John
19:25-27 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s
sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus
therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said
to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He
said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And
from that hour that disciple took her to his own home. NKJV
Many of us have been able to watch man’s adaptation
of our Lord Jesus Christ vicious beating and His long hard walk to Golgotha
bearing the cross as depicted in the movie entitled “The Passion of the Christ.”
I must say that with the advancement in the movie makeup and special effects
and camera work it is perhaps the closest interpretation of the real event that
took place some 2,000 years ago. Yet despite all of that it still pales in
comparison to the actual day itself. In our Lord’s Humanity, He was absolutely
spent physically, in pain and agony much too difficult for any of us to
imagine.
I believe that people like Cory Tin Boon (one of the
holocaust survivors) could relate and understand our Lord’s physical pain,
hunger, and exhaustion or many other beloved true believers around the world
suffering physical beatings and torture because of their faith in our Lord Jesus.
I just got the latest issue (June 2013) of the monthly magazine “The Voice of
the Martyrs” that I am so fortunate to receive each month and I am always
humbled and convicted of all of my sins of complaining of my lot in this life before
my Lord Jesus when I read what happens to some of these truly beloved brothers
and sisters in Christ. This issue has the story of a young girl named Susan only
13 years old at the time she heard an Evangelist preach the gospel in her
school in Uganda and she turned to our Lord Jesus and was born again. Her
father was so furious about her becoming a follower of Jesus Christ that he
beat her regularly, but when he saw that this would not make her deny our Lord,
he then locked her in a room in their mud shanty without feeding her for 6
months.
Our Lord Jesus preserved her life by moving the
heart of her brother to sneak roasted banana’s under the door to her when their
father would be gone. These are two people that can relate to the physical pain
and anguish our Lord Jesus endured on some level, but none of us will ever
relate to the spiritual struggle and wrestling our Lord endured as His perfect
sinless soul was now being made into sin for all of us sinfully sick human
beings. The sins committed against Cory Tin Boon and young Susan were part of
humanities sin that our Lord was hanging on the cross for and He saw these two
women and all the rest of us who would come to Him for our own personal
spiritual cleansing and healing.
Now with all of this as a back drop and knowing that
our Lord was in such agony physically and spiritually, it is such a vividly peculiar
picture of where it all began with Him as He ruled and reigned from Heaven in
all of its glory and splendor that He would agree to become His own creation
and suffer such cruel treatment voluntarily and willingly. Sister Cory Tin Boon
and young Sister Susan were not enduring their torture at the hands of sinful
men voluntarily but it was surely against their wills. Knowing the Majesty, the
Might, and the Monarch our Lord Jesus was in Heaven and to now see Him nailed
to an old tree beaten like He was an animal it is so beyond our human hearts to
understand that He was about to give His life for a creature He made that has now
turned hateful and vile.
With all that our Lord was under, He thought so
graciously of His Mother and the others standing beneath His cross crushed in
their spirits seeing Him in this condition to show them how even at this most ugly
and profane moment that He was most and more concerned with each one of them.
His Mother as well as the others still had no clue that 3 days later they would
see Him alive from the dead in a new Glorified body. Our Lord Jesus knew that
they perceived they were seeing Him for the last time on earth and they were
undoubtedly mourning in such a manner as that and He wanted them to be
comforted with each other and in each other.
Our Lord though hearing the mocking and taunting
from the crowd standing around was in complete and Sovereign control over the
entire scene. It was by His Sovereign control that His Mother, the other women,
and the Apostle John were able to be so close to His cross to hear His Words to
them without any trouble from the Roman soldiers. It was He who certainly
determined the very moment when He died.
Where else would you expect that any loving Mother
would be but right by her son or daughter in their time of hurt, pain, and
suffering and the Mother of our Lord Jesus was no different and so we see her
right upfront grieving her beloved Son’s agony and sharing in His pain as her
own heart is being pierced (Luke 2:35).
Our Lord orchestrated this entire scene so that He could instruct John to take
care of His Mother and treat her as his own Mother (Psalm 35:14 & John 19:27).
Our Lord knowing the excruciating grief in the heart of His Mother as she was mourning
and witnessing the death of her first born Son wanted to give her another son (John
the Apostle) (John 19:26) that she
would love and care for like she certainly did for our Lord. In His
afflictions, He was binding up the wounds of those He loved who were being
afflicted by witnessing His Passion and eventual death.
“We may justly admire the power of divine grace in
supporting these women, especially the virgin Mary, under this heavy trial. We
do not find his mother wringing her hands, or tearing her hair, or rending her
clothes, or making an outcry; but, with a wonderful composure, standing by
the cross, and her friends with her.” Matthew Henry
If
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this
from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear
Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I
believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from
the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn
from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control
of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
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