April 12: God's Family
♫ Music:
Day 43 - Wednesday, April 12
Mary & John at the Foot of the Cross
Scripture: John 19:25-27
But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 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.
Poetry:
"Poem After the Seven Last Words"
by Mark Strand
Someday someone will write a story telling
among other things of a parting between mother
and son, of how she wandered off, of how he vanished
in air. But before that happens, it will describe
how their faces shone with a feeble light and how
the son was moved to say, “Woman, look at your son,”
then to a friend nearby, “Son, look at your mother.”
At which point the writer will put down his pen
and imagine that while those words were spoken
something else happened, something unusual like
a purpose revealed, a secret exchanged, a truth
to which they, the mother and son, would be bound,
but what it was no one would know. Not even the writer.
GOD’S FAMILY
“Woman, I bought a life insurance policy. It will take care of you from here on out. You’ll find the security information under the mattress at home.”
As best we can tell, Jesus did not speak these words. Nor did he say, “Woman, get thee to a nunnery, go. Farewell.” Nor did he say, “Woman, find a good nursing home and take care of yourself.” Nor did he say, “Woman, stay with your sister, the other Mary. She’s family.”
No “Mother,” only “Woman.” No “I love you,” only “Behold: your son.”
This is the last exchange that we see take place in the Gospel of John between Jesus and his mother. It is the official record of Jesus’ farewell to the mother who bore him, the Theotokos, the God-bearer, as the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD officially declared Mary. “Behold: your mother.” What exactly is Jesus talking about?
Here, on the cross, as at the beginning of his earthly ministry and to the very end, Jesus is forming a new family. This is not a family bound by law. It is not a family linked by common religious heritage. It is not the family of the paterfamilias. It is the family of Jesus, the Body of Christ, formed by the crucified and resurrected body of Christ, comprised of every tongue, tribe and nation.
It is noteworthy that Jesus does not ask his mother, Mary, her opinion. He does not ask John for permission. He simply says, here’s your son; there’s your mother. It all seems rather presumptuous. With his last breaths, a desperate man impulsively makes arrangements for his disconsolate mother by presuming upon his beloved friend.
This is of course to take a cynical view of the “deathbed” exchange. It is quite the opposite. The exchange that takes place is a grace and a sign. When Jesus gives his mother to John, and vice versa, he enacts in this one instance what will become normative for the church throughout the ages.
Families fractured by the sword shall find a new home in the family of Jesus. Families broken apart because of a betrayal by blood shall be placed in the household of God. Strangers shall become fellow citizens; the lonely shall be surrounded by brothers and sisters; the abandoned shall be adopted; the barren shall be comforted by sons and daughters by faith.
Whatever else Jesus intends with these words from the cross, he means to signal a hopeful future: with God as our Father, Jesus as our elder Brother and the Spirit as the One who unites the brokenhearted, like Mary and John and the rest of us, into a family that, by grace, becomes a foretaste of the home for which our hearts everlastingly yearn.
PRAYER
Oh Lord, you who put the lonely in homes and cause strangers to become friends, we pray that you would bless our church family, so that we might become a place that embraces the lonely and welcomes the stranger, for the glory of your name.
Amen.
W. David O. Taylor
Director of Fuller Seminary’s Brehm Center, Texas
Assistant Professor of
Theology and Culture School of Theology
About the Artwork:
Crucifixion (1889)
Wojciech Piechowski
Oil on canvas
About the Artist:
Wojciech Piechowski (1849-1911) was a Polish photographer and realist painter. Though based mainly in Warsaw, he won prizes for his works in Paris, Berlin, San Francisco and Chicago. Despite his many successes his living conditions were often severe and as a result he had difficulties supporting his family. Piechowski’s best work gave expression to the joys and sufferings of modern man.
About the Music:
“At the Cross, Her Station Keeping”
Lyrics:
At the cross, her station keeping,
Stood the mournful mother weeping,
Where He hung, the dying Lord;
For her soul of joy bereavèd,
Bowed with anguish, deeply grievèd,
Felt the sharp and piercing sword.
Oh, how sad and sore distressèd
Now was she, that mother blessèd
Of the sole begotten One;
Deep the woe of her affliction,
When she saw the crucifixion
Of her ever glorious Son.
Jesu, may her deep devotion
Stir in me the same emotion,
Fount of love, Redeemer kind,
That my heart fresh ardor gaining,
And a purer love attaining,
May with Thee acceptance find.
About the Hymn:
Stabat Mater Dolorosa or At the Cross, Her Station Keeping is considered one of the seven greatest Latin hymns of all time. It is based upon the prophecy of Simeon that a sword was to pierce the heart of His mother, Mary (Luke 2:35). The hymn originated in the 13th century during the peak of Franciscan devotion to the crucified Jesus and has been attributed to Jacopone da Todi (1230-1306). The hymn is often associated with the Stations of the Cross.
About the Performer:
Matthew Curtis is a tenor with the San Francisco Symphony. Between 2009-2012 he sang with GRAMMY award winning Chanticleer, holding the position of Assistant Music Director. Curtis started an online company called choraltracks.com, where he records rehearsal tracks for singers and choir directors, and demo recordings of new compositions for recordings. His library currently contains over 1,000 pieces of choral music.
About the Poet:
Mark Strand (1934-2014) is recognized as one of the premier American poets of his generation, as well as an accomplished editor, translator, and prose writer. The hallmarks of his style are precise language, surreal imagery, and the recurring theme of absence and negation. Named the U.S. Poet Laureate in 1990, Strand’s career spanned five decades, and he won numerous accolades from critics and a loyal following among readers. In 1999 he was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection Blizzard of One.