The Seven Words of the Cross #3

[HKHaugan]

The Seven Words of the Cross #3 

Jn.19:26-27 “Dear woman, here is your son” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”

 There is a lot of speculation about these words. Was Jesus elevating Mary to a position of worship or was He simply turning her care over to John? The in-between assumptions vary. In the Greek text here and in Chapter 2 at the wedding feast, He addressed Mary simply as “gunai”, woman. He doesn’t call her “Mother” as might be expected since she gave Him human birth.

 We have to consider the context. What was He saying in the context of the work of the Cross, His suffering and His impending death? The basic point of the Cross is the faith with which Jesus approached it, endured it and died upon it. His Cross makes faith the way each of us is restored to the Father as we take up our cross each day. It is Jesus’ perfect life of faith that made Him the means to overcoming sin. Being faithful was the work Jesus undertook day by day as He approached each next moment in His earthly trek. He makes the point early on in His mission when He is told His mother and brothers are waiting for Him. He tells them that His mother and sister and brother are those who do the will of His Father in Heaven (Mt.12:48).

 As the promised Messiah, His work included being the lover of all men and women. He makes every person a unique object of His love and grace. Earthly roles and their definition become subject to Him. He was the Creator behind all human definition, therefore above it. He is the sole Savior of the soul. He is no longer limited to the Jewish family bloodline or an ethnic or secular culture. His mission is to everyone. His shed blood will cover all people. He has a unique role only He could fulfill, Savior and Lord. He is the Savior of the world, the Savior of all people and their role as fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends, leaders and workers, thus His own mother and His brothers. Therefore, it would be a natural thing for Him to fulfill the Commandment to honor parents. So, He turns the care of His earthly mother over to the Apostle closest to Him, the beloved disciple John, as he is called in Scripture (Jn.19:26).

 Does Jesus love His mother any less? Absolutely not. If anything, she will experience the full depth of God’s love through His presence after the Resurrection. Her grief will be turned to joy in her salvation as well. She was special, but isn’t that true of all of us? We are all special and unique. If anything, her uniqueness will be a blessing to all women (Lk.1:42). She bore the Savior of mankind and that means every woman has a unique role in bearing a unique child which means every human being, male and female, has a unique personal standing with God.

 If every mother realized the blessing they have in their uniqueness bearing new unique images of God, imagine what that would do for each and every husband who too is unique in being the cover for the woman’s and child’s uniqueness. What we are recognizing in Mary is the recovery of womanhood and the uniqueness of each woman’s role relationally. Freed from the world’s denigrating attempt to masculinize women and feminize men, a woman exercises the greatest roles only a woman can undertake, motherhood, the birth and nurture of an image of God and being a wife to support the one who covers her and enables her to spend her primary energy to those ends.

 That leads us to take a look at how Jesus relates to His mother Mary, at the Wedding Feast (Jn.2). When the wine had run out she told Jesus, “They have no more wine.” He replies, “Woman, why do you involve me?” Here again, He does not call her “mother”, rather ‘woman.” The answer may be in the rest of His reply, “My time has not yet come.”   He is conscious of His chosen destiny, to be the Messiah; the Messiah not only for the Jews but Savior of all mankind, men and women alike who put their faith in Him. He is more than a human son. He is the Son of Man and the Son of God. His Baptism separated Him from the rest of us. He was on a mission. His Father’s will was for Him to be the Savior from sin for everyone who would believe in Him. He would become the Savior of both His mother and His disciples as well. Thus, Mary is called ‘woman’ and the beloved disciple ‘son.’ She still has a role to play in this world; her uniqueness as having been His earthly mother, an image of God to be a witness for Him. His mission transcends all human roles and identities. After His Resurrection He does the same with Mary Magdalene who comes to His grave. When she recognizes the risen Jesus, He tells her not to hold on to Him because He is going to His Father and her Father (Jn.20:17). He is God the Son who will rule as King of Heaven and God the Man who will save men from sin.

 To exalt Mary wrongly is to miss the reality of her greatness. She was not sinless. There are three reasons Mary needs salvation:

First, she is a human being born of an earthly mother and father, chosen to bear the Christ because she ‘found favor (Gk.charin, charis, covered by grace, graciousness)’ with God. From Scripture we can only conclude He found her to be the kind of woman willing, open, to accept His will to obey Him, but she needed His grace and faith to obey. It was God’s initiative.

Second, Mary was dietarakthe (Gk., greatly troubled), dielogizeto translated wonder (actual Gk. meaning, trying to figure out what she was told), afraid (Gk., phobeo) and needed the comforting and informing words of the angel, “Don’t be afraid Mary”, who then informed her what was taking place (Lk.1:35-36).” She was troubled, afraid, wondering and didn’t understand.

Third, Mary needed to submit which she does, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said (Lk.1:38).” She must have recognized she was a sinner. Her willingness to accept the angel’s words resulted in her exultation at being chosen for such a high honor. No wonder she responds with that beautiful rendering traditionally called “The Magnificat (Mary’s Song),” My soul doth magnify the Lord…” which is her praise of the Lord rehearsing the history and blessings of God having chosen Israel as the vessel for the Messiah and now, from within Israel, her personally.

 One more thing can be added here. When Mary visits and greets Elizabeth (Lk.1:39) who is pregnant with John the Baptizer, Elizabeth feels the baby leap in her womb at the greeting. She says, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you bear. But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord (mater-mother, tou kouriou mou-of my Lord) should come to me (Lk.1:43)?” An early institutional church tradition started that used the Greek word theotokos-mother of God, to elevate Mary. But the emphasis is on the mother and the feminine role and importance of motherhood for which both Mary and Elizabeth are prime examples. As mothers, they bear the Christ and the prophet John who prepares for His coming. Paul does exactly this as he lifts up their importance when he teaches the Ephesians, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy (Eph.5:25,26)…husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself (vs.28). It is ‘wife’ and ‘mother’ who are being lifted above a world hostile to women, especially now as the world is subtly dehumanizing women through its false concept of equality.

 What makes Mary great is that she recognized her spiritual needs. She was given a choice. She chose to submit to the will of God. Thus, she was blessed. In one sense she was the forerunner for all of us. We recognize our need, we have a choice, we submit. Then comes the blessing in an eternal relationship with the Lord.

 Mary can be pointed to as the main spiritual revelation for that culture at that time and for all time that men and women have equal status as images of God before their Creator. It is secular religion and its doctrine of false feminism that has subjugated women to follow a false idol and its isolating emotionalism that fosters the false need to prove one’s self in some secular role. In contrast it is a personal relationship with God in Jesus that has elevated all women because of their unique role as mother and wife, the two most important roles in human history. Of course, women can work, be professional and creative but their true gift is being mothers and wives and the maturing sense of accomplishment that brings. A man’s role, therefore is to give substance and support to his wife and family as the spiritual units the Lord has chosen to raise and nurture each new image of God into being children of God, the highest honor in the universe.

 Perhaps now we can see why Jesus points to John and tells him Mary is now his mother and he is her son. Through His Resurrection and the Holy Spirit’s arrival, the Lord frees both Mary and John to live as believing witnesses to their spiritual roles, thus securing their salvation and modeling the process for us.  What greater elevation is there for any human being?