Woman behold your son…. Son, behold your mother.

Third in a series on the Seven Last Words of Jesus

by Pastor Paul Wolff 

 

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. (John 19:25-27)

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Jesus said, to Mary and John “Woman, behold your son.” “Son, behold your mother.”

The work of Jesus to win salvation and pay for the sins of the world wasn’t done in a day. Good Friday was the most important day, but it was the completion of a lifetime of work. Jesus lived about 12,000 days from His birth to His death, and every day was a test. Would He love the Lord God with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength – even when it was the Lord’s will that He endure God’s wrath for sinners? Would He love His neighbor as Himself – even when those people sinned against Him, and hated Him and plotted to kill Him and took great satisfaction in doing so? If Jesus had failed just once in 12,000 days it would be all over, and our hope for salvation would have been lost.

As we consider the work of God for our salvation we ought to think about the work of Jesus in two aspects: active and passive obedience to God. The passive obedience of Christ was that He let sinners falsely accuse Him of sin and hang Him on a cross to die, and He also passively endured God’s wrath over the sins of the world, so that He could take the punishment meant for sinners, and rescue them from the righteous wrath of God. This is what Jesus was doing hanging on the cross, but His work of active obedience was not done.

The active obedience of Christ was that He actively obeyed all the commandments of God. In all of His 12,000 days, Jesus always did the good things that He ought to have done, and He never did any of the evil things that were forbidden by God’s commandments. This had to be done for our salvation so that Jesus could be the perfect obedient man who obeyed all God’s commandments, and the perfect unblemished sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. The Active obedience of Christ is why God said of Him, “This is my beloved son. In Him I am well pleased.” 

In this third word that Jesus gives from the cross we see again that He is still thinking of others, and not himself. Jesus sees His mother, and the disciple who is not named in John’s Gospel, which is John himself. By saying to Mary, “Woman, behold your son” and to John, “Behold, your mother” Jesus is telling Mary to consider John to be her son and He is telling John to consider Mary to be his mother. In doing this, Jesus is keeping the Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.”

Jesus was honoring His mother by seeing that she was provided for in her old age. Assuming Mary was in her early to middle twenties when Jesus was born, she would have been in her middle to late fifties when Jesus was crucified, and could have lived many more years before her death. Jesus would not be around bodily to take care of her, and none of her other children were there with her at the cross of Christ, but John was there. It was the duty of the children to take care of their parents in their old age. As the firstborn son, Jesus was most responsible to take care of His mother. However, that was not His calling. Just as He was not called to take a wife and raise a family, so He would not live to see His mother grow old before He died. Jesus could have left the care of His mother to His brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, but where were they? They were not there at the cross with Mary. Likewise, none of Jesus’ disciples were there except John. Jesus had the responsibility to see that Mary not only was provided with material needs, but also Spiritual needs. John could be considered the most faithful of the disciples.

John had run away with all the other disciples when Jesus was arrested, as Jesus had told them beforehand that this would happen, quoting Zechariah 13:7 saying, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’” John did enter into the house of the High Priest with Peter during the trial of Jesus, yet John did not deny Jesus as Peter did. John also was there at Golgotha to witness the death of Jesus. So Jesus knew He could trust John to provide for Mary’s needs of body and soul as she grew older and moved toward her death. 

Mary’s needs were not only physical, because although she had remained faithful while Jesus was with her, the evil one would surely still try to lure her away from her salvation, and get her to deny that she needed the forgiveness of Jesus to save her from her sins. John would be her pastor to call Mary to repentance when necessary, and to frequently assure her of the redemption and forgiveness of Jesus so that she would remain faithful to her end trusting in Him to save her.

Jesus was also changing His relationship as son with Mary for a couple other reasons. Jesus was the one chosen by the Father to suffer and die for the sins of the world. Jesus had to do this alone. He could not share His suffering with anyone else, especially a sinner. He had to endure the full wrath of God for all the sins of the world, so that we would be rescued from all our sin. Mary surely mourned that the son she bore and gave birth to was the one chosen by God to suffer for the sins of the world, but nothing that Mary suffered had any effect for the salvation of anyone, including herself. Mary could be comforted by the Apostle John, whom Jesus gave to be her adopted son.

These words of Jesus also point out the false teaching of those who pray to Mary in heaven because they reason that Mary’s Son must listen to His mother and obey her. The resurrected Jesus is exalted as King of kings and Lord of lords, and that includes His mother. Jesus is not obligated to obey His mother, or anyone except God the Father and the Holy Spirit, though He is in perfect agreement and unity with God in all things. Mary’s role in our salvation is nothing more than we confess in the creed. She was the faithful virgin who believed God’s Word when the angel spoke it to her, and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Son of God was miraculously conceived in her and she gave birth to Him so that He could live and die as a man to redeem all mankind from our sins.

