Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” (John 19:25-27)
That was the number one thing on Jesus’ mind at that point? Jesus was always focused on loving his neighbor, but with everything else that was happening, how could the one thing on his mind be that Mary would be cared for? He had nails through his hands and feet. His back was cut to shreds. He had a crown of thorns embedded in his scalp, yet the one thing on his mind was that this woman would have someone to care for her after he left. I realize she was his mother, but with the wrath of God for the sins of the world about to hit him like a runaway freight train, this was the one thing on his mind?
Apparently it was, because he took some of what little strength he had remaining and spoke this word of love. Oh, we can try to make it comprehensible. We can point out that family matters all the time and mothers especially matter. But even as we make the argument that what Jesus did here was the right thing to do, we end up condemning ourselves, don’t we? We end up condemning ourselves in the way we have dealt with our mothers.
For even in regard to the people who have probably done as much for us as any person in the world, our words have not always been ones of love. Instead, there have been words of dismissiveness and rebellion, words of anger and disrespect—the very opposite of love. And those loveless words have come in far less trying circumstances than what Jesus faced. At times, our loveless words have come in circumstances that weren’t trying at all. We can’t even make up an excuse other than we felt like it, because the one thing on our minds at that moment was ourselves.
In this word of love, we see that Jesus, our substitute, kept God’s command to love his neighbor. He kept God’s command to love his mother, obeying God’s Fourth Commandment in our place, that his perfect obedience might be credited to our account.
In this word of love, we see something else as well. In Jesus’ overriding love for his mother, in Jesus’ love for his family—a love that even superseded his own personal anguish— we see his love for us. We might be inclined to think that Mary was worthy of such love and concern from Jesus because she was his mother. She was family, but so are we. Jesus once said, “‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ Pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother’” (Matthew 12:48-50).
When he says, “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven,” you may think that excludes you, but remember that the will of God the Father is that we believe in his Son as our Savior. Because the Lord has given you faith in Jesus, Paul’s words apply to you: “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith” (Galatians 3:26).
Jesus’ first word from the cross was a word of forgiveness, a word that said your soul was covered because your sins have been covered. This word tells you that the rest of you is covered by Jesus’ love for you too.