March 5 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

John 19:25–30

Devotional

If there was ever anyone who had normal human relationships, it was Christ, the Surety. We see this in particular at the cross where He thinks of His mother and takes care of her. Looking at this from a human perspective, it is very moving to picture Mary at the cross. This mother had to watch her Child, formed in her womb, hang on a cross in deep suffering. She stands at a distance. She cannot come closer for He is delivered into the hands of soldiers. She sees Him hang on the cross but she cannot comfort Him. She is not allowed to chase away the biting insects. She is not permitted to cover His shame. She is not allowed to wipe away His blood. She may not pour balm into His wounds. Neither is she allowed to quench His thirst. She is not permitted to loosen His hands and feet. The wrenching love of a mother in pain is pictured.

Notice, reader, that Jesus addresses His mother because He realizes that now a sword pierces her very soul. Still, the Son of God does not address her as “mother” but as “woman.” At the wedding of Cana He also addressed her as “woman.” That was needed to show her the spiritual distance between Him and her. But now the word woman means more than spiritual distance. Now it means goodbye. Now the conclusion of her motherhood has come. This means that now the end has come of these ties of blood. We must have been at a grave to understand something of what this meant. This surely was difficult for Christ as well for He was also a man subject to like passions as we are. Who ever felt human sorrow deeper than He did for He loved His mother perfectly!

Jesus had to say goodbye to His own flesh and blood. On Calvary everything connected to sin had to happen. For, after all it was because of sin that Adam had to stand at Eve’s grave or vice versa. In a little while we will all be standing at each other’s grave. Sin is a power that severs all ties. That hurts, because we are not only created to live, but also to live together. But we said goodbye to God, and that is why we have to say goodbye to one another. At the cross, Mary painfully learns the same lesson. And yet Christ is not only separated from His mother as a result of sin, but He is separated from His Father because of sin. His mother, therefore, cannot be present to soothe His sufferings. Christ has to suffer alone, separated from His Father and from all human comfort. As a result of sin, there is no comfort for Jesus on the cross. He suffered alone.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.