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
I was looking at the build-a-sermon because I’m trying to help choose music for Sunday. Hopefully Ken and I will be able to connect via email to finalize, since he’s on a business trip.
I thought the above passage from John was a good balance to passages in Mark, where Mary and Jesus’ brothers and sisters are looking for him outside. Jesus says his spiritual family is now his mother and brothers and sisters. Rewards are promised later in Mark to those who leave their human families. The work of a new religious movement is often for easily done by people who don’t have human family ties. However, in John, Jesus recognizes that caring for His human family IS important. I don’t think that rules out the fact that Jesus was trying to connect Mary to his spiritual family, the “church.”
The conflicting passages raise this question for me: “How many people can we realistically love well in our lifetime?” I see that I increasingly try to help more and more people, and my family probably feels like they are taking a back seat at times. Both are important.
With regard to the church — at its best, it is like a family. We are tied together by the fact that all of us are inspired by the teachings of Jesus and God’s power in our lives. We all hope to help bring about His Kingdom. We believe it is important to tell future generations about Jesus’ teachings.
We are pulled apart by pride and fear, which both keep us from connecting with others (and God) in the way Jesus wanted us to.
My two cents…
Janet Krech