This Hour, That Woman

     In John’s gospel, a recurring theme is the ‘hour’ that has not yet come. In John 2:4, Jesus, says to his mother, at the wedding at Cana: “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come,” indicating he is not ready to begin His public ministry. And later, in John 7:30: “Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.” And in John 8:20, “He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.” The hour referred to is the hour of darkness, of course, and it points to His coming passion and His death on the cross. Jesus knows what lies in front of Him and his entire life and ministry can be seen as preparation for that hour.

     So, when Jesus says to his disciples, after Andrew and Philip tell him that some Greeks wanted to see him in John: 12:23: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” and in John: 12:27, “Now my soul is troubled….what should I say ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour,” we realize that His hour has finally come. He will soon be arrested, handed over to sinful men who will do with Him what they will. They will put Him to a shameful and painful death.

     As Jesus carries His cross up to Calvary the next day for the crucifixion, we recall an episode from Genesis when God told Abraham to “take his son, his only son up on a mountain and offer him as a sacrifice,” As Isaac climbed, he said “Father...the fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a sacrifice?” And Abraham replied, “God Himself will provide.” Abraham, Isaac and a mountain for sacrifice point toward another mountain and another sacrifice: Calvary.

     We breathe a sigh of relief when Abraham is told not to harm the boy and offers up a ram caught in a thicket in his place as a substitute. God did provide. But Abraham’s faith was severely tested and because he passed the test, he is rewarded with descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

     The entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament is built upon this notion of substituted sacrifice. Whether it was a sheep or a goat or grain, or pigeons, they learned to offer something up in atonement for their sins. But the offering had to be something dear to them, something unblemished, something undefiled, to remind them of the cost of sin. It couldn’t be a diseased lamb or spoiled crops but rather the best they had to offer, the ‘first fruits’.

     We are aware that when the hour came for Jesus’ sacrifice, He offered Himself willingly. He tells us that no one takes his life from him, He lays it down and he can take it up again. And we see the connection and the reason. This sacrifice on Calvary is the sacrifice of God’s Son, His only son. Once again, God has provided the lamb of sacrifice. This Son is the Son that the Father loves, and He is certainly the best the Father has to offer. And once again, Jesus is a substituted sacrifice. He is being offered not for what He did, but for what we have done. It is unclear if the ram in Genesis had consented to the sacrifice, but it is abundantly clear that Jesus has consented to His own self offering.

     Now we know that Abraham and Isaac went up the mountain together but there is no mention of Sarah.  I would imagine that if Sarah had gone up the mountain with them, the events would have unfolded quite differently. But Isaac had two parents... and so does Jesus. God, the Father of Jesus is watching the events on Calvary unfold from heaven, but His mother is there at the foot of the cross, watching her Son, her only Son, die a pitiful, excruciating death. Of all of the people that were there that day in the angry mob, Mary knows deep in her heart that Her Son is innocent. We were relieved when Isaac was not harmed, and the ram was offered up in his place. But the sacrifice of Mary’s Son will go through to completion, until her Son has breathed his last breath. If Abraham was rewarded for His intention, how much more will Mary be rewarded for her complete submission to the will of the Father, a submission that called for her Son to be slain in front of her?

     We have to ask ourselves why. Why is Mary at the foot of the cross to witness her Son’s execution? We believe that nothing is impossible for God. Certainly, the atoning sacrifice of Christ would have been just as efficacious if Mary, like Joseph, had died before this hour. Or, Jesus could have sent her away. He could have commanded her to return to Nazareth before the Passover. Always obedient, Mary would have gone. But God, who notes even the fall of a sparrow, has arranged for Mary to be there at the foot of the cross to witness the pitiful, humiliating death of her Son. For what purpose?

     Could it be that Mary is being tested as Abraham was? Could it be that the episode in Genesis with Abraham and Isaac points not only towards the love of God the Father for His only Son but also towards the love of Mary for her only Son. Remember it was not just Adam who sinned but Adam and Eve. Many of the early Christian writers describe Mary as the new Eve. Here are just three examples:

     St. Justin Martyr, 2nd century: “Jesus became man by the Virgin, in order that the disobedience which proceeded from the serpent might receive its destruction in the same manner in which it derived its origin. For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy, when the angel Gabriel announced the good tidings to her that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her, and the power of the Highest would overshadow her.”

St. Irenaeus of Lyon, 2nd century: “What is joined together could not otherwise be put asunder than by inversion of the process by which these bonds of union had arisen; so that the former ties be cancelled by the latter—the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith…”

     St. Jerome nicely summarized this concept in the 4th century: “Death came through Eve, but life has come through Mary.”

     But there is something more. In heaven, the blessed celebrate the marriage supper of the lamb. It is the union of heaven and earth, a restoration of the Kingdom which is personified in Jesus but also a restoration of God’s family. But how can there be a wedding feast without a bride? How can a marriage take place if the bride is absent? Mary is at he foot of the cross to share in the suffering of her Son but also to assist at the nuptials of God and man.

     Most parents will say that it is much more painful to watch their child suffer than to suffer themselves. Mary is there at the cross by Divine arrangement. The sword prophesied by Simeon at the Presentation in Luke 2:35 is piercing her heart profoundly but she has been preparing for this hour for 33 years. The nuptials that are being consummated that day are bonds of love, certainly but also a testimony of two hearts united in sacrifice. When the Blessed Virgin offered her infant Son to the service of God in the temple, she offered him without reserve. Now, in this hour, she consents to the immolation of her Son for the benefit of the rest of her children: you and I.

     We begin to understand why Jesus refers to His mother as “Woman”  at this critical moment as He bequeaths John to Mary. He has not forgotten her name. He is leaving no doubt that she is the “Woman” of Genesis 3:15. She is the one who, with Him, will crush the head of the serpent by her obedience and love. Because of her great faith, she believed when all seemed lost, when darkness covered the earth, that He would rise again as He had foretold. But, she is also the “Woman” described in Revelation 12:1, the one who wears the crown of 12 stars which represent Israel, and the Church, and a recreated humanity redeemed by her Son. At the wedding feast at Cana, he performed his first miracle at her request. Now, at the hour of his death, his bride is the Church, yes, and each and every one of us individually, yes, but first and foremost, the bride is His mother, who stood by Him in His darkest hour. The fury of Satan was unleashed against Jesus and Mary that day and neither one succumbed to the full force of evil. At that hour, this Woman stood with her divine Son and gave birth to a new humanity. We are born of her tears. The Woman who stood closest to Him in His agony and humiliation will stand closest to Him in His triumph and His glory.