John 19:25-30

00:00:00:14 – 00:00:25:10
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for closing out the week with us here in the Gospel of John. Continue our way through the 19th chapter, the crucifixion story. We join the story today. Jesus has been, put on the cross, and the soldiers have divided his clothing. In each of the Gospels, there is a different record of the what are called the last words of Jesus.

00:00:25:10 – 00:00:53:01
Clint Loveall
Seven total things that Jesus is recorded, having said from the cross, in John we get, two of those. What? I’m sorry. We get three of those things. Kind of, and so, each of those have their own nuance and their own meaning. I’m going to read. We’ll just go through these kind of one at a time and talk them through.

00:00:53:02 – 00:01:01:00
Clint Loveall
So jumping in here in. Where are we? Verse 19. No. Yeah.

00:01:01:04 – 00:01:02:52
Michael Gewecke
I guess at 25, 25.

00:01:02:53 – 00:01:29:12
Clint Loveall
Thank you. Sorry. That was, I had made a mark over it and I couldn’t tell what was in front of the five. So meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother, sister Mary, the wife of Corpus and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, woman, here is your son.

00:01:29:16 – 00:02:08:37
Clint Loveall
And then he said to the disciple, here is your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. Only John, gives us this scene. Interesting. There are three Mary’s standing together. Or. Yeah, at least three Mary’s. There may be four women here. And. Jesus. Here from the cross. And again, if you’ve been following us through the Gospel of John, I think we’ve made the case that Jesus does the right thing.

00:02:08:41 – 00:02:36:07
Clint Loveall
This isn’t a story told with fear and worry. And so here Jesus is. I’m not sure what the right word would be, Michael. Professionalism isn’t the right word, but he is his character. Perhaps is on display even from the suffering of the cross. He knows as the oldest son that he now leaves his mother. And so he makes provision.

00:02:36:07 – 00:03:17:27
Clint Loveall
And we encounter this phrase, the disciple whom he loved. I want to just sort of put a pin in that, because that’s going to be prominent as we go through the rest of the end of the gospel. But but I think one of the things John is trying to tell us may be a practical thing, that what happens to Mary, maybe the church is familiar with this story, but I think from a deeper sense, John is trying to convey to us that Jesus is so motivated by what is right and doing the right thing and caring for his own, that he, even in this moment of his own pain, looks to the welfare and the

00:03:17:27 – 00:03:23:49
Clint Loveall
well-being of his mom. And I think, you know, that’s a powerful story. Yeah.

00:03:23:49 – 00:03:42:59
Michael Gewecke
It is. And I think there’s more depth here than what we might initially give it credit for. And I want to slow down and make sure that we we don’t miss it. The first thing I want to lift out of this story is as Jesus is hanging on the cross and as he’s looking at this woman, he has unbelievable compassion and empathy for her from the cross.

00:03:42:59 – 00:04:18:12
Michael Gewecke
And that is a testament to his humanity. I think we’ve seen something like this before, when Jesus responds with the same kind of compassion in his weeping at the at the case, and that the cause of Lazarus is death at the burial, that the grief he sees of those with whom Jesus is human. And that, you know, maybe that sounds easy for me to say, but that was a really debated thing in the early church about, you know, is, is Jesus as God, someone who sort of stands outside the human experience says, you know, does Jesus not worry about things?

00:04:18:27 – 00:04:43:17
Michael Gewecke
No, no. The way that the text is written and the way that John goes out of his way to make this point, that that the disciple whom Jesus loved is next to the woman that Jesus loved. This matters. This is a compassionate, empathetic human heart which sees the suffering of his mother and is able, because of the fact that he is the Son of God, in control and in power from the cross.

00:04:43:17 – 00:05:03:59
Michael Gewecke
He’s able to extend that even from a place of self-giving. And at this point, let’s be abundantly clear. We’ve said this a thousand times, but it needs said again in this study. If is your first time with us, Jesus in the gospel, John did not end up in this position on accident. He did not end up here because he was bested or because ultimately he ran out of options.

