Dear woman, here is your son... here is your mother (John 19:26-27)
The Gospels tell us that Jesus’ mother and a number of the women who had followed him remained by the cross and with them was just one disciple, ‘the disciple whom he loved’, traditionally identified as John.
We read that ‘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.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.’
Roman law allowed that someone who was crucified could make a legally binding last will and testament to settle their affairs.
Here, just before his death, Jesus has only one thing left to sort out: his responsibility to his mother. So, as the darkness gathers, he turns to his mother and John and hands her into his care. It is all too easy to see this as no more than Jesus affirming what we might call ‘family values’. We imagine him ‘looking after his mum’ in the same way as, on the front line, some wounded soldier might ask a friend to make sure that his family were all right.
Yet carefully thinking about what is going on here points us to something deeper. For a start we have to ask why Jesus handed his mother into John’s care. After all, although it seems likely that by now Joseph had died, the Gospels are clear that Jesus had other family. There are several brothers, two of whom become leaders in the early church, and several sisters. Both tradition and culture would suggest that the obvious thing for Jesus to do is to ask John to take his mother back to her family in Nazareth. But he doesn’t. He tells John that it is his responsibility to take care of his mother.
What we see here is something that is present throughout the Gospels. Jesus saw his purpose not just to forgive people as individuals but to create through them a new community – a people who would be based not on racial or family ties, but on their relationship to him through faith.
Jesus makes the point that this new community must take priority over the expectations of family. He is therefore being consistent in entrusting his mother to the care of the community of believers rather than to his family.
Here on the cross Jesus looks forward to the coming of the church and demonstrates his faith in its future by committing his mother into its hands.
This is very challenging. Our Western culture emphasises the individual over everything else. Here, Jesus show’s both care for family and his commitment to the Christian community. We need to practise this too.
Ponder: Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.
Ephesians 4:2, NLT
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the reminder that we are part of your family. May we each play our part to encourage our sisters and brothers, so that we can all live our lives to your praise and glory. Amen.
