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“Woman, behold your son,” and to John, “son behold your mother.”

 

(A first-person narrative by Mary, the mother of Jesus)

 

 

As Jesus’ mother,  there was only one place I could be that day…and that was at the foot of the cross… up close… within sight and earshot of Jesus.  Being there was the only thing  I could  do for him. …I already knew how the day would end…but I just had to be there to share in his suffering… …to be a witness to his death…I had  no other choice. 

 

All the while I stood there, I couldn’t help but think that it’s against the natural order of things for a mother to outlive her child.

 

Providentially, three other women were at the foot of the cross with me… ready to support me and do whatever they could for Jesus… and Jesus’ beloved friend John was there too, a comforting presence who never left my side.

 

It wasn’t until I was standing there with John at the foot of the cross, that I began to understand Jesus’ mission for the world more fully… a mission that would be lived out by his followers after he died. It was if the final pieces of the puzzle were falling into place for me. 

 

Standing there,  it dawned on me that I was the only person who was present at both Jesus’ birth and his death…what an awesome privilege!    I had made a point to try to travel incognito to the cross…thankfully, nobody took much notice of the women anyway!  That day, our invisibility was a blessing. For I slipped past the soldiers gambling for his tunic, and through the crowds unnoticed and so snuck up close to be there for my son.  He looked so forlorn…bloodied, beaten and bruised…I wanted to reassure him of my love for him, and to lessen his pain of feeling forsaken by nearly everyone.

 

There was lots of standing room at the foot of the cross.  Jesus’ other disciples weren’t there  because they were afraid for their own lives…for if this could happen to Jesus, then it could happen to his  followers too!  Believe me, I understood their fear!  For crucifixion as a means of torture and death was the absolute worst…. Painfully slow, gruesome, and humiliating!  And sadly, Jesus’ siblings were nowhere to be seen either, for they didn’t want to be  identified with Jesus, the crucified one.  After all, they still didn’t understand or believe in Jesus and his mission…at least not yet!

 

As John and I stood there hour after hour, there was lots of time to reflect.  I found myself thinking back over my lifetime with Jesus… what came to my mind were pivotal times in our lives together.    

 

I clearly remember when Jesus was only 40 days old, Joseph and I took him to the Temple to fulfill two requirements of the law of Moses.  First, I had to complete my ritual purification after childbirth.  And secondly,  because Jesus was my first-born son,  he had to be consecrated to the Lord.   For him to be redeemed from the service of the priests, a sacrifice of a spotless lamb or two turtle doves had to be made.  Like so many others, Joseph and I didn’t have the means to present a lamb,  so we made the turtle dove offerings of the poor.

 

While we were in the Temple, a devout old man named Simeon entered the temple courts. The Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he would not die before he saw the Lord’s Messiah.  So, Simeon took Jesus in his arms and said, “Now, God, you may let your servant die in peace.  Mine eyes have seen your Saviour, a light for the Gentiles and the  glory for your people Israel.”  (Luke 2: 22-38) 

 

Simeon then went on to say to me, “this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.  And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”  And this prophecy came true, as my heart was broken, and my soul was pierced when Jesus breathed his last.

 

Jesus was an only child for just a short time.  He was soon joined by four brothers and sisters too, so ours was a busy household.  We took the family to the Temple when Jesus was 12!   We thought he was travelling home with some of his cousins and didn’t realize until it was too late that we had actually left him behind.  What an anxious few days that was for me!   That was until we found him again…where?    Back in the Temple of course, where he asked, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2: 49)   With the benefit of hindsight,  I realized that what Jesus said in the Temple  foreshadowed the rest of his life.  And so early on, I had  an inkling of what was to come.

 

Full disclosure…When Jesus began his full time ministry, all of us in our family, at one time or another, just shook our heads when we heard what Jesus had been up to…healing a man with a shriveled hand on the Sabbath, unclean spirits bowing before him…he was attracting quite a following…In my opinion, there was altogether too much interest in Jesus, if you know what I mean!  We were afraid for him!  To be honest, we actually thought he was going crazy. (Mark 3: 21) Evidently so did the Pharisees, so at least we agreed with them on something!  So together we tried, what you would call, an intervention!  We went to confront Jesus while he was ministering to others,  to take him home…out of sight, out of mind so to speak… so as to protect him from harm and to bring less shame on our family.

