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I invite you to stand for prayer.
Lamb of God, pure and holy, who on the cross didst suffer, ever patient and lowly, thyself to scorn didst offer, all sins thou borest for us, else had despair reigned o’er us. Have mercy on us, O Jesus, O Jesus, Amen.
And listen one more time, please, to the third word of Christ from the cross. John chapter 19, when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.
This is God’s word.
Sometimes, we just don’t know what to say. Have you ever been there, experienced that? I’m sure you have. Someone is going through a tragedy, and you almost want to avoid contact, because what will I say? Or maybe it’s the day after, and you realize what it is you should have said. Tragedy, illness, death, a loved one has died, what will you say? Sometimes we just don’t have the words.
That never happened to Jesus. He always had words to say. He always said all that needed to be said. And so here in this third word of Christ from the cross, here is Jesus speaking words of beautiful love, beautiful care, beautiful life, and they are brought out and they dance in front of our eyes because this is, he is speaking these words into a time and into a place of ugly, hideous death. Speaking words of beautiful life.
Jesus doing what he always did. Always thinking of others, caring for others instead of himself. The almighty powerful word made flesh. What does he say? He says to this woman, his mother, words of love and care. To this disciple, words of care and grace. And if you think about this, it might seem a little bit out of place in this place of hideous death and torture and pain. And yet it is consistent, this moment on the cross is consistent with the moments that led up to it.
The beginning of chapter 13 of John says, “Jesus knew the hour had come,” knew what was headed his way, and loved his disciples and loved them to the end. Another translation says, “show them the full extent of his love.” He’s in the upper room, and Jesus washes the disciples’ feet and what does he say? Serve, love. In fact, later on in this chapter 13 he says, “This is how everyone is going to know that you are one of mine, that you love each other.”
Jesus, knowing he is headed to thorns and nails and blood and death, says, “You love one another.” What else does he say? “Take, eat, take and drink.” Jesus thinking about the myriad of people that were not only on that night, but you and me and forever, his people needing to hear what he has to say for our forgiveness and our life.
And he’s stepping closer to Golgotha and he’s in the garden of Gethsemane and Peter takes off the ear of Malchus and what does Jesus say? “Put your sword away.” And he heals him. No matter what is going on, you can count on Jesus thinking about you. This is incredible, gracious blessing and power for you and for me on Good Friday, that Jesus is thinking about us right now and always and speaking to us.
But here’s the important thing. He’s not just throwing out pious platitudes. If anybody could, in the history of anybody and everybody, could ever pull off a pious platitude, it would be Jesus. But he doesn’t do that. He doesn’t speak things. He never says things that are just empty, helpless, hopeless, like you’ve got a big hunk of Styrofoam and you just take a big bite out of it. He never says anything empty.
Jesus never says those; he says what he means. What he wants, he accomplishes. What he promises, he delivers. And so he’s being very intentional right now with the future care of his mother. Jesus, that true man, is continuing to love his mom and providing care. Did Christ recall the fourth commandment? We don’t know, but we can, and we do. And so we extend our hearts, we extend our lives, we extend our love in his name to all.
At a loss for words, that never happened to Jesus. Then, and it does not happen to Jesus now. He does not keep silent. Christ our Lord does not keep quiet. What does He say? That He’s here. In His Word. In the water of our baptism. In His body and blood. Jesus is here.
What does He say? He says to you and to me, grace, forgiveness, life, peace. Speaking life and love and forgiveness as he always does. And he is speaking these words of forgiveness, of life, of salvation, of paradise from the cross. Especially speaking to you and to me at the time on the day of our own death. When somebody else may be wondering what to say to us. Or when we get in that position again.
You know, it may not be all that bad of an idea to not know what to say of ourselves, because it gives us an opportunity to speak what Jesus says of his presence, of his grace, of his peace. We can say the words of Christ, that no matter what happens, even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he is with us.
So woman, man, young, old, behold your Lord. Behold your Lord who loves you. Behold your Lord who dies for you. Behold your Lord who lives for you. Behold your Lord who is speaking now that he is with you and that he loves you and that he forgives you, that he is always with you in his word, in your baptism, in the supper, delivering what he says he’ll give. Forgiveness, peace, eternal life.
In Jesus’ name, amen. You may stand or kneel.
Let us pray.
Well, Lord, we thank you that you give yourself to us by your death on the cross to be our Lord and our friend, to win for us glory and salvation. We thank you also that from the cross you also care for our needs of body in this life, that you give us daily bread, that you place the solitary in families, that you give us friends and neighbors, brothers and sisters in the communion of your church, and that you give us to one another to love and to serve and to bless each other in your name and by your strength and wisdom.
We pray that you would press these precious words into our own hearts. “Woman, behold your son,” and “Son, behold your mother.” That we would look at you and look at one another not with the eyes of the flesh but with the eyes of the Spirit. See what you see, receive what you give, and serve as you have appointed.
We ask all this through you, our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
