Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 26 – April 1981

 

Jesus And His People

 

Sermon by Rev. A.I. de Graaf on John 19:25-27

Scripture Reading: John 19:17-30

Psalter Hymnal: 34:1,2,3,5; 34:8,9,10; 355:1,3,4; 350; 398:1,2; 381

 

So they crucified Him! A world that wanted itself rid of that eccentric of Galilee, had him executed publicly in the most cruel manner, and His dear ones could look on helplessly…..! They still execute them….! The stutter of machine guns in prison courtyards, the sudden stretch of the rope above the hanging scaffold, we hear it even in our so-called enlightened age. Enlightened age! What a cold world our world can be! A cold that chills people to the bone and makes them lonely even in their most intimate relationships! Then a husband and a wife that shared bed and table can become strangers to each other…. traitors even! Parents who rejoiced when their children were born see them grow up across an ever-widening gulf called the generation gap. Children run away from homes they find so cold! Families can turn into battle fields! Swords go through the souls of mothers when children stomp with hobnailed boots on their hearts. Children cry that they are forsaken by father and mother!

All that bitterness finds its peak on Calvary. There a Son goes a lonely road where mother cannot follow Him. The lonely road he had to go also for the sins of his mother. And the few friends He seems to have left, a few women, one disciple, cannot comfort much. Like Job’s friends (who were miserable comforters in his misery) they can but look on mutely as Jesus goes His lonely road, deeper and deeper into untold torture of body and spirit! Now we can of course have a good look at these people, most of whom were relatives of Jesus. But we are not in church to do that. Today, too, we shall look at Jesus Himself. We shall not sing the song of the old Church about the Mother Mary who stood in grief at the cross of her Son. No!

The John here on Calvary was a cousin of Jesus, his mother, Salome wife of Zebedee, was Mary’s sister. But we remember what that other John, John the Baptist, also a cousin of Jesus, once said long ago. He saw Jesus coming towards Jordan to receive baptism as a sign of His identification with us filthy sinners, and he did not say: “Hi cousin! How are you!?” but he said: “Look! The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” Look at Him! Well, now here on Calvary we too, look at HIM! We see Him with His relatives, and what we see is awe-inspiring and altogether wonderful! We see JESUS AND HIS PEOPLE.

1. He gave love

2. He gave command

3. He gave protection.

You know, the circle narrows: His first word on the cross was a prayer for His enemies: “Father forgive them…. they don’t know what they are doing!” His second word on the cross was a promise for His fellow-victim who repented of sin: “Truly I say to you: Today you…. with Me…. in paradise!”

Now the third word he addresses to and about PEOPLE ― and the Last ever to do so in his state of humiliation! ― was to his mother and his cousin John. You see, even though He said that those that did the will of His Father in heaven would be His true mother and sister and brothers, and that there is no undue favouritism with Him, that does not mean that the ties of blood meant nothing for Him. Greek philosophers were to say that ….. the body means nothing, only SPIRITUAL TIES matter. Many Christians were to say that, too, and therefore they were to reject Infant Baptism. What has birth and blood to do with the Spirit and with Salvation? But Israel ― the Jews ― of which Jesus was a true son, and the Old Testament ― of which He said it was the Scripture that could not be broken! ― told Him differently all His life. Look at them here at the cross: Jesus’ Mother ― Oh not to interfere in His work, But Mary was His mother!

Jesus came to fulfill the Law that says: Honour your father and your mother! Then there is Mary the wife of Clopas and that is very likely a sister of Joseph, an aunt-by Law! There is also Mary’s own sister. The fact that John does not mention her name (John, who never mentions his own name either!!) indicates ― what the other Gospel writers bear out ― that she was Salome, the wife of Zebedee, the mother of John himself and of James his brother. She was Jesus’ auntie! Then there was Mary of Magdala who is the only one in the group who is not a relative.

So that is where Jesus started the circle of His disciples! Among His own cousins! Yes, for He is the Creator of life! And ties of blood and the ways people belong together is the idea of His Father! People belong together! God’s Covenant of grace goes through generations and clusters of people thus are linked together! And so the love of Jesus comes in the way of God, the way of the Old Testament…. also in THIS WAY. The love of Jesus walks also this path: the love for those who belong to Him (even though Mary of Magdala was to find out only a few days later that it did not exclude her and others at all!) Jesus loved also in this way…., but the point is that He loved. This John, too, does not call himself “the COUSIN of Jesus!” (like others would say: “I am a RELATIVE to His Majesty!”) as if that were some right to extra privilege.

No, he calls himself: the disciple whom Jesus loved. When you and I, with Mary and with John stand at the foot of the cross today, it is not as people with special privileges, or believers of special pedigree (Reformed! you know). We stand there as people who only can find life from the dead, salvage from utter doom, not because we loved God or hit on the bright idea to love people, but because Jesus loved us to the very end and gave Himself for us. As the children’s song says: Jesus loves ME…. this I know…! The discovery of growing up is (if it’s the right kind of growing up) that He loved me for no reason in me. That he loved me while I hated, that He came to seek and rescue rascals and selfish pigs, conceited rebels, and hopeless cases. He loved us to the end…. till He could say in triumph, lifting Himself upon His wounds to gasp the breath for saying it: It is Finished!” No greater love than that of him who gives his life for his friends, and that we ever can be reckoned among His friends is His work, too!

