Say What? Jesus's Mother?

We are on our second to last week of our series called Say What? Right? But first

things first, I want to just let everyone know this is gonna be as short as

possible, alright? Because it is Mother's Day, I'm sure there's lunch plans, etc. etc.

But we also have dedications and baptisms that we're gonna do, and so I

want to make sure that we really have as much time for that as possible. So let's

jump right in to our Bibles. We are going to be in John chapter 2 and John chapter

John 2 · chapter mention John 19 · chapter mention

19, and so if you don't have a Bible, we'd love for you to take one from our

bookshelf and take that home, or just download a Bible from any of the digital

app stores. John, it goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, that's in what's

called the New Testament. I like to call it the Second Testament. One of my

favorite theologians is actually coming out with a translation called the

Second Testament. And so John 2, John 19, and we have a tradition of just giving

the scriptures our best attention when we read that. So whatever that means for

you, if you want to sit for that or if you'd like to stand with me as we read

these scriptures, let's go ahead and do that now. John 2, starting in verse 1, says

this, on the third day a wedding took place in Cana in Galilee. Jesus's mother

was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When

the wine was gone, Jesus's mother said to him, they have no more wine. Well then

why do you involve me? Jesus replied, my hour has not yet come. His mother said to

the servants, do whatever he tells you. John 19, starting in verse 25, near the

cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of

Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciples

whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, woman here is your son, and to the

disciple here is your mother. From that time on this disciple took her into his

home. Let us pray. God of every tribe, every tongue, every color, every nation, we

thank you for the scriptures. That we still have them 2,000 years later and

we're still working to understand them, to honor them, but mostly to learn about

you and be led towards you. So today I pray that whatever you have for us that

it would stick, that it would become a part of the framework of our faith, that our

faith would become stronger as we become more like your son. Amen. Thanks to all

you can have a seat. In the entire book of John, Mary the mother of Jesus is only

mentioned two times. 18,658 words and Mary is only mentioned twice. Remember

when we went through the book of Mark, right? We spent a number of weeks going

through the book of Mark and I kept reminding you that Mark is an author. That

he's putting these things together on purpose. We should be thinking like an

author as well as we think about how these things are being put together. The

same is true for John. John is an author. So when things like this happen, when you

notice something only happens once, or oh it only happens two times, oh and they're

a complete opposite ends of this entire book. We should pay attention. But when we

pay attention, we also have to be careful not to read too much into things. If we're

paying attention, we might notice not only is Mary only mentioned twice, but

neither time does John actually mention her name. He only calls her Jesus's

mother. Luke and Matthew mentioned her by name 17 times between them by name. But

John only twice. And when he mentions her, actually when he mentions Jesus's

mother, he doesn't use her name. He only calls her Jesus's mother. Now why? We

don't know why. We don't really know why. Remember last week when I mentioned

FIDO, F-I-D-O, this idea these concentric circles in the middle there's the F

there is the foundational ideas. These are the things that that salvation is

based on. They were like okay these are the things that are absolutely we need

to believe these things. Jesus is the Son of God. Okay interpretations. Okay

that's the outside of it. Oh there's a bunch of scripture and this is how we

interpret that. And then D on the outside of that further from the center is

deductions. We go okay these are just things we deduce. They're not reasons for

us to argue and O is opinions. If anyone goes oh this is exactly why he doesn't

call her Mary. This is exactly why he only mentions her twice. It's exactly oh

these are to me what would be considered deductions. They are not things that we

should be basing the foundational ideas of our faith on. And so it is okay even

when we notice something like this for us to say why didn't he use her name to

say I'm not sure. That's completely okay. What we can be confident about is that

it doesn't mean that John thinks her name doesn't matter because in Middle

Eastern culture there can actually be honor in a title like the mother of this

very important figure. So we shouldn't read disinterest or unimportance into

how John is writing this and we also shouldn't read indignation or

irritation into some of the other things that we see here because again if we're

paying attention we might read these passages and notice that not only did

John not use her first name but Jesus doesn't call her mother either time. What

does he call her? Woman. Both times he says woman and because we have modern

21st century Western eyes and ears we might read irritation or impatience in

Jesus' words. Maybe we hear the word woman like that and we go woman? When I

was a kid and my mom was a beautician on a regular basis, primary way that she

made money she would take us around to different people's homes and we were

often just a long further ride from here to there as she made house visits and

one time on the way to a person's house being the impatient young boy I was I

wanted to know how long it was gonna take for her to do the hair for Mrs.

