“Fixing Our Eyes On Jesus” is the theme which the staff will follow when leading chapel this semester. Liz Steward, Cornerstone’s principal, taking the first session, noted the multidimensional nature of the things people focus on when they look to Christ. Her most moving point was with respect 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!’” (ESV) Although commonly–and rightly–understood to mean that Jesus was entrusting the care of his mother Mary to his disciple John, the phrase “Behold you son!” might also be taken as “Look upon your son, mother, as he hangs in utter shame, crucified like a common criminal, dying a death the Romans refused to mete out to their own–for your sake.”
Like Mary, we too are called to look to the Son as he endures the cross and despises its shame so that, like her, we too may be reconciled with God.