Final Words From The Cross: Behold Your Son, Christ Church Sermon, March 23, 2025

if you have ever moved in your lifetime

to a different city or different state

then you know the challenge that comes

with creating a new community of people

and if you've moved fairly far away from

your home of origin you know and you

know you're not going to be able to

travel V back very

often you know that there is a certain

urgency to creating that particular

Community to find people that you can

depend on as much as you did the family

and friends that you left

behind as I mentioned before Tim and I

moved to Florida about 3 months after we

got married everyone we knew and loved

including our closest family members was

at least 1100 miles away from where we

were and we were newly wets so we're

still in that stage of alternating

between you are the best decision I have

ever made and well I really wish I knew

that before we got

married if you know you know we were

figuring each other out we were figuring

out our new church we were figuring out

this new city and we were doing it all

on our own and I remember calling Tim up

at work one day and saying I'm an

extrovert and I need some people you

have got to find us some

friends and so he did to his credit I

have no idea if he just got on the phone

and started calling random people in the

church I don't know how it worked but he

did it and we ended up creating this

incredible Community finding some of our

dearest friends within the life of that

church that we had gone there to serve

and they started out as complete

strangers but over time they came became

family this new family became the people

with whom we had game nights and watched

the Super Bowl and went on excursions to

the beach they threw us baby showers and

welcomed our children into the world and

watched those kids for us so we could go

on date nights or on one occasion slept

on our couch so I could go to the

hospital and be with Tim people who

gathered at our house for holidays and

who suffered through the first

Thanksgiving meal I ever cooked that was

fairly decent until you got to the gravy

which sadly had to be slice not

poured it was a a story for another

sermon they became people who deeply

loved us as if we were their family and

who we deeply and fiercely loved in

return in short we shared life together

both the families that we are born into

and the families that we choose for

ourselves throughout our lives are

important both shape

us at the end of Jesus's life his birth

family and his chosen family came

together in a very powerful way that

still has ramifications and importance

for us as his followers

today standing near the foot of the

cross witnessing the horrific brutality

occurring on it were five people that

Jesus knew personally they were his

mother his mother's sister or his Aunt

Mary the wife of clus and Mary Magdalene

the fifth person is not identified by

name but is instead called the disciple

whom Jesus

loved the fact that four of these five

people are women is not an insignificant

thing remember what culture was like at

the time women were devalued thought to

be weak and unable to care for

themselves requiring men to meet their

most basic needs women were considered

more property than they were people in

his book final words from the cross

which we are basing this sermon series

on Adam Hamilton points out that despite

these cultural norms that undervalued

them at every turn women actually played

a very significant role throughout

Jesus's Ministry for example you can

read in Luke 8 about how women

financially supported that Ministry in

John 4 about the woman who served as the

First Missionary to the Samaritans and

in Matthew 26 about the woman who

anointed Jesus with oil in preparation

for his

death so it seems somehow fitting that

in the end it is four women who have the

courage to stand at the foot of the

cross and as I said among them was

Jesus's mother Mary one of the most

courageous women that scripture ever

depicted Mary was the one who had said

to God 33 years before that moment at

the cross Here I Am the servant of the

Lord and agreed to carry the savior of

the world in her womb Mary was the one

who suffered the Pains of child birth to

bring Jesus into the world who kissed

his boo boos and told him stories and

disciplined him and nurtured his Spirit

as he grew she jumpstarted his public

Ministry when she encouraged him to turn

water into wine at the wedding at kaaa

the last thing that she could do for her

son was to be there for him in the hour

of his death and there she

was in addition to Mary and the three

other women there was again this

disciple whom Jesus loved there are at

least three other times in scripture

where this particular disciple is set

apart from the other 11 and referred to

as just that the one or the disciple

whom Jesus

loved we now know this disciple to be

John the same John who wrote the Gospel

from which we get today's scripture we

also know from reading the other gospels

Matthew Mark and Luke that John is the

only one who gives himself this title

the one whom Jesus loved everywhere else

they call him John he calls himself the

one Jesus

loved so why does he do that right we're

all laughing because it's funny like

it's a little bit arrogant why does he

do that after all Jesus loved all of the

disciples remember he washed judas's

feet mere hours before Judas betrayed

him he loved everyone and on the surface

again it seemed like a pretty arrogant

thing to

