Behold Your Mother

Standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother... When Jesus saw His mother there and the disciple there whom He loved 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 into his home. 

John 19:25-27

How important was it to Jesus that we see Mary as our mother? So important that even when He was in pain, barely hanging on to life, Jesus says to Mary, “Woman, behold your son.” Then He assigned His mother to John, His beloved disciple. “Behold, your mother,” and the disciple took her with him into his home. 

Mary has a unique role in our salvation history. She is our mother, the mother of all the faithful. She is our example, a true and faithful disciple of the Lord, who obeyed God and embraced her calling, no matter how difficult and painful. When Jesus told the crowd, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother,” (Mat.12:49-50), I am sure He meant her to be at the top of the list of those followed God’s will. She never took a step away from obedience to the Father’s will, no matter how much love and sacrifice were required. 

She is the “woman” foreshadowed in the first Messianic prophecy in the Book of Genesis: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.” (Genesis 3:15) She is the “woman clothed with the sun” in Revelation 12, who is victorious over the evil dragon who waits to devour her son who is destined to rule over all the nations. She is also the “woman” who asked Jesus to perform His first miracle even when He said it was not yet time. (John 2:1-11) 

Always, always, Mary will point us to Jesus. As our mother, she will always say, just as she told the servants at Cana, “Do whatever He tells you.”