Behold Your Son/Mother
Sermon for Lenten Service
Bible reading: John 19:26-27
Jesus emptied himself.
That’s how we began Lent three weeks ago. Jesus emptied himself of the display of his deity for personal gain. Jesus did not stop being God, but he became a servant and loved and gave and died on the cross, to forgive us all, and bring us all into the family of God, which begins now and never ends.
And, as he died:
- he loved and forgave his enemies for killing him,
- he loved and welcomed into Paradise the criminal being crucified beside him.
And thirdly he turns to his mother.
- his mother, who has gone through so much suffering from the time of his birth in rejection and their escape as refugees into Egypt,
- his mother, who from his birth is told that her Son will
be spoken against
, anda sword will pierce your own soul too
, - his mother, and father, who took him to the temple at twelve, only to lose him and be told by him:
didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house,
- his mother, who together with his brothers went to rescue him from the stress of overwork, only to hear him reply:
who is my mother?… whoever does God’s will is my mother…
There stands his mother, at the foot of the cross, loving her son to the end. There stands his mother, suffering with him to the end – for it is not just Jesus suffering for the sins of the world. Mary too has suffered for her son, from his birth to his death. That Jesus loves us and suffers for us on the cross, does not deliver us from suffering, but calls us to take up our cross and follow him
, in emptying ourselves in suffering servant hood to others.
There stands his mother, at the foot of the cross, but not alone. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, & Mary Magdalene... and the disciple whom he loved.
There at the foot of the cross stands this little gathering of people all related to Jesus by love – his love for them, and theirs for him. And Jesus speaks to two of them in love and compassion. First he spoke in love for his enemies… then in love for the criminal, and now in love for his mother.
He is the oldest son. It is his responsibility to care for her in her widowhood. But he is being taken from her. He is being emptied even of his mother. But he does not treat her as corban, that is, ‘a gift devoted to God’. He does not promise to pray for her, when God’s call is to care for her. And he does not hand her to his brothers, who are nowhere to be found, for they do not believe in Jesus, dying for them on the cross.
Jesus turns to John, the disciple whom he loved
, his best friend, maybe even his cousin, and says: woman, behold your son… behold your mother.
And in these words Jesus creates a new community, a new family, not joined together through natural birth, but born again into the family of God that will grow out of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As John takes Mary to his home in her grief, does she begin to understand what she has been pondering in her heart all these years? Yes, she is his human mother, and because even in his emptiness he has not ceased being God, she can even be called the mother of God. And yet she cannot keep Jesus for herself, and for her family alone. Jesus came into the world to love all people and die for all people, including his mother and brothers, and John and Mary Magdalene, and his uncles and aunties, and you and me.
At the foot of the cross the seeds of a worldwide community are sown, and a new family of all who hear the word of God and do it
is being formed. A church is being gathered, a people called to gather around Jesus in faith and love, to gather around the cross of Jesus, where he gives his body and blood for us, and where he speaks words to us which gather us together in love for him and for one another. And you too have been gathered into this family of love and hospitality with Mary and John and all who follow Jesus.
After his mother and John, no one loved Jesus more than Mary Magdalene. But there is no word for her from Jesus, this woman who had given up her life to follow Jesus. She will wait another day for her name to be called. But Jesus will not forget her. And Jesus will not forget you. He died to give you, and all people, a place in his family. And he calls you to leave all to come and join him in that family, which lasts forever. Amen.