First United Methodist Church - Fort Collins, CO

The implications of this are less clear than they might be, and I have tried to take a scan of some of the ways in which Jesus and Mary’s lives intersect. The temptation is to make Mary a saint to the point we don’t deal with her seriously. I want to avoid that.

There seem to be three times in Jesus’ life when he and Mary’s lives were united and determinative and influential to each other.

a. When the Madonna thought about the Messiah. It is probably true (I wouldn’t know, of course) that every mother thinks her child is the solution to the problems in the world. Mary heard voices. She thought Jesus would do wonderful things for his people. Did she knew where it would lead for him? I doubt she knew it would lead to the cross.

b. When he was thirty-years-old they went to a wedding at Cana, and they ran out of wine. Jesus really hadn’t taken off with his life at this point. Mary was a “mother” and Jesus was “the master”, and Mary without hesitation began ordering her son around, and you could tell from the dialogue he was annoyed with her. She wanted him to get on with the purpose of his life.

c. The final scene was one that was stark and sad. Mary stood at the foot of the cross. Jesus had made his witness in Jerusalem; he was the martyr. Jesus was the “martyr” and Mary was the “mourner”. I have been surprise that, as vocal and bossy as she was at Cana when she told Jesus to turn water into wine, Mary was silent when Jesus made the decision to go into Jerusalem and she said nothing while she stood at the foot of the cross.

Some writers have thought Mary had come to see she could do nothing about the crucifixion, but she could do something about the factors that led to it. Some have imagined Mary spent the remainder of her life trying to confront hatred, anger, jealousy, meanness, prejudice, and dispair.

Maybe that’s why we are inclined to make Mary a saint. She spent her life trying to make certain Jesus was the last person ever crucified.

What do you think?

If you have a response to this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net.

If the email address doesn’t appear just click on the blank space and it will pop up.

I look forward to hearing from you.

The other thing about this text that seems to fit for me is the idea that Jesus was pointing to his mother. At the time of his death on the cross he was pointing to his mother. He seemed to be saying, “Look, there is my mother.” I think he was not saying to John Mark, “Take care of my mother.” I think he was saying, “Thank you mother for being with me.”

This is one of the most tender and moving statements in the Bible. It calls for us to think about the people in our lives who have been with us in our darkest hour, and in our brightest hour. Mary was present to Jesus. She was important to him. This is one of the few places in the Bible where Jesus is reported to have claimed family. He says for any to hear, that he is the son of Mary. That is important.

There is a sense of pride and appreciation in these words.

What do these words evoke? Do they bring  forward the tenderness of relationship between Jesus and his mother, and does that cause us to think about those kinds of relationships with the important people in our lives? If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. Click on the blank space and the email address will appear.

I look forward to hearing from you.

I intend to explore the words cross with this sermon when Jesus pointed to Mary and said to John Mark, “Behold, Your Mother”.

Fleming Rutledge wrote this: “Virtually everyone who is reading these words has probably heard this saying from the Cross interpreted in the following way:
* Jesus cared deeply for his mother.
* Jesus was worried about his mother’s future.
* The saying therefore illustrates Jesus’ love for his mother and his dying concern for her welfare.
* We are thereby instructed to take care of our own mothers.

Indeed, this interpretation goes as far back as Saint Augustine in the fourth century. However, this way of understanding the saying has long been considered insufficient by many other interpreters. It does not seem to fit the theology of John’s Gospel at all, nor does it seem to suit the concerns of John’s Passion narrative.

Good Friday is not the first Mother’s Day. In giving his mother to the disciple, Jesus is causing a new relationship to come into existence that did not exist before. The disciple and the woman are not individual people here. They are symbolic: they represent the way that family ties are transcended in the church by the ties of the Spirit.”

This sermon will look at what relationship Jesus had with his mother and what is implied by the way the church understood this relationhip.

It is important for us to grasp what the text is saying as we strive to get a handle on what it might be saying to us.

Is this text about Mary, Jesus’ mother or is this text about the forming of a new family; the church?

Is the church like a family?

What ties us together?
What pulls us apart?

If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. Click on the blank spot and the email address will pop up.

I look forward to hearing from you.