00:05:04:08 – 00:05:23:51
Michael Gewecke
Jesus is in the book of John, the Son of God, God incarnate, walking on earth. And Jesus does as Jesus will do. And he’s chosen the cross. So now he’s caring for us. There’s a my point, number one, there’s human compassion here. And I’ll be brief here. But I also will point out there’s also some, I think, intentional irony here.

00:05:24:05 – 00:05:57:19
Michael Gewecke
Woman here is your son. Who’s the son? I think that’s intentionally vague. Here’s your son, Jesus. Here’s I’m the son. And also to this beloved disciple, here is your son. You know, there’s this kind of transference, this this responsibility. Given that Jesus and all the disciples in all the Gospels talks about how he has a different relationship with his family, sometimes a very strong language, this idea, whoever believes as the family and this is a version of that kind of a broadening of the circle that happens at the crucifixion of Christ.

00:05:57:19 – 00:06:17:42
Michael Gewecke
If I’m going to be no more than the family circle is going to extend. And I think we see that happening here in John. And I think that there’s a beautiful we in the Protestant church. We don’t spend a lot of time talking about Mary. This is a beautiful, tender moment in which I think you can see a love of a son for a mother.

00:06:17:51 – 00:06:25:39
Michael Gewecke
And here’s your son, I think has many senses which we might miss if we’re just reading this for what’s the point? There’s a lot here.

00:06:25:44 – 00:07:09:43
Clint Loveall
I agree, and I think that to some extent this this thing that Jesus says is overshadowed by my God. My God, why have you forsaken me? Yeah, today you will be with me in Paradise. Even here it is finished. Father. Forgive them. They know not what they do. This is a very earthy word. As this woman, this. This woman who is suffering terribly, watches her son on the cross, on the gallows, being being tortured to death.

00:07:09:48 – 00:07:46:08
Clint Loveall
And. And yet in the midst of that, Jesus speaks a word of provision, a word of care, a challenge to both the woman, Mary, and the disciple, most likely John. And in that moment, Jesus, in the midst of doing this heavenly work, this, this thing that he was born and made for and and has understood it to be his whole calling, reaches down into his mother’s life to make sure that she’s okay.

00:07:46:08 – 00:07:55:10
Clint Loveall
This is, again, I think we tend to lean toward the more spiritual words, but this is a powerful word nonetheless.

00:07:55:15 – 00:08:34:55
Michael Gewecke
What? Because ultimately it’s the humanness of it that reveals the divine. This of who says it is ultimately what Jesus is doing here is showing us that when he dies, he is dying. As the creatures who need saved, he is losing his mother. This is not just God doing the eternal, as you say, the ultimate salvific work. This is also God who is going to lose real relational substance the same way that he cries at the grief shown over Lazarus.

00:08:35:09 – 00:09:03:36
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. He knows that resurrection is right around the corner, but it moves him. And here Jesus is moved again. And that is for for people, for the Christians who received this book, who knew something about the separation of families and losing people because of the faith, the people who knew something about the sacrifices that came from witnessing to the person on the cross that that those were not, are the official concepts to them.

00:09:03:36 – 00:09:20:33
Michael Gewecke
They weren’t philosophical ideas. That was reality lived out. And for them, and I think for us, this is this is a hopeful word that Jesus cares and has compassion. Even in his work of cosmic salvation. He sees the small and he cares.

00:09:20:45 – 00:09:41:57
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And I don’t want us to get down here too much. But I will say, though, there may be better places to preach this, I also think we see in this a kind of call to care for one another. I mean, again, the midst of Jesus own sacrifice, a a word that challenges the church then and now. Remember hurting people.

00:09:42:01 – 00:10:09:29
Clint Loveall
Remember people who have lost. Remember grieving people and they are your responsibility. So he says to the disciple, right. And that’s a word by extension to the rest of us, to all disciples, care for her. Here is your family. Here are your people. And it begin. Is that the primary point of the story? No, but it echoes enough of the rest of Scripture that I think it should be pointed out.

