John 19:26-27

‘When therefore Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he says to his mother, “Woman, behold your son”. Then he says to the disciple, “behold, your mother”. And from that hour the disciple took her into his own family circle.'

Jesus' love and concern for His mother comes out here. Sometimes He had had to rebuke her when she had sought to interfere with His ministry, but His love for her never wavered. Now at this moment of His supreme agony some of His thoughts were for her. Basically He was saying to her, ‘here is someone you can look to', and to John, ‘look after her'.

‘Woman'. Gentle, friendly and kind but not as intimate as ‘mother'. The equivalent to a Yorkshireman would be ‘lass' or to a Scotsman ‘lassie'. It is noteworthy that Jesus never referred to Mary as ‘mother'. Once He had begun His ministry there had to be that small difference subtly revealed, for He now belonged to the people of God as a whole (Mark 3:35). But that His concern for her had been genuine comes out here in His provision for her. ‘Woman' stresses that she was one of humankind. Jesus never at any stage gave reason to believe that she was to be seen as unique. (In one sense only was she unique, that she was the human being through whom Jesus was born into the world. But the conception was the work of God the Holy Spirit. His Godhead was not of Mary. That is why the later early church would insist that she be called ‘theopheros' - ‘God-bearer', and not ‘the mother of God'. The latter came into emphasis later in a more heretical age).

‘Behold your son'. Once the father was dead the son was responsible for looking after the mother both spiritually and materially. This responsibility Jesus now passed on to John. Mary could look to him in the future. He knew that John's heart would respond to Mary's needs, especially in the short term when she would need it most. For it was now that He did not want her to be without understanding support.

‘Behold your mother.' He asked John to take on the responsibility that was His. The idea was that he would take responsibility for her, not that he should come under the authority of Mary.

But what of His brothers? They were seemingly not there at the cross, and they should have been for He was their brother, so He could not charge them with the task. He thus turned to the one who alone was there and available. His mother needed help now. Nor were Jesus' brothers at this stage necessarily true followers of His. He thus showed here that He wanted His band to stay together and to love one another, assisting each other in whatever need. He wanted his mother to be a part of the ongoing work of the new church.

Many things have been read into these words which have exalted Mary above measure, but the facts are against it. None of such ideas are found in the New Testament. She was a good and godly woman. But we must not forget that the main reason she was chosen to bear Jesus was because she was betrothed to Joseph, the theoretical heir to the throne of Israel, not because she was exceptional in other ways. It was many centuries later, when men began to look for a mother figure, that all the sentimental ideas clung to by the Roman Catholic church began to creep in and at last took over. For men have always had a weak spot for womankind. In later centuries as doctrine developed some would begin to call her ‘the mother of God', but the earlier church as a whole objected to this and it was finally agreed that she should be called ‘theopheros', the God-bearer, but not the mother of God, for she was not the source of Jesus' Godhood.