HIs Mother

This is my sermon for Maundy Thursday, based on the lesson, John 19:23-30.

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus was his mother.

Watching someone die is a horribly painful and difficult thing to do.

When I served as a hospital chaplain, I was with several families when their loved ones passed away.

I was there when both of my parents died.

It is an emotionally draining and devastating experience.

Being there when your parents die is painful, but it is part of the normal course of life. But to watch your child die must be an unimaginable trauma. Then for that person to be executed must just keep adding to the pain.

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus was his mother.

Jesus’ mother is never named in John’s Gospel. She appears only twice, here, and at the beginning of his ministry, at the wedding in Cana.

She was invited to the wedding, as were Jesus and his disciples. She told Jesus that the hosts had run out of wine. She didn’t mind when he told her that his time had not yet come.

She told the servants to do what ever Jesus told them.

She was the mover and motivator behind his first sign. Why? What did she know? Did she know what Jesus could do? Did she know who he was?

John’s Gospel doesn’t have a birth story. John begins with the cosmic origins of Jesus. We first encounter him with John the Baptist and his followers. We know nothing about him

But she does. She knows he has abilities, or she wouldn’t bring the problem to his attention.

While he says, My time has not yet come, he still turns an excessive amount of water into high-quality wine.

Something during his time growing up, before he encounters the Baptist, has told her that her son is special.

She knew that people should do whatever Jesus said.

So when she sees him on the cross, is she thinking that he can get himself out of this? He has saved others, why doesn’t he save himself.

Jesus sees her. He sees the beloved disciple. Then, from the cross, Jesus entrusts her care to his most trusted follower. The one who was faithful to Jesus would be faithful to his mother.

“Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”

She knew that people should do whatever Jesus said.

From that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

By handing her care over to another, she knew that Jesus was handing himself over to this fate.

His time had finally come, his time to die.

She knew that people should do whatever Jesus said.

This is what Jesus has said:

• Come and see. Follow me.
•  God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him isn’t judged.
•   Whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life
•   I have sent you to harvest what you didn’t work for; others worked, and you will share in their work.
•  I assure you that whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and won’t come under judgment but has passed from death into life.
•   This is what God requires, that you believe in him whom God sent.
•   I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
•   Whoever hasn’t sinned should throw the first stone.
•   I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
•   I’m not from this world. If you don’t believe that I Am, you will die in your sins.
•   You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teaching. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
•   I assure you that everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
•   This happened so that God’s mighty works might be displayed.
•   I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life. They will never die.
•   I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
•   Whoever serves me must follow me. Wherever I am, there my servant will also be.
•   If people hear my words and don’t keep them, I don’t judge them. I didn’t come to judge the world but to save it. Whoever rejects me and doesn’t receive my words will be judged at the last day by the word I have spoken.
•   Unless I wash you, you won’t have a place with me.
•   I have given you an example: just as I have done, you also must do.
•  I assure you that whoever receives someone I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
•   I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.
•   I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
•   Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
•   If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
•  Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too.
•   I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything.
•   This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends.
•   I’m not praying only for them but also for those who believe in me because of their word. I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
•   My kingdom doesn’t originate from this world.
•   I was born and came into the world for this reason: to testify to the truth. Whoever accepts the truth listens to my voice.

She knew that people should listen to whatever Jesus said

•   Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up.