Final Words of the Lamb of God - #5 - Provision of His Beloved

5. The Word of PROVISION for His Beloved

John 19:26,

“When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother,  “Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple,  “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.”

The world is a cruel, hard place, especially when you face it alone. At this point in time it is clear that Jesus’ earthly father Joseph has died, and His mother Mary is without the normal provision of a husband.

Surely Jesus’ half-brothers would have cared for her but here she was at the foot of the cross, her eyes locked upon her son, her first born child, being unjustly crucified for crimes He did not commit.

I spoke with a woman once who recounted a time when her son played the role of Jesus is a Passion play. As the tears streamed down her face she watched her own little boy being hoisted up upon the cross and she realized just what it must have been like for Mary to watch the cruel scene unfolding before her.

Sitting in a theater watching Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ some years ago, the most heart wrenching scene to me was at the particular point where Mary was running through the streets trying to keep up with Jesus as He made His way up Calvary burdened with the heavy cross. Throngs of people lined the Via de la Rosa as Mary worked her way in and around the crowd.

There is a flash back to a time when Jesus was a little boy, perhaps 4 or 5 years old. Little Jesus was running a bit too fast and falls, skinning his knee as his mother runs to pick Him up, cuddling Him in a mother’s arms. But now her Son is driven to the ground beneath the angry hands of His abusers and she is unable to pour her love upon Him again as she so desperately wants, to simply pick Him up and kiss the hurts away.

In the theater that day you could hear one great collective groan and I looked over to see the mother of my own children sink into tears in the seat beside me.

Jesus, looking down from the cross said, “Woman, behold your son,” and looking to the beloved disciple John, “Behold your mother.”

What amazing love that Jesus would provide for His mother in a real and tangible way through the apostle John.

In light of that provision I wonder how we will behold the lonely, the orphaned, the widowed, the disheartened who live all around us beneath the cross.

Will we love them like Jesus?