John 19:25-30

Hey, everybody.

Thanks for closing out the week with us here in the Gospel of John.

Continue our way through the 19th chapter, the crucifixion story.

We join the story today.

Jesus has been,

put on the cross,

and the soldiers have divided his clothing.

In each of the Gospels, there is a different record

of the what are called the last words of Jesus.

Seven total things that Jesus is recorded,

having said from the cross, in John

we get, two of those.

What?

I'm sorry.

We get three of those things.

Kind of,

and so,

each of those have their own nuance and their own meaning.

I'm going to read.

We'll just go through these kind of one at a time and talk them through.

So jumping in here in.

Where are we?

Verse 19.

No. Yeah.

I guess at 25, 25.

Thank you. Sorry. That was,

I had made a mark over it and I couldn't tell what was in front of the five.

So meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother

and his mother, sister Mary, the wife of Corpus and Mary Magdalene.

When Jesus saw his mother

and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her,

he said to his mother, woman, here is your son.

And then he said to the disciple, here is your mother.

And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

Only John, gives us this scene.

Interesting.

There are three Mary's standing together.

Or. Yeah, at least three Mary's.

There may be four women here. And.

Jesus. Here from the cross.

And again, if you've been following us through the Gospel of John, I

think we've made

the case that Jesus does the right thing.

This isn't a story told with fear and worry.

And so here Jesus is.

I'm not sure what the right word would be, Michael.

Professionalism isn't the right word, but he is his character.

Perhaps is on display

even from the suffering of the cross.

He knows as the oldest son that he now leaves his mother.

And so he makes provision.

And we encounter this phrase, the disciple whom he loved.

I want to just sort of put a pin in that, because that's going to be prominent

as we go through the rest of the end of the gospel.

But but I think one of the things John is trying to tell us

may be a practical thing, that what happens to Mary, maybe

the church is familiar with this story, but

I think from a deeper sense,

John is trying to convey to us that Jesus is so motivated

by what is right and doing the right thing and caring for his own,

that he, even in this moment of his own pain,

looks to the welfare and the well-being of his mom.

And I think, you know, that's a powerful story.

Yeah. It is.

And I think there's more depth here than what

we might initially give it credit for.

And I want to slow down and make sure that we we don't miss it.

The first thing I want to lift out of this story is as Jesus

is hanging on the cross and as he's looking at this woman,

he has unbelievable compassion and empathy for her from the cross.

And that is a testament to his humanity.

I think we've seen something like this before, when Jesus responds

with the same kind of compassion in his weeping at the

at the case, and that the cause of Lazarus is death at the burial,

that the grief he sees of those with whom Jesus is human.

And that, you know, maybe that sounds easy for me to say,

but that was a really debated thing in the early church about,

you know, is, is Jesus as God, someone who sort of stands outside

the human experience says, you know, does Jesus not worry about things?

No, no.

The way that the text is written and the way that John goes out of his way

to make this point, that that the disciple whom

Jesus loved is next to the woman that Jesus loved.

This matters.

This is a compassionate, empathetic human heart

which sees the suffering of his mother and is able, because of the fact

that he is the Son of God, in control and in power from the cross.

He's able to extend that even from a place of self-giving.

And at this point, let's be abundantly clear.

We've said this a thousand times, but it needs said again in this study.

If is your first time with us, Jesus in the gospel, John

did not end up in this position on accident.

He did not end up here because he was bested

or because ultimately he ran out of options.

Jesus is in the book of John, the Son of God, God incarnate, walking on earth.

And Jesus does as Jesus will do.

And he's chosen the cross. So now he's caring for us.

There's a my point, number one, there's human compassion here.

And I'll be brief here.

But I also will point out there's also some, I think, intentional irony here.

Woman here is your son.

Who's the son?

I think that's intentionally vague.

Here's your son, Jesus.

Here's I'm the son.

And also to this beloved disciple, here is your son.

You know, there's this kind of transference, this this responsibility.

Given that Jesus and all the disciples in all the Gospels talks

about how he has a different relationship with his family,

sometimes a very strong language, this idea, whoever believes as the family

and this is a version of that kind of a broadening of the circle

that happens at the crucifixion of Christ.

If I'm going to be no more than the family circle is going to extend.

And I think we see that happening here in John.

And I think that there's a beautiful we in the Protestant church.

We don't spend a lot of time talking about Mary.

This is a beautiful, tender moment in which I think

you can see a love of a son for a mother.

