Series: Final Words from the Cross Woman, Behold Your Son.(Son), Behold Your Mother Sermon Delivered on March 23, 2014 By Rev. Donna L. Martin Today as we hear this third of Jesus statements from the cross, I am intrigued by the word behold. I find it interesting that the word behold is found at the very beginning of Jesus life spoken by an angel in the foothills outside of Bethlehem and then again at the very end of his life on a hill at the foot of the cross. When Jesus is born the angel tells the shepherds, Behold I bring you tidings of great joy. When he is dying Jesus says, Woman, behold your son and to his disciple he says, Behold your mother. Now some translations simply interpret this word behold as look, meaning that the person being spoken to is to see something either by sight or comprehension, as in Woman look at this man and recognize him as your son. But I think there is more to see than meets the eye in this word behold. The definition I found that seems to apply best here is the one that says behold is the utterance of one who brings forward something new and unexpected. In the case of the angel near Bethlehem, the something new and unexpected was the birth of Emmanuel, God with us. In the case of Jesus words on the cross, it was the re-creation or reordering of what it means to be family. In this sense something new and unexpected was born at the foot of the cross. To be sure, there were clues throughout Jesus life that should have led this re-orientation of what it now means to be family to come as no surprise. Because although, family and pure bloodlines, are one of the most significant aspects of Jewish life, Jesus always seemed to be chipping away at this (and any other) boundary that divided people into us and them. Why even the first words we hear Jesus speak make you wonder about his sense of family. When he is 12, the family realizes he is missing on their way home to Nazareth after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They are three days away from the City on their way home and Jesus is nowhere to be found. They return to Jerusalem and find him in the temple debating theology with the priests. When they ask him what he thought he was doing scaring them like that, he replies, Why were you searching for me? Didn t you know I would be about my Father s business? (Luke 2:49). He is not talking about Joseph and they know it. 1
Other evidence of his unconventional regard for family occurs at the beginning of his ministry. While attending a wedding in Cana, the wine runs out (a major faux pas at such an event) and Mary, his mother, frantically asks Jesus to intervene, but he brushes her off with Woman, what does that have to do with you or me? (John 2:4). Not exactly the most respectful response to the woman who gave him birth and raised him. Then later, when Jesus has taken his ministry on the road, he is preaching to a crowd when his family arrives. They cannot get near him and someone says, Your mother and brothers are outside asking for you. Jesus replies, Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?...whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven is my brother, sister, and mother (Matthew 12:48, 50). If we are honest, we will admit these words are hard for us to hear because they go against the grain of what we consider Christian family values. Guess what? They went against the grain in Jesus day also. Although I don t think he was saying our family of origin is not important, I do believe he was saying there are relationships that are MORE important. Throughout his life and at his death we find Jesus radically redefining family. For Jesus, family was not a matter of whose chromosomes you carry around inside of you, but in whose image you are created. Nor was family a matter of who has the same last name or lives at the same address, but rather who serves the same God (Sermon by Rev. Dr. Jill A. Kirchner University Christian Church). Woman, behold your son..son, behold your mother. Although these words were certainly spoken as words of comfort, they were not SIMPLY words of comfort. These words create a new family. Jesus tells Mary to regard the disciple he loved as her own true family. In this way she becomes for us the firstborn of a new reality, a new family that only God could create. Augustine observed that the God who created us without us refuses to save us without us. Mary is the first great representative of that us. (Stanley Hauerwas, Cross-Shattered Christ, pg. 53). But it takes more than one person to make a family. The disciple Jesus loved, thought to be the John, the Gospel writer, is also called to take Mary as his mother. And we know he does because we read from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. So there, at the foot of the cross, confronted by the death of a son, of a friend, of the leader of their movement, these two individuals who might have been abandoned, forgotten, left alone, are knit together into a family. They are the first 2
