Session 6: At the foot of the cross and in the Upper Room

John 6:41-44 Is not this Jesus whose father and mother we know?

This passage shows the family-oriented nature of Jewish society in Jesus’s time.  It was important to know a person’s family background.  Jesus was not a man who came out of nowhere.  The people knew his parentage.  What does this say to you?

In our society, we tend to categorize people in a variety of ways, including based on their family.  How important is family background to you?

Jesus used familiar things in his parables: fathers, sons, farmers, grain, sheep, etc.  He used the concept of a “father” to help us understand who God the Father is.  What kind of relationship do you think Jesus had with his father Joseph, and do you think that relationship might have helped him as he considered how to teach us about God the Father?

Luke 11:27-28 Bless is the womb / Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it

This is another passage where people comment on Jesus’s earthly family relationships and he redirects the conversation to make a bigger spiritual point.  What does the woman remind us about Jesus’s mother and her relationship with him?  And what is the bigger point Jesus wants us to hear?

Jesus keeps stressing the importance of hearing God’s word and doing it.  How was Mary a good example of both hearing and doing what God says?

How can we be people who are marked by both characteristics: that we hear God’s word and that we do it?

John 19:16-20, 23-27 Mary at the foot of the cross

Mary is at the foot of the cross.  What is she observing?  What is she thinking?  What is she feeling?

Mary is not alone.  Who is with her?

Mary Magdalene (Mary of Magdala) is there.  Also present is Mary, the wife of Clopas.  This could be a literal sister of Mary, but it would be unusual to have two sisters with the same name; so scholars think it is more likely that this is a sister-in-law of Mary.  It could be her husband Joseph’s brother’s wife.  Also present is the disciple whom Jesus loved, who is traditionally believed to be the apostle John since John is mentioned in the other Gospels but is not named in the Gospel of John.

Why is it important that Mary is not alone?

Why is it important that Christians not walk the road of life alone?

How can the local church be a place where every person has other believers around them and is not alone?

What needs to be done for that to be a reality in your church – that no one feels like they are facing the challenges of life alone?

In verse 26, what does Jesus say to Mary?

What do you think this means?

In verse 27, what does Jesus say to the disciple?

What do you think this means?

How did they respond to Jesus’s instructions?

According to tradition, John took Mary with him when he moved to Ephesus.  What can we learn from Mary in her obedience to Jesus in this moment?

The Gospel of John never names the beloved disciple and never mentions the apostle John by name.  It also never names Mary by name.  Some scholars believe Mary and John’s names are not used because John is partly offering them as symbols representing all of us.

• In what ways does Mary represent all mothers?

• In what ways does John represent all disciples?

• What does the fact that John and Mary are told to take care of each other say to us about ourselves?

How can we be more like Mary and John in our lives?

Is there something in this passage that God is using to call you personally to a new step right now?

Notice that although in earlier passages Jesus seemed to be distancing himself from his earthly family relationships in order to make bigger points about the family of God, in the end, here, he takes care of his mother.  What are our duties to our family members?

The bigger-picture point that Jesus has been emphasizing is that family does not give you an inside track to Jesus.  All people are called to be part of the family of disciples, the family of God who are followers of Jesus.  How can we extend to all people that invitation to be part of God’s family?

Acts 1:13-14 and 2:1-4 Mary in the Upper Room

We do not know if Mary was with the disciples when Jesus appeared to them in the evening on the day that he rose (John 20:19-23; Luke 24:33-43), but it is quite possible.  We do know that she was with them in this passage from Acts.

In Acts 1:13-14, what are the disciples and Mary doing?

This is after Jesus’s Ascension into heaven, and they are devoting themselves to prayer together, before the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

Pentecost was and still is a Jewish holiday – called Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks.  It is on the 50th day after the Passover and it celebrates two things: the giving of the Torah (the Law, the first 5 books of the Hebrew Scriptures) on Mount Sinai, and the grain harvest for the summer.

Why is it significant that Mary is there praying with them?

How important is it to our relationship with God to spend time praying with others?  Why?

Are there things you might consider doing, that would give you more time in prayer with fellow believers?

Think about the experience Mary has already had of the Holy Spirit.  What do you think it means to her to receive the Holy Spirit now?

How might this experience of the Holy Spirit have been different for Mary than her experience of the Holy Spirit as a teenager?

Pentecost is often described as the birthday of the Church.  That means Mary was present at the birth of Jesus and at the birth of his Church.  How is that special?

How is the experience of the Holy Spirit important for you?

How can you be more open to being filled with the Holy Spirit in your life?

How can the Mary we see here be an example for us in our lives?

Galatians 4:4-7 Paul mentions Jesus’s mother

In Galatians, Paul makes this brief reference to Mary, without naming her by name.  What does he say about her?

Why might it have been important to Paul to note that, when God sent his son, Jesus was “born of a woman, born under the law”?  Why does it matter that Jesus was born of a woman – that he entered human existence the way he did?

Why does it matter that Jesus was part of the Jewish people who followed the Law?

How important is Mary in God’s plan for our salvation?

How might we be called to be like Mary, metaphorically, in having Jesus be born of us, to have him come to the world through us?

Take a step back and consider this:

We have watched Mary go through an extraordinary life’s journey: from a holy but young teenager called by God to do something monumentally unique; through some dangerous times when her baby’s life was threatened and she had to leave everything that was familiar to her; to a special moment when she pressed Jesus to take an action that became the first “sign” of his public ministry; through the excruciating experience of watching her son be tortured to death; to being present when his Church was born on Pentecost.

In between the special moments, she lived an ordinary life for 30+ years.

Our lives are similarly marked by singular moments scattered amidst the unremarkable routines of everyday life.

How can we be ready for the special moments that pop up in our lives amidst the years of mundane, ordinary normality?

What can we learn from Mary about those rhythms of extraordinary and ordinary experiences?  How can we be like her?