John 19:25-27 NIV

25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

There is nothing natural about burying your son.

Mary has always said yes to God. She has always submitted to his move.

She joyfully accepts the Angel Gabriel’s news that she will give birth to Jesus. He performs his first public miracle, turning water to wine at a wedding, at her request. She has either, already witnessed privately, or simply believed, in her son’s power. But nothing in her life has prepared her for this.

Despite miraculous beginnings, Mary’s motherhood journey would have been common in many ways. Because before Jesus becomes a thirty-year-old revolutionary, he has been an infant, completely dependent. He has been a child, who needed to be watched. He has been an adolescent, always trying to do his own thing. He has been a young man exploring the world.

But there’s nothing natural about burying your son.

What is it like to give birth to a child? And each day watch a mystery unfold, as you steward over this life completed in the mind of God, but revealed to you day by day?

To care for them when they are helpless?

To comfort them when they are hurt?

To pray for them a life free from harm?

To dream for them a life of fulfillment?

What is it like, each day, to see new joys, new wonders be revealed? To discover gifts in your boy that you never imagined?

To see him as the first born among many brethren?

A natural leader?

A gifted teacher?

To have a unique bond that allows you to laugh together freely, link together wordlessly, and love each other without regret?

And then, one horrible day, to see it all vanish.

To still want desperately to protect your baby but be helpless to save him.

We are losing our sons too soon. Some to sickness. Some to violence. Some to choices. Some seemingly to chance.

Too often, a woman must behold new sons.

Now Mary had 4 younger boys: James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. But Jesus didn’t place her in their care. Keep in mind, these were good men, on their way to being great men. James became leader of the church at Jerusalem. He and Jude each wrote books of the Bible that stand as our eternal word.

Sometimes your crew is too close to see you as God sees you.

Too close to realize where God is taking you. What he is doing through you.

These were the same brothers who had told Jesus that since he wanted to be a public figure, he should go to Judea and show himself to the world. Sometimes people can see the career, but not the calling. They hadn’t believed then that he was the real deal. Possibly they still had doubts.

But Jesus’s brothers eventually come around.

So Jesus entrusts his mother to the believing Community, not because her sons won’t care for her, but because the church also will. He said whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.

John will now take Mary into his home. Jesus’s oral testimony before witnesses was legally binding. Mary is now protected. And for a disciple to receive a role in his teacher’s family was a huge honor. John is now elevated.

He is now responsible to provide for Mary in her old age. She is probably a widow in a society where women rarely earn much. She would be officially dependent on her oldest son, Jesus, for support, though younger sons would also help.

But Jesus’s proclamation invokes spiritual support as Well.

Jesus said love one another, as I have loved you.

Believers must care for each-other. Family is blood. You expect them to have your back. And prayerfully, they always will.

This is different.

Because sometimes when we lose a child, parent, brother or sister, God will give us a community of spiritual children, parents, brothers, and sisters who are ready and willing to love us.

It’s not a substitute. It’s a new walk with God.

And it doesn’t mean you need to move into their houses. It means they can love you from whatever distance you require. Phone calls, prayers, and hugs can go a long way.

There are a faithful few, when everyone goes back to their business, who will stay.

So in this tender moment between son, mother, and faithful friend, Christ accomplishes two things.

First he says to every grieving mother throughout time, I will never leave you alone. I have given you a family that will be with you always.

And then he says, to John: Stay with my Mom, while I go handle this.

This is not the story of a fallen soldier. Because Jesus, doesn’t stay down.

In dying on the cross, Jesus identifies with every young man who died - too soon.

And in rising he redeems any man who will confess with his mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in his Heart that God raised him from the Dead.

Here is a guy in such control, that he took time out from dying to secure his Mom and build the church.

Jesus died like a boss with his hands up.

Let us be clear: As a first century Palestinian Jew, Jesus could have been any color except mine. He is From Nazareth, from which no good ever comes. So we have a young man of color, from the hood, facing death, for a phantom crime. He has simply told the Powers That Be an unacceptable truth: He is the Son of God

By unapologetically stating his divine identity, he has profoundly asserted his worth.

And when you are from a disempowered people, and you assert your worth, and by extension, the worth of your people, you become dangerous.

In conquering death, Christ restores the image of God tarnished by Adam’s sin. Who God foreknows he also predestines to be conformed to the image of his son. And the mere existence of the undefiled image of God, the new potential for salvation, changes everything.

Which means that every young man beaten up by the system or beaten down by life has new dignity.

Every young woman desired for her body, while demonized for her choices has new virtue.

And every person who confesses Christ’s Lordship and believes in the resurrection shall be saved.

So while Jesus specifically hands Mary to his trusted friend, he also prophesies, of a time soon coming when Mary will see her son everywhere.

Turn to your neighbor and say, Neighbor: You look a lot like Jesus.

For those left behind to mourn, there is a covering, in the savior’s victory over death. We do not weep in vain. We do not mourn in vain.

Because while the height of the cross separates the people from Christ’s touch, and His death separates the people from Christ’s face, His journey to hell and back separates them from the stain of sin, and the certainty of death.

And to we who remain, who have not yet received our heavenly reward, he calls us to band together, the Body of Christ, and says: Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.