Behold Your Mother
John 19:25-27 (NKJV)
25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 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.
Mary the God bearer !
John records a poignant scene at the crucifixion: “When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour, the disciple took her into his home” (John 19:26-27). This passage conveys both Jesus’ compassion toward His mother, Mary, and His intentional provision for her care.
Since Scripture indicates that Joseph, Mary’s husband, is not mentioned beyond Jesus’ early life (Luke 2:51 ; Matthew 13:55), many scholars infer that Joseph’s death left Mary under Jesus’ protection as the firstborn son. Jesus’ statement to His mother offered the disciples-and ultimately the believing community-a new perspective on spiritual family.
John is identified as one of the closest to Jesus (John 13:23; 20:2). By addressing him with this responsibility, Jesus demonstrated deep trust in John’s faithfulness and devotion. Early church tradition (recorded in works attributed to Polycrates of Ephesus and Irenaeus) attests that John spent considerable time in Ephesus, where he is said to have cared for Mary.
I want to draw attention to the fact that Jesus the Son of God, who could do anything, entrusted John to the care of his mother.
Was there a reward for taking care of Mary? Now the bible doesn’t say directly, but John the beloved disciple never suffered martyrdom. They tried to kill him, but John wouldn’t boil. They abandoned him on Patmos, but he wasn’t alone. The disciple that wouldn’t die had a destiny to fulfill. Mary is believed to have died between AD 43 -AD 48.
John the Apostle is believed to have died in AD 98. The destiny in your life can cause you to outlive your days.
It’s scary to know one’s demise, when no one knows when they will die.
Jesus knew His mothers last day; He knew John the Apostle’s last day. He knew Judas’s last day; he knew Peter’s last day.
Mary had to live through some tough stuff. Mommas endure the strain of the heart. Imagine being with Mary and having to live these last few hours with her.
John 13:18- 30 (NKJV)
Jesus Identifies His Betrayer
18 “I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.’ 19 Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He. 20 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
21When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” 22 Then the disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom He spoke.
23 Now there was [d]leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. 24 Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask who it was of whom He spoke.
25 Then, leaning [e]back on Jesus’ breast, he said to Him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.” And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. 27 Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” 28 But no one at the table knew for what reason He said this to him. 29 For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus had said to him, “Buy those things we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor.
30 Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately. And it was night.
Hear me, your mother is the last one to let you down!
Hear me, Mommas! The destiny on your Children must be protected.
I want to tell you a true story.
Solomon Rosenberg, his wife, his two sons, and his mother and father were arrested and placed in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust of WWII. It was a labor camp, and the rules were simple: If you can do your work, you are permitted to live. When you become too weak to do your work, then you will be exterminated.
Rosenberg watched his mother and father being marched off to their deaths when they became too weak to work. He knew that his youngest son, David, would be next because David had always been a frail child. Every evening when Rosenberg came back into the barracks after his hours of labor, he would search for the faces of his family. When he found them, they would huddle together, embrace one another, and thank God for another day of life.
One day Rosenberg came back, but he didn’t see those familiar faces. He finally discovered his oldest son, Joshua, in a corner, huddled, weeping, and praying. He said, “Josh, tell me it’s not true.” Joshua turned and said, “It is true, Poppa. Today David was not strong enough to do his work, so they came for him.”
“But where is your mother?” asked Mr. Rosenberg.
“Oh Poppa,” he exclaimed. “When they came for David, he was afraid and he was crying. Momma said, ‘There is nothing to be afraid of, David,’ and then she took his hand and went with him.”
You listen to me, God gave you a momma Like Mary, she went with him to his death!
God gave you a momma Like Rizpah she fought the wild beast off her sons and the sons of Saul.
In Rizpah’s case, her husband, King Saul, broke his promise that the Israelites would spare the Gibeonites in battle; he ordered the Israelites to annihilate them. To re-establish peace between the two tribes, David fulfills the Gibeonites’ request to sacrifice two heirs of Israel’s throne, Saul’s sons and grandsons. Rizpah is the sad mother of the two sons of Saul who are sacrificed for tribal peace. Rizpah’s love and piety—and David’s joining Rizpah in a memorial and burial of the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan—move God to end a three-year drought and famine in the region.
Rizpah protects her sons’ fallen bodies, which are displayed as trophies of the Gibeonites at Saul’s former home in Gibeah. “Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies, she did not let the birds of the air touch them by day or the wild animals by night” (2 Sam 21:10). Rizpah’s vigil over her sons’ bodies lasts from the spring harvest until the fall rains, five or six months. She protects them after their death, though she could not protect them from the Gibeonites or David in their lives.
Behold Your Mother! Are you that Momma that won’t quit, that will fight off the wild beasts to protect what God has given her?