Untitled Sermon
Her silence is significant; for if anyone could have rescued Jesus, it was His mother. All she had to do was announce that His claims were false—but she said nothing! What a testimony to the deity of Christ.
Even while He was performing the great work of redemption, Jesus was faithful to His responsibilities as a son.
What an honor it was for John to take his Lord’s place in Mary’s life!
How many women John enumerates has been disputed. It is possible to read the list as two, three or four: (a) Two: his mother and his mother’s sister, namely ‘Mary of Clopas’ (which probably means Mary the wife of Clopas, as in the NIV) and Mary Magdalene. This is highly unlikely, for it would mean not only that Mary had remarried after the death of Joseph, but also that there were two women with the name ‘Mary’ in the same family. (b) Three: In this view Jesus’ mother’s sister is ‘Mary of Clopas’, but this too presupposes two women with the same name in one family. (c) Four: This is more likely, and assumes that John has listed two women without naming them, and two others by name.
it is wonderful to remember that even as he hung dying on a Roman cross, suffering as the Lamb of God, he took thought of and made provision for his mother.
The traditional role of the oldest son in a Jewish family was to provide for the care of the mother when the husband or father of the house was no longer around to care for the mother. It seems clear that Jesus here fulfilled his family responsibility as a dutiful son.
The beloved disciple proved to be an exemplary disciple: From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. Tradition has it that the beloved disciple, identified as the apostle John, came to live in Ephesus, and accordingly the traditional sites of the tombs of Mary and John are both in Ephesus.