And here's your son, I think has many senses

which we might miss if we're just reading this for what's the point?

There's a lot here.

I agree, and I think that

to some extent this

this thing that Jesus says is

overshadowed by my God.

My God, why have you forsaken me?

Yeah, today you will be with me in Paradise.

Even here it is finished.

Father. Forgive them.

They know not what they do.

This is a very earthy word.

As this woman, this.

This woman who is suffering terribly, watches her son

on the cross, on the gallows,

being being tortured to death.

And. And yet in the midst of that,

Jesus speaks a word of provision,

a word of care,

a challenge to both the woman, Mary,

and the disciple, most likely John.

And in that moment, Jesus,

in the midst of doing this heavenly work,

this, this thing that he was born and made for

and and has understood it to be his whole calling,

reaches down into his mother's life to make sure that she's okay.

This is, again, I think we tend to lean toward

the more spiritual words, but this is a powerful word nonetheless.

What?

Because ultimately it's the humanness of it that reveals the divine.

This of who says it is ultimately what Jesus is doing here

is showing us that when he dies, he is dying.

As the creatures who need saved,

he is losing his mother.

This is not just God doing the eternal, as you say, the ultimate salvific work.

This is also God who is going to lose real relational substance

the same way that he cries at the grief shown over Lazarus.

Yeah.

He knows that resurrection is right around the corner, but it moves him.

And here Jesus is moved again.

And that is for for people, for the Christians who received this book,

who knew something about the separation of families

and losing people because of the faith, the people who knew something

about the sacrifices that came from witnessing to the person on the cross

that that those were not,

are the official concepts to them.

They weren't philosophical ideas.

That was reality lived out.

And for them, and I think for us, this is

this is a hopeful word that Jesus cares and has compassion.

Even in his work of cosmic salvation.

He sees the small and he cares.

Yeah. And I don't want us to get down here too much.

But I will say, though, there may be better places to preach this,

I also think we see in this a kind of call to care for one another.

I mean, again, the midst of Jesus own sacrifice,

a a word that challenges the church then and now.

Remember hurting people.

Remember people who have lost.

Remember grieving people and they are your responsibility.

So he says to the disciple, right.

And that's a word by extension to the rest of us,

to all disciples, care for her.

Here is your family. Here are your people.

And it begin.

Is that the primary point of the story?

No, but it echoes

enough of the rest of Scripture that I think it should be pointed out.

Let's just finish this up.

28 year after this.

Jesus, when he knew that all was now finished, said

in order to fulfill the Scripture, I am thirsty.

A jar full of sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge

full of wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.

When Jesus had received the wine, he said, it is finished.

Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

I certainly don't

want to shortchange any of the words of Jesus.

I am thirsty doesn't make most people's list.

I mean, you could certainly use it as a springboard,

but even even John here says in order to fulfill Scripture.

So John inserts parenthetically that this is a word that Jesus says,

so that it will be clear who he is and what is happening.

It's sort of a clarification.

And so this is attested in the other gospels as well.

Jesus is given an opportunity to, to have this

sour wine, this is unfermented or whatever it might be.

Not very good wine, which he takes and

again, Michael, if there's a deep, powerful sermon there

I'm sure one could use, I am thirsty

as a springboard to get into the ways in which we all

thirst for something more. But,

I don't think for most people

this ranks as the most powerful thing.

Jesus said.

I completely concur with that.

When you put this in frame with all of the last sayings of Jesus,

I think this doesn't strike us as particularly spiritual.

I just want to offer, though, remember

Jesus's first miracle at Cana, where he where he takes

jars full of water and turns them into the best wine ever drank.

I think there is a bookend here.

There's a moment where Jesus, at his last, is getting the worst wine,

when he had given the best wine to the people at the at the party.

That doesn't make sense.

If you want to put this in conversation

with Mark and Matthew, because they're all giving us very important frames

of what's happening, and they're helping us see in their context.

This is the significance. It's cosmic. Right.

So you could have all of these tellings, and we're still not going to contain

the truth of what's happening there.

But I think if you are within John itself, yeah, I think that

this does still have some powerful meaning that ultimately it it is the Son of God

who will be given the worst because he's given the best.

You know, if you're going to look for how this fits in the cosmic story,

I think that would be it.

Yeah, I think that's really good.

I also think, again, sorry to keep going back to this,

but this is very true to the way John tells the story.

