Sermon for March 17, 2024 - 7 Last Sayings of Jesus: “Woman, Behold Thy Son! And Behold Thy Mother!” & “My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?”
We are still in the season of lent, and we are continuing today to look at the very last things that Jesus said while he was on the cross, as he was suffering, after he was beaten, after he was wrongly judged.
These were his last words before his death. This is all in preparation for Holy Week which is just a few weeks away.
And today we are looking at two of those sayings of Jesus on the cross, the ones that were just read by _______.
What we are doing during March is pretty common Christian practice during the season of lent.
Really, for centuries upon centuries, Christians have thoughtfully considered the last words of the Messiah on the cross at this time of year.
His words are rich with meaning. They are impactful. They are literally the words of Jesus, Who is God-in-the-flesh, as He hung on that cross.
We spend this time reflecting on Jesus’ last words on the cross to grow in our understanding and appreciation of the loss suffered on that day, of the love expressed on that day, and the Life given that day that we call Good Friday. [Pause]
That day of loss, of sorrow, of disappointment and emptiness. That day where, for all appearances, hope had died. Keep in mind that for the disciples, it was a day where the bitterest, ugliest reality they could have imagined, came true.
Their fears about Jesus entering Jerusalem, into a toxic climate where the religious leaders were determined to no longer just challenge Jesus and try to trip Him up in terms of the things He taught, but it was clear their tolerance of Jesus had come to an end.
The disciples knew it, and they warned Jesus to not risk going into the City of Peace, Jerusalem.
But he did go, and going into Jerusalem, events unfolded just as ancient prophets had predicted.
And as Jesus hung on the cross dying, He spoke.
Elsewhere, when we hear Jesus speak, it is in parables, in sermons, it is in prayers that He uttered, it is in conversation with others.
There He shared words in a relaxed setting, talking with people He loved, encouraging the weak, lifting up the poor, proclaiming Good News to everyone, challenging those who thought too much of themselves or of their religiosity, their religious rightness.
Here, His words spoken on the cross, are brief, uttered between agonised breaths, as the life was draining out of His body.
They are brief words, but they are potent words. They expose the heart of Jesus - why He came, His humility and compassion, His humanity and ultimately His full acceptance of His mission and His profound faith in the One Who sent Him.
Let’s consider today’s first utterance of Jesus: ““Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”
Here Jesus reminds us of the fact of His humanity in another sense. Jesus was a mother’s Son. He grew up in a human family, with family allegiances - with a mother, a step-father and, as other Scriptures say, with brothers and sisters and cousins.
Maybe, as we look at Jesus on the cross through the eyes of a mother who raised him, who was present at His first words, His first steps, His first scraped knee, His bar mitzvah;
perhaps when we consider Jesus in His suffering through the eyes of a mother who suffers also at the unjust murder of her Son, we can feel the weight of Jesus’ suffering in another sense, in His mother’s agony.
Please note that Jesus’ referring to Mary as “Woman” does not denote any disrespect in the Koine Greek.
It’s true that Mary is called in Greek the theotokos, the mother of God. She gave birth to God the Son.
A mind-boggling thing for a young teenage virgin to go through. But He was her boy, nonetheless.
And here, in this moment as He speaks from the cross, He gives us a preview into the nature of Church as family.
He tells His dear mother that since He will soon be gone, she is to take the disciple John as her son.
This is Jesus transferring his responsibility for his mom to his best friend, beloved John.
And he is also transferring responsibility for John to Mary. John was Jesus’ security plan for his Mom. Mary was in a sense John’s adoptive parent.
So yes,this speaks of a kind of adoption, this speaks of family, not through blood lines, but through relationship to Jesus. Mary was Jesus’ mother.
She was almost certainly a widow and probably in her late 40s or early 50s, with little or no personal income.
Since men controlled most legal proceedings, having a male advocate was vital. Since Jesus as the eldest son was responsible for his mother’s care, entrusting this responsibility to another before he died was important.