But even His sovereign love does not neglect the ties His Father made, the ties of blood and relationship. There, too, we may learn, or learn again! ― to live by that Love of His. Jesus’ love bore our sins, also the terrible sins we do to each other within the family. Jesus takes these sins away…!

There, too, we may receive His gift of life through His death…. Life FROM the dead. Jesus and His people….

– (1) He gave love!

Second: He gave command! Yes! The terse words snatched from choking agony are a command! His love is not the kind that spoils even though it cares very much! He alone walked the way of making peace with God; He alone could make peace with the Father! Yes! But that does not mean that He gives no command! Here that command sounds like a Last Will and Testament of a dying man looking after his family. That sounds awful and it is: He takes utterly seriously the fact that He shall die. He has a widowed mother to take care of. He is the eldest son which under Israel’s law gave Him special responsibility. Later Mary of Magdala, so heart-broken at the cross, will get HER turn after Jesus’ Resurrection. Then also a command: “Go to my brothers!” (= my disciples, my brothers-in-the spirit). And then also a caution: things are different: Do not hold me down! But here there is the obedience to the Law of God: Look after the widow!

James Jesus’ brother, would write later that this belongs to true religion before God! To look after widows in their plight is the duty of children and the church. Yes, that James was a son of Mary, too! He was the son of Mary and Joseph! But that brother was not asked to look after Mary not only because he wasn’t there, but above all because he did not yet believe in Jesus! In THAT regard the tie of faith DOES cut through family relationships. There are things you cannot do for each other, NOT REALLY, when you do not share the faith!

You cannot be truly husband and wife for instance. The believing cousin is here chosen rather than the brothers who do not yet belong to Jesus’ New People. You see John’s task is to be a personal one. ‘From then on,’ says the text, ‘John took Mary’ – not just into his house, but into ALL HIS THINGS, into his whole life. That’s more, is it not, than an impersonal cheque every fortnight from a government agency! That’s even more than looking for some home ― some senior-citizens’ home for Grannie because, you see, “she’s getting so difficult, what else can we do with her!?”

There is in our cold age a lot of care for older people that looks awfully much like: “Getting them out of OUR hair, so we can go on ENJOYING THINGS….!” Getting them out of the way…. our way! No, John took her into his LIFE!

Now that does not rule out building a home for them not even a Senior Citizens’ Home! The care and the love and the respect can speak from the very walls and permeate such homes! I have been in these homes, and they are places of wonderful closeness and dignity! Those who follow Christ and live off His love, mix that love in their care. People-around-the-cross are moulded together into a body, where members feel the pain when a member suffers, and where we belong together as nothing else in all creation belongs together: Woman! Look, your son! Look my friend, I give you a mother! I give you My own mother! Yes, – He gives His love. Therefore He also gives His command.

And thus (3)…

Thus the He gives PROTECTION…. Protection in a cold world. ………. Thus the Creator, the glad Creator of all, re-creates, re-makes warmth in that cold world.

But look! He does it through the Law! That fifth Commandment: Honour your Father and your Mother! That commandment with its promise begins to sparkle from Jesus’ thirst-parched lips there on that awful hill! Malachi was to sing it in the last chapter of the Old Testament: “He shall bring back the hearts of the children to the fathers and the hearts of the parents to the children!” He shall bridge that awful gap! He goes that way Himself; He obeys the fifth commandment even on the very cross. Something is done about that cold loneliness! Everything is done about it! Jesus gives his bereaved mother a substitute before the awful tribunal of God! Thus when we are touched by His love as touched we must be when discovering how He loved us and gave Himself for us – then when we say: Lord how can I show YOU my love-in-return? He points us to substitutes, too. He says: insofar as you show your love to the least of my brothers, you show it to Me and I won’t forget. You don’t always have me here but the poor you have! We take that from Him when we have discovered how in His terrible death He took our place!

The self-same John was to write it as an old man: “How can you claim you love God whom you have never seen when you refuse to love the brother whom you CAN see?” But you cannot love people as you should as Christ calls you to, people in your home and people in your land, people who differ, people who smell, people still bent under sin, you cannot love them just at the command of a social gospel. Justice on earth does not come at the blast of a trumpet of goodwill. The love God wants can only come when we respond humbly to the love God gives. The disciple whom Jesus loved, HE is the one who can begin to care. John – because he comes back to that love and forgiveness day after day – can get the strength to GO ON caring. Jesus forged His people together by His love and His blood. He does it now by His Spirit.

The Spirit also uses the bonds of blood. That life-giving Spirit re-makes relationships until they truly do what God meant them to do. Can it be said about your family, your church, your fellowship too: “Look there are Jesus’ people! and He is Himself among them!”?

Amen.