The specific mention of Mary the mother of Jesus as forming one of this company of disciples is of great significance.
There is no doubt that our attention was intended to be arrested by this special mention of Mary’s name; and the object of it is to teach that Mary had now understood WHO it was who had deigned to become her son after the flesh, that, together with the light which had entered her soul concerning His death and resurrection, as also concerning His glory at the right hand of God, she had now taken her place, and become identified with His disciples here upon the earth. She would not value one whit the less the ineffable privilege which had been accorded to her in having been the mother of Jesus, nor would she cease to be the highly-favored and blessed among women; but now, with faith in her glorified Lord, and numbered among the excellent of the earth in whom was all His delight, her natural feelings and affections would be lost in adoration and praise. She had been the elect vessel for the birth of Christ into this world; she had now become one of His humble followers and disciples, one of that blessed company who were so soon to be formed into God’s habitation through the Spirit. As the Lord taught the seventy, it was a greater thing to have their names written in heaven than to be the vessels of His power in conflict with the enemy. In like manner it was a greater thing for Mary to be a living stone in God’s spiritual house (as on Pentecost she became), built up upon Him who is the Living Stone, chosen of God and precious, than to have been the mother of her Lord upon earth.
It may be added that all her children also became believers in Jesus. They likewise were numbered with God’s elect, and received grace to confess His name and to be identified with His own in that new and heavenly company. Alike with Mary their mother, they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and were thus manifested in time as His people. She and they alike would henceforward understand that it was more blessed to hear the Word of God and to keep it, than to have been associated with Jesus, during His earthly sojourn, in intimate natural relationships. To exalt Mary, therefore, at the expense of her glorified Lord is to be blind to the plainest teaching of Scripture, and to pervert the whole character of Christianity.