John 19:26 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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John 19:26

Comments

We don’t see Mary the mother of Jesus in uncontrolled grief, though no doubt her heart was torn and she was deeply grieved. But it isn’t expressed in outward shouting, calling out, or any kind of hysterical conduct. Why is that? Because, although it was the custom of the times for bereaved people to mourn in a very audible manner, Mary seems to be controlled and patient. She knows that her son after the flesh is the eternal Son of God, the resurrection and the life. She believes in him. She doesn’t yet understand everything but she believes in him implicitly and she knows there is another life and she knows he is the Messiah and the Saviour of all. And so in the midst of her grief she sorrows not as others who have no hope. There is grief, there is control of grief because she has faith in the Saviour and what he is doing and what will come about. I am sure you can imagine why it was that he addressed his mother as ‘woman’ and not as ‘mother’. It is fairly straightforward. He had done it before much earlier in John’s Gospel at the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee. She was ‘woman’, not ‘mother’, and that is because even his esteemed mother had to realise that he was more than a son, he was the Saviour of the world, he was her Lord. And therefore he addresses her (no doubt with respect but nevertheless) as ‘woman’ because she must view him as Lord and God. But more, of course, right to the very end he was keeping his own law. After all he had come not only to bear the punishment of our sin but to live a life of perfect righteousness - which of course he was bound to do as infallible God-man. Yet he had come to live that life of righteousness so that it could be credited, imputed to us. His righteousness was so perfect, infinitely perfect, that it earns Heaven for all of us. Don’t forget the suffering and death of Christ for sinners delivers us from hell but it doesn’t deserve Heaven for us. It was the other side of Christ’s work, his perfect righteousness as a man, which is credited to us if we trust in him. And part of that righteousness of course was to provide perfectly for his mother and to look after her. So you see this example of his perfections even to the very end.

Application

We see in Christ’s actions some wonderful things. We see his care for his mother, but we can extend that. We see his care for individuals. He saw his mother, he saw her need, he provided for it. If we are children of God he sees us all and he has the same care for each one as is shown here for his mother. And we note that particularly. He sees individuals.

We don’t scream and shout in funerals, as some cultures do, because though we may be torn and deeply grieved we know that there is a life beyond the grave, and that Christ is Saviour. There are certain things we know and we can count on. So we don’t sorrow quite in the way that others do who have no hope and no understanding of these things. If we come from a culture that is very noisy at funerals, well we have to turn ourselves to Christian culture. Our national culture sometimes is very good, sometimes very bad and this varies from culture to culture, but wherever our culture conflicts with the spirit and attitude of a child of God we adopt Christian culture in its place and we all have to do that.

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John 19:26 Commentary and Bible Study