Jesus was honoring His Father by remaining obedient to God, the Father, and offering His life as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, but He does not do this at the expense of His mother. Jesus was again thinking of others while He was suffering and dying on the cross. He did not want to lose His mother, just as He did not want to lose even the thief who was crucified alongside of Him (see the previous word from Jesus on the cross).

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Articles in this series:

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.
Woman behold your son. Son, behold your mother.
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
I thirst.
It is finished.
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

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The Holy Family

by Pastor Paul Wolff

The Holy Family Window from Epiphany Lutheran Church, Detroit, Michigan (Now closed)

This past year (2022) my wife and I have been blessed to see our extended family grow. On the day of Epiphany we rejoiced at the birth of our fifth granddaughter. Then, not quite eleven months later, we rejoiced again at the birth of her niece, our first great-granddaughter. I don’t know what the deal is with all the girls. Statistically, you would expect out of six children born to the younger generations three would be girls and three would be boys. Children, aren’t born by statistics, however, and our grandchildren are all beautiful women and girls, and we thank God for all of them.

Children are truly a blessing from God, despite what the world may think of them. King Solomon wrote, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” (Psalm 127:3-5) This blessing goes all the way back to the creation of the world where God created mankind as a husband and his wife and blessed them, saying “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28) This blessing was given before the fall into sin, but God blessed Adam and Eve with children even after they rebelled against Him, but He also promised to send a Savior to rescue them all from their sin. God also repeated His blessing to Noah and his sons after God rescued them from the great flood, saying“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (Gen 9:1) Even though every person ever born on earth (except Jesus) has been born a sinner, God still blesses families with children, and has provided salvation for all of us through Jesus. This is the reason why we celebrate with joy the birth of Jesus, and why it is also important to remember the Holy Family at Christmas (and at other times when we celebrate God’s gifts of new members to our family).

 

The Holy Family at the Nativity of Christ This is not the real Holy Family, but a lifelike representation (compared to the other images in this article).

It is significant that when God became incarnate He came into a young family. In American culture, we would say today that Mary and Joseph were engaged to be married, because the marriage had not been consummated. In Jewish culture of that time, respectable people (like Joseph and Mary) would be legally married for a year – while living apart – before they consummated the marriage. You should note, too, that this practice was not only for prominent wealthy people, but also for laborers, like carpenters. It didn’t matter if Joseph was a skilled master carpenter or an unskilled laborer. People of all social classes would demonstrate their integrity by waiting a year before consummating the marriage, thus showing that they had not engaged in physical intimacy with each other. This not only gave them time to prove they were chaste and hadn’t been unfaithful, but it also gave them time to solidify their lifelong commitment to one another, and to the new family that they were creating.

God could have chosen an unmarried virgin to bear God’s Son, but that is not how God works. God, in His wisdom, created marriage and family for a purpose and He blesses families. In an intact family, the children know the love of both their father and their mother (see the Fourth Commandment – Exodus 20:12). This is God’s good plan, and though in this sinful world, this is not always possible, it is what we should strive for at all times. Besides, as God planned it, we have the “holy family” to look up to and try to make our own families holy also. We do this through repentance and forgiveness of one another when we sin against one another – as we inevitably will. If God had become incarnate through an unmarried woman, then Christians would idealize unmarried mothers and that would necessarily result in all kinds of chaos, like we see in pagan America today: children growing up in broken families feeling unloved and disobeying authorities and getting involved in drugs and crime. Our prisons are overwhelmingly populated with children of broken families.

The Holy Family Window from Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Detroit, Michigan (Now closed)

As it is, Joseph and Mary belong together, and we ought to try to emulate their purity and faithfulness. Though, I should say here that the “pious” idea of Mary’s lifelong virginity is pure wickedness. That would make her a lousy wife to withhold herself from her husband (see 1 Corinthians 7:1-5). Mary is perpetually a virgin in our memory because we perpetually remember her as “the blessed virgin”, or the “virgin mother”. We do this because Mary was still a virgin until after Jesus was born (see Matthew 1:18-25). This is important because it testifies to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, not the physical son of Joseph or any other sinful man, though Jesus lived as the son of Joseph, and was named as such (see Luke 2:48; Luke 3:23; Luke 4:22; Matthew 13:55; John 1:45; and John 6:42). There is no confusing the Blessed Virgin Mary with anyone else because never before and never again will a virgin conceive and bear a child. We also see in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 that the brothers of Jesus are named and the Gospel writers make note that they have sisters, also. The most plain (and best) interpretation of this is that these are the natural children of Joseph and Mary. There is no reason to doubt that – either historically, or exegetically, or theologically.

