Only our love for God ranks more important than our love for our mother. Of course, as a mom, I may be biased.
The gospel accounts show that Jesus loved His mother. No depth of agony would keep Him from loving her well to the end.
And Jesus loved His Father. No height of pain would keep Him from loving and submitting to Him to the end—including keeping the 5th commandment. “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12).
Most believe Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph, must have died before the start of Jesus’ public ministry. The Bible is silent about him after he and Mary accidentally left the Son of God in Jerusalem when He was 12 years old.
We don’t know how or when Mary lost her husband, but here, at the cross, we watch her lose her son.
At the cross, Mary and Jesus experienced their darkest hour of agony.
Jesus Cares for Our Sorrows
Some sorrows, we must endure—as Mary had to endure the excruciating moments at the cross. God ordains even our most severe trials for His divine purposes—His good and divine purposes.
In other sorrows, God intervenes and spares us from suffering.
Mary must lose her Son. This she must suffer. But Jesus ensured she wouldn’t suffer from want. He honored His mother and placed her into the care of His beloved disciple, John.
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”
John 19:26–27
Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”
And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
Are you wondering why Jesus didn’t place her into the care of either of His half-brothers, Mary and Joseph’s other sons, James and Jude?
Before His resurrection, His brothers didn’t believe in Him. They didn’t believe what Mary knew. What the angel had told her ( Luke 1:26-38 ). What Simeon and Anna said about Jesus in the temple ( Luke 2:25–40 ).
Jesus didn’t leave His mother in the care of those who didn’t accept who He was. He left her with John, the disciple who’d followed Jesus to the cross and had stood with His mother in her pain.
Jesus’ brothers beliefs about Jesus quickly changed after He rose from the dead and walked out of the grave.
James and Jude had been born into Jesus’ physical family, but after His resurrection, they were reborn into His spiritual family. They spent the rest of their lives serving Him and were willing to die for Him, which they did.
Jesus Meets Us in Our Suffering
Jesus’ care for His mother reminds us that, just as He met her in her suffering, He meets us in ours. He knows all our needs—starting with salvation.
If Jesus had chosen to spare His mother from all suffering, He could never have gone to the cross or been faithful to His Father’s will—to purchase our salvation on the cross.
Jesus couldn’t—and didn’t—spare His mother from all sorrow. Instead, He provided for her in her suffering. He does the same for us.
Jesus was—and is—the perfect Son. And the perfect Savior.
Mary, did you know?
Do you?
You can.
Read the Gospel of John and believe.
If you missed my other posts in this series, The Power of Jesus’ Last 7 Words, read them here.
Revive Our Hearts — Last Words Easter Series
Last Words: “Woman, Behold, Your Son!”
As a Roman soldier hammered iron into her son’s flesh, she felt her body tear also. Her agony mirrored His, and her emotional anguish pierced so deeply it felt physical. She sank to the ground. Her son, her precious son!
Prophetic words uttered so long ago—those she hadn’t wanted to understand—reverberated in her mind. “A sword will pierce through your own soul also” (Luke 2:35 ESV).
He hung there naked, bloodied, barely recognizable. But she still saw the newborn she’d nursed through long nights, the toddler who’d taken His first steps, the boy about His Father’s business (Luke 2:49), the man who turned water into wine.
Couldn’t there have been another way?
She knew what He must do, but grief was a torrent that threatened to drown her. The brutality her son experienced was too much to comprehend. But then . . . (Keep Reading)
Last Words: “Father, Forgive Them, Because They Do Not Know What They Are Doing.”
Last Words: “Truly I Tell You, Today You Will Be with Me in Paradise.”
Lyric Video: He Will Hold Me Fast (Keith & Kristyn Getty)
When sorrow holds it grip on you, remember, if you belong to Christ, He is holding you.
He will hold you fast and never let you go.
