<p>2:35 <i>Yes, and a sword shall pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed</i>-Mary&rsquo;s lack of perception caused her great pain. The way the Lord refers to her as &ldquo;Woman&rdquo; both in Cana was, apparently, an unusually cold way for a man to refer to his mother. He effectively rebuffed her in Cana for her lack of perception; He responds to the woman who tells Him how blessed His mother is by saying that all who hear the word of God and keep it are equally blessed. And when His mother wants to speak to Him, He says in front of the whole crowd that His mothers are all who do God&rsquo;s will. And the final pain must have been at the cross, where in His dying words He tells her that she is no longer His mother, but she must now be the mother of John. Simeon&rsquo;s prophecy that a sword would pierce her soul (Lk. 2:35- the Syriac text has &lsquo;a spear&rsquo;) may refer to her feelings on beholding the literal piercing of her son&rsquo;s side- remembering that He was pierced with &ldquo;the <i>staff</i> of a spear&rdquo; (2 Sam. 23:7), it went in so deep. The fact water as well as blood came out is further evidence that the spear penetrated deeply. Yet there is an allusion surely to Is. 49:1,2, where Messiah&rsquo;s mouth is likened to a sharp, piercing sword. Note how the passage has reference to Mary: &ldquo;The Lord has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name. And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword&rdquo;. Could it not be that Simeon foresaw how the Lord&rsquo;s words would pierce Mary to the quick? For in all the incidents above, she must have thought with a lump in her throat: &lsquo;But come on Jesus&hellip; I&rsquo;m your <i>mum</i>&hellip; the one who knitted and mended your clothes as a child&hellip; how can you speak to me like that&hellip;?&rsquo;. And as a sensitive, reflective soul she would have reflected and hurt deeply at these words. <strong>&nbsp;</strong></p><p>The sword / spear that pierced the Lord pierced her heart, &ldquo;that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed&rdquo;. The cross is therefore the ultimate source of self-examination. The Greek for &ldquo;thoughts&rdquo; means &ldquo;inmost thoughts&rdquo;, and all 13 uses of <i>dialogismos</i> in the NT are negative- bad thoughts, vain thoughts, doubting thoughts. The five other references in Luke are all very pointedly like this (Lk. 5:22; 6:8; 9:46,47; 24:38). We all find self-understanding and self-examination difficult; and we find it hard to feel our sinfulness as we should. Yet the cross is the ultimate stimulus to self-examination, to conviction of sin, and then of salvation and the reality of grace and God&rsquo;s love. This same process happened for Mary &ldquo;also&rdquo;. Over the years she had perhaps lost something of her initial humility, feeling that her exalted place in God&rsquo;s plan was due to some personal righteousness, and therefore the cross experience had to pierce her too, so that she too had the inmost thoughts of her heart revealed to herself. We have shown earlier how Mary so identified herself with her dearest Son that she felt in some way part of Messiah. Yet over the years of repetitive domestic life in Nazareth, the height of the call to be &ldquo;in Christ&rdquo;, really part of Him and His work, must have been ground away. Yet at the cross, her soul was as it were pierced with the same sword / spear that pierced her Son. Ps. 22:20 prophesied how the Lord would suffer &ldquo;the sword&rdquo; on the cross, and 2 Sam. 24 had spoken of Him being filled with a spear. &ldquo;A sword shall pierce through your own soul <i>also</i>&rdquo; meant that as Mary was part of Jesus, so she must also share in His sufferings too. The proud and happy mother as she stood before Simeon was so thrilled to be as it were &ldquo;In Christ&rdquo;, connected with Messiah. But she had to be reminded that to share in His life is to share in His death- and it was only the actual experience of the cross which brought this home to her. And so with us, brethren in Christ, and rightfully proud of the high calling and association with Him which we have&hellip; there is a darker side to our being in Christ. It involves sharing in His death, that we might share in His life. Mary&rsquo;s achievement of this is perhaps reflected in the way the mother of the man child Jesus in Rev. 12 is persecuted after the pattern of her Son Jesus, and yet survives.&nbsp;</p><p>As Simeon held the baby Jesus in his arms, he saw in that beautiful little boy something terrible; for he looked ahead to how His soul would one day be pierced in crucifixion, &ldquo;that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed&quot;. The same word is used for how thoughts will be revealed at the judgment (Mt. 10:26; 1 Cor. 3:13; 4:5). In the piercing of the Son of God, the thoughts of hearts would be revealed. But the question arises: revealed to whom? We may (rightly) assume: to ourselves. But Luke&rsquo;s Gospel emphasizes the ability of the Lord Jesus to know human hearts (5:22; 6:8; 9:2,6,47; 24:38). Could it not be that the cross is used by the Father and Son to know the minds of men? They see in our response to it the real you and the real me. See on 1 Cor. 11:32.</p><p>The cross leads to thoughts being <i>revealed</i>; and the judgment process likewise will lead to thoughts being revealed (s.w. in Mt. 10:26; 1 Cor. 3:13; 4:5). The Lord&rsquo;s death is described as His washing &ldquo;his garments in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes&quot; (Gen. 49:11 RV). Treading out the grapes is a Hebraism for judgment, and yet it is used here and in Is. 63:1-3 regarding the Lord&rsquo;s treading of the winepress alone in His death. Indeed, the Isaiah passage is clearly applicable to both the crucifixion and the final judgment of the Lord Jesus. The reason being, that in His death was the judgment of this world.</p><p>We should note that as Mary's soul was pierced at the death of her son, so was the Father's. For &quot;they shall look upon me whom they have pierced&quot; (Zech. 12:10) in its context speaks of the Father and not the Son. So in the Son's piercing, the Father and mother were likewise pierced. The Divine-human family were united at that tragic moment.</p>