What Did Jesus See In His Mother

What Did Jesus See In His Mother

John 19:25-27

Intro: A man was walking down the beach one day and he found an old oil lamp sticking out of the sand. He picked it up and saw that something was written on the side but it was so dirty that he couldn’t read it. He started rubbing the side so that he could read it and lo and behold a genie popped out. The genie looked around and said “you know, I am getting tired of you people rubbing this lamp and me having to come out and give three wishes. I am so tired of it that you will get only one wish so think carefully.” The man thought for a minute and looked at the genie and said that he had always wanted to go to Hawaii but that he was afraid to fly and that he was afraid of boats. He then asked the genie to build him a bridge over the ocean to Hawaii. The genie looked at him and told him that the task was too hard. It was almost impossible to do what he wanted him to do. The genie said that he would have to make another wish. One that wasn’t so hard. The man thought for a minute and said that he had always wanted to understand women; so could the genie give him the ability to understand women. The genie looked at the man and said “Would you like that bridge to be two lanes or four”?

. That was for us sons this morning moms. While we may not understand women, we know that we love our mom’s.

. Mother’s day is special. Other than Easter and Christmas it is the most attended Sunday of the year.

. It seems that mothers bring out the best in us.

. There’s just something about moms isn’t there?

. G. Campbell Morgan, a profound British preacher whose four sons all became pastors, influenced millions with his preaching, teaching and writing.

One day, when his young son Howard finished preaching, a reporter asked him, "Since you have five Pastors in your family who is the greatest preacher? Expecting the son to give the honor to his father, Howard surprised the reporter by saying, "My Mother!"

Often people do not realize that a mother’s love, concern and teaching are often far more influential on people than anything else. Never underestimate the power of a mother’s love.

. As I studied and prayed this week about a mother’s day message, I kept going back to the Cross.

. That’s where our scripture takes us this morning. To the Cross.

. Jesus had been betrayed, beaten, spat upon and humiliated.

. He hung on a cross, the most humiliating ways to kill someone.

. Anyone seeing Him on the cross would assume that He was either a thief or a murderer because that is who they crucified,

. As Jesus hung on that cross, all his disciples but one, John, had abandoned him. All his friends had run away and as scripture tell us were cowering in an upstairs room somewhere.

. When He looked down from the cross, He saw his mother.

. Let’s read our scripture.

John 19:25-27:

. 25Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene.

26When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.”

27And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home.

. As I read this, I wondered what Jesus was thinking. As He looked down at his mother. What did Jesus see in his mother?

. The first thing He saw was a Courageous Mother.

.Jesus saw a woman who had faced death in order to bring him into this world.

. The Jewish people had laws and rules and regulations that they were bound by.

. Look at Deuteronomy 22:23-24

. 23“Suppose a man meets a young woman, a virgin who is engaged to be married, and he has sexual intercourse with her. If this happens within a town,

24you must take both of them to the gates of that town and stone them to death. The woman is guilty because she did not scream for help. The man must die because he violated another man’s wife. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you.

. By rights they could have taken her to the town gates and stoned her to death.

. Mary wasn’t crying rape.

. She stood up told Joseph that she had not been raped but that her child was from God.

. What a courageous woman. She knew the law. She knew what could happen to her but she stood her ground in order to give birth to her Son.