so-and-so but I didn't say Mrs. so-and-so I said something along the

lines of when are you gonna be done with this woman? I was like eight. Let's just

say there were some repercussions but this isn't the tone that Jesus is using

in first century in the first century in the town of Cana and Galilee in Israel

and the area of Palestine calling your mother woman had no negative edge or

connotation whatsoever to it. It was just neutral so we need to be careful about

reading those kinds of things into the things that get said in the Bible. Now

there are absolutely times when Jesus was indignant even irritated or

frustrated with people that were around him. It's true if you read it you can see

it and that is true. This just isn't one of those times so let's not look at this

and put on Jesus that he was being impatient or irritable towards his

mother. So those are the things that are not happening in this passage okay? So

what is happening in this passage? The first passage they're in Cana and they're

at what are they at? They're at a wedding right? Two points Chris. We

don't know why. We don't know whose wedding it is at least not for sure. There

are early theologians from the second century that have written about all that

it was because they were related to so-and-so and such and such. We don't

know that for sure. We just know that while they're there that Mary tells

Jesus hey they're out of wine and she's implying to him maybe you should do

something about that but then Jesus says my time my hour has not yet come but

then for whatever reason he performs the miracle anyway as some of us often do

when our mother asks us to do something right we're like I don't have oh I

better do it anyway all right in the second passage Jesus is on the cross he

is actively dying in the middle of performing a miracle the miracle of

taking on the sins of the world that the night before he prayed to the Father

knowing that the Father was asking him to do this and he said if there's

another way if this cup can pass but then he did it anyway also the night

before we know that he sat with his disciples that he shared bread and wine

he said this bread it's my body it's broken for you this wine is my blood it's

poured out for you so now as he's on the cross his body broken his blood shed

Jesus looks at his mother and he says to her here is your son and at his disciple

John and says here is your mother scripture says John writes it down this

way from that hour from that time Jesus or John took in Mary as his own mother

are you guys hearing any of the parallels hearing of the similarities

between these two stories we could focus on these two passages any either one of

them you could preach five different ways you could come up with five

different things to preach about especially when you put them together

you could come up with any even more but we could focus on the parallel of the

wine between the first and the second passage there's no wine in the first one

he says his blood is the wine in the second one or is what the wine is this

blood in the second one the wine ran out his blood was poured out we could focus

on how in the first passage Jesus says it's not my time but in the second

passage when it's absolutely was his time in that moment of ministry that he

says the John should take Mary from that time on it's the same word we could

focus on the miracles of changing jugs of water into the best wine that they

had tasted or turning death on a cross into salvation in life but the thing

that I really want to make sure that we don't miss today is this in the first

story the first time John mentions Mary they're in Cana and they're at a what

they're at a wedding what happens at a wedding two people become one and in

their culture especially not just two people become one but two families

become one in the second story the only other time John mentions Mary we see

Jesus on the cross what happens Jesus adds Mary to John's family two families

become one of all the imagery of all the lessons that we could pull from these

passages I don't want us to miss this because of what Jesus did on the cross

not only does Mary become a part of a new family but everyone is invited to

the cross to be part of one family Jesus is looking down at the world from the

cross saying look this is your family now Jesus is looking at all of us right

now saying look around at the family that is yours now when we have baptisms

it's a sign of someone saying I want to be a part of this family now as we

dedicate children it is us saying they are part of our family we will help

raise them up in the way they should go so from weddings to crucifixions from

dedications to baptisms we are all being invited into one family and not only us

everyone we know is being invited into one family