In this short five day series we will look together at some of the encounters Jesus has with women in John’s gospel. Jesus often spends time with those on the fringes of society, and at this time women would have been included amongst those. In all of the gospels Jesus is shown to treat women with respect and encourages them in a way which would have been counter-cultural. By looking at stories such as these, we can also think about how we treat those on the fringes of society.
Our first character is the mother of Jesus, in John Chapter 2 and later in Chapter 19, who is interestingly never named ‘Mary’ in John’s gospel, but is always called ‘the mother of Jesus’. This way of speaking about her does a number of things. It reminds us of Jesus’ humanity, he is God but was also human - he had a mother and shared a relationship with her. And it also extends the family of God, for example:
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 near by, he said to her, ‘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 19:25-27 [NIV]
The family of Jesus is extended to include the Beloved Disciple and ultimately you and me.
In the journey between chapter 2 and chapter 19 Mary moves from a mother who taught her son to walk and to speak, into a faithful disciple. This journey isn’t traced in the gospel, so we have permission to wonder for ourselves what that was like for her. What marked her journey into a disciple? Did she understand what Jesus would have to do on the cross?
We can ask those same questions of ourselves: what has marked our journey of faith into following Jesus as one of his disciples? Who has helped us along the way? Is there anybody we can thank or encourage for their part in our journey?
Emma Higgins
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