The Intercession of the Queen Mother

Warning: Lutheran polemic ahead. I was just thinking the other day about the image of Mary as the Queen Mother that I've heard both Orthodox and Roman Catholics allude to (and Luther early on in his Magnificat commentary even grants that she may be called "queen of heaven"). The image trotted forth is usually that of how Solomon commanded a throne to be set next to him for his mother Bathsheba and how he promised her he would not refuse her "small request." (See 1 Kings 2:19ff) But what a singularly odd story to use to try to explain the intercession of Mary as Queen Mother. For though Solomon tells Bathsheba he will not deny her, when he hears what she wants (that she is interceding for Adonijah to be given David's concubine Abishag), Solomon not only does NOT grant the request, but he is so enraged that the request itself costs Adonijah his life. He regarded the request as a threat to his own kingship. And perhaps significantly, that's the last we hear of Bathsheba in Kings. It's almost as though the message is "don't try to get to the King through His mother. He doesn't like that!" And our gracious King Jesus has Himself issued a promise to us: "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." We don't need to work our way around Him; we need to trust that what He desires for us is better than anything we could ever dream, imagine, or ask for ourselves, or that anyone else could ask for us!