The “holy family” is considered holy because Jesus is holy. Joseph and Mary were sinners in need of Jesus to save them from their sins. In the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) Mary calls God, “my savior” (v. 47). Yet, despite the fact that Joseph and Mary were just like everyone else, they were also faithful, pious believers. As a young married couple, they were chaste and pure. When Joseph learned Mary was pregnant, he knew he was not the father, and though he was not (at first) willing to believe what Mary must have told him about what the angel said, he could have intended to have her stoned for adultery, but instead he planned on divorcing her quietly and not subjecting her to public disgrace. Then, when God told Joseph in a dream that all Mary had told him was true (see Matthew 1:20), he believed and kept the family intact. Joseph later protected Mary and Jesus by taking them to Egypt after Herod sought to kill the child, who was the true King of Judah (see INRI).

The Holy Family Window from Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Dearborn, Michigan

The world despises children because it takes sacrificial love to properly raise a child. Selfish pagans idolize themselves and do not care to expend the love and time and money it takes to provide for a child’s needs of body, soul, and mind. Parents must sacrifice to provide for their children’s needs, but that is what people were made for. It is very rewarding to raise a child and give him or her the necessary skills and resources necessary to become a respectable, productive member of society. It is even more rewarding for Christian parents to raise a child who loves God and his neighbors, and trusts in Jesus to save him from his sins. Parents who have done a good job raising children can be justifiably proud that their children are admired and respected by their neighbors and friends, and are valued members of society who care for those whom they deal with every day. This is something that selfish unbelievers who despise and murder their children (see my article on Molechianism) will never fully know because they idolize themselves, and they are unfulfilled because sooner or later their false gods will fail them.

No family is perfect, however, because all members of families are sinners. Even the holy family must have had its struggles and difficulties. The presence of Jesus did not change the sinful nature of Joseph and Mary, nor of His brothers and sisters. The story of the boy Jesus in the temple at age 12 (Luke 2:40-51) shows us that as the years went by, Joseph and Mary seem to have taken for granted that Jesus was the Son of God, and just thought of Him as a normal boy – which He was. There seems nothing out of the ordinary in the way that they deal with Him, as their son. They do show a high level of trust in Him, as they weren’t particularly worried that He wasn’t with them for a time. They assumed that Jesus was with others in their group (v. 44) as they traveled back up north, and they trusted Him not to be disobedient. Jesus always obeyed them perfectly, as an obedient son, but somehow not in a way that drew attention to Himself – so they trusted Him. Though, Mark 3:20-34 describes a situation where Christ’s family (specifically, His mother and brothers) thought Jesus was out of His mind, but Jesus kept teaching what He had been teaching because He was doing what He was supposed to do, and few others understood what it was all about. They thought Jesus suicidal for calling the leaders to repentance, and not heeding the threats against His life. Jesus was not suicidal, and at various times had to walk away from imminent threats to His life before His work was finished (See John 6:15 and Luke 4:24-30), but neither did He try to save Himself when the time came for Him to give His life to pay the price for the sins of the world (see Matthew 27:12-14). Some of the people who heard Christ’s teaching understood after He died and rose to life again, but others never did.

Glory to God in the Highest Jesus is born in Bethlehem (I forget where this window is from. This is a scan of an old film photograph.)

It seems strange to the world that God would become a man simply for the purpose of suffering and dying a shameful death on a cross. It is no wonder that Christ’s family thought Him out of his mind. That kind of love doesn’t make sense to our selfish, sinful flesh, but God’s love is perfect, and we see perfect love in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. That is why we celebrate Christmas, and why we celebrate more on Good Friday and on Easter Sunday. God is the only one who can save us from the guilt of our sin, and rescue us from sin’s consequences. So God became a man in Jesus to redeem us from sin and death. This is perfect love in action – that God would live and die to save His disobedient people, so that He could make us holy to live with Him forever.

 

This Christmas may Christ bless your family as you contemplate the Holy Family. May you love one another as Christ has loved you. May you forgive the sins that your family members commit against you, as Christ has forgiven all your sins. May father and mother be strengthened in love and commitment to one another, and may children give thanks to God continually for the blessings of their family.

 

 

Psalm 144:9-15 (NIV)

I will sing a new song to you, O God;

on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you,

to the One who gives victory to kings,

who delivers his servant David from the deadly sword.

Deliver me and rescue me from the hands of foreigners

whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.

Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants,

and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace.

Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision.

Our sheep will increase by thousands,

by tens of thousands in our fields;

our oxen will draw heavy loads.

