Good Friday 2013

Behold your mother.

The agony of crucifixion is exacerbated by the isolation and abandonment of the victim.The insidious genius of crucifixion is to inflict maximum pain for the maximum time and effect. The victim knows he has been abandoned by the state, the community, his family and God. He has become a curse and no longer a person of any value to anyone.

With only two exceptions, everyone who followed Jesus during his three year public ministry abandoned him. Those two exceptions are his mother (and her two companions) and his best friend ( a teen named John). Whatever comfort Jesus experienced as he endured the physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual torments of crucifixion came from Mary and John.

As Jesus is the love of God incarnate as a particular person at a particular place and time, so Jesus recognized the particularity of love present in Holy Mother Mary and John the beloved.As he dies in great torment he nevertheless remains true to his nature. Jesus just doesn’t have love as an attribute. He is love.

He looks at his mother and his best friend from the place of universal unconditional and sacrificial love. That love is real and it is personal. He commends Mary to John and John to Mary. Now, Mary had many relatives. One of the women standing by her at the foot of the cross was her sister Mary, identified for us as the wife of Cleopas. One of her sons is James (the younger) who is holy mother Mary’s nephew. The scriptures mention Jesus’s brethren (step brothers or cousins). James the Just was one of these brethren. Mary had a large extended family more than willing to provide for her material needs.

John was one of many children of Zebedee. John’s mother was still alive and influential in the life of her sons. John did not need an older woman to act a surrogate mother. In what context does Jesus declare Mary to be John’s mother and John to be Mary’s son?

The context is the choice both individuals made to overcome fear by faith in grace. Mary and John risked their lives to stand at the foot of the cross. The Romans would not have harmed Mary. Romans held motherhood as a divine virtue, The religious and political fanatics of the time could easily have harmed Mary for her close association with a man they considered to be a blasphemer and a traitor.

The Romans might have arrested John. John was a teen and the Romans might have perceived him as a threat. Two things kept John safe. The first thing was: he stood with the women. By doing so he identified himself as a child. Jesus’ enemies believed that real men do not associate with the weakness of grieving women. They perceived John as a child and therefore of no consequence.

What kept John safe from the Romans was superstition. John already had the reputation of being Jesus’ best friend. The Romans then and throughout John’s long life considered the real possibility that Jesus was a god. That made John the best friend of a god. On the outside chance this was true, the Romans decided they needed to be very careful how they treated John.

Jesus saw Mary and John as the nucleus of the new community of faith. In that context, Jesus was asking his mother to complete John’s spiritual formation. And in that context Jesus directed John to complete his spiritual formation under Mary’s guidance.

It was and is a very unusual personal and spiritual relationship. Only Mary could give John the insights he needed to write the most profound and theological of the four gospels. Under Mary’s instruction, John came to understand two foundational truths about God. Mary helped John understand that the one God is three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And, she helped him understand that Jesus is the Son in human flesh.

Paul might have offered John a more rigorous analytical understanding of these Great Mysteries. James and Peter might have offered John a more Biblically based framework. What Mary offered John and John was uniquely capable of understanding was her own personal experience of the Trinity and the Incarnation. What she offered was her personal experience of Divine Love. Jesus knew that all of his disciples, John would be the one who would listen to Mary, value her insights, ponder her experience and rely on her guidance. The Gospel of John is foundational for the eventual formation of the Christian Faith in the Nicene Creed.

The particularity of Divine Love emerges in our relationships. Jesus recognized the love his mother had would complete and inspire the love John had. This simple word from the cross: woman behold your son; son behold your mother- sets in motion the Great Mystery of faith. Faith is personal transforming personal relationship in love, by love and for love.

If you want to know God come to Jesus. If you want to grow in your personal relationship with Jesus choose to follow the pattern of spiritual formation Jesus gave to his most loyal and beloved follower. Come to Mary. Ask Mary to help complete your spiritual formation. As Anglicans we follow a very ancient pattern of spirituality. We encourage people to grow in grace by asking for help from the one the Bible describes as full of grace.

This is not a command. It is a gift. It is the gift Jesus gave to John the beloved as Jesus died in great pain. It is the gift Jesus makes available to all people everywhere. It is one of the seven words of grace we hear on Good Friday. Behold your Mother!