Most of us, if we’re really honest, would have to admit that when we face difficulties in life, our tendency is to focus on ourselves. We ask questions like “Why me?” or we get angry with God because we’re focused on ourselves. I think that’s especially true when we come face to face with death.
American comedian Will Shriner once said:
“I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather... Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.”
Although we get a couple of chuckles out of that, it’s also a pretty good example of how when we face death, we tend to focus on ourselves and not necessarily care so much how it impacts others.
But when Jesus went through the most painful and difficult part of His life, when he came face to face with death while hanging there on the cross, He did just the opposite of what most of us would do. He focused on others. As we experience together this journey to the heart of Jesus as we look at His Cries from the Cross, it’s really interesting to me the progression of Jesus’ thoughts. First, He prays, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” This cry for pardon was focused on other people, not on His own needs. And then last week, we saw how he turned to the thief on the cross and said, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” Again, through His cry of assurance, Jesus demonstrated that He was more concerned about others that he was about Himself.
Today, we’ll take a look at His third cry from the cross – a cry of compassion. Let’s read from John’s account of the crucifixion:
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. "Let’s not tear it," they said to one another. "Let’s decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 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," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
John 19:23-27 (NIV)
That day there were two groups of people near the cross. The four Roman soldiers were there out of duty. But the four women and John were there out of devotion. The other gospel accounts tell us that the rest of Jesus’ followers watched what was going on from a distance. I was thinking about that this week and wondering just how near the cross we would have been that day. Here nearly 2,000 years removed from that day, as we sit here in the comfort of this auditorium, it’s easy for us to sing the words from Fanny Crosby’s hymn:
Jesus, keep me near the cross,
There a precious fountain
Free to all, a healing stream
Flows from Calv’ry’s mountain.
In the cross, in the cross
Be my glory ever;
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.
But that day, would we have had the courage of John and these four women to be near enough to the cross to see the bloody, beaten body of Jesus hanging on the cross, struggling for every breath? Would we have been close enough to hear the crowds hurl their insults at Him? Would we have been near enough to hear the words we’ll look at this morning? I think that if most of us are really honest, we’d have to admit that we probably would have been like the rest of Jesus’ followers, watching from a distance so that we wouldn’t put our own lives in jeopardy.
But this morning, I want to invite you to come near to the cross, so that you might be able to experience the compassion of Jesus Christ in your life. Obviously, we can’t do that in a physical sense. We can’t go outside the walls of Jerusalem and stand near a cross. But we can do it in a spiritual sense through our relationship with Jesus Christ right here and now.
That day, there were four women near the cross along with the Apostle John. There was Mary, the mother of Jesus; her Sister Salome, who was the wife of Zebedee and the mother of James and John; Mary the wife of Clopas; and Mary Magdalene. This is the only time that Mary, the wife of Clopas, is mentioned any place in the Bible, so we don’t know anything more about her. But, as we’ll see in just a moment, the presence of the other three women is significant.
As I look at this passage, it seems to me that the people there at the cross that day represent both the blessings and the responsibilities that come to us as a result of the compassion of Jesus that He reveals to us on the cross.
THE BLESSINGS OF HIS COMPASSION:
1. Healing
Let’s begin this morning by putting ourselves in Mary’s shoes. As she stood there before the cross that day, I can’t help but think that she had to be thinking back to the very beginning of her son’s life. Perhaps she remembered the words of Simeon when Jesus was eight days old:
Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "… And a sword will pierce your own soul too."
Luke 2:34, 35 (NIV)
Certainly Mary had experienced the piercing of her soul. It probably began when she was pregnant as she heard the whispers that her son had been conceived in shame. And then it continued when Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with the baby Jesus, knowing that the death of all the babies in Jerusalem was a result of the birth of her son. And can you imagine what it must have been like to be the mother in a household with a son who was perfect? Or to have your son tell you that He must be about His Father’s business? I’m not sure we can even imagine how that must have pierced her soul. But now at the cross, she was pierced the most deeply of all.
