Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a tough
cookie. How her life changed.
Initially we meet her as a young girl shocked to the core that she had been chosen to bear Jesus. It’s a crisis and it never seems to end. An out of the way birth followed by a refugee migration. Maybe the early death of her husband and the infighting amongst her children as to the legitimacy of Jesus’ mission.
Yet, Mary is always there. She’s there at the end. When bold men like Peter have melted into the shadows, Mary stays close to Jesus. Her loyalty, her love, her constancy – all an expression of tough love, deep love, love that never ends.
There is a juxtaposition of opposites at the cross. Alongside the brutality and violence of nails hammered into palms, a spear that pierces his side, a crown of thorns that draws blood and the lingering death by asphyxiation that crucifixion brought there is also: the loyalty of Mary as she stays close, the companionship of John who stands alongside her and the kindness of Jesus as he entrusts the future of his mother to the beloved disciple.
Loyalty, companionship and kindness – expressions of love on a day marked by brutality, hatred and violence.
Down the centuries that juxtaposition has continued so that even in the bleakest moments those at the centre of the storm have been able to proclaim a belief in the sun even when it isn’t shining.
The essence, I believe of this day, is that in the suffering of Jesus we see God with us. Immanuel is just as fitting a description of the cross as it is of the manger. God is with us – in the pain, in the darkness, in the failure, in the agony of loss. God is with us and that’s why even here as encounter Jesus, John and Mary we meet with loyalty, companionship and kindness on the most terrible of days.
Such love gives us hope and inspires us with courage.
Good Friday speaks into our
life and calls us to believe in the sun even when it isn’t shining because God
is with us – it’s the way of our Christlike God – it’s the way of the cross.Initially we meet her as a young girl shocked to the core that she had been chosen to bear Jesus. It’s a crisis and it never seems to end. An out of the way birth followed by a refugee migration. Maybe the early death of her husband and the infighting amongst her children as to the legitimacy of Jesus’ mission.
Yet, Mary is always there. She’s there at the end. When bold men like Peter have melted into the shadows, Mary stays close to Jesus. Her loyalty, her love, her constancy – all an expression of tough love, deep love, love that never ends.
There is a juxtaposition of opposites at the cross. Alongside the brutality and violence of nails hammered into palms, a spear that pierces his side, a crown of thorns that draws blood and the lingering death by asphyxiation that crucifixion brought there is also: the loyalty of Mary as she stays close, the companionship of John who stands alongside her and the kindness of Jesus as he entrusts the future of his mother to the beloved disciple.
Loyalty, companionship and kindness – expressions of love on a day marked by brutality, hatred and violence.
Down the centuries that juxtaposition has continued so that even in the bleakest moments those at the centre of the storm have been able to proclaim a belief in the sun even when it isn’t shining.
The essence, I believe of this day, is that in the suffering of Jesus we see God with us. Immanuel is just as fitting a description of the cross as it is of the manger. God is with us – in the pain, in the darkness, in the failure, in the agony of loss. God is with us and that’s why even here as encounter Jesus, John and Mary we meet with loyalty, companionship and kindness on the most terrible of days.
Such love gives us hope and inspires us with courage.
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