[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
I can’t even imagine the pain of a mother who loses a son, especially Mary, the mother of Jesus.
How can this happen to her? She had heard an angel tell her that she was favored by God
and was blessed among women and that her son’s kingdom would have no end and yet
here she is watching him die at her son’s crucifixion she may have asked
what happened how did it come to this as she sees Jesus her son broken beaten
bleeding and dying this does not seem right it sure doesn’t seem compassionate
but maybe she’s not asking those things because she had had warnings there were
signs that this was going to happen the Old Testament is full of prophecy of the
Messiah suffering and dying and when she and Joseph took took Jesus to the temple
very early in his life Simeon one of the priests told Mary that because of her
son because of Jesus a sword would pierce her own soul too now did she
realize at the time what those prophetic words meant could she have
understood that this was necessary to save the world and to save her? Well, we
really don’t know, but how it must have grieved her. How it must have grieved her
to see her blessed son dying on the cross. And it would be no
surprised that at her son’s death she feels her soul being pierced as those
nails pierced her son but even with warnings when this all happens Mary
still hurts deeply maybe to make it worse Mary had seen many times where
Jesus showed so much compassion. She saw her son heal people, cast out demons, and
even raised the dead. She heard him comfort people, comforting them with
God’s Word and teaching them about the kingdom of God. And he told them to show
compassion to others. So perhaps she’s asking, where is that compassion for me
right now and how can this be happening but even from the cross even in his last
words of death the dying Son speaks words of life even from the cross Jesus
has compassion not only compassion for crowds of people and many individuals
but also for his mother.
When he says to her,
“‘Woman, behold your son,’
and then following that
to one of the disciples there,
“‘Behold your mother.'”
This is compassion
because as Jesus dies on the cross,
he is the substitute sinner for all people.
So now this other disciple
that Jesus commends his mother to he becomes the substitute or shall we say
surrogate son and that disciple is John not John the Baptist but John one of the
twelve disciples that throughout his gospel reading John referred to himself
as the referred to himself in third person as the disciple whom Jesus loved
and Jesus has such compassion that even in his dying breath he cares for his
mother now if you’re a son sitting next to your mother hopefully you don’t get
an elbow from your mother about this here but this is great compassion that
Jesus shows for his mother it’s like he says to her mom right now I know this is
hard for you. I know it’s confusing. I know you don’t understand why this is
happening. I know that a sword is piercing your soul right now, but I have
compassion for you.” So he gives John to her as a son. And as it says, from that
hour John took her to his own home, and history bears this out that John cared
for her for the rest of their lives, but there’s more.
There’s more compassion here that Jesus carries out and fulfills compassion by dying for the
forgiveness of His mother and all people’s sins.
He’s not just having compassion on His mother by keeping earthly care for her, but as He’s
he’s dying for the forgiveness of her sins and for all people’s sins. In his
earthly life, Jesus spoke compassion, but even now in his death he also has words
of compassion, words of life, and there’s even more. He has words of eternal life
Because in just a few days, Jesus is going to get back up.
He’s going to rise from the dead,
being ultimately compassionate to his mother
and to the whole world to conquer death for us
and give us eternal life.
This event is just full of compassion,
even though Mary may not see it or feel it at that time.
And even when we think about Christ’s death,
maybe we don’t really realize that compassion,
but he’s pouring it out, giving it in his life.
Yeah, Jesus’ word of compassion on the cross was for his mother,
but it’s also for us today.
When Jesus died, we all lost a son, the Son of God.
And his word of compassion is for those who mourn his death today,
who look at his death and the sword pierces their soul, too.
His compassion is for those that the Son died for. Now, as far as we know, when
Jesus was crucified, when He was on the cross, it looks like all of the disciples
pretty much ran and hid, except John. We know that he was there, but we’re often
like those other disciples. We, too, can run and try to hide from Jesus. We’re
ashamed of things we’ve done, things that have happened to Jesus. We run and try to
hide like we say we really don’t need his death, we don’t need his words of compassion.
I’m doing just fine on my own, thank you very much Jesus, I don’t need that. Our idea of
how to deal with things is the best. We avoid Jesus, we hide from him, we run away, we don’t
need anyone feeling sorry for us, we don’t need any compassion, we’re okay. And when
life is hard and confusing and we are we don’t understand what’s happening we we
too may try to run and hide especially so when we sin we run we hide but Jesus
still has words of compassion he still speaks words of life even when you’re
running from him trying to hide because not only did Jesus have compassion for
many crowds of people and many individuals and his mother he also has
compassion for you as if he says to you today I know life can be hard I know it
can be confusing I know you may not understand what’s happening in your life
right now I know that a sword may be piercing your soul too but I have
compassion for you and I care for you and it’s my death on the cross proves
that he says I know that my death on the cross may be hard and confusing for you
I know you made under you may not understand why this happened but it’s
because I have that compassion for you so behold your son behold that very one
who died for that compassion for you behold Jesus carrying out that
compassion by dying for you in place of you so that you can hear words of life
and so that then you can have compassion for others compassion for those that you
know whose lives are hard and confusing people who don’t know why things are
happening to them the way they are. People whose souls may be being pierced
by all kinds of trouble, like when they lose their job, lose their health, lose
loved ones, lose faith, lose hope. Jesus looks to us and says to us,
behold, your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your daughter, your
son, grandparents, grandchildren, friend, neighbor, fellow employees, anyone, behold
These people have compassion on them.
Take them into your care when they’re hurting.
God gives us to one another
so that we can share words of compassion with each other.
Sharing those words of life and compassion
that Jesus has given to us.
You may know this already.
I think I’ve preached about it before
or said it in Bible class,
but the Greek word in the New Testament,
the Greek word for compassion
is a really interesting word.
It’s just fun to say in Greek,
it’s splogna, splogna.
Splogna has a literal meaning of intestines.
How in the world then do we get compassion
from intestines in English?
How does that compute?
Well, you think of it figuratively, especially with Jesus, compassion is what comes from
the deepest part of Him.
In English slang today, in modern slang, we say it comes from His gut.
The compassion and love of Jesus comes from His gut, from deep inside of Him.
That’s how deep His compassion is for you,
to comfort you deep inside.
Yeah, life may hurt you deeply,
but Jesus cares for you deeply.
Yeah, He cared for His mother,
but also for you
and gives you that same compassion.
Praise be to Christ for His great compassion.
Amen.
Now may the peace of the Lord, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
