Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - May/77

Contributor - Rev. Harri Zegerius

Title - Meditation

Topic - Meditation

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother . . . John 19:25a

May is a rich month, isn't it, bursting with the life of a newly arriving summer; blossoms, leaves, soon there will be fruit. And it brings us Ascension Day, and Pentecost, and Mother's Day, no less. Certainly a variety of emphases. And Pioneer Magazine is enriching it all with a Christian Family issue.

We've noticed a resurgent interest in the basis and meaning of the Christian family. This is in answer no doubt to the continuing attacks that have been made of late on the family relation. Thousands have been picking up and walking out on their parental obligations. Some have derided marriage and the home as doomed and long out of date. Some have openly advocated temporary relationships, or flaunting gay ones.

But it seems people are concerned and are offering an answer. Paging through a couple of magazines I note such recent book titles as "Total Joy", "Total Woman", "Women, Men and the Bible", "Talk to Me" (obviously on communication), "You Can Be A Great Parent", "What is a Family" (by so well known a personality as Edith Schaeffer of L'abri fame), "I Want My Marriage to Be Better" and "I Want to Enjoy my Children". That's only a beginning; there are many more. A lot of thought and presumably prayer has gone into this answer. Add to that the soul searching "Marriage Encounter" sessions held in many places, where husbands and wives are meant to face each other with honesty and openness, and one could say Christians are emphasizing and clarifying their Biblical conception of marriage and family obligations.

It came to mind that we could get a glimpse of truth on a hill called Calvary, where a grieving, heart-broken mother stood with a tiny cluster of friends at the crucifixion of her son. She was there, in spite of danger, because of her love and her motherly responsibility. And it seems that our Lord Jesus, while agonizing on the cross, still recognized His obligation to His mother, and entrusted her with tender care to His most beloved disciple.

The Old Testament conception of family responsibility was like that. Children were a gift from God, an entrustment, and parents were ultimately answerable to God. Think of Hanna bringing little Samuel to the tabernacle because she received a son from God. Every baby dedicated in the temple spoke of this responsibility. So does Deut. 6 instruct parents "And thou shalt teach these things diligently to thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house. Home instruction and the synagogue school were born here.

Likewise did children have obligation to their parents: "Honour thy Father and thy Mother." Carried into the New Testament that became, "Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right". And we remember how Jesus publicly castigated those who fictitiously declared their goods "dedicated to God" to escape the responsibility for helping aging parents.

There stood at the cross of Jesus a mother who loved deeply and whose heart was "pierced" for her son. And there hung on a cross a tortured son, not so tortured but that He could still be concerned and provide for His mother.

On the one visit I ever made back to The Netherlands in 1952 1 stood for an hour on a little bridge in Amsterdam, looking at a house. I was remembering the day that I came home from school, and there was a cluster of people about the door because my mother had died. That was 60 years ago, but I have not forgotten that day, nor that mother. Thank God for a fine Christian stepmother, to be sure, but one does not forget.

Mother's Day certainly goes much deeper than a gift of flowers or a box of candy. Does it not go as deep as our spiritual convictions and our God given relationships. How many times have our mothers (and fathers) stood at the edge of our life in patient and tearful love. A thank you from the heart would not be out of place.

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