10 May 2019

Mother's Day Message 2019


John 19:25-27 CSB Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

The Lord Jesus was in His early 30’s. His mother, Mary, was at my guess, was 45 years old, probably older.

We note Jesus’s concern
For His mother
Her physical well-being
Her financial well-being
Her emotional well-being

John was the only one to write about this.
John was asked by the Lord Jesus to take care of His mother.

Opinions
B1 Short term care of Mary as taught by Bob Deffinbaugh (Also see at the bottom of the article).
C1 Families are Scripturally required to provide for their widows: 1 Timothy 5:3-4 NLT Take care of any widow who has no one else to care for her. But if she has children or grandchildren, their first responsibility is to show godliness at home and repay their parents by taking care of them. This is something that pleases God.
C2 Mary’s other children did not believe that Jesus is Messiah. Mary did believe.
C3 Later it is said that His brothers were present among the believers: Acts 1:14 NLT They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.
C4 Since the brothers were not believers, it would have been uncomfortable for Mary to be provided for by the unbelieving children. As Bob Deffinbaugh states it: We do not know for certain that Mary’s other sons were present in Jerusalem (though we would expect so—see John 7:1-9), but if they were, can you imagine what kind of comfort these unbelieving sons would have been to their believing mother?180 I can almost hear James trying to comfort Mary after the death of Jesus: “Mom, you know I told Jesus to give up His insane talk about being the Messiah. He must have been out of His mind. And now, all of this foolishness was for nothing, except to shame us.” I believe that Jesus assigned John to care for Mary because he was the one closest to the heart of our Lord, and because he was the first disciple to believe (see John 20:8). He also seems to have had the means to do so. Who better to look after Mary in the next dark and difficult days than John?
B2 Long term care of Mary
C1 Roman Catholic
D1 Mary had no other children.
D2 Jesus would not be present physically to take care of Mary.
D3 Mary was a widow.
D4 ...He took compassion on His desolate mother, and provided for her future. If St. Joseph had been still alive, or if Mary had been the mother of those who are called Our Lord's brethren or sisters in the gospels, such a provision would not have been necessary. Jesus uses the same respectful title with which he had addressed his mother at the marriage feast in Cana. Then he commits Mary to John as his mother, and wishes Mary to consider John as her son. (Source)
C2 Third Saying of Jesus on the Cross (John 19:25-27) (“Greyfriars Free Church of Scotland by its pastor, Malcolm Maclean”) : But it was not merely a temporary arrangement, for she was to live with John for the rest of her life. One tradition says that Mary lived for twelve more years under the care of John.

Jesus
C1 Shows
D1 Compassion
D2 Love
D3 Care
D4 Obedience to God
C2 Demonstrates
D1 Delegation
D2 Trust (of John)
D3 Responsibility
D4 The meaning of the 5th commandment: Exodus 20:12 NLT Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
C3 What the Lord Jesus showed and experience was accomplished even while experiencing
D1 Physical pain
D2 Spiritual pain
E1 The weight of sin’s punishment
E2 The Father’s wrath
E3 Feeling forsaken

Others
B1 J. C. Ryle writes (commenting on John 19:26): Finally, we should mark how Jesus honours those who honour and boldly confess Him. To John, who alone of all the eleven stood by the cross, He gives the high privilege of taking charge of His mother. As Henry pleasantly remarks, it is a sign of great confidence, and a mark of great honour, to be made a trustee and a guardian by a great person, for those he leaves behind at his death. To the women Jesus gives the honour of being specially named and recorded for their faithfulness and love, in a Gospel which is read all over the world in 200 languages.
B2 Pulpit commentary: The minuteness and. tenderness of his loving care. While we contemplate this, his last act of filial love, under the circumstances in which it was performed, we are ready to exclaim, "How human! how Divine! how comprehensive! how minute! how God-like! How like the Father of all!" While he governs and sustains the vast universe, he forgets not a single object not even the smallest. He lights the sun and guides the stars, but forgets not the glow-worm nor to smile on the rose and the lily. And so the Divine Son now on the cross, while he made an atonement for sin, satisfied justice, and honored the Law; still, at the very time, his mother is not forgotten.

We learn
B1 The meaning of love towards believers. Let us do the same.
B2 The meaning of love in the family. This includes the physical, human family, as well as, the spiritual family of the church.
B3 The superiority of Christianity over human systems.
B4 To give highest honor and praise to our savior, Jesus Christ.
B5 The need to show grace to our mother as well.
B6 When there is opportunity spend time with your mother, honor her, help her, and pray for her. If your mother has died, as mine has, still honor her. If your mother is evil, then pray for her salvation and still be kind (avoiding her might be the kindest thing to do); perhaps she will repent and place trust in the Lord Jesus. If she was evil and has died, use her as an example of what not to be, not in anger but in concern for others who may have one similar or be similar.
B7 How to do what is right even if we are suffering.

oOo—

The common Protestant interpretation of this incident is that Jesus, knowing He was about to die and to return to the Father, made arrangements for the long-term care of His mother.179This “long-term” element does raise some questions in my mind. We are told in Scripture that it is the responsibility of the immediate family to look after their own:
3 Honor widows who are truly in need. 4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, they should first learn to fulfill their duty toward their own household and so repay their parents what is owed them. For this is what pleases God (1 Timothy 5:3-4).

Why, then, would Jesus assign the responsibility of caring for His mother to John, who is not one of her sons? The answer most would give is that none of her other sons were believers (see John 7:5). This is true, of course, but not for long. We know that within days or weeks, James, Jesus’ half-brother, will come to faith and eventually become a prominent leader in the church at Jerusalem (Acts 12:17; 15:13; 1 Corinthians 15:7; Galatians 1:19). Why would Jesus assign the long-term care of Mary to John, knowing that James, her son, will soon come to faith?

I would suggest that our problems are solved if we see Jesus providing here for Mary’s short-term care. Surely we would agree that Jesus knew James was one of the elect. If James is one of our Lord’s “sheep,” then Jesus would know it and would not act in a way that was contrary to this knowledge. I would suggest to you that Jesus was providing for the care of His mother for the next few days or weeks. We know that John immediately began to care for Mary, because he tells us so in verse 27 (“from that very time”—literally, “from that hour”). There are those who believe that John (or his family) may have actually owned a home in Jerusalem. This could explain why John (“the other disciple”) was known to the high priest and to the servant girl at the gate (18:16). Mary, like the disciples, could have been in danger and would certainly need to be looked after for a while. John would have been the one most able and willing to carry out this task.

The next few days were going to be pure agony. We do not know for certain that Mary’s other sons were present in Jerusalem (though we would expect so—see John 7:1-9), but if they were, can you imagine what kind of comfort these unbelieving sons would have been to their believing mother?180 I can almost hear James trying to comfort Mary after the death of Jesus: “Mom, you know I told Jesus to give up His insane talk about being the Messiah. He must have been out of His mind. And now, all of this foolishness was for nothing, except to shame us.” I believe that Jesus assigned John to care for Mary because he was the one closest to the heart of our Lord, and because he was the first disciple to believe (see John 20:8). He also seems to have had the means to do so. Who better to look after Mary in the next dark and difficult days than John?

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