"The Way of Holy Living and The Lord’s Prayer and the Third Word from the Cross: Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother." Midweek of Lent2 March 23, 2011 John 19:26-27
The way of repentance leads to the way of faith. The way of faith melds into the way of holy living. Repentance, faith, and holy living are the substance of our prayers. We learn to pray by being in the Word of God. We learn to pray by repenting of our sins and receiving the Gospel in faith and in living out holy lives according to God’s Word and will. We learn to pray by internalizing the Catechism and not just knowing it or saying it but praying it. Of course, there is no talk of praying in the life of a Christian apart from the Lord’s Prayer. It is not only the prime prayer of Christianity and of the Church and of the Christian, it teaches us to pray. We not only pray it, we learn to pray in the praying of it and pondering of it. The first word from the cross would have worked very well with the third chief part of the Catechism, as we learn to pray in the Lord’s Prayer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Himself prayed to our Heavenly Father: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. It’s a little ironic that when we will consider the Lord’s Prayer it is in conjunction with the third word from the cross, in which Jesus is not speaking to God the Father but to His mother and to His beloved disciple, John. We do not pray to people. We pray to God. We talk with them. We ask them to pray for us and we pray for them. But we pray to God, not others. Jesus was here on the cross talking to His mother. And to one of His disciples. He wasn’t praying but we learn to pray from this word from the cross. He was talking to His mother and to one of the Twelve, but in those words He said to them we have words spoken to us as well. With the first word from Christ on the cross we saw why He was there. It’s true that He went as a lamb to the slaughter. But He chose this willingly and humbly. Perhaps nowhere is that better seen than with His words, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. As if to show it in its enacted form He then said to the thief hanging next to Him, Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise. Jesus was on the cross for us. He wasn’t there for Himself. He wasn’t suffering for anything He had done. He was hanging and bleeding and being forsaken by His Heavenly Father for you and me and the world. His third word from the cross is another example. And yet, it’s not just an example. It’s also teaching us something about what He still does for us. But before that, think about what is happening. Jesus is suffering and dying. Thirty-three years before Mary had been suffering, in giving birth to Him. Some women die in childbirth. In that moment when life is coming into the world death is also claiming its hold. Jesus was dying in order to bring life. The difference is that while a woman cannot prevent her own death in those devastating occasions when she dies in giving birth to her child, Jesus was actually claiming His hold over death in His life expiring from Him. His suffering and death in the place of sinners brought an end to death’s reign over them. Just as a mother may lose her life in order for her child to be born Jesus gave His life in order that we may have life. But Mary didn’t die. She gave birth to her Son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths. She sang to Him and nursed Him and played with His toes. She taught Him good manners at the table and that He should finish His peas. She watched Him grow and sometimes was perplexed that while having had grown up in a stable home He for three years had no place to lay His head and even on one occasion said that His mother and brothers and sisters were those who followed His Heavenly Father’s will, not His very own mother who gave Him life and His brothers and sisters who grew up with Him. But if there was any memory of the suffering she endured while He came out of her womb it was as a wisp now that she was watching Him hang there helplessly on a cross. She should have been granted by God a peaceful death with her Son at her bedside giving her comfort as she had given to Him all those many years while He was growing up. But God’s plan was for her instead to see Him dying, and not in a peaceful way. How could she bear to go on after seeing this? At a very basic level He gave her what she needed. He was going away but He would provide for her. John would take care of her as if she were his own mother. If this alone were all Jesus were doing for her, that would be enough. It would be enough to marvel at such love. We can’t say that Jesus loved any one person more than another, He loves all equally, He suffered and died for all. But certainly there was a bond between Jesus and His mother Mary like with no other person. So on a basic level we learn here how to pray and that springs forth into holy living. We pray for those we love. We commit them to the care of our Heavenly Father, those who are closest to us, whom God has entrusted to our care. If this means that we look to their welfare before our own then we learn to pray even more fervently that God would give us the strength and the contentment to do so. But even more, what our Lord is teaching us here is that everything He says and does is centered in the cross. As it is with Him so it is with us. We see this in the life of Mary. When the angel announced to her she would give birth in an out of the ordinary way and that her Son would be an out of the ordinary son, she responded in the way of the cross, even though she didn’t fully understand that that was what she was doing: Be it unto me according to your word. This is the way of the cross; it is the way of holy living. She submitted to the will of God and that is what we learn when we pray the Lord’s Prayer and meditate on each of its petitions’ meanings. Mary received great joy and blessings in giving birth to the Savior of the world only to see that joy vanish as He hung limply before her on the cross. Only God could get her through this and He was. Her own Son hanging on a cross before her was getting her through it by His very hanging there and suffering and dying. It is through the cross that we see our need to repent and live the way of faith and live in holy living. Living in the way God has called us to live is hard. It means we’re not in control. It means we are in submission to God’s will, His way, His path. His path led to the cross and ours goes that way to. Seeing her Son on the cross was the darkest moment for her. But when things are darkest, God provides. This is not just theoretical—Jesus said, I am with you. It’s tangible. Even as Jesus was about to die He was with His mother. Just as Mary is given to John and John is given to Mary we are taken care of by our Lord. >From the cross and through His Sacraments is how our Lord provides for us and keeps us in His care. It is all from the cross and delivered to us in His Gospel and Sacraments. This is how we learn to pray. It is how we are dependent on God and how we see more and more that that’s a very good thing. The day our Lord died in retrospect was a good day. On the Greater Day to come when He returns in glory we will stand before Him along with Mary and John and the host of angels and saints who have gone before us. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list. Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster. Subscribe? 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