“Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother”

 John 19:25

During the days of his growing up, and during all the public ministry of Christ, we see and hear so little of Mary. She lived her life in the background, among the shadows.

But now in the last hours of his life, as he takes His dying breath, she stands there by the cross. Can you see the picture?  Paralyzed by the strange scene, yet bound with the golden chain of love to the dying one, there she stands. Try and read the thoughts and emotions of that mother’s heart. O what a sword it was that pierced her own soul.

 Here we see the heart of a mother. She is the mother of the dying man. The One who is hanging there on the cross is her Child. She was the one who first kissed that forehead now crowned with thorns. She was the one who guided those hands and feet in their first movements. No mother ever suffered as she did. His disciples may desert him, His friends may forsake him, His government may crucify Him, His nation may despise Him,

But there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother.

Who can measure those hours of sorrow and suffering as the knife cut through Mary’s soul? She did not faint; she did not utter a cry of anguish; in fact she did not utter a single word; the writers of the four Gospels did not record her speaking a word. She suffered in unbroken silence. Yet her heart was heavy and her sorrow was real. Still waters run deep.

She saw that brow pierced with cruel thorns, but she could not smooth it with her tender touch. She watched His pierced hands and feet bleed, grow numb, but she could not wipe them with her towel. She hears Him cry of thirst, but she is not allowed to give him a drink, but “there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother’.

She does not faint; she did not cry; she does not run from the scene; she did not turn away from such a spectacle; she does not sink to the ground. There she is in her grief she stands. Her action is unique; her attitude is unique. What courage, what strength!

 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, he said unto His mother: Woman, Behold thy son.

During his early years the Boy Jesus was under the control of His mother and Joseph, his earthly father. When Jesus was 12 years old, they took him to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. 

When the found Jesus his mother said to him…

The answer that Jesus gave to His mother has often been misinterpreted.

He does not rebuke His mother.  When you understand His answer, He shows the honor and love He had for His mother.

It would be like saying: ‘Mother, surely you know me well enough to know that nothing would keep me back but the affairs of my heavenly Father’.

Jesus always addressed his mother in public as ‘Woman’.

I thank God for the day I came to understand that the reason is that Jesus was looking to our time. Jesus did not want us to worship His mother as ‘The Mother of God’.

 Jesus commended His mother to the care of John, because she was now a widow.

We do not see Joseph after the incident when Jesus went down to Jerusalem.

Certainly Joseph had died by the time Jesus began His public ministry.

Permit me a brief word of teaching. We often emphasize that children must obey and honor their parents. But there are many adults’ full grown men and women, who are blessed to have their mother and father living.

  How are you treating them? Are you truly honoring them?

Does this example of Christ on the cross put you to shame?

 It may be you are young and vigorous, and your parents have grown old and weak.

The Scripture says Prov.23: 22: “Despise not thy mother when she is old.”

Are they getting the care they need? Have you made adequate provision for them?

It is not enough to find a nice and clean Nursing home, but to go and see them as often as you can. It is possible your mother and father live in a distant land, across the ocean, then do not neglect to write them words of love and appreciation which shall brighten their days. These are sacred duties given to us by God. “Honor thy father and thy mother”.

 Is there one who reads these lines that has wandered away from the side of the Savior?

Is there one who is no longer in the sweet communion of the Holy Spirit?

Maybe in the hour of trial you denied Him.

Maybe in the hour of testing you failed.

You are giving more thoughts to your own interests than the interests of the Savior.

You have lost sight of the honor of being a Christian.

O may the arrow of conviction now enter your conscience; may Divine Grace melt your heart. May the power of God draw you back to Christ, where alone your soul can find satisfaction and peace?

Here is encouragement for you. Christ did not rebuke John on returning; instead He bestows on John a great mission.  Stop your wanderings and return at once to Christ,

 And He will greet you with a word of welcome; and who knows he just may have a mission waiting for you.