Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - Lent 4 John 19:26-27

“[Jesus] said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’”

We continue this Lenten Season with our focus on the seven statements which Jesus made while on the cross, and their corresponding relationship with the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. The third thing Jesus said was to His mother Mary, “Woman, behold, your son!” And to John the Apostle, “Behold, your mother!”

There is more to this than Jesus’ desire for His mother to be taken care of after He is gone. If it were a private matter between the three of them, Jesus would have taken care of it sooner. Why wait until Good Friday? Why say this from the cross if it were not important for us also?

There are deep and insightful aspects to the goings on of the activities around the cross – even though they may seem immaterial or mundane to the casual observer. Mary the mother of our Lord is present with several other ladies and John the Apostle. We know Mary and John. Who were these other ladies?

When you piece together all of the names and descriptions, there seem to be some interesting connections. There is historical speculation that Mary the wife of Clopas was Mary, the mother of our Lord’s, sister. Just because they were both named Mary does not make this impossible. We see this in traditional Italian Roman Catholic families with numerous daughters named Mary, but with different middle names. In Jesus’ day, in Israel, almost half of all women were named Mary.

Mark’s Gospel records that Mary the mother of the apostle James the Younger was there at the cross. It is very possible that Mary the wife of Clopas is also the mother of James the Younger. Elsewhere in Mark’s Gospel, James the Younger is also called James the son of Alphaeus.

Furthermore, in Mark’s Gospel, Matthew the disciple is also called “Levi, the son of Alphaeus.” It is likely that James the Younger and Matthew were brothers. Then we would have three pairs of brothers within the Twelve disciples.

Hegesippus, a second-century historian says that Clopas\Alphaeus was a brother to Joseph the carpenter – Jesus’ earthly father. This would make Matthew and James the Younger to be Jesus’ first cousins on both sides of the family.

The woman Salome, who Mark records as being at the cross, could be the unnamed sister recorded in John’s Gospel. It also seems that Salome was the wife of Zebedee and mother of James and John. This would mean that James and John were Jesus’ first cousins.

There are many Missouri Synod Lutheran churches which are able to relate to the church being comprised of extended family, having cousins doubly related, and groups of sisters spending time together. I think of my former church in Mellen, or Malinda’s family in Iowa, or my family in Northeastern Indiana. My mom’s aunt was my dad’s first cousin. (Which is why we were compelled to move to Kentucky.)

No matter how many of these presumed family relationships are reality, it is clear that family bonds played an important role in the early Christian church.

By virtue of Holy Baptism, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, who teaches us to pray “Our Father who art in heaven.” In Holy Baptism, we have received the sign of the holy cross and we were adopted into the family of faith “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

God’s holy name has thus become our family name. So when we pray, “Hallowed be Thy Name,” we are saying hallowed be the name You have placed upon us in our Baptism. As Luther says in the Catechism, God’s name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray that it may be kept holy among us also.

We are all a part of the family of the church, and Mary the mother of our Lord is often seen as a symbol of the church. During this past Advent and Christmas season, it was mentioned from this pulpit on more than one occasion that Mary was the vessel in which Christ tangibly, physically entered this world and dwelled. The church is the vessel in which Christ is tangibly and physically found.

I am sure it was no accident that God moved Mary to be present at the foot of the cross. St. John is the only representative of the Twelve disciples who was present at the cross. When Jesus entrusted Mary to John, was He trying to teach us something about church and ministry? I would argue He was. There is an old saying that he who will not have the church as his mother cannot have God as his father.

I believe that it is with this in mind that Jesus makes these family arrangements with Mary and John, and really with each of us also. Christ has not left us alone to fend for ourselves. Our family is always here to care for us. Amen.

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