence to support the idea of both Mother Jesus and Father Jesus. The very name Jehovah when written backwards and spoken aloud in Hebrew is spoken as the dual pronouns, He-She.liii Jesus is our creator. Jesus is our example, our path, our pattern, and the way we should follow in all things.liv All of humanity, both male and female were made in Jesus’ image.lv Jesus is a parent to us and shows us the way to know both our Heavenly Mother and Heavenly Father. Jesus shows us the way to connect with the part of our divine parents that is imbedded within our divine identity and origin. Jesus shows us by example, that the divine genetics of our heavenly parents, is within all of us. Each of us is also a He-She. I cannot simultaneously live and separate out the inherited DNA from my mother from the inherited DNA from my father that is within me. I am the result of two who became one. I am a child of God. Jesus is both a father and a mother to us leading us back to our Heavenly Parents. Jesus is unique in that he was born of a virgin. There is no other name that offers salvation. Jesus is the only way. Mother Jesus gave us life and has nursed us with her own body. Jesus the Great He-She, is simultaneously an eternal Mother and Father to us all.
i Ether 4:7
ii 2 Nephi 25:16
iii John 14:5-14
iv Numbers 19 & Barnabas 8:1-3
v Mosiah 8:20
vi 3 Nephi 22:5, Isaiah 54:5, Ether 3:14-16, Moses 1:13, 2:27
vii 1 Nephi 21:1,5,15 also found in Isaiah 49
viii Isaiah 66:5-13
ix Deuteronomy 32:4,6,13,18
x 3 Nephi 10:4-6
xi Jacob 5:54-60
xii 1 Nephi 11:25
xiii Mosiah 5:7
xiv John 3:3-5
xv Alma 36:23-24, Moses 6:59-60
xvi Mosiah 14:10-11, Mosiah 15:8-13
xvii John 16:20-22
xviii John 12:23-25
xix Alma 37:45
xx Ether 2:12
xxi Moses 7:56
xxii Moses 7:45-65
xxiii Moses 7:49
xxiv Luke 19:41-44
xxv John 19:34
xxvi John 6:47-67
xxvii Alma 40:11
xxviii Exodus 20:12
xxix Matthew 19:19
xxx Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Matthew 22:36-40
xxxi Alma 37:45
xxxii Alma 36:1
xxxiii Alma 32:28-41, Alma 33:22-23
xxxiv Mark 3:31-35
xxxv Ephesians 6:1-9 begins with the commandment to honour our father and mother. Paul then speaks of serving and loving one another regardless of familial status and that God is not a respecter of persons. The elements of the Sh’ma are contained in the passage with references to parents as well as becoming one with each other.
xxxvi The concept of a communal Zion family of one heart and mind united in faith and love was taught by Jesus. It was modelled by his traveling band of diverse disciples. In Mark 10, Jesus said that we would receive a hundredfold now in this time rather than in a future life of mothers, brothers, sisters, and children. This communal family united in covenant discipleship of Jesus suggests that there are different types of parentage in whose image we adopt and in the identities that we take on ourselves. This communal family as an extension of the concept of who we honour as parents is also described in 1 Timothy 5. This symbolic role model and communal parenting in a covenant community is different from the imagery of Jesus as a parent, or our Heavenly Parents as parents. Not only are there many parents to honour, there are also different types of parents that we honour differently.
xxxvii Mark 3:31-35, 1 Timothy 5:1-2
xxxviii Galatians 4:19
xxxix 1 Thessalonians 2:7-11
xl The Gospel of Thomas translated by Thomas O. Lambdin, available online at the Gnostic Society Library within their Nag Hammadi Library. http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gthlamb.html
xli The sealing powers of the priesthood bind in heaven what is bound on earth. Marriage and family relationships on earth can be made eternal in the heavens except they will be coupled with eternal glories. The work of the priesthood on earth is to create divine communities on earth and then project them into the eternities. Hence, the gospel fashions and seals what is above like that which is below. We make the eternal heavens mirror in perfection the earthly temporal imperfections that we create.
xlii 1 John 4:16-21
xliii 3 Nephi 12:48
xliv 1 Corinthians 1:10
xlv Isaiah 56:3-8
xlvi Galatians 3:26-28
xlvii 3 Nephi 18:25, 2 Nephi 26:24-28
xlviii Isaiah 56:3-8, Luke 14:15-24
xlix Mosiah 18:9
l Mark 10:30
li 1 Timothy 5:2
lii John 19:25-27
liii Sameth, Mark (2020). The Name: A History of the Dual-Gendered Hebrew Name for God, Introduction, Wipf and Stock Publishers
See my website for an interpretation using a latter-day saint perspective on the significance of Jehovah’s hidden name as ‘He-She’. https://hopesofglory.com/unlocking-gods-sacred-name/
liv 2 Nephi 31:16, 3 Nephi 18:16
lv Ether 3:14-15
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