AT THE CROSS

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Read John 19:16b-30.

So here’s Jesus, Mary, the Beloved Disciple, at the cross. Why is Jesus saying this at the cross? Is this his last will and testament? Is this the final request of a dying man? Did he just happen to remember that someone needs to take care of mother? Recall everything Jesus has said before ...

• Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. (15:13-14)

At the cross, Jesus is calling on his disciples to have the same sort of friendship that he had for them

• He is asking the disciple to give his life for Mary – to care for her as his mother
• He is asking Mary to give her life for the disciple – to regard him as her own son
• This is new relationship in Christ.
• Sentimentality, tradition, and/or nature might lead to a mother giving her life for a child. It might lead to a child giving his life for his own mother. But at the cross, we go beyond all of that. We have resources that the rest of the world doesn’t have ... at the cross.

I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. (16:20)
Today the rest of the world is celebrating the cherished concept of motherhood. The rest of the world is giving flowers to mom, the rest of the world is going to take mom out to eat, the rest of the world is giving mom a card that says just the right thing, the rest of the world is serving mom breakfast in bed. We can do what the rest of the world does. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s nice. It’s kind.

But we are also a people who know what it means to stand at the cross. We are a people who begin worship not in the filtered glow of a Hallmark Mother’s Day ad. Our worship is not just a sentimental embrace of the traditional ideas our culture cherishes.
We can do more than take our own sentimental values and ask heaven to sprinkle magic Bible dust on it.
We take our most cherished traditional ideas like motherhood, fatherhood, childhood, family and we place them in the shadow of the cross and the light of Christ reveals more than we can imagine.

At the cross ... We have been given a message and resources that the rest of the world just doesn’t have. What the rest of the world cannot do very well, especially at a time like this, is name the pain and shame that is very real ... realities the rest of the world would prefer to forget ...

• The loss of a mother
• The mother who has lost a child
• The woman who cannot have a child
• The mother and child that are separated
• The mother who never was much of a mother at all

Can I say this? Can we talk about this? Church we have to! We must! We are the people who dare to stand at the cross.

At the cross ... We stand boldly in the presence of pain or shame and name it.
At the cross ... Jesus is speaking in the presence of the shame and pain.
At the cross ... Pain gives way to new life and shame is changed to new hope.
At the cross ... Relationships are created that cannot be created anywhere else.
At the cross ... A woman who is losing her son gains a new family.
At the cross ... A disciple who is losing his teacher becomes a son.
At the cross ... Your shame may be covered over by the blood of Jesus.
At the cross ... Your pain and sorrow has been heard by the crucified one. He will not turn against you.

Mary, the Beloved Disciple, and the other women are going to worship soon. They will lead the worship. Peter who betrayed Christ will be there too, but he will not lead the worship. Thomas who doubted will be there, but he will not lead the worship. Judas will not even be there. The ones who will lead the worship will be those who stood at the cross and feared that their pain and grief would overwhelm them. They are the ones who heard every word he said – at the cross.
Can we worship with them – at the cross? Psalm 22 I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. (16:20)

Chris Benjamin

West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Morning Sermon, 10 May 2009

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