00:10:09:34 – 00:10:36:38
Clint Loveall
Let’s just finish this up. 28 year after this. Jesus, when he knew that all was now finished, said in order to fulfill the Scripture, I am thirsty. A jar full of sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge full of wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, it is finished.

00:10:36:43 – 00:11:10:44
Clint Loveall
Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. I certainly don’t want to shortchange any of the words of Jesus. I am thirsty doesn’t make most people’s list. I mean, you could certainly use it as a springboard, but even even John here says in order to fulfill Scripture. So John inserts parenthetically that this is a word that Jesus says, so that it will be clear who he is and what is happening.

00:11:10:44 – 00:11:45:45
Clint Loveall
It’s sort of a clarification. And so this is attested in the other gospels as well. Jesus is given an opportunity to, to have this sour wine, this is unfermented or whatever it might be. Not very good wine, which he takes and again, Michael, if there’s a deep, powerful sermon there I’m sure one could use, I am thirsty as a springboard to get into the ways in which we all thirst for something more.

00:11:45:50 – 00:11:54:54
Clint Loveall
But, I don’t think for most people this ranks as the most powerful thing. Jesus said.

00:11:54:58 – 00:12:21:48
Michael Gewecke
I completely concur with that. When you put this in frame with all of the last sayings of Jesus, I think this doesn’t strike us as particularly spiritual. I just want to offer, though, remember Jesus’s first miracle at Cana, where he where he takes jars full of water and turns them into the best wine ever drank. I think there is a bookend here.

00:12:21:59 – 00:12:42:50
Michael Gewecke
There’s a moment where Jesus, at his last, is getting the worst wine, when he had given the best wine to the people at the at the party. That doesn’t make sense. If you want to put this in conversation with Mark and Matthew, because they’re all giving us very important frames of what’s happening, and they’re helping us see in their context.

00:12:43:04 – 00:13:03:54
Michael Gewecke
This is the significance. It’s cosmic. Right. So you could have all of these tellings, and we’re still not going to contain the truth of what’s happening there. But I think if you are within John itself, yeah, I think that this does still have some powerful meaning that ultimately it it is the Son of God who will be given the worst because he’s given the best.

00:13:04:06 – 00:13:07:41
Michael Gewecke
You know, if you’re going to look for how this fits in the cosmic story, I think that would be it.

00:13:07:42 – 00:13:33:34
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think that’s really good. I also think, again, sorry to keep going back to this, but this is very true to the way John tells the story. Jesus says, I’m thirsty, but notice it’s not because he’s thirsty. It’s not because he has a need. It’s not because he’s suffering. It’s to fulfill Scripture. So that even here, Jesus has an awareness of what hasn’t happened yet and what he needs to do to complete his work.

00:13:33:39 – 00:14:07:48
Clint Loveall
And so he does that. Jesus is always in control, and I don’t think there is a better example of that than the final word here. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, it is finished. Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John, I won’t say that John can’t bring himself to say it, but John chooses not to say that Jesus died now, as if that happened to him, he declares, now it is finished.

00:14:07:53 – 00:14:48:31
Clint Loveall
And not not only that, but the next part is subtle. He gave up his spirit. It’s not taken from him. It’s not lost. He gave it now declares completion, and he allows himself to make that transition. He bowed his head. He gives up his spirit. And that is the end for John and I don’t. We’ve said this in a hundred different ways, Michael, but if there is an illustration of how John understands the power of Jesus to be at work in his life and his calling, this is, to me at least, the pinnacle of of that mountain.

00:14:48:36 – 00:15:13:53
Michael Gewecke
Your soul. I couldn’t agree more. Well, I just point out verse 28, Jesus knows that it’s finished. And I want to complexity that a little bit. What’s finished? Right. Like we insert a lot of just assumptions we made or things we’ve taught. We sort of pile that together. But the Gospel of John, this book is all about Jesus calling us to be people of love in relationship with God.

