His Final Words: “Behold, Your Son”
- David and Marilynn Chadwick
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
by David Chadwick
Over the next two weeks, we are looking at some of the final phrases Jesus spoke while on the cross.
Final words are very important. When someone is nearing the end of life, the words they release are usually incredibly purposeful and poignant. Anyone in the presence of someone who is approaching the end of life should pause and take note of what is being said as their words tend to be pretty significant.
The most important final words ever spoken were spoken by Jesus.
In John 19:26-27, Jesus said, “Woman, behold, your son!…Behold, your mother!”
He was speaking to John, his beloved disciple.
The word behold is powerful. It means “to gaze upon” or “to observe.”
In these words, Jesus was taking in all of the details of the needs around him, even in the midst of his excruciating death.
Jesus wanted to make sure that his mom was cared for after he died. With profound love for his mom, at the point of death, Jesus honored one of the 10 Commandments to honor his mother. At that point, Joseph had already died and I suppose Jesus knew that she would need someone to care for her as she aged.
John was not only Jesus’s beloved disciple, but he was most certainly the youngest of all the disciples. Some think he could have been as young as 14 when he first decided to follow Jesus. Jesus’s commission to John and Mary therefore pointed out the incredibly important gift of the biblical family.
Over time, we learn that John did care for Mary. He took her to Ephesus where he pastored. Evidently, she became a pillar of that community of faith and the Ephesian church helped care for her, perhaps and especially when John was exiled on Patmos.
Dear friends, family is so important. It should be fought for and cherished whenever possible. There is no greater gift than a family who is unified and yielded to Jesus and his principles.
Even from the cross, Jesus was magnifying the importance of family, which is the microcosm of the greater family of God called the church. He highlighted the gift of caring for parents.