Of the seven last sayings of Jesus, three of them focus on the
needs of others.
Having had the privilege of sitting with my dad over the course
of the last ten days of his life, I am more keenly aware of the brief statements
made by the one who knows his death is imminent. Sometime during those ten
days I remember my dad asking me: “Are you OK, Sheryl?” Even as
my dad was coming down to the end of his earthly life, he was still doing
what he had always done best: showing concern for the welfare of others.
Consider the Scripture from which this message comes:
The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments
and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic
was seamless, woven in one piece.
They said therefore to one another,
“Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall
be”; that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “They divided
My outer garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.”
Therefore the soldiers did these things.
But there were standing by the cross of Jesus His mother,
And His mother’s sister,
Mary the wife of Clopas,
And Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He
loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”
Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”
And from that hour the disciple took her into his own household.
(John 19:23-27, nasb italics author)
As painful as it must have been to be there, Mary, Jesus’
mother, could not but find herself at the foot of the Cross. What must have
been going through her mind and heart? Did she remember the words spoken to
her by the angel on that day long ago : “Do not be afraid, Mary; for
you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb,
and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus” (Luke 1:30-31, nasb italics
author). How excruciatingly painful was it for her to contemplate that the
favor of God upon her life included standing at the foot of a cross and watching
her son crucified?
Did it help her to remember what she had said to the angel when
he explained how she, a virgin would be with child? “Behold the handmaid
of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (v. 38, nkjv)
A handmaid is not in charge of her own life. A handmaid is at
someone else’s disposal, to be used according to someone else’s
wish. A handmaid belongs to someone else without reserve. Total surrender,
in this case to God, to be used as it pleased Him, to be His handmaid, to
belong to Him.1
Did it help her to remember when she wondered how she would
conceive what the angel had said? “ . . . Nothing will be impossible
with God” (v. 37, nasb). Was this perhaps one of the “impossibilities”
that God would have her live through?
At the foot of the Cross, Mary, the mother, remembers her testimony
to Elizabeth: “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in
God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bond slave;
for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed”
(vv. 46-48, nasb).
Usually when we ask God to bless us, what we mean is: “God
will you approve our plans?” When the Bible speaks of being “blessed
of God” it means that we are allowing God to interfere in our lives.2
Becoming the mother of the Messiah was an interference in Mary’s life.
She could no longer “just” be a good Jewish wife and raise good
Jewish children!
Mary stands at the foot of the Cross and helps us consider our
priorities:
1. To be favored. Does this mean that God might favor me to
be used in excruciatingly impossible circumstances? It did for Mary.
2. To see God’s “impossibilities” become possible.
Does this mean that what I may think of as something impossible to live through
may, in fact, become possible with God’s grace and help? It did for
Mary.
3. To be blessed of God. Does this mean that to be blessed is
to be totally and fully at His disposal, giving up everything I hold near
and dear? It did for Mary.
She was the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They
were Peter’s business partners. As you read the Gospel story, you discover
that Peter, James and John, though favorites of Jesus, were the ones most
often reproved by Him.
As a mother, she requested that Jesus give her sons the places
of honor of sitting at His right and left in His kingdom (see Matthew 20:20-21).
What conversations did this woman have with her sister after making this request
of Jesus? What conversations did she have with her sons after making this
request? Did she remember what Jesus said after she made this request: “whoever
desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son
of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom
for many” (Matthew 20:27-28, nkjv).
Did this mother ponder the possibility that her sons had “kidnapped”
her love and used it for their own ends? Did she realize she needed to be
ransomed from this type of thinking and behavior? Now she is standing at the
foot of the Cross with her sister, the mother of the One who was being crucified.
As the mother of two of Jesus’ favorite disciples, her priority at one
time would have been to ensure that her boys were given the places of honor.
At this very moment, does she remember Christ’s top priority: to serve
and to give His life a ransom for many?
What an amazing experience to stand at the foot of the Cross,
alongside three other women. Though we know nothing about this woman, we can
surmise that she had been a follower throughout Christ’s ministry and,
no doubt, a close friend of the other three women. As a follower of Christ,
she would have often sat under His teaching. Did she remember her thoughts
when she first heard Jesus say: “If anyone comes to Me, and does not
hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes,
and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear
his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple”? (Luke 14:25-27,
nkjv). Did these four women talk about this difficult teaching?
Eric Liddell’s story was brought to the world’s
attention through the now famous movie, Chariots of Fire. Though he won a
gold medal at the 1924 Paris Olympics, he gave up a career as an athlete in
order go to China as a missionary, following in his parent’s footsteps.
Liddell died in a Japanese internment camp on February 21, 1945, five months
before liberation. At sometime he wrote:
Circumstances may appear to wreck our lives and God’s
plans, but God is not helpless among the ruins. God’s love is still
working. He comes in and takes the calamity and uses it victoriously, working
out His wonderful plan of love.3
Mary, the wife of Clopas, stands at the foot of the Cross, was she wondering,
“is God at work here? Is God’s love at work here?”
Mary Magdalene was a woman who contributed support to Jesus’
ministry. She is most often remembered as the one from whom seven demons had
been cast (Luke 8:1-3). The Greek word for evil, as used here by Luke, is
poneros and refers to “evil in a moral or spiritual sense; wicked, malicious,
mischievous.” From this word is derived poneria, which is aptness to
do shrewd turns, delight in mischief and tragedies, perverseness.”4
Mary Magdalene was but one of several women who had been healed from “this
aptness to do shrewd turns; to delight in mischief and tragedies and perverseness.”
That is some healing!
Four women, standing at the foot of the Cross. It would seem
that circumstances have wrecked their lives and plans. In truth, however,
God is not helpless among the ruins. God’s love is still working.
Jesus was thinking about His mother’s needs, even at the
time that His own life was excruciatingly coming to an end. Mary, however,
didn’t at first feel comforted by this caring. She didn’t want
John, she wanted her Son! You and I, when we lose a loved one, are not comforted
when people say things like: well you at least have other children; or, he
lived a good long life.
Does John record these words to show how much Jesus cared, or
was there something else he wanted us to grasp? Instead of comfort did these
words have to do with that hard saying of Jesus: “If anyone comes to
Me, and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and
sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever
does not bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple” (Luke
14:25-27, nkjv). This was Mary’s cross to bear, to be given into the
care of someone else, when all she wanted was to be cared for by her Son!
(For the full manuscript
of this sermon go to www.preachersmagazine.org and click on “Sermons.”)
A priority is the most important thing that must be dealt with
first. When it comes to being a follower of Christ, we have to really hear
what Jesus was saying when He said: “Woman, behold, your son!”
Jesus says the same thing to each one of us who have decided to follow him:
our lives are not our own; our dreams and visions of how things should unfold
are not our own; our relationships are not our own to have and to hold onto.
Each of those women at the foot of the Cross had to relinquish
relationships that were near and dear to them. Because we know the end of
the story—Jesus was raised from the dead—we want to gloss over
how very painful it must have been for Mary to give up her relationship of
mother to son. Who or what is Christ asking you to relinquish?
1. Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, New American Standard Bible. AMG Publishers,
Chattanooga, Tenn. 1984.
2. The Wesley Bible, New King James Version. Thomas Nelson Publishers,
Nashville, 1990.
3. A Life for God: The Mother Teresa Reader. Compiled by LaVonne
Neff. Servant Publication, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1995.
4. “Lexical Aids to the New Testament,” Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible, New American Standard Bible. AMG Publishers, Chattanooga, Tenn. 1984, p. 1869.
