The Seven Last Words on the Cross (3)

 

 

[John 19:25-27]

 

This is the third saying Jesus spoke on the cross:

“Woman, behold your son… Behold your mother” (John 19:26-27).

Today’s passage is from John 19:25-27:

“Near the cross of Jesus stood His mother, His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son.’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.”

From this passage, we understand that beside Jesus on the cross were four women and one man.

First, let’s consider the four women:

  1. “His mother” refers to Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was crucified.

  2. “His mother’s sister” is the sister of Mary, Jesus’ mother, identified as Salome, the wife of Zebedee and mother of James and John, two of Jesus’ twelve disciples (see Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40).
    We can know this by comparing the people mentioned in Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40:

    • Matthew 27:56: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee

    • Mark 15:40: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and Joseph, and Salome
      From this comparison, it is understood that Salome is the mother of the sons of Zebedee, thus Mary’s sister.

  3. The identity of “Mary, wife of Clopas” (John 19:25) is uncertain. There are various theories. In Matthew 10:2-4 and Mark 3:18, when Jesus calls the twelve disciples, some suggest that the sons of Alphaeus are also the sons of Clopas, meaning “Clopas” and “Alphaeus” might be the same person. Comparing the Gospels, it appears that James the younger and Joseph were sons of Clopas, but also James the younger is called son of Alphaeus, so some conclude that Clopas might be another name for Alphaeus.

  4. “Mary Magdalene” was a woman from the region of Magdala who suffered greatly from seven demons until Jesus healed her, and then she served Him.
    See Luke 8:2:

    “...and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out.”

These four women were not at Jesus’ side from the very beginning (John 19:25). In fact, they initially watched Jesus from a distance (Mark 15:40). It would not have been easy for these four women, who first observed Jesus from afar, to make their way through the large crowd to come close to the cross where Jesus was crucified on Golgotha.

Then, who is the one man mentioned in today’s passage, John 19:25-27? This one man is referred to by Jesus as the “disciple whom He loved” (John 19:26) [here, the word “disciple” is singular]. Among the twelve disciples, Jesus showed special affection for Peter, John, and James. When the synagogue leader Jairus’s daughter died, Jesus allowed only Peter, James, and his brother John to follow Him and no one else (Mark 5:37). When Jesus went up the Mount of Transfiguration and was transfigured, He took only Peter, James, and John with Him (Matthew 17:1-2). Also, when praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus left eight disciples at the entrance and took only Peter, James, and John with Him inside the garden (Mark 14:33).

Among these three disciples, the “disciple whom He loved” in John 19:26 is John.

How do we know this? Because the apostle James had already been killed by Herod (Acts 12:2), so Jesus’s saying on the cross, “Behold your mother” (John 19:27), means James could not take care of Mary, Jesus’s mother. Also, it is not Peter because before the Passover, Jesus, knowing His hour had come to leave the world and return to the Father, loved His own to the very end (John 13:1), washed the disciples’ feet, and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me” (verse 21). At that time, Peter made a gesture asking who Jesus meant by the disciple who was leaning on His chest, and it was understood to be the one “whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23-24).

So where was Peter when Jesus was crucified? The Bible does not say that Peter was by the cross like the four women mentioned in John 19:25, nor that he even looked at Jesus from afar like they did (Mark 15:40). This suggests Peter was not there at all. After denying Jesus three times and weeping bitterly in repentance, shouldn’t Peter have followed Jesus more closely?

What about us? Are we really standing by Jesus’s cross? Or at least, are we watching Him from a distance? Like John and the four women mentioned in John 19:25-26, we too should follow Jesus closely and be near His cross.

The passage John 19:26-27 says:
“When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son.’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.”

Dr. Park Yoon-sun reflected on three meanings here:

  1. “Jesus, even in His final obedience to God, did not forget His human duties. He fulfilled His responsibility toward His mother, entrusting the care of her to His beloved disciple John.

  2. The fact that He entrusted His mother to the beloved disciple has a spiritual mission. It is a serious lesson teaching that all things natural should serve what belongs to the spirit.

  3. Jesus valued spiritual family more than fleshly family. Therefore, He entrusted His mother to the apostle John rather than His brothers. Spiritual communion is eternal and centered on God; the more it is prioritized, the closer one is to God.”

At the foot of Jesus’ cross were four women: Mary, the mother of Jesus; Salome, Jesus’ aunt; Mary, the wife of Clopas; and Mary Magdalene, along with one man, the apostle John. As Matthew 20:28 says, Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many (to pay the price for the sins of many), shedding His blood on the cross.

Romans 8:35-37 says:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

Because of the inseparable love of Christ, we too must remain by Jesus’ side until the end, like Mary, the mother of Jesus; Salome, Jesus’ aunt; Mary, the wife of Clopas; Mary Magdalene; and the apostle John.

And through the Lord who loves us, we must overcome the struggles against trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and the sword (death).

Therefore, when our Lord clothes Himself in glory and opens the door, we must enter His kingdom and live forever (New Hymnal No. 87, “The Garment My Lord Wore,” verse 4).