Behold Your Mother Series

These five companions must have felt uneasy that day, because they definitely were in the minority. They stood in the midst of a big crowd that was anti-Jesus, the soldiers, the Jewish religious leaders, the angry mob that was heaping insults on Jesus. Hershel Hobbs writes, “In this vast ocean of hate there was a tiny island of love and understanding.”

It must have painful for these people, and especially His Mother-Mary. I mean it would be enough to have a child die at a young age. But to have an adult son brutalized and tortured and hung on a cross—think about it! Don’t you think that in her mind she reviewed the events of their past life together? Maybe she remembered the day that the angel from God told her about that birth of this son and who He would be. Maybe the trip to Bethlehem for the census and His birth in that stable.

I would think she might remember when her and Joseph took Him to the temple to present Him and what she was told that day. Do you remember what happen that day? The aged Simeon had predicted, “ a sword would pass through her own heart.” I doubt anyone recognized what he meant by that, nor how this prediction would place out over the years.

Mary could now feel that sword pierce deeper into her heart than ever before. She could have remembered bad times before like when Herod tried to kill him as a child when he decreed that all male children 2 and under were to be put to death, and they had to escape to Egypt, or when he preached His first sermon and the neighbors tried to push Him off the cliff, or when the Jewish leaders tried to have Him Killed. Those times were bad, but not anything like when they pierced His side with a sword on the cross as He was being crucified. I’m sure she felt like her own side had been pierced.

As a Mother I’m sure she remembered how she kissed His sweet brow as a little Child, or held those little hands when he was learning to walk, which were the same hands that were now nailed into that cross. I’m sure she could remember when she would cradle Him gently in her arms and now saw Him suffering on the garbage dump of Jerusalem.

Have you ever wondered why Mary never took the mother’s way out to save her son? Why didn’t she attempt to save His life by saying anything she had to spar Him? Maybe she could of told them that “ He is my son, and not the Son of God, so they should spar the life of this mentally afflicted man.” Maybe the authorities would have jumped at a chance to prove he had been a deceiver from the very beginning.

Mary never did this because she knew He was indeed the Son of God, and that day she was yielding her will to God’s-in the same way she had done 34 years earlier when the angel came to tell that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and that she would give birth to the Son of God.

In this way Mary helps us see the importance of trusting and yielding to God’s will-even when it’s hard to do so-even when we don’t understand God’s purposes.

Let us look close to exactly what Jesus said to Mary. He said, “Women behold your Son.” I want to point out that no where in scripture does Jesus refer to Mary as Mother. He always refers to her as “WOMEN” or “DEAR WOMEN.” Now that might seem a little disrespectful to some, because we would not refer to our mother as Woman. We would not say, “ Woman where is my breakfast?”