Mary watched the soldiers divided Jesus’ clothes among the four of them and then they came to his seamless undergarment. In the Jewish culture of the day, this piece of clothing was normally given to a son by his mother and legend says that Mary had givenJesus this tunic when he left home. Charles Swindoll, in his book The Darkness and the Dawn, points out just how much the actions of the soldiers must have pierced the souls of both Mary and Jesus:
Why now? She’s been there all along, watching and weeping. Why hasn’t He acknowledged or spoken to her? Could it be because of the seamless tunic? I think so. His outer garments were insignificant…But when they touched the tunic, they touched something very near to His heart-the garment made for Him by His mother.
And at the very moment that happens, Jesus looks to his mother and says, “Dear woman, here is your son.” Jesus was mindful about how much pain His life had caused for His mother. And so He speaks these words of healing. Jesus wants Mary to know just how much He loves her and He demonstrates that love by making sure that Mary knows that John will be there to take care of her needs once He is gone.
Jesus’ relationship with His mother is about to change dramatically. He is no longer going to be her son. He will become her Savior. Mary knew that time was going to come some day. In fact she had been looking forward to that day since before Jesus was born.
And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
Luke 1:46, 47 (NIV)
Although Mary knew that one day her Son would become her Savior, I don’t think she could have ever imagined how it would happen. So when, she needs it most, Jesus speaks these healing words of compassion to Mary.
Most of us have had our souls pierced at some time in our lives, too. And although I can’t imagine that any of us have gone through an experience quite like Mary’s the cry of compassion from the cross assures us that Jesus cares about us, too. When we have been broken and need healing, Jesus not only cares about us, but he has the power to bring healing to our lives. But he can only do that if we allow him to.
Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.
1 Peter 5:7 (NLT)
When we’re hurting, Jesus calls us to bring all our worries and cares to the cross and lay them there. And when we do, then He can bring His compassionate healing into our lives.
2. Liberty
Let’s move on now and see what else we can learn about the compassion of Jesus as we think about a second person there at the cross that day – Mary Magdalene.
We don’t have a whole lot if information about Mary Magdalene from the Bible itself. Although recent books such as The DaVinci Code have tried to make the case that she was married to Jesus, there is absolutely no biblical or historical data to support such a claim. Others have also tried to claim that she was actually the “beloved disciple” written of in the Gospel of John and that she was the author of that Gospel. That view is contradicted by the very passage we’re looking at this morning where Jesus says to His mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” when referring to the disciple whom Jesus loved.
But here is what we do know about this Mary from the Scriptures. She is mentioned in Luke 8 as a woman out of whom Jesus had cast seven demons and who followed Jesus and helped to provide financial support for His ministry. Other than that, the only time we find her mentioned is here at the foot of the cross and then again at the tomb early on Sunday morning. According to Mark, she is the one to whom Jesus first appeared after His resurrection.
Now personally I can’t imagine what it would be like to be under the influence of even one demon, alone seven of them. But I do know this: Mary must have been in tremendous bondage. So no wonder that after Jesus freed her from that bondage, Mary would choose to follow after Jesus and to give up whatever she had to help Him bring freedom to others.
The cry of compassion from the cross assures us that just as He brought liberty to Mary Magdalene, Jesus wants us to experience liberty, too.
If you’ve never committed your life to Jesus Christ, then the Bible is clear that you are still in bondage to sin. Like Mary, all of us were in bondage at one time and it is only by committing our lives to Jesus that we can have liberty from that bondage.
Some of you today have given your lives to Jesus Christ, but you’re in bondage to some craving or addiction – maybe alcohol, drugs, pornography, food, power, pride. You need to come to the foot of the cross and experience the compassion of Jesus Christ this morning. You need to listen to the words of Jesus and heed His call:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF HIS COMPASSION:
1. Humility
The next person we’ll take a look at is Salome. She is described here as “his mother’s sister”, but we know from other Scriptures that this in fact Salome, the wife of Zebedee and the mother of John and James. We remember her primarily as the one who came to Jesus with her sons in Matthew 20 to ask that Jesus give them thrones at his right hand and left hand side when he came into His kingdom. Out of her pride Salome had asked Jesus to give her two sons the place of highest honor in His kingdom.
