My church hosted a Good Friday service this past Friday. It featured a program of seven preachers, each of whom spoke on one of Christ’s statements from the cross. I took John 19:25-27, the passage where Christ entrusts Mary’s care to John. In all honesty I selected this passage because I anticipated a passage without much application or significance and I didn’t want to give such a mundane passage to one of our guests. As is often the case when preparing to preach I found that I had badly underestimated this passage and was glad to have had opportunity to preach it.

but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 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 to his own home.

The Setting: Shame, Suffering and Grief

You are most likely aware that Crucifixion was awful in a way that words struggle to describe accurately. You are most likely aware that the crucified individual was beaten with a whip prior to crucifixion, beaten severely enough that the internal organs would be exposed. They were then nailed, most often completely nude, to a cross where they would hang until they lost the strength to lift themselves up on the nails to take breath, eventually dying of stress upon the circulatory system.

- Imagine, if you can, Mary’s perspective on her oldest child. Looking up at his body torn literally to shreds from his beating, laboring to hold his body up on the nails so he can breathe, and being verbally assaulted by crowd gathered around. I’m not sure if “heart breaking” conveys how awful that would look.
- Think also, and this is more important, what this method of execution God choose tells us about the awfulness of sin and sinners. The Bible is abundantly clear that Christ was being punished on the cross for the sins of mankind. [Romans 5:6-8: For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us] Think of Christ on the cross to learn what sin and sinners deserve.

The People: Mary, John, and Christ

I would like for us to examine this passage by focusing on each of the individuals mentioned in this passage. We’ll look first at Mary.

Mary: the Surety of God’s Word

To understand the significance of Mary in this passage we must first consider the suffering a mother’s heart would endure seeing her child crucified. I’m not sure that those of us who don’t have children can fathom what that pain would be like. I don’t believe I’m going too far in saying that seeing the suffering of your child would be more painful than anything other than your own physical suffering.

Secondly, we have to think back to Jesus’ childhood. Recall that when Joseph and Mary brought their miracle child to the temple for dedication they encountered an aged man by the name of Simeon who praised God for allowing his servant to see the Messiah. He turned to Mary and said [Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.]

I wonder if Mary thought ol’  Simeon had gone off his rocker. How could her new child ever “pierce her soul” with pain? Wasn’t He the ones the angels announced, born to be Messiah? I wonder too if, looking up at her crucified Savior, Lord, and Son, if she thought back to old Simeon and finally understood what he had meant.

What do we learn from this? That God’s word is sure, trustworthy beyond all assault. Even that which seems unlikely or even impossible shall indisputably come to pass if God has said that it would. Friend, you can rely on the word of God.

John: Grace for the Betrayer

How is it that John is known in the gospels? He is known as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”  And where was this disciple whom Jesus loved when Christ was arrested? [Mark 14:50 tells us Then they [His disciples] all forsook Him and fled.] The one who had dined closest to Christ’s side that night abandoned Him when the arresting party arrived. Surely we could say the love of Christ for this disciple was betrayed in that abandonment.

However, that isn’t the final chapter of the story of John. At some point John had come back to His Lord’s side. We know that by his presence her at the foot of the cross with the women. The one who had betrayed His savior in the moment of crisis had returned to Jesus in His suffering. And what does he hear from the Lord He had betrayed? Judgment? Punishment? Mockery? No. He finds forgiving grace and receives an important commission for service.

As Mary’s oldest son it was Christ’s responsibility to provide for His mother’s future care. Knowing that His time on this earth was drawing to a close Christ called upon the disciple He loved to show that same type of provisional love to His own mother.

What is our lesson from this scene in John’s life? Namely, that there is room for the betrayer in Christ’s Kingdom. John had abandoned Christ not as a a lost person but as a follower of Jesus for three years. He was a disciple and would soon be an Apostle. If anyone should have known better than to leave His Lord it was John. And yet he fled. I’m not sure what means God’s grace used him to come back to Christ at the cross but I do know he came back. And when he returned he found not judgment and scorn but a forgiving Lord who entrusted him with a vitally important task.

Have you ever betrayed your Lord? Have you known that what you were about to do was rebellion against Him and done it anyway? Have you done this and thought that God had no more use for a child such as yourself, felt the shame that willful disobedience brings? If you have, then look at John in this passage and return to your Savior. His grace has room for the betraying believer who returns.

Jesus: Perfect Obedience

Do you know what God requires of mankind in regards to His law? Perfect Obedience. Perfect. [Deuteronomy 27:28: “ Cursed is the one who does not obey all the words of this law.] Let that sink in: Anyone who does not obey every law contained in scripture is under the curse of God.

So what is necessary to be right before God? The answer is absolute perfection in obedience to His law. The whole thing, at all times, forever without fail even once. We know man cannot rise to that mark. Therefore, since mankind has failed to meet that standard, we live under the curse of God.

So, as we have already spoken about, if God is positioning Christ as our substitute, what standard must He live up to? Absolute perfection. This verse shows us how well our Savior met that standard.

You and I both know that God has commanded us to honor our Fathers and Mothers. The rabbis of Jesus’ day understood this to mean in part continuing care in the old age of the parents.

Consider Mary again. We have no mention of Joseph after Christ’s childhood. The most logical explanation for his absence in the text is that he had passed away sometime around that point. Furthermore, Jesus’ other brothers were unbelievers at this point. Therefore Christ had to make provision for his mother’s care as the eldest son and the Savior of mankind.

How did He do in this task? Perfectly, as He did in all other things. The point here isn’t to focus on how nice Christ was to think of others, how sweet a gesture this was, or anything like that.

The point is that only a perfect, spotless substitute for sin is acceptable to God and Jesus Christ was absolutely that. At no point in His life, from childhood to this point of excruciating pain, did Jesus Christ fail to live up to God’s perfect standard.

Therefore you can have confidence that He stands today as the one and only perfect and acceptable sacrifice for sins. Do you think you have committed a sin that God just could not forgive? Friend, your transgression is no so awful that Christ’s perfect obedience cannot cover it up. Quite frankly, His righteous life was lived more powerfully than your unrighteousness.

Trust Him today as the one acceptable sacrifice – and He will cover your sins with His obedience in the same way He did everything else. Perfectly.