Jesus had younger brothers who would normally take the responsibility, but here Jesus entrusts her care to a disciple, treating him as a member of the family.
Such testaments could entrust care for a family member to a designated person, and one who was dying could assign property or duties verbally.
John was Jesus' friend, His best friend by all accounts. So even while dying, Jesus fulfilled his obligation to care for his widowed mother, entrusting her to the care of John, his disciple.
Jesus entrusted the well-being of his mother to John rather than to one of her biological sons most likely because they had not yet believed in him at this point in time.
Jesus becomes the centre of, the reason for and the glue that holds together the family of God.
You and I, as followers of Jesus, are sister and brother in the Lord, united through faith in Jesus Christ.
Adopted into the family of God because of the sacrifice of the Son of God.
Here, Jesus inaugurated the web of relationships based on faith in Him that would become known as the body of Christ, the Church.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
I find this the most difficult of Jesus' final words. It’s difficult on the one hand because it is absolutely loaded with theological truth and power.
Theology is the study of God, and the most brilliant thing about God is that He chose in Jesus to suffer.
He chose in Jesus to leave all of heaven’s beauty and safety and splendour, in order to come to this planet, motivated only by the purest love.
He chose to allow Himself to be, by those He came to love and save, beaten and broken and crucified - slaughtered as a lamb.
And that’s just the beginning. He also chose to have all of our sins placed upon Him.
Why did Jesus say: “My God, my God, why have You abandoned Me?” This is a powerful quote from Psalm 22 where Jesus identifies deeply with the suffering expressed in that passage.
I believe that these words recall the reality and the moment when Jesus, separated from God the Father as He endured the wrath of God for the sins of humanity, cried out, expressing the sting of alienation from God as He who knew no sin became sin for us.
1 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. ESV
You might wonder: How was Christ made to be sin for us?
Well, someone described it his way: Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, voluntarily assumed, took upon Himself the consequences of our sin—corruption and death—without sinning Himself.
To make reconciliation possible, God condemned a just person in the place of sinners.
And He submitted to unjust suffering because of our sins. So salvation is the forgiveness of sins, but salvation is far more than forgiveness of sins.
It is new life: it’s our reconciliation to God and our becoming new creatures (v. 17), participants in the very righteousness of God (v. 21).
This means our salvation is not just juridical (the static, legal pronouncement of a judge), but personal and relational (the dynamic, sacrificial love of a father for his child).
This passage has been viewed as a summary of the gospel. Christ, the only entirely righteous one, took our sin upon himself on the cross and endured the punishment we deserved, namely, death and separation from God.
Thus, by a marvelous exchange, he made it possible for us to receive his righteousness and thereby be reconciled to God.
He was forsaken, stepping into our place, as He took our sins upon Him; forsaken by the Father, who in His holiness will not countenance or accommodate sin.
As I close, let’s stand together to read from the prophet Isaiah:
Isaiah 53 1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied ; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,and he will divide the spoils with the strong,because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
We have all, all of us who identify as followers of Christ, this great forgiveness of sins, this great reconciliation with God brought about through the suffering death and resurrection of Jesus prophesied by Isaiah 700+ years before Jesus was born.
Because Jesus endured what he did on the cross for us, and because Jesus triumphed over death, rising from the dead, and ascended to the father, we live as people need free, we live as resurrection people, we live free to love and serve God and people for the glory of God.
May we, as the beloved, adopted children of the most high King of the universe, more deeply embrace the amazing love and grace we have received from God because of the sacrifice of Jesus.
May we embrace our spiritual brotherhood and sisterhood, that we are part of the family of God and our relationships matter to God, and are key to God as He builds his kingdom, as He prepares His Kingdom to come..
May we live in this love and grace; not just believing in it for ourselves, but expressing it to others, eager to offer love and grace in all our relationships, and ready with an explanation for the hope that we have in Jesus. Amen? Amen!