Jesus says, I'm thirsty, but notice it's not because he's thirsty.

It's not because he has a need.

It's not because he's suffering.

It's to fulfill Scripture.

So that even here, Jesus has an awareness of what hasn't happened yet

and what he needs to do to complete his work.

And so he does that.

Jesus is always in control, and I don't think

there is a better example of that than the final word here.

When Jesus had received the wine, he said, it is finished.

Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

John, I won't say that

John can't bring himself to say it,

but John chooses not to say that Jesus died

now, as if that happened to him,

he declares, now it is finished.

And not not only that, but the next part is subtle.

He gave up his spirit.

It's not taken from him. It's not lost.

He gave it now declares completion,

and he allows himself to make that transition.

He bowed his head. He gives up his spirit.

And that is the end for John and I don't.

We've said this

in a hundred different ways, Michael, but if there is an illustration

of how John understands

the power of Jesus to be at work in his life and his calling,

this is, to me at least,

the pinnacle of of that mountain.

Your soul. I couldn't agree more.

Well, I just point out verse 28, Jesus knows that it's finished.

And I want to complexity that a little bit.

What's finished? Right.

Like we insert a lot of just assumptions we made or things we've taught.

We sort of pile that together.

But the Gospel of John, this book is all about Jesus calling us

to be people of love in relationship with God.

And Jesus demonstrates that he is the messenger and the witness

by these miraculous signs that reveal the image of who he is.

Right? So the the it is finished.

That seems so simple.

I think you could dig into that for a lifetime of study

to really unpack what the work that Jesus is finishing here,

because John has laid that out and then that that word, it is finished.

And then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

I want to just point out,

For God so loved

the world that he gave his only son.

This is not in any way

a surprise for God and God's plan.

This from the beginning of this book.

Oh, I'm hitting my my microphone.

The beginning of this book, that this has been

the task set out, that God would give up God's life

so that that life might be extended to to the broken creation.

And here we are.

Jesus is doing the task.

It is astonishing because Clint,

I think we in the modern world, certainly, but I think all people of all times

are burdened by a kind of cynicism that that people in power take for themselves.

People with privilege, tend to their own benefit.

As John tells the story, the God who made

everything gave up everything, and and God

did the work so that we might live in that eternal love.

This is a powerful way of helping us

see what is actually true about the world, when if you just looked at it

with a photographer or documentarian kind of lens, you likely wouldn't understand.

You have to understand the context to understand the meaning.

And not to force a connection.

But but you mentioned the joining together of the idea of the wine.

If we go back to the opening words of John,

in the beginning was the word right.

And so in the beginning the word is with God.

And this isn't the ending as John understands it, but it is the finish.

In the beginning was the word and the finish

the word bowed his head and gives up his spirit.

I do think there is a touch point there, whether intentional

or not, that we see in this gospel. And,

I'm not sure that you and I are capable

of overstating the importance here

in the way that John says this.

It is finished.

That means, I mean, there are books written

on the implications of what that means and what John is trying to tell us.

It's,

of a very powerful, fascinating

end to John's story.

I think different in tone and different in impact

from some of the others, you know, the tearing of the temple curtain there.

There are certainly miraculous touch points

in the other gospels, versions of the death of Jesus.

But I, I just think,

I don't know if there is a big enough voice with which we can hear these words.

It is finished to to understand what John's trying to say.

Yeah. And I'm just going to add to that.

I don't think that we could hear it.

And I don't think that you and I could say it.

Yeah.

Because I think that ultimately, to your point,

there's there's so many layers of depth here.

And I think this is a testament not to just not just to John's theological

understanding and depth and imagination, but we have to, at some points, pause

and also say John's ability as a writer to combine these things in a way

that is truly a unique contribution to the story of Jesus.

And this is a pinnacle of it, because it's a pinnacle of the man being described.

Yeah, yeah, this is a cosmological universal declaration.

It is finished.

What Jesus came to do has now been done and

there will be implications

and lessons as as people try to unpack now what that is.

But the work, this thing that Jesus has been pointing toward

for his entire ministry is now done,

and that it's,

circle that in your if you're

if you're a person who is willing to write in your Bible or comfortable

it, it is the high point of the way John tells the story, I think.

Yeah.

And then just note where is it done?

It's done on the instrument of crucifixion.

And that is the thing that no one sees come.

It is done.

And where is it done that will always unwind us

and unravel us if we if we will lean into it.

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