As every year on Good Friday neighboring pastors met to share and reflect on such an important occasion for the Saints of God.
My participation was based on John 19:26-27.
26 | When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! |
27 | Then saith he to the disciple, Behold, thy mother! And from that hour the disciple took her unto his own [home]. |
Mary was awaiting the fulfillment of the promises of God, to be made manifest for all humanity. She had believed in those promises since the very moment they were announced to her by God. (Luke1:31-33.) So now—with her heart totally broken to see what was happening there at the foot of the cross, she again accepts the will of God without questioning.
There at the foot of the cross she awaits that glorious manifestation of God, that we will see on the third day. She waited in total surrender and humility—the same humility with which she had responded some 33 years earlier when she had received the charge to carry in the womb, the Word made Flesh. Mary’s was a humble dignity known only to expectant mothers who bear incredible pain in order to bring forth life. Could she have known that her humble, obedient part as Jesus’ mother, would help to give birth to a totally new community, the Church?!
The disciple that’s spoken of, could be thought of as a representative of the community—the faithful brothers and sisters, friends and companions, women and men who are there for each other in the midst of life’s most difficult moments. They are the witnesses of the fulfillment of God’s Word and Promise to send a Savior—One who would conquer death and make us all heirs to that promise of love in a greater family where all are included, where none is greater than the other. “Mother behold your son! Disciple, behold your mother!”
From that hour that disciple received her into his family. That hour that had not yet arrived at Cana in Galilee (John 2:4) had arrived. His mother’s words there conforms to her own acts of obedience: “Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:5) And in the midst of that wedding celebration, Jesus’ first miracle happened.
Now the climactic moment is nearing—the moment when the greatest miracle on behalf of humanity will be completed with the death of Jesus. And that new community—that new people which began with Israel, is still being formed in our midst today. Amen.
Atonement Lutheran Church
Lakewood, Co. Abril 2, 2010
Pastor Armando Rangel