John 19:25-27
…but 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!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
When Jesus addresses His mother it sounds to the modern ear somewhat impersonal It was, however, a way of bestowing honor upon the Mary. Jesus used the same address with her earlier at the wedding feast (John 2:4) and to the woman caught in adultery – yes, even as that poor woman was faced with death by stoning. He hadn’t said, “Hey, you…where are your accusers?” No. In His address to her, like with His mother now, in all her anguish for seeing her child crucified, he was respectful, even tender. This is our Lord.
We have all been in a bad temper. We have all had our bad hours and our terrible days. Well, none of us have suffered as Jesus suffered here and yet He found the struggling breath to take care of His earthly family and to offer them support. Yes, even now when He has every reason not to be too very concerned with everyone else’s trifles, He reaches out. This is our standard and our inspiration! For Jesus it was never an okay time to neglect His family, even at His crucifixion. There are those who say that He was callous or indifferent to family because of things He’d said previously in the gospels. Let us look at them briefly.
In Luke 9 we read Jesus tell a man to “let the dead bury their dead” when the man excuses himself from a call to follow Jesus because he has to go and bury his father. This may have been an excuse from the man, but even if it wasn’t it was Jesus’ way of saying that the demands of the Kingdom outweigh the demands of family. There is no contradiction here because Jesus has, in going to the cross, fulfilled His heavenly demand and now He uses His depleted breaths to charge John with care for poor Mary. Jesus did not let family concerns stop Him from fulfilling His ministry, nor did He utterly neglect Mary either.
In an earlier episode in Luke 8 we read that Mary and His brothers were trying to see Him while He was ministering. When told of this He says, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” This is another example of the same point – Jesus was engaged in ministry at that moment and that was the most important thing in all the world. So, just as it is in Luke 12 when He explains that the gospel will divide father and son and mother and daughter, the message is that family cannot be an idol competing against God.
This is, besides being a wonderful passage about Jesus’ compassion, a great lesson for us in regard to responsibility. Jesus’ first responsibility was to do the will of His Father. This having been done by His going to the cross, He looks down and sees pitiful Mary. Joseph is apparently already dead and His brothers must not have been in Jerusalem. So, in this event, Jesus saw His responsibility and charged John, His beloved disciple, with caring for Mary, something that John faithfully did. John, as we know, would later have other responsibilities in regard to the work of Christ but on this day it was to take care of Mary. This is our other lesson. Many of us are running about wondering what it is that God wants us to do while it is all rather simple. Are you a parent? Are you a student, or a worker, or a business owner? Do that which your hand has to do and do it for the glory of God and let God worry about the things which you cannot yet see. If God needs you for something else, He is sovereign and will assuredly come and get you. That is not above His capacity. Most assuredly, the problem is never that God is not clear with what He wants us to do but that we don’t faithfully execute our duties right where we are.
We very often succumb to the temptation that faith requires only “great” things, which is to say, according to worldly standards, those things that bring us personal glory. Yet here we see the truth that often the Lord will call us to quiet work and that this should be done faithfully, gratefully and with our whole heart. We must be on guard against this form of worldliness as it resents the little missions of alleged obscurity. Faithful service is always service adored by the Father and there’s no such thing as giving even a cup of water in His name that escapes His notice.
The world will tell us that effective Christian service is measured by popularity, fame, and that sort of thing. Think on this for a moment. Nothing could be less true. Friendship with the world, an unhealthy regard for its standards and approval, a deep desire for acceptance by man’s unstable and inconstant standards, are the death knell of true Christian service. Real Christianity is always steeped in the Word of God and directed to God’s glory, not our own.
In this case, John pleased God by taking care of Mary. Pilate went on in his glory and the Pharisees too. They looked like winners that day and John a woeful loser. It’s going to be that way sometimes but remember: God is not mocked, nor does He lose sight of His precious saints who toil in His name because they love and trust Him. Indeed, blessed are those that are awake when He returns in an hour no one expects.
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