This sermon was given on Good Friday, April 2nd, 2021, as a part of Yale Black Seminarian’s 7 Last Sayings Service. Inspired by Nztoke Shange’s choreopoem, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf“, I explore salvation in ways that aren’t solely dependent on Jesus’ death/suffering and invite listeners to consider the healing and salvific power of Black Sisterhood.

If you’d like to see the video recording of the sermon, you can do so by clicking here and starting at the 47:09 time stamp. I highly recommend listening to all the sermons on the 6 other Sayings of Jesus given by my incredible colleagues: Dawn Jefferson, Essence Ellis, Khaleelah Harris, Ana Kelsey-Powell, Mecca Griffith, and Amina Shumake.

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The 3rd Saying of Jesus:

“Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 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!”

–The Gospel of John 19:25-27

Behold and Beheld.

Behold and Beheld.

(Selah)

In her essay on Black Maternal grief, Dr. Rhaisa Williams tells us the following:  “Black women are defined through continued presence and visibility within their family and communities to model the strength needed by the survivors…how they privately manage their pain is something that barely crosses our minds because whatever their process, they do so in isolation, and when they emerge in front of others, they [have it all] together.”

What did Jesus BEHOLD on that cross that caused him to use his final breaths to address his mother, Mary?

Was she crying? Yelling out? Wailing? Shrieking at the crucifixion of her first born son, her baby boy, Jesus–nailed to a cross?

Or was she silent? Was her grief beyond sound and noise. Had she nothing left to grieve because this pain was not new. 

From the moment Mary was told the news that she would be pregnant with the Christ child, she knew pain and grief. Mary knew what it felt like to be ridiculed and ostracized from society because she was the immoral pregnant teen with no baby daddy.

Mary knew the grief of being a refugee, fleeing from a government seeking to kill innocent babies because those in power could not fathom any loss of authority or threat to their security/wealth/comfort.

(Selah) 

Suffering was NOT NEW to Mary; as her baby boy grew up, as the skin of the Messiah got darker and darker in the sun over the years, traveling the road with his 12 best friends, living and loving freely, his life was constantly in danger. Local officials, religious leaders, and others alike regularly made death threats, trying to kill Jesus, upset by the way he unapologetically lived his life without regard for the rules, disturbed by the ways Jesus was constantly healing and loving people, challenging the structures of capitalism and systems in a male-dominated society.

Behold and Beheld.

Behold and Beheld.

(Selah) 

The greek translates the word behold to mean: “LOOK! BE SURE TO SEE THIS!” One source tells us that the word BEHOLD is inserted into the midst of a sentence in such a way that the words which precede it serve to emphasize the strangeness of what follows.

What strangeness does Jesus’ BEHOLD point us to?

“WOMAN BEHOLD THY SON!” Jesus exclaims.

What strangeness that Jesus calls upon his most beloved disciple, his most loyal homie to take care of his mother…

Or maybe it’s not so strange because Mary is his mother and he is of her flesh.

Maybe it’s not so strange because Jesus’ entire life embodied the the truth that the humanity of one is bound up in the humanity of all.

And maybe it’s not so strange that Jesus’ words tell us to take care of colored women:TAKE CARE OF BLACK WOMEN. TAKE CARE OF ASIAN WOMEN. TAKE CARE OF PACIFIC ISLANDER WOMEN. TAKE CARE OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN. TAKE CARE OF IMMIGRANT WOMEN. TAKE CARE OF TRANS WOMYN & NON BINARY FEMMES. TAKE CARE OF NEURODIVERGENT AND DIFFERENTLY ABLED WOMEN. TAKE CARE OF US.



BEHOLD US AND HOLD US. Look at us. Listen to Us. BELIEVE US. CARE FOR US. 

(Selah)

So what does salvation look like for colored girls? What does Jesus hanging on the cross mean for me, a 27-year-old black woman living in New Haven, Connecticut in the year 2021?

When I use the word salvation, I’m not talking about the type of saving that is about being rescued from the pits of hell, no, I’m defining salvation as the entrance into wholly and holy communion with God. Wholly–W H O L L Y- in the sense that we give ourselves completely over to God in a way that impacts every aspect of our life here on earth (eating, thinking, acting, etc.); AND, holy–H O L Y– in the way that God calls us to “Be holy, because I am holy.” The type of holiness that has nothing to do with human efforts and comes only from entering into a consummative union with God—a union which has already begun, but is also yet to be completed in full.

So what does THIS type of Salvation–whole and holy communion with the Divine–look like for me and other colored girls?

(Selah)

Being black and woman in America, my life can feel defined by Good Friday and Holy Saturday, wondering when and where I will be able to actually experience this salvation, wondering if I can bear claim to the resurrection of being wholly and HOLY loved.

I know all too well the pain and grief of being constantly being failed by people and systems and institutions…if I’m honest, part of me wonders, “Did John, Jesus’ most beloved disciple, ACTUALLY take care of Mary like he was supposed to, or did life get busy? Did John think Mary could take care of herself because she was a STRONG INDEPENDENT BLACK WOMAN who could handle anything and everything life threw at her. Over time did John think, “Oh Mary, she’ll be just fine. She’s always managed. Always has always will…”

And so for myself, and for colored girls who have considered the cross in the midst of the waiting, and hoping, and disappointment, and daring to hope yet again…for those of us considering the cross in the midst of the already and not yet… I point us to the rainbow found in verse 25, just before Jesus speaks, the verse that shows us Mary wasn’t alone:

“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene”

It was a group of colored girls, holding and beholding each other on Good Friday….

And here, ON THIS GOOD FRIDAY, “near the cross of Jesus stood Dawn, Essence, Nia, Khaleelah, Ana, Mecca, and Amina…”, holding and beholding each other…

Behold and beheld.

Behold and Beheld.

BeHold us.

Hold us.

BeHold us.

HOLD US.

Amen & Ase.