00:15:14:00 – 00:15:38:31
Michael Gewecke
And Jesus demonstrates that he is the messenger and the witness by these miraculous signs that reveal the image of who he is. Right? So the the it is finished. That seems so simple. I think you could dig into that for a lifetime of study to really unpack what the work that Jesus is finishing here, because John has laid that out and then that that word, it is finished.

00:15:38:31 – 00:16:11:36
Michael Gewecke
And then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. I want to just point out, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. This is not in any way a surprise for God and God’s plan. This from the beginning of this book. Oh, I’m hitting my my microphone. The beginning of this book, that this has been the task set out, that God would give up God’s life so that that life might be extended to to the broken creation.

00:16:11:36 – 00:16:44:04
Michael Gewecke
And here we are. Jesus is doing the task. It is astonishing because Clint, I think we in the modern world, certainly, but I think all people of all times are burdened by a kind of cynicism that that people in power take for themselves. People with privilege, tend to their own benefit. As John tells the story, the God who made everything gave up everything, and and God did the work so that we might live in that eternal love.

00:16:44:18 – 00:17:00:24
Michael Gewecke
This is a powerful way of helping us see what is actually true about the world, when if you just looked at it with a photographer or documentarian kind of lens, you likely wouldn’t understand. You have to understand the context to understand the meaning.

00:17:00:28 – 00:17:28:42
Clint Loveall
And not to force a connection. But but you mentioned the joining together of the idea of the wine. If we go back to the opening words of John, in the beginning was the word right. And so in the beginning the word is with God. And this isn’t the ending as John understands it, but it is the finish. In the beginning was the word and the finish the word bowed his head and gives up his spirit.

00:17:28:42 – 00:17:57:00
Clint Loveall
I do think there is a touch point there, whether intentional or not, that we see in this gospel. And, I’m not sure that you and I are capable of overstating the importance here in the way that John says this. It is finished. That means, I mean, there are books written on the implications of what that means and what John is trying to tell us.

00:17:57:00 – 00:18:30:32
Clint Loveall
It’s, of a very powerful, fascinating end to John’s story. I think different in tone and different in impact from some of the others, you know, the tearing of the temple curtain there. There are certainly miraculous touch points in the other gospels, versions of the death of Jesus. But I, I just think, I don’t know if there is a big enough voice with which we can hear these words.

00:18:30:32 – 00:18:34:43
Clint Loveall
It is finished to to understand what John’s trying to say.

00:18:34:48 – 00:19:06:50
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. And I’m just going to add to that. I don’t think that we could hear it. And I don’t think that you and I could say it. Yeah. Because I think that ultimately, to your point, there’s there’s so many layers of depth here. And I think this is a testament not to just not just to John’s theological understanding and depth and imagination, but we have to, at some points, pause and also say John’s ability as a writer to combine these things in a way that is truly a unique contribution to the story of Jesus.

00:19:06:50 – 00:19:10:57
Michael Gewecke
And this is a pinnacle of it, because it’s a pinnacle of the man being described.

00:19:10:57 – 00:19:52:17
Clint Loveall
Yeah, yeah, this is a cosmological universal declaration. It is finished. What Jesus came to do has now been done and there will be implications and lessons as as people try to unpack now what that is. But the work, this thing that Jesus has been pointing toward for his entire ministry is now done, and that it’s, circle that in your if you’re if you’re a person who is willing to write in your Bible or comfortable it, it is the high point of the way John tells the story, I think.

00:19:52:21 – 00:20:15:50
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. And then just note where is it done? It’s done on the instrument of crucifixion. And that is the thing that no one sees come. It is done. And where is it done that will always unwind us and unravel us if we if we will lean into it. Thanks for being with us. Like this video. If it has been helpful as part of your own study, if you just found us, subscribe so you can go along with studies like this.

00:20:15:50 – 00:20:19:28
Michael Gewecke
We’re glad to be with you today. We will see you next week on Monday.