do but there is nothing written anywhere

to suggest that John had a big ego that

he needed to

satisfy instead Bible commentaries note

that the likely reason that John refers

to himself this way is actually to

remain anonymous to not draw attention

to himself in calling himself the one

whom Jesus loved it actually allows us

as the reader to focus Less on John

himself and more on the actions that he

was doing during the times he described

himself that way and in this instance he

was standing near The Cross to show his

devotion and his dedication

to

Jesus Jesus lived as we know for 33

years he did the bulk of his ministry

the bulk of everything we study about

him in the gospels during those last

three years of his life and because of

all the remarkable incredible things

that he did during those three years and

the context of that Ministry and because

we don't have a lot of information about

the first 30 years we tend to focus on

the last three and we tend to forget

that in the first 30 until until he

started preaching Jesus would have lived

a pretty normal life in Matthew 13 we

learn that Jesus had four brothers and

at least two sisters they would have

lived together with Jesus and his

parents sharing meals and jokes and

family

responsibilities by the time Jesus was

an adult Joseph had likely passed away

the last thing that we hear in scripture

about Joseph was the story of the

Frantic search that he and Mary

undertook when a 12-year-old Jesus was

left behind at the temple so after

Joseph passed away it would have been

Mary and her children living together

and when Jesus who was the oldest began

to preach and teach let's just say his

birth family was not the most supportive

group while two of his six siblings

James and Jude went on to later become

Believers and to rise to prominence in

the early Christian Church in the

beginning of Jesus's Ministry and until

after his death all of his siblings

doubted that their brother was who he

said he

was John 7: 1-5 says this after this

Jesus went around in Galilee he did not

want to go about in Judea because the

Jewish leaders there were looking for a

way to kill him but when the Jewish

Festival of Tabernacles was near Jesus's

brother said to him leave Galilee and go

to Judea so that your disciples there

may see the works you do no one who

wants to become a public figure acts in

secret since you are doing these things

show yourself to the world for even his

own brothers did not believe

him so in summary his brothers wanted

him to go and perform miracles in public

and in the presence of his enemies so

that his Fame would grow and his powers

would be proven they needed to see in

order to

believe after Jesus commissions his

disciples to preach and teach and drive

out demons in his name his family had an

even stronger

reaction to his ministry Mark 3:21 says

Mark 3:21

when his family heard about this what he

had been doing they went to take charge

of him for they said he is out of his

mind that is actually in the NIV version

of scripture he is out of his mind

pretty blunt right they thought he was

so crazy that they went to take charge

of him meaning they weren't sure he

could take care of himself and more

likely that they wanted to make sure he

didn't do anything that brought

embarrassment or shame on their

family but listen to this the Greek word

existem is what has been translated here

as out of his mind the meaning of it is

actually mentally displaced so pretty

close to out of his mind but also of

note is that this is the exact same word

that is used to describe Jesus when he

heals the paralytic and when he heals

gyrus his daughter and when he calms the

storm after walking on the water so we

can look back and say that the reasons

that people including Jesus's own family

thought he was existem thought he was

out of his mind was because he was doing

the work of God in miraculous ways that

they could not

understand so now we have the whole

story Joseph is dead Mary is being cared

for by her children of whom Jesus is the

oldest and therefore the one with the

responsibility for her his family thinks

that Jesus is certifiable in an

embarrassment but Mary remained

dedicated to him and we have John who

has chosen to stand with Mary and for

Jesus in the last hours of Jesus's

life and Jesus knew all this of course

as he hung on the cross he knew that his

mother believed in him in a way that his

siblings could not and did not he knew

that it was his responsibility

responsibility to look out for her in

life and in death if his preceded

hers and he knew John he loved

John he trusted John to be a partner in

his ministry and it was precisely

because he loved and knew and trusted

John that he was about to trust him one

more

time here again today's scripture

verses when Jesus saw his mother there

and the disciple whom he loved standing

nearby he said to

Heroman here is your son and to the

disciple here is your mother and from

that time on the disciple took her into

his

home now before I say anything else

please don't get hung up on the word

woman it's easy to hear that and say wow

is he disrespectful to his mom he's not

the way that Jesus addressed his mother

here although we may view it as

disrespectful would have been completely

commonplace back in Jesus's time and as

Mary's protector Jesus would have been

permitted to speak this way to her using

this term it would have been normal so

let's let that go and let's focus on the

rest of what Jesus said he gives John to

