“Woman, behold thy Son.”
— John 19:26
The first and most obvious interpretation of this verse is that Jesus was a responsible son and took care of His mother on earth. This is true, but I have a little different view. I feel that the voice of the cross was meant for a much larger purpose and that God would have taken care of Mary any which way. The message as I see is of two folds, one, a prophetic declaration that the right time has come and second is to see the larger “family” of God.
It is interesting to know that Mary, the mother of Jesus, appears only twice in the book of John. Both the times Jesus refers to her as, Woman. The first time is mentioned in John 2: 1- 6. Here at the wedding of Cana the first miracle was performed by Jesus. Looking a little deeper into we find some interesting facts. This was a wedding day, all had gathered to celebrate the union of two different worlds, one that of the bride and the other of the groom. These two worlds will come together and merge into one through marriage. The two different individual identities will soon become one in all the aspects. The bride was adorned for the occasion and the groom had come all the way to take her away. As per the Jewish tradition, the day and the hour of the arrival of the groom was not known. The groom will always wait for his father’s go ahead to get his bride. This must have been the situation at that time. Here in the middle of the celebration, the wine got over. The wine getting over during the celebration was a rare instance. Someone’s estimation of quantity had gone wrong, maybe more guests came for the marriage, or maybe the consumption of wine per person was more than expected. Whatever the case, the fact remains that the wine got over. Jesus, his disciples and mother mary was present at the wedding. Mary must have been close to the family as she knew that the wine was over. Something that she knew about Jesus made her approach Him for the solution. She said, “They don’t have any wine.” Jesus answered her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Nevertheless water was converted into wine that day. Something of an ordinary form was transformed into precious. The next time we read about Mary is when the hour had come.
In John 19:26-27: When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple He loved, standing there, He said to His mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then He said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. Here again Mary was referred to as Woman, which is the relationship between Him and Mary. Jesus tells Mary, this is your son, and to John He say, this is your mother. The relationship between Mary and John is of Mother and Son. This was when His time to go to heaven had come and had to complete the “formalities” of the earth here on earth. The time had come for the transformation from the corruptible to the uncorruptible, from water to wine. The relationships of husband, wife, children so and so forth are the matters of the earth. In Heaven everyone is like an angel as there is no relationship of husband and wife there. The relationships have earthly context and will remain on earth. What we do with these relationships on earth, only that will be carried inside the heaven. Here on earth Jesus was the eldest son and was supposed to take care of His mother. Mary did have other children and not that they would have not taken care of her. Jesus carried out the earthly responsibility of caring for mother by giving His place to the most loved disciple John. We read further that John took her into his home.
How Jesus viewed the relationships of earth is mentioned in Matthew 12: 46- 50.
Jesus was still speaking to the crowds when suddenly His mother and brothers were standing outside wanting to speak to Him. Someone told Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to You.” But He replied to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven, that person is My brother and sister and mother.”
The earthly relationships were redefined by Jesus. Mother, brother and sister are not blood related. They are related to the “will of Father”. Whosoever is doing the will of Father is the mother, the brother and sister of Jesus. He broadened the earthly definitions of relationships to a much larger level, thereby accommodating everyone in just one definition.
The new definition of relationship is related in doing the will of our Father.
Author: Dr. Ajit Onawale
