If Mary was blessed among women, why did Jesus turn aside a blessing spoken over her?

Jesus did not deny that his mother was blessed; he pointed to a deeper blessing, and Mary herself is the clearest example of it. The woman in the crowd praised Mary simply for bearing and nursing such a son. Jesus answered, “Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it” (Luke 11:28). The Greek menoun is a word that corrects or goes further: it can mean ‘no, rather’, but it can also mean ‘yes indeed, and more’, as in Paul’s “Yes verily” (Romans 10:18), where the longer form menounge is used. Either way, Jesus is not cancelling the woman’s words but saying where true blessedness is found: in hearing and keeping God’s word, which is open to everyone.

That is exactly what Luke has already said of Mary. She answered the angel, “be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38); Elizabeth called her blessed not only for her child but because she believed: “blessed is she that believed” (1:45); and twice Luke says that she kept these things in her heart (2:19, 51). So Mary was blessed on both counts: as the mother of the Lord, and still more as one who heard God’s word and kept it. Gill reads Jesus’ answer in this way, as correcting the woman without denying what she said.

A warning against honouring Mary for her motherhood alone

Many Protestant commentators see in Jesus’ reply a warning against giving Mary an honour that rests on her physical relation to him. Others stress that the saying is an invitation: every hearer can share the blessing Mary had. Both readings agree that Jesus did not deny that she was blessed.