Blogging Lent

Woman, behold your son: behold your mother (John 19:26-27).

This saying of Jesus from the cross seems to emphasize his humanity, which also has the effect of validating our own.

On the brink of death, Jesus’ thought turn to who will care for his mother. He shows Himself to be a good son, and for a good son this is a natural concern. It’s interesting to compare this statement with another thing He said: "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his … mother … he cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:26. Hopefully the juxtaposition of these two verses shows conclusively that Jesus was prone to using hyperbolic figures of speech and didn’t hate his mother, and doesn’t expect others to hate theirs either.

Further, Jesus chose a specific person to care for her. This shows that Jesus and John possessed a unique relationship, as all humans possess unique relationships. In other words, it’s okay that you get along with one person particularly well, or select one person for a special job over another. Sometimes I think we take more abstract sayings of Jesus and think we need to overcome our humanity to become godly. In some cases this is obviously true, but Jesus’ caring for his mother on the cross and asking John to take care of her also shows God dignifying much of basic human experience.