Easter Sermon: Through a Mother's eyes

Have you heard, my son he’s alive.

I just can’t believe it, it was only a couple of days ago that I stood there watching my son die, it was the worst week of my life. Watching these people say such horrible things and then choosing to save Barabbas a murderer and then crucify him. Standing there hearing them yell Crucify! Crucify! Those words filled the air and my mind, I can still hear them now, and then they made him drag his cross through the streets before they killed him.

I don’t care that he is our Saviour, or Messiah he is my son, and they killed him! No - one should ever have to watch that, no-one should ever have to watch their son be crucified, but I did.

John has given me such strength and support during it all and he was with me when Jesus died and has taken care of me. I haven’t wanted to see and talk to anyone. I have just been sitting numb, unable to believe that my boy’s dead. Mary and others have been visiting his tomb and taking spices and caring for his body, but I just couldn’t…. I couldn’t.

Where was his miracle? Why could he raise others but not stop himself from dying.

Then yesterday when Mary went to the tomb he was gone, there was no body, just the strips of cloth, and came running back saying “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they have put him.”  She grabbed John and Simon and raced back to the tomb. WHAT, the tomb was empty! I got so angry, hadn’t they done enough, now they had to steal his body as well! 

But John came back and told me he hadn't been stolen he was alive!

Mary spoke to the others explaining what had happened. At first she just sat crying then 2 angels spoke with her and then Jesus spoke to her. She thought he was the gardener, but it wasn’t it was Jesus, my boy and he’s alive.

Where’s the miracle? Here is the miracle, he did die, but he didn’t stay there, he’s alive!

I am still trying to believe it, I do …. almost, Thomas is having trouble believing it is Jesus and I can understand why, we were devastated when he was killed.

I shouldn’t be surprised; he hasn’t been what you would call and ordinary son.  Although it hasn’t been easy, I have known deep in my heart that he was special from the very beginning, when the angels visited me and told me I would give birth to the Son of God, and even as a young child he was always most comfortable in the temple.

I remember when we lost him. He was 12 and we were visiting the temple as we did every year for the Feast of Passover, travelling with our family. When it was time to leave we just assumed that Jesus was with his cousins, they were always mucking around, but when we settled down on the first evening we realized he wasn’t there. Oh the panic, we hurried back to Jerusalem, with some of our relatives to look for him, 3 days we searched, I have never felt so afraid!

We finally found him in the temple; Joseph and I were so relieved to have found him. Jesus didn’t seem to understand what the issue was, and had no understanding of the anxiety or concern that he had caused or why we wouldn’t have looked in the temple first.  Asking us why we didn’t know he would be in his father’s house. Joseph didn’t understand what he was talking about and I was so overwhelmed by finding him that I didn’t think too much about it at the time, but as he said where else would he be.

While it was sometimes difficult for Joseph to understand, I just kept praying, asking God to give me the grace, wisdom and strength to do what was asked of me.

As Jesus said where else would he be, he was always a special boy, who knew in his heart that there was more to come. That his life was one with a purpose and meaning, he knew he had 2 fathers, Joseph and his heavenly father and he tried to be faithful to both, but it was hard.

There were days where it all became too much and I asked God, “Why me?” So often I wondered how it was that we were meant to raise the Son of God.

I always knew he was special, but that didn’t make it any easier to watch as he grew and developed into the Messiah that I knew him to be. He was often reluctant for people to know who he was; it was only at my insistence that he even performed his first miracle.

It was after this that we went to Capernaum, and then onto Jerusalem, just as we did every year for Passover. But this time it was different, things had changed. Instead of being inside with the teachers, Jesus was outside his father’s house. He was so angry, they had turned the temple, his father’s house, into a market place. He said that if they destroyed the temple that he would rebuild it in 3 days. It’s only now looking back that we have realised he wasn’t talking about the temple, he was talking about himself. We may not have known this was to come but he did.

My heart breaks to think of my boy carrying such knowledge alone. He knew, he always knew who he was and what he was called to do.

When he was rejected by the people he had grown up with in Nazareth, he knew. When we doubted he knew. When the teachers and leaders that he had sat with as young boy in the temple turned on him, he knew.

He knew who he was and what he was here to do, I knew he was the Messiah but I had no idea it would lead to this, to the week we have had. He started life as a miracle and continues to show what a miracle he is. He is our Lord, he is the Christ, he is the one we have all grown up hearing about. He is the one that has been sent to save us. He knew this; he chose to go through the horrible pain and suffering for us. He chose to die for us.

I have always known he was special, I have always known he was a miracle and now everyone else knows what a miracle he is and knows that he is the Saviour of the world and that he is Lord.

Where is the miracle? He is the miracle. He is our Saviour and Lord and he went through all that pain and suffering for us, so we wouldn’t have to. I always knew he was special, but something tells me this is just the beginning, as the Angel Gabriel said “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Lord most high and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, his kingdom will never end.”