But now she comes to the foot of the cross and the compassion of Jesus humbles her. I think for the first time, she really understood what Jesus meant when he had rebuked her for her request earlier:
Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Matthew 20:25-28 (NIV)
As Salome sees Jesus hanging from the cross and yet still concerned more about others than Himself, she finally realizes the tremendous cost required for Jesus to usher in His kingdom. And I believe that she must have wept in utter humility as she considered her words from just a few days earlier.
When we come to the cross of Jesus and experience his compassion, it is a humbling experience. We realize just how undeserving we are of that kind of love. We realize that it was because of our sins that Jesus was nailed to that cross. Like Paul, we recognize that there is nothing in our lives worth boasting about.
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Galatians 6:14 (NIV)
It is only the compassion of Jesus Christ that He demonstrated on the cross that makes it possible for us to have a relationship with God. If you’ve never come to the place in your life, where you have humbled yourself before God and accepted his gift of eternal life that he provided through what Jesus did on the cross, then I want to invite you to do that before you leave today. Today, like Salome, the compassion of Jesus needs to drive you to the place where you realize that what you have to offer to God is totally worthless and you need to humbly submit your life to Him.
2. Taking Jesus’ place
Finally, this morning, we come to the disciple whom Jesus loved – John. Like the rest of Jesus’ followers, he had initially fled the scene when Jesus was arrested and put on trial. But unlike the rest, he now returned to Jesus. That had to be a really hard thing to do. To watch your best friend hanging from the cross, suffering through the last few hours of His life must have been heart-breaking. Not only that, John was putting his own life at risk by associating with Jesus.
John is a lot like us. Sometimes we stray, sometimes we even disobey or disown Jesus, but Jesus is waiting for us to come back to the cross so that we can experience his compassion
With His simple words, “Here is your mother”, Jesus not only restored John, but he also elevated him to an important place of responsibility. Jesus knew that his time on earth would end very soon and he wanted to make sure that His mother would be cared for.
I was thinking this week about what that must have been like for John. He knew that Mary had other children. Why wouldn’t Jesus have given them the responsibility to care for their mother? Perhaps it was because they were still back in Galilee and Jesus knew Mary had some immediate needs. Or possibly it was because his half-brothers and sisters were not yet believers. Thankfully that situation changed after the resurrection and his half-brothers were in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came upon them. James even became the leader of the Jewish church after that. But at this point, they still doubted Jesus. Not only that, but John’s own mother was right there listening when Jesus told John that Mary was now to become his mother, too.
Ultimately, what Jesus was telling John is that He was appointing John to take His place here on this earth. Since Jesus was going away, he needed someone else to fulfill his responsibilities in this world.
That’s exactly what the compassion of Jesus means for us, too. The Bible is very clear that Jesus will return to this earth again one day, not as Savior, but as Judge. But in the meantime, Jesus has appointed us as His ambassadors here on earth. He has sent us out to represent Him, to take His place until he returns. Listen to what He said to His followers after the resurrection:
Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
John 20:21 (NIV)
Every one of us here today who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ owes a debt of gratitude to John and to the other followers of Jesus Christ who took to heart the responsibility of taking Jesus’ place here on this earth after His death and resurrection. And we also owe a great deal to those in our own generation who have been willing to take on that responsibility and continue the work of Jesus Christ on this earth still today. Every one of us who has surrendered our life to Jesus Christ is here today because of people who cared enough about us to pass on the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The compassion of Jesus compels us to do the very same. We, too, have been called to take Jesus’ place here on this earth and to carry out His work until he returns. Who has God brought into your life that needs to experience the compassion of Jesus through your life? Who needs you to meet their needs, to pray for them and to tell them about Jesus?
"Dear woman, here is your son,"
"Here is your mother."
The cry of compassion brings the blessings of healing and liberty. But it also brings with it the responsibility of humility and of taking Jesus’ place here on this earth. Will you heed that cry of compassion today?
