The Compassionate Word
A sermon based on John 19:26-27
Sunday, March 11, 2018 – Lent 4
Can you imagine the pain of suddenly losing someone that you love, who is so close to you that that person's death would be nothing short of devastating? Maybe that person is a parent, a child, a sibling? Maybe it's a best friend, a spouse, someone you can open up to and share your heart with, knowing they'll really listen without judging or condemning you? What would you do if you lost that person, that friend, that family?
Today, as we examine the fourth word or phrase that our dying Savior spoke from the cross, we hear a word of compassion spoken to his family—a word spoken to his mother, a word spoken to his best friend. And in that word of compassion our Savior made a new family when their loved one (Jesus) was being taken away from them. And he does the same for us still. When we were separated from God and from his family, Jesus brought us into his family by his sacrifice for us. When we were separated from each other because of our sin, he brought us together at the foot of the cross. Our text for consideration today is found in John 19:26-27…
26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," 27 and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
Close your eyes for a second. I want you picture Jesus dying on the cross in your mind's eye. Can you see the nails? The crown of thorns? The blood dripping down the back of the cross from where Jesus' back had been shredded from the scourge. It's hard to look at, isn't it?
Now, I'm going to ask you to do something even harder. Parents, in your mind's eye, can you replace Jesus with your own child? Can you picture watching your son or daughter be tortured to death the way Jesus was? Then you might begin to see Jesus' crucifixion through Mary's eyes. Can you picture your spouse, your parent, or your best friend (whoever that might be) being tortured to death on a cross? Then you might begin to see Jesus' crucifixion through John's eyes. His mother, his best friend in the world, were watching the one they loved—their closest family, die in a most excruciating way.
Jesus once told Mary, "Dear woman, why do you involve me?"… "My time has not yet come," when she came to him about a problem with some wine. (John 2:4) But now his time had come, as he prayed the night before his death, "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you." (John 17:1)
And what pain must have torn through Mary as the prophecy spoken over her baby boy came true. When Jesus was only eight days old Simeon told Mary, "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too." And how that sword must have stung!
And John… the youngest of disciples, the one who was in that inner circle of disciples, who was more than just a disciple, but Jesus' closest human friend, the one who sat next to him at the Passover, who leaned against him to ask a question he didn't want the others to hear… what pain he must have felt to see his Lord, his Master, his closest Friend, be tortured to death!
What pain Mary and John must have felt to know that death would soon separate them from the one they loved most. But… that's what sin does. It separates.
Last fall I tried to prep for our Bible studies around the campfire this summer by preparing enough firewood. I already told you how I manned up by operating a chainsaw for the first time. But the chainsaw only put the tree into rounds. I have a hydraulic splitter that I've used, but I also like using the maul and splitting wedge. That exercise helps me to "man up" too. But isn't it amazing to think how that little piece of metal, when placed just right and hit with—I'll admit it—minimal force, can rip that round in half like a hot knife through butter. That's what sin does too…
Sin separated Jesus from his mother. Sin separated John from his best friend. Make no mistake: It wasn't Jesus' sin that caused the separation, but it was sin that put him there on the cross. That's what sin does. It separates.
Sin separates us from each other, when our arguments and fights lead to withdrawals and silent treatments, when our sin ends marriages and divides families, when our own selfishness ruins the blessings of family that God intends for us to enjoy! Sin breaks up our human families. And worse still… sin separates us from God's family.
If your kids, or parents, or friends always acted embarrassed of you, ashamed that they knew you, it would hurt. It would drive a wedge into your relationship. The same happens when we act ashamed of God, embarrassed of him, pretending we don't know him. If your kids or parents or friends only wanted a relationship with you because of the things they got out of you, or the things they could get you to do for them… we'll, isn't that often how we treat God? If your loved ones made it clear that they loved another more than you, some other kids, another person—and isn't that what we do when we put a child, a spouse, a friend ahead of God?—that could end the relationship, couldn't it?
Sin always drives a wedge. Sin always separates. Sin always hurts relationships—with other people and with God. And sin, ends in the ultimate separator: Death. Many of you have lost someone very dear to you to death. Like Mary, some of you have had to watch a child die. Like John, some of you have lost a best friend. And there's no amends for a separation so final. No, "I'm sorry," can undo that separation and bring them back. And death would have separated us all from God, for all of eternity, for all of our many sins.
When death was about to separate Jesus from Mary and Jesus from John, Jesus did something to show his love, his care, his compassion for both. He gave them to each other and made a new family. He gave Mary to John and he gave John to Mary. As Mary had cared for Jesus in his youth, he now asked her to care for John in his adulthood. As Jesus was a surrogate for the world in his death, he asked John to be a surrogate son for him. And so he eased the pain and the loneliness each would feel at Jesus' death by making this new family.
And, in a sense, Jesus does the same for us. His death—his separation of body and soul, and worse! his separation from God the Father in the hell he endured on the cross–is the death of our separation. With our sin removed, the wedge that separated us from God is removed. With his resurrection, the death that would separate us from God is overcome! We will rise to be with God! By Jesus death and resurrection we are brought into God's family. And by being brought into God's family gives us a new family here on earth.
For some of you, this is your family, here at church. You're closer to one another here than you are to siblings, parents, or even children. And that's okay. That's the way it's meant to be! Jesus once warned, "Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." (Luke 12:51-53)
Sin will still divide families. But at the same time, Jesus promised a new family. In Luke 8(:19-21) we're told that, "Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him, 'Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.' [Jesus] replied, 'My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice.'" (Luke 8:19-21)
We are a part of Jesus' family. God is our Father. Jesus is our brother. And nothing can ever drive a wedge between us! "Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)
And because we are united with him, we are also, of necessity then, united to each other. They say that blood runs thicker than water. And it's true that family ties are strong. But baptismal water runs even thicker than blood, for it binds us together as one in the Body of Christ, a communion that goes on forever. Because God is our Father… because Jesus is our brother… we are all really BFF's. Or at least we will be. We will literally be the best of friends forever in heaven! Because not even death—that ultimate separator—can separate us for very long!
And now, in thanks to God, we want to do away with the sin and the selfishness that drives a wedge between us and God, that drives a wedge between each other. Instead we want to show love—love in action as we serve God and as we serve each other. That's really what family is all about.
Years later, the same John who once stood literally at the foot of the cross and was told to take care of Mary, wrote about the love that we now share at the figurative foot of the cross. He wrote,
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Dear friends, here [gesturing to the cross] is your Savior. Dear friends, here [gesturing to the congregation] are your mother, and son, your brother and daughter, your father, your sister. Here [gesturing to the congregation] is your family, united in your Savior.
And, "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." So love one another… from the heart. Offer a kind word to a spouse when you see that he or she needs it. Offer a patient word of instruction or praise to a child as you teach them to follow Jesus. Offer a word of thanks to a parent or a teacher, a word of appreciation to an employer or employee or one who has shown love to us.
And love one another, not just in words, but in action. Do some chore that needs to be done, without seeking recognition for it. Do some chore that's "not mine to do." Do it anyway just to ease the burden of another and show your love. Do some act of volunteerism here that helps us spread the gospel to others.
Show such love, not to get something in return, but because that's what family does for each other. We love because he first loved us. He brought us into his family. He brought us together into a new family. One day soon he will take us all to be one happy family together in the paradise he's prepared for us. So let's live in love toward each other to show our love for him for his compassionate word. In Jesus' name, dear friends, amen.
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