On Good Friday, as we turn our attention to the cross and often attend to the “words” Jesus spoke from it, one saying recorded in John has always brought me pause:

John 19:26-27 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”

Jesus’ appeal of forgiveness for his enemies, his cry of forsakenness, and the exclamation, “It is finished!” these have always opened up the richness of the gospel! But what are we to do with this strange, even difficult word?