There will be no breaching of walls,

no going into captivity,

no cry of distress in our streets.

Blessed are the people of whom this is true;

blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.

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Here are my other Christmas-themed articles from this blog:

What was Jesus like as a Boy?

Come, Lord Jesus! 

God’s Justice and Mercy at Christmas 

Justice at Christmas 

Christmas Peace is Forever 

Is Christmas Offensive? 

Christ is for You 

God is With Us 

Does Jesus Sing? 

The Incarnation of God

Magi

Shepherd Visitors

Don’t Make Me Come Down There!

Christ is For You

by Pastor Paul Wolff

"Given for you for the forgiveness of your sins

In Dr. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, in explaining who receives the Lord’s Supper worthily, Luther explains that when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, the words “for you” (Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:24) require all hearts to believe. Contrary to what unbelievers fear, Jesus isn’t asking us to believe anything that isn’t true, or that may be impossible to believe. It is, of course, true that one cannot believe that Jesus is your savior from sin when you refuse to believe that you are guilty of sin, or if you do not believe that your sin deserves God’s wrath and condemnation. But the problem there among unbelievers isn’t that they haven’t sinned against God, nor that their sin isn’t worthy of eternal condemnation, nor that the salvation won by Jesus on the cross is insufficient to rescue them from all their sin and its condemnation. No, the problem among unbelievers is that although the salvation won by Jesus more than makes up for their sins, and completely satisfies the wrath of God, the Father, so that there is no threat of punishment for anyone who believes in Jesus as their savior, and although that salvation comes to everyone who believes as a gift; the unbeliever rejects the gift, and also rejects the forgiveness and salvation that come along with it.


The unbeliever has access to forgiveness and salvation, just as believers do, but because they refuse to believe, they do not receive the benefits of that forgiveness and salvation. It is as if your Father said, “I have deposited a million dollars into a bank account in your name. It is for you to live on and invest for your needs for the rest of your life.” If you believe that your Father is telling the truth, you will access the money in that account when you have need, and you will receive the benefits of that gift. On the other hand, if you do not believe that he is telling the truth (even though He is), or you don’t want the gift, or you want to earn your own way through life – though for reasons you do not understand, you are unable to do so – then you will not receive the benefits of your Father’s gift, even though it is always there and waiting for you to use it.

A savior is born to you

This is also what the angel told the shepherds in Bethlehem on the night that Jesus was born. The angel said, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10-12) This sounds like a funny thing to say that this baby (who was unknown to them at the time) was born “unto you”, but the blessings of Jesus would come to them because they believed the Word of God that the angel gave them. So because they believed, they received the blessings of God’s gift in Christ.


It was also kind of strange that the angel said to the Bethlehem shepherds that Jesus was born for them, but he didn’t say this to Mary when he visited her nine months earlier. We would assume that a child was born for his father and mother, but the angel didn’t say that, lest Mary would think that the child was born for her alone. Mary certainly did believe, and she did receive the blessings of forgiveness, life, and salvation that Jesus won for the world, but she knew that her firstborn son did not come to benefit her alone, but His salvation would be for the whole world. That is why Mary called her son, “my savior” (Luke 1:47) in the Magnificat which she sang when she visited Elizabeth, her relative, and mother of John the Baptizer.


Mary recognized that she was blessed, but other than that, she realized that she was nothing special. Later on, during Christ’s ministry (Luke 11:27-28), a woman tried to give the blessed virgin mother more credit than what was due to her when she said to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” Jesus responded, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Jesus was neither insulting His mother, nor was he trying to say that she was not blessed. Jesus was saying that Mary was not blessed because she was the one woman in all of history who gave birth to the savior of the world, instead, she was blessed because she believed that her firstborn son, conceived in her by God, the Holy Spirit, would save her from her sins. In this way, Mary is like all believers. Everyone who believes in Jesus as their savior has the blessings of forgiveness, life, and salvation that Jesus won for us all when He died on the cross. The Holy Scriptures say this many times:


“To him (Jesus) all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (Acts 10:43)

God's Christmas gift to the world His own Son to save us

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Rom 1:16)


“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” (Rom 10:4)


“For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’” (Rom 10:11)


“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.” (1 John 5:1)


Because the Salvation of Jesus comes as a gift (see Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:24; Romans 5:15-17 for example) it is available for free to all who believe in Jesus as their savior from sins. You are just as blessed as Mary if you believe in Jesus as your savior, as Mary also did. Because salvation is a precious gift from God to you, this is why Christians celebrate the birth of our savior by praising God on Christmas, and giving one another gifts in recognition of the priceless gift that God gave us in sending His own Son to be our savior.


Christ bless you this Christmas, and always. Merry Christmas!