Friday Morning Devotion
John 19:25-27
25 But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Reflection
It seems that Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, passed away at some point before Jesus’ public ministry. From the cross, therefore, Jesus cares for his mother by entrusting her to this disciple, who “from that hour … took her to his own home” (v. 27). But there is almost certainly deeper symbolism at work here.
From its opening, John’s Gospel announces that God is making a new family, “children of God, born not of blood or flesh, nor the will of man, but of God” (Jn 1:12–13). This creation of a new family would be by the Spirit (“born of water and the Spirit,” Jn 3:5) and awaited the pouring out of that Spirit when Jesus was glorified/crucified (Jn 7:38–39). These promises start to burst into reality as Jesus’s blood comes forth as living and renewing water. And the last act the dying Christ does is to place his mother and friend into a new family.
We cannot miss that the goal of the Gospel is family. Long ago, David promised wandering Israelites that “God sets the lonely in families” (Ps 68:6). Surely the deeper meaning of Jesus’s care for his mother is to remind us all that the church is no new institution, it’s a new home.
Prayer
“I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Ephesians 3:14–15), and ask, Jesus, that as you placed your mother and beloved disciple into a new family, that you would deepen and strengthen the familial bonds of brothers and sisters in Christ. May the lonely find a home in Your Body, the Church, O Lord. And may I, O Lord, become a brother or sister in Christ for those who long to belong, for your glory, and for the sake of your new family, the Church.
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Artwork: Crucifixion as Seen from the Cross by James Tissot, Ecce Homo & Mater Dolorosa by Aelbrecht Bouts, and Christ on the Cross with Mary, St. John, Mary Magdalen, St. Stephen by Hans Baldung