"Woman, Here Is Your Son"

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her [at the cross], 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 own home. (John 19:26-27)

As the notes in my HarperCollins Study Bible tell me, “Many suggestions have been made for a symbolic meaning for this incident.” Catholic theologians, for instance, have said that Jesus is designating Mary as the mother of us all. That’s a comforting thought: everyone needs a mother now and then.

Today, however, I’m seeing the story differently. Appropriately for a tale about Jesus, it describes something both profoundly human and profoundly divine.

Focusing just on the details, we see a person on his proverbial deathbed, setting his affairs in order. He worries about who will care for his widowed mother—no small matter in a patriarchal society—so he entrusts her to a friend whom he loves. The friend accepts the charge and adopts her into his family. It is a touching display of attention to small but important details that gets played out at deathbeds everywhere.

And because Jesus is doing it, we see how completely he entered into, and embraced, the human experience.

What makes this act divine is the context. Jesus does all this in a state of unimaginable pain. He has been mercilessly beaten. He has faced angry crowds screaming for his death. He has carried a heavy crossbar through the streets of Jerusalem. He has been nailed to a wooden cross and is slowly suffocating.

And he still can look beyond himself to take care of those he loves.

If God is love, there is no more poignant example of the God-nature than a son tending to his mother with his last few breaths.

Through our connection with the Holy Spirit, we can do the same: enter deeply into the human experience and care for others with the ineffable divine love. It is hard to imagine a higher calling.