Monday’s thoughts
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.
Charles