Mary and then he gives Mary to

John as one Theologian put it Jesus

empowered the Beloved disciple to take

his place as the senior son the provider

and protector of his mother from that

moment on in other words Jesus Took the

responsibility off of his biological

brothers and placed it on his chosen

brother this was not an easy task from

Mary's point of view John is now her son

her relationship with him has to

supersede that of her biological sons

and from John's point of view he now has

a second mother one whom he agreed to

care for in every aspect of her life her

physical needs her spiritual needs even

caring for her through death whenever

that would

come in his sermon a couple of weeks ago

about the Forgiveness that Jesus offered

from the cross Pastor Chris said that by

using the pronoun them father forgive

them for they know not what they do it

allows us to put ourselves into the

story to understand that we are part of

the them that Jesus is forgiving for

putting him on the

cross by identifying the disciple who

accompanied the women to the Cross only

as the one whom Jesus loved and not

giving a name even though we now know

him to be John it allows us once again

to place ourselves into the

story like John we are the ones whom

Jesus loves he loves us so much that he

faced a brutal death so that our sins

could be forgiven and we could one day

be with him in Paradise as we heard

about last week and in return he asks

just one thing for us to love one

another with the same kind of love that

he showed us a love that goes beyond the

bonds and the bounds of family that is

related to you by Blood remember another

piece of scripture that says we love

because he first loved

us the one whom Jesus loves stepped up

and he stepped into the story the one

whom Jesus loved dared to break cultural

norms and love and care for another

despite not having any legal

responsibility to do so and this is

still our model for loving others today

in big ways or small ways how can we

live that out how can we show that same

love to others that Jesus has so

graciously poured out upon us we love

because he first loved

us but let's not forget Mary's role in

this what she modeled is equally as

important Mary said yes to receiving

care and love from John she listened to

Jesus understood the new relationship to

which he called her and she accepted it

she allowed John to serve as her

son as the pastor overseeing

congregational care I can tell you that

some of you have a very hard time

receiving

love I get calls frequently from people

who let us know they were in the

hospital only after they got home you

know who you are there are those of you

who refuse to ask for help and some of

you I know won't even put yourselves on

the prayer list because that is for

other people it's not for you

and you do these things I know out of a

sense of goodness out of a sense of not

wanting to burden or to bother

us depending on someone else to love and

care for us can be hard against the way

that we are used to living especially if

we have been raised to prize our

independence but consider this if John

said yes to Jesus and Mary said no this

story is not the same

if Mary said no Jesus or John Rather

could not fulfill the calling that Jesus

gave to him not only is it okay to

receive love and care from our Christian

family but today's scripture also tells

us it's biblical to depend on others

when we cannot do things on our own so

Reach Out call us call Pat she's right

back there you can find her right after

the service just go just go hunt her

down she loves to love on people call me

find me call Chris find Chris search out

someone look around you search out

someone it is our responsibility not

just to offer it but to accept it there

is a family of people here waiting to

love

you friends we are all

John and we are all

Mary we are all called to give love and

to receive love from those who are not

our blood family but are a part of our

chosen family this body of

Believers in his book Hamilton says this

the idea that relationships in the

church transcend family relationships

becomes even clearer when we consider

Jesus's words whoever does God's will is

my brother and sister and

mother John assumed responsibility to

care for someone that Jesus cared for

deeply John would open his home and

devote his time and resources to care

for Mary in doing so both John and Mary

would model for us the call of Christ to

see those in need as our mother or our

father or our son or our

daughter again I want to encourage you

to literally look around

you these people are your chosen family

they are your parents they are your

siblings let us love one another as

chosen family and model that

relationship for the transformation of

the church and the transformation of the

world let's

pray God it can be difficult for us to

ask for love to ask for care to ask for

help our nature is to try to do it on

our own our nature is to offer it when

someone else needs it but not ask for it

ourselves

remind us today remind us throughout

this week that it is our responsibility

to do both that we are all John that we

are all Mary that there are times in our

lives where we are going to be able to

give love and times where we are going

to need to receive it and that both are

okay both are what we are called to do

remind us that when Jesus spoke these

words to John and to Mary he was showing

us what it meant to be chosen family

help us to live into that call every

single day of our lives in Jesus name we

pray amen