 

But when Jesus heard that I had arrived at the house with his brothers, he asked  “Who are my mother and my brothers?”  And he answered his own question by saying “all who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”  And I heard this same thought echoing at Calvary too, where John and I heard Jesus say…“Woman, behold your son”…and to John, “behold your mother.”  

 

Curiously, the only other time I remember Jesus calling me “Woman” was in Cana of Galilee at the celebration of a wedding.  To your ears, this title “Woman” might sound at best a bit too formal and at worst even a little bit rude for Jesus to use with me,  his own mother.  But for you, the same title would be Ma’am…a term of respect and affection.  I admit in my anxiety, I was pushing Jesus to perform a miracle by turning water into wine…for the wine had run out, and the bride and groom were embarrassed!  I felt so badly for them.  I knew Jesus could perform a miracle…but only at the risk of exposing his power!  Jesus said to me, “Woman, what have I to do with this matter?  My hour has not yet come.”  I admit, I felt Jesus’ response as a gentle rebuke.  I learned that Jesus would not reveal his power sooner than God the Father intended him to. For Jesus followed a divine timetable that I knew little about. But surprisingly, without fanfare, he did change the water in the  jugs into the finest wine as I had asked him to.  Without drawing attention to his miraculous power, he met their need for more wine!   For the wedding guests, the finest wine had simply been saved for last!

 

At the cross, can you visualize this scene?  Despite Jesus’ agony and suffering, Jesus’ gaze fell on me and John. His eyes said it all.  His heart was overflowing with love and compassion for us. After the death of my husband Joseph, Jesus as my eldest son,  had looked after all my needs …but it wasn’t clear what would happen to me now!   

 

With great effort, rationing the breath he had left,  Jesus commended the Apostle John and me to each other as mother and son…and so to form a new family.  And my mind raced back to the time that Jesus had said, “whosoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Matthew 12: 48-50)  

 

And I came to see  that Jesus as King is bound to us in relationship with him.  The Kingdom of God to which we belong has nothing to do with birthright, bloodline, or places of honour…there’s no hierarchy of rank, there’s no one person better than or less than the other, there’s no one left out… sitting on the margins.  Rather, it’s all about being a part of God’s family, and doing the will of God the Father in relationship with Jesus and with one another.  

 

And so, on that day, my future security was established by Jesus’ words…”Woman, behold your son…son behold your mother. “ You might wonder why Jesus didn’t commission my other sons,  James or Jude, to look after me?   The first answer is that James and Jude weren’t at the cross. Secondly, is that Jesus was intentionally establishing a new family linked to him spiritually.  And so, he brought his beloved disciple and his beloved mother together…and from that hour on, John took me to live with him in his own home.    Happily, I can tell you that later James and Jude also came to recognize Jesus at the long-awaited Messiah, and so they became a part of the family of God too….all in God’s timing.

 

So, what’s the takeaway  from my visit with  you today?  May I make a few suggestions?  A central goal  in Jesus’ mission and his ministry was to establish and nurture the family of God… Jesus calls  us into new relationships with other believers in God’s kingdom just as he did with me and the Apostle John. And these new relationships can be cause for great rejoicing!  For within the body of Christ, we will discover authentic, deep, restorative relationships with others that we may never have had in our own biological families.  

Through responding to the Word of God in relationship with one another, we learn as  a Christian community how to really love one another  (1 John 4: 12).  We learn to love  by encouraging one another  (Hebrews 3: 13), honouring one another (Romans 12: 10)  serving one another  (Galatians 5: 13) and speaking the truth to one another (Ephesians 4: 25).  In doing so, we learn how to be patient with one another and forgiving of one another (Ephesians 4: 32) as well as how to  bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6: 2).  

 

By  gathering together in community for worship and fellowship, we learn that we are far more effective working together using all of our spiritual gifts than we could be as individuals…We’re like the embers in a fire which burn brightly when all together …but whose flames flicker out in isolation.   In the Body of Christ, we will come to appreciate and learn from a wide variety of people who may be quite different from us while experiencing the joy of reaching  out to others with love and compassion. 

 

And so, on that awful day that you now call “Good Friday”,  I was blessed with a new understanding of  Jesus’ mission to the world…on the cross, Jesus, the sinless one, came to pay the penalty that we all deserve and to save us from our sins.  And there he welcomes repentant sinners into relationship with him as our Saviour, and into relationship with other Christians in the family of God.  This is Jesus’ legacy, demonstrated to me as I stood at the foot of the cross.   And it’s right there, at the foot of the cross, that you can discover Jesus’ legacy too!  To God be the glory.   AMEN