Giving Birth – by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter – May 2025:
When we ponder the crucifixion of Jesus, we seldom think of his death on his Cross as a symbol of birthing, much like that of a woman in the travail and labor of childbirth. We do speak of Jesus’ work on the Cross – that is, his labor.
Giving birth is not passive – it is active work. Mothers suffer pain, even risking their own lives, to bring forth a new life. Water and blood were part of the work on the Cross, just as they are part of the birth event for a woman who becomes a mother.
The night before he was crucified, five chapters in the Gospel of John (13-17) Jesus eating with his disciples, washing their feet, teaching them and praying with and for them. In John 16:21, fully aware of his own self-sacrifice coming the next day, we read Jesus telling his disciples (including you and me today) “A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world” (my emphasis).
- The work and labor of giving birth includes pain. When we follow Jesus he instructs us to pick up our own cross (Matthew 16:24). Suffering is central to following Jesus – life in Christ is not a day at the beach, following Christ is not a guarantee of a physically successful time of health and wealth, or as some speak of the physical rewards of Christianity, “having your best life now.”
- The pain of childbirth for mothers comes when “her time comes” – fittingly Paul speaks of the birth of Jesus – “when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son…” (Galatians 4:4), my emphasis.
- There were two times of birth in Jesus’ life – his own birth when Mary’s time had come, and the birth event of the Cross, when his own death meant he was “bringing many sons and daughters to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). Thus, the cross of Christ was a nexus, linking death and birth, itself a powerful theme of the new covenant.
- Hebrews 2:10 speaks of MANY sons and daughters to glory. Contrary to what much of Christless Christendom believes and teaches, MANY become sons and daughters of God – not just a few, and not only those of their own denomination.
- Many sons and daughters to GLORY. Contrary to what much of Christendom believes, MANY are not sent to hell to be eternally, consciously tormented because of their failures and sins. MANY are glorified, given immortal life, by the grace of God, and it all stems from the birth event at the Cross of Christ.
To be a mother is to give selflessly, self-sacrificially. It is to love boundlessly and endlessly. It is to love and never stop loving. It is to suffer pain initially in giving birth and enduring a lifetime of pain thereafter, the pain of mother-love.
The Cross of Jesus was all about giving selflessly and self-sacrificially. The Cross of Christ was endless and eternal love, which never stops, a love that goes on forever and ever. The birth event of the Cross of Christ was about his work – his labor, his pain and the pain he continues to endure as he loves us without measure, no matter how often we fall short and hurt ourselves. When we hurt ourselves, like a mother, Jesus hurts for us, perhaps more than we can ever know.
Through the message of the Cross that we see the glory of the God of grace, lifted up (John 12:32) over the world, drawing all mankind to himself. The Cross of Christ is the full revelation of the love of God, wherein, through Christ, by his grace, he offers new birth – new life – a transformation from what we were, apart from him, to his own dear children, heirs of his kingdom.
What does it mean to be a son or daughter of God, given birth by the Cross of Christ?
In large part is means to follow Christ as he leads us, and as he continuously and always serves us. Jesus continuously and always washes our feet, his Father’s sons and daughters, his own brothers and sisters. He cleanses and renews us day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16).
As Jesus lives that same life of service within us, being united in him, his own sisters and brothers, we ourselves reflect his light to others. Living as a new creation of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) means serving others in his name, because that’s the life he lives within us and service to others is exactly what he produces in our lives.     Â
What does it mean to be a daughter or son of God, given birth by the Cross of Christ?
In a story of a cobbler back in the “olden days” the cobbler has a dream one night that Jesus was coming to visit him the next day. So immediately when he woke that next morning, the cobbler started cleaning and dusting and even decorating his humble little shoe shop.
Then he waited, and waited… and waited. No one arrived… not even customers. Early in the afternoon a homeless old man knocked on his door, and asked the cobbler if he could just sit inside for a while and get warm from the bitter cold outside. While the man was resting, he fell asleep, and as his guest was sleeping the cobbler noticed his shoes. They were completely worn through – they had no soles.
The cobbler when to his shelf of unclaimed shoes and selected a pair that were the same size, and when the old man woke up, before he left, the cobbler gave him a new pair of shoes.
A few hours later, still waiting for Jesus, the cobbler looked out his window and saw an elderly woman struggling with firewood she had gathered to heat her home. He opened his front door and invited her in and offered her some stew he had left over from lunch.
Night was beginning to fall, the cobbler was still looking out his window for Jesus, only to see a child who was crying. The cobbler left his shop, asked the young boy what was wrong, and discovered the boy was lost and wanted to find his way home. After he had soothed the boy’s tears, and asked him the address of his home, the cobbler took the young man’s hand and walked him home.
When he got back to his shop the cobbler was sad, because he thought he might have missed Jesus because he took the young boy home.
So the cobbler prayed, complaining, “Why are you not coming, Lord? I thought today was the day you were coming to visit me – at least it was in my dream.”
He heard a gentle voice saying, “I came to your welcoming door three times today. I was the man who needed shoes and you provided them; I was the woman to whom you gave lunch; I was the lost child on the street whom you took to the safety of his home.”
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).
The Cross of Christ asks us what the world would look like if every human being acted and behaved and loved like a mother for every other human being in the world?
The Cross of Christ tells us that we have been spiritually born anew, born from above, born by the labor pains and work of Jesus, giving us of his all, bringing many sons and daughters to glory.
“In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters” (Hebrews 2:10-11).
This month we remember and give thanks for mothers. Whether they are alive or passed on, we pause to extend our gratitude for the way in which they gave of their lives so that we might live, and not only live, but thrive. They sacrificed, they gave, they did without, they worked to provide for us – all of that and so much more is part of the job description, so willingly performed by mothers.
At the same time, we remember and give thanks to God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We give thank that there were two times in Jesus’ life when the time had come.
When Mary’s time had come Jesus, the Son of God, was born of the flesh, becoming one of us, out of his matchless love.
When Jesus’ time had come Jesus poured out his supreme love, the love of his Father, on all mankind, bring many sons and daughters to glory, birthing us on his Cross, a Cross of pain and suffering, in which his work and labor lavished the grace, mercy and love of God on you and me and all humanity!
With wonder and amazement, with gratitude and thanksgiving, we say… Happy Mother’s Day!
Your brother in Christ,
Greg Albrecht
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