A WORD OF PROVISION (Third Word from the Cross)

#074      A WORD OF PROVISION (Third Word from the Cross)

Scripture  John 19:25-27 NIV                                                                                         Orig. Date 3/21/1965 (3/1980)

                                                                                                                                                                 Rewr. Dates 3/19/1987

Passage: 25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman,[a] here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

Purpose: Continuing a series of Words from the Cross, directing our thoughts to the salvation accomplished on the cross by the means of Christ’s gift of Himself

Keywords:          Biography, Mary               Crucifixion           Salvation              Blood                    Christ, Death

                                Easter

Timeline/Series:               Words from the Cross

Introduction

                How often, when attempting to console a friend who has lost a loved one are we moved to say, “I know how you feel!”?  But we know that unless we have ourselves walked through that “lonesome valley,” we cannot know how they feel.

                Even so is any word that reflects on Mary’s feelings here.  How do we contemplate the feelings of Mary as she watched Jesus die?  Recalling Simeon’s prophecy (Luke 2:35), “a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also,” can we comprehend her feeling?  Do you suppose she  recalled those words as she looked on?

                Hebrew women depended  on sibling caretakers just as elderly mothers do today.  Perhaps more so.  Joseph was surely dead.  There were other children, four sons, at least two daughters.  But there was only one like her first born.  Now she can only stand by and watch.

                Jesus is dying; and he is dying the shameful death of a criminal.  She had to watch.  She felt the same pain that He felt.  His blood coursing down the cross was as it were her own.  She could see the gaping wound, the trickling blood, the wounded hands and feet, the parched lips and tongue, yet she could do nothing.  She remembered, perhaps, a child’s feet, ever-present near her own.  She saw in her mind’s eye, the boyhood hands, skillfully learning from Joseph, the trade of carpenter.  And every taunt, from the indifferent crowd, tore through her heart like a dagger.

                Perhaps she remembered the angel (Luke 2:10), “I bring you good tidings of great joy.”  She recalled the shepherds (Luke 2:20), “return[ing], glorifying and praising God.”  Were the shepherds deceived, the angel a deceiver?  How else to explain this now?  The word here spoken was an intimately personal  one spoken to His mother, but with deep meaning for all of us.

                I.             Consider, First, a Provision Centered in Human Need. John 19:26, “He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son.”  We hear Jesus address an apparent need, the care of his mother in her senescence.  She is left in the care of a son of the cross.  She was 45, perhaps 50.  There were 6-7 siblings (Matthew 13:55-56).  Galatians 1:19 speaks of James “the Lord’s brother.”  John 7:5: ”5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.”  At this time, none of the others are followers, and Jesus wants her under redemptive care.

                Not only is this a testament to God’s providence, but His foreknowledge as well.  John probably outlived all others.  Mary will know comparative ease in the distant confines of Ephesus.

                It must also be noted that  there is spiritual need here as well.  It is not as son, but as Saviour, that Jesus reaches out in her behalf.  There were those deep forebodings.

                Shepherds were already mentioned, as were the angels. The wise men (Matthew 2:11f) were learned astrologers from the distant east, worshiping, gifting.  Luke 1:42 is Elisabeth’s Magnificat—“Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.”

                There were spectacular displays in His life:  The Passover pilgrimage when He was twelve; manifestations of healing, teaching.  There are stranger forebodings to beset her now.  We must see her humanity, so unique, yet still one of us.  It is disparaging and dishonest to see her as other than sinner.  Jesus must gently remove Himself as son, that she might see Him as Saviour.  Ephesians 2:16, “That He might reconcile both [Jew and Greek] unto God in one body on the cross.”

                Fine, deeply religious, God-honoring woman that she was, needed not a son, but a Saviour.

II.            A Provision Consummated in Manly Compliance.  John 19:27, “Then saith He to the disciple, Behold

Thy mother!  And from that hour that disciple took her unto His . . . home.”  Thus, we concluded Jesus’s intent to see her under the care of a believer. 

                John had given evidence of the change in his own life. He had been “Boanerges”--son of thunder.  He would become “the disciple Jesus loved.”  From fisherman to fisher of men. From net mender to knee bender.  I John 1:1-2, “1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you . . . .)”

                John would be the one, the only one (?), able to help her keep the perspective of Saviour.  Not even His own mother must cloud the issue of who He really is: Son of God, Saviour. Multiple references show John’s insight.  John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

                Where John could make such a difference for Mary was in the good news of salvation through the cross.  John undauntedly proclaimed Christ as Lord.  John only records the interview with Nicodemus.  John 3:17, “God sent not His son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.”

                Again, only John tells of the woman at the well.  John 4:13f, “Whoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but who drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.”

                He tells of the lame man in Jerusalem. John 5:39f, “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life . . . . And ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.”

                As the family of Christ in the world today, how vital that we proclaim Him Lord, nothing else.  John 9:4, “I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is yet day, for the night cometh.”  The time comes when the mind is closed against the Lord.  Satan works his doom-saying work through sin that clouds the heart to faith.  Those who show themselves as Christ’s, show of their Lord.

                Throughout history, those times when our Churches have been strongest was when Christ was most clearly enthroned.  Mary must not be a detriment by beholding Him as son.  How  much clearer is our compulsion to proclaim Him Lord?

                Church/Lives/Work/Pleasure

                Around the world people seek to maintain their status quo, even with guns and tanks. 

                We are taught to pursue truth. Too many are pathetically like the blind men in the children’s story describing an elephant.  One at side, trunk, leg, ear. God’s purpose remains to reveal truth through Christ.

                We are facing the corruption of power on a world scale.  A historian wrote of the corruption in NYC a hundred years ago.  “The good people got tired of being good before the bad people got tired of being bad.”

                The Real in our world today is Jesus.  The Truth is Jesus.  The Power capable of confronting corruption is Jesus.  What are we doing about it?  He is God’s Son, Saviour, who made provision for the sin of Mary and the Jews, but not for the Jew only and, as well, not only for us WASPS.

Conclusion

                A businessman made an appointment to meet with his banker friend.  His purpose was to share with his friend of the great estate of Christ to save.  As he shared Christ’s love in that He died on the cross to save us, the banker became quite annoyed.  “His destiny was in His own hands,” said the banker.  “How could Christ’s death redeem me?  If I am to be saved, it will be through my efforts.”

                The businessman called attention to another man, known to them both waiting to see the banker.  “He is coming to tell you of some need.  He will press for a loan to meet that need.  Will you grant him the right to set the conditions of the loan?”  “Absolutely not! I will determine  the conditions!” said the banker.  “You stand in the same relationship to God.  He is the great BANKER.  We the poor, helpless sinner. We come to Him for mercy, pardon.  Do we presume to set conditions, or do we accept His own?”    (251T43p188)