family of what we know as the church. And this new reality, this new kind of family, would play an integral role in continuing Jesus mission in the world. We find Mary and John among those gathered in the Upper Room when the Holy Spirit is given to the Church (see Acts 1: 14). And tradition says Mary and John later travelled to Ephesus where they lived until they died first Mary and then John. Jerome, in his commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (Jerome, Comm. in ep. ad. Gal., 6, 10), tells the well-loved story that John the Evangelist continued preaching in Ephesus well into his 90s. Toward the end of his life he was so debilitated he had to be carried into the Church on a stretcher. And when he was no longer able to preach a long sermon, his custom was to lean up on one elbow on and say simply: Little children, love one another. Then he would lie back down and his friends would carry him back out. Every week, the same thing happened, again and again. And every week it was the same short sermon, exactly the same message: Little children, love one another. The story goes that one day someone asked him, John, why is it that every week you say exactly the same thing, little children, love one another? And John replied: Because it is enough. (http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2011/04/seven-last-words-3-womanhere-is-your.html) Love one another. This is the lesson he learned from Jesus. This is what he learned that day at the foot of the cross -Love this woman as your mother. So this is what he taught. I have observed this kind of love that Jesus taught and St. John preached in this church family. I have seen you lovingly care for one another. I have heard person after person say, I couldn t have made it without my Bethany family. I couldn t have gotten better without your prayers and other expressions of concern, compassion, and care. But I want to bring something to your attention today. If you haven t notice, this congregation does not look like it used to. The people sitting around you are not the same people who sat here even just three years ago when I came. Sadly, we have lost some saints to illness and death. Happily, we have also welcomed new people into the family. Our challenge, as I see it, is to continue to love one another even when who the one another is continues to change. The even greater challenge is to love the one another that hasn t even come through our doors yet. How can we show the people of our community not only our love for one another, but 3
our love for them? Sisters and Brothers: Behold, something new and unexpected is being brought forward. How will be welcome it? Through the centuries many have been added to the family of God. This family we call church is constantly being transformed and recreated, as others are drawn in. At the foot of the cross, we are called again and again to see our family in new and creative ways. We are called again and again to include those whom the world forsakes, as part of our family, even when they do not look like us, act like us, or come through the doors with the same credentials. The great preacher, Dr. Fred Craddock, tells a story about a vacation he took with his wife in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. One night in a restaurant, while they were waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man visiting with the guests. Craddock whispered to his wife, I hope he doesn t come over here. He didn t want anyone intruding on their privacy. But sure enough, the man came over to their table. Where you folks from? he asked in a friendly voice. Oklahoma, Craddock answered. Splendid state, I hear, although I ve never been there, the stranger said. What do you do for a living? I teach homiletics at the graduate seminary of Phillips University, Craddock replied. Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I ve got a story to tell you. And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with Craddock and his wife. Dr. Craddock said he groaned inwardly and thought to himself, Oh, no! Here comes another preacher story! The man stuck out his hand. I m Ben Hooper, he said. I was born not far from here across the mountains. My mother wasn t married when I was born, so I had a pretty hard time. When I started to school, my classmates had a name for me, and it wasn t a very nice name. I used to go off by myself at recess and lunch time because the things they said to me cut me so deep. What was worse was going to town on Saturday afternoons and feeling like every eye was burning a hole through me, wondering just who my father was. When I was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to our church. I would always go in late and slip out early. But one day the preacher said the benediction so fast I got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. I could feel every eye in the church on me. Just about the time I got to the door I felt a big hand on my shoulder. I looked up and the preacher was 4
looking right at me. Who are you, son? Whose boy are you? he asked. I felt this big weight coming down on me. It was like a big black cloud. Even the preacher was putting me down. But as he looked down at me, studying my face, he began to smile a big smile of recognition. Wait a minute! he said. I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God. With that he slapped me across the rump and said, Boy, you ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it. The old man looked across the table at Fred Craddock and said, Those were the most important words anybody ever said to me, and I ve never forgotten them. With that, he smiled shook hands with Craddock and his wife, and moved on to another table to greet old friends. Craddock goes on to say he recognized the name Ben Hooper. He had been one of Tennessee s governors, but before that when he came to church, he was just one of the family (http://www.sermonillustrations.com/az/f/father.htm). When I look out across the sanctuary today, I see the family resemblance, do you? We are all children of God and we are called to be brothers and sisters in Christ, members of the family of God. As such, we are called to love one another, but we are called to continue Jesus mission of reordering and re-creating what it means to be family, what it means to be the church. So look around you.women and Men, behold your brothers, behold your sisters, behold your children. Children (of all ages), behold your parents. And Church, behold the people outside these doors that hunger to become part of the family of God. It was Jesus intention that all should be part of the family. It should be ours also! Amen! 5