From: Robin Walker <robin@compusmart.ab.ca>

To: PROPERTALK <propertalk@dragon.com>

Subject: Good Friday sermon draft

Words from the Cross

Text: John 19:17-30

Jesus said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son," and to the disciple whom he loved, "Here is your mother."

It may be a surprise to some that Mary is never named in this Gospel – Joseph is named once – but Mary is only ever called "his mother."

To our well-bred ears, addressing one’s mother as "woman" seems perhaps a little disrespectful. But in the only two times that she appears in John’s Gospel, this is Jesus’ word of address.

Perhaps by addressing his mother in this "generic" fashion, he is underlining for us her importance in the story of salvation. All of this story – his birth, his baptism, his teaching, his miracles, his cross, his resurrection and ascension – all of this story becomes impossible (or at least meaningless) if Jesus was not born of a woman.

Knowing that Mary is "woman" reminds us forcefully that Jesus is "man." It is not God play-acting at humanity hanging on that cross. It is a living, breathing, hurting human being – a man – who is nonetheless the Word of God made flesh.

The words that Jesus speaks to his mother and the one standing beside her are perhaps the most important event of the story of the crucifixion in John’s telling of it.

There are other women – all named – standing by the cross, but John’s attention is on Mary’s unnamed companion – "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Who is he?

There are a number of theories, identifying him variously as John the son of Zebedee, John the Evangelist (if he is different from the first John), Lazarus, Nathanael – and even Mary Magdalene. (That’s stretching things a bit, in my view…)

Writers love mysteries, but believers prefer to have things spelled out clearly. The Evangelist has chosen not to identify this man. But his rôle is clear – he stands as the prototype of the faithful disciple. He was the one who reclined beside Jesus at the Last Supper, the one to whom Jesus identified his betrayer – and the one who first believed at the empty tomb.

We may think of the Beloved Disciple as standing for the church of his time – and today. And Mary – the "woman" – becomes his mother. Her earthly and physical motherhood is transformed into a new and richer rôle as "Mother of the Church." This does not mean we have to invest her with all the semi-divine attributes that Catholic dogma loads upon her. She can stand well enough on her own, as the one through whom God sent his Son to us.

As he commends his mother to the ministries of his closest friend, Jesus finishes the task for which he was sent. He is ensuring the future of those who call themselves his disciples – his friends and followers. In this act he finishes the work he was sent to do – to draw all people to himself, ushering in the spirit of God’s salvation.

Knowing that his work is done, that there will be people left behind to whom to bequeath the Holy Spirit, Jesus surrenders himself to the agony that the Biblical scholar Raymond Brown calls "the birth pangs of the Spirit."

We hear his pain in the cry of thirst, and we hear his final cry, announcing the completion of his ministry among us.

Brown translates the last verse "… bowing his head, he handed over the spirit."

What has been his will be ours, and now can be ours, for he handed it over.

Jesus, in his death, made possible the greatest gift of all – the gift of the Holy Spirit for all whom, like his mother and the beloved disciple, followed faithfully to the cross – and beyond.

Jesus had to die. He had to "hand over" his spirit, so that all humankind might receive that spirit and live eternally.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.

Robin+

The Rev. Canon Robin G. Walker

St. Augustine's-Parkland Anglican Church

P.O. Box 3227, Spruce Grove AB T7X 3A5

Ph 780-962-5131; Fax 780-962-2103

May the fires of Easter burn brightly for you all.