Taking Care of His Own

“Woman, behold your son…Behold your mother.”--John 19:26, 27

While the crowd mocked and jeered, it is good to know that there were those present who really cared.  Jesus looked down and saw His mother standing near the cross.  By her side was the disciple John.  This little group of sympathetic and bereaved souls furnished a striking contrast to the rest of the mocking crowd.  Jesus lifted his voice and said to his mother, “woman, look at John, from now on he will be your son.”  And then to John He said, “from now on, she will be your mother.

In these words, we learn that our welfare is an abiding concern of our Savior.  He knows our pain and sorrow, even in the midst of his own.  He also demonstrated that he helps, strengthens and encourages us through one another.  At the cross we learn to appreciate the mutual love and care that exists within a community of believers as well as the responsibility that members of the body of Christ have to one another.  If in his deepest suffering He loved his own so much that he would provide for their mutual welfare, how we should also care for and love one another.

I can't help but turn back to to what Mary was experiencing.  Try to hear the thoughts and emotions of Jesus' mother's heart.  His disciples had deserted Him, His friends had forsaken Him, His nation had rejected Him and His enemies cried out for His blood.  But His mother stood sorrowing at the foot of the cross.  Surely she remembered the words of the righteous man Simeon who spoke these prophetic words to her when Jesus was presented at the temple as an infant.  "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.  And a sword will pierce your own soul too."  As she saw her beloved firstborn son in such agony, surely the nails pierced her heart as much as they pierced His flesh.