Considering the time limit I imposed on myself to get this Project done, I may change my approach after this article, running through each Last Word quickly and leaving something – something compared to how those Chessmasters do it – you know, when they compete against multiple players at the same time, assessing every game every time, making a move, and moving to the next game, until he wins or loses them all.
“Woman, behold thy son.”
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,
“They divided my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.”
So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and 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!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
John 19:23-27
The same soldiers who joined in the mockery were raising sour wine to the crucified Christ, and here we see that they were also dividing His clothes, casting lots to see who gets what.
In the crowd and by the cross where Jesus hung stood Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene; the crucified Jesus saw them, and ‘the disciple whom He loved’ (who was John, the writer of this Gospel), He spoke to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”
Now, the website where I pulled these 7 Last Words from only indicated that phrase, and I think this is prone to misinterpretation. Because even if Jesus called His mother ‘Woman’, people may think that the ‘son’ He is pertaining to is Himself – which is why it is imperative that we should also consider what He told John – ‘Behold, your mother!’
Two other things we should acknowledge: First, Jesus didn’t just address HIs mother as ‘woman’ here – Earlier in the Gospel, in fact at the event where we say He performed His first miracle, Mary told Him the wedding celebrants were out of wine, to which He responded, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:4)
Second, if you take a look at the other translations of Scripture, particularly the ones that do capitalize ‘He’, ‘Him’, and so on when referring to Jesus, all of them do not capitalize ‘son’ in ‘Woman, behold, your son’. I point both of these out only to indicate that Jesus addressed Mary not as ‘Mother’, but as she was – ‘Woman.
Also, that the son He is referring to is not Himself, but John, as He followed up by telling him that Mary was now his mother – perhaps, to say that he should take care of her as such from now on.
Considering what I’ve been raised to believe, and all that I’ve been exposed to, to this day, and now that I’m writing about the 7 Last Words, I believe (1) That this phrase was counted as one of the 7 Last Words and (2) that crucified Christ was very precise in His choice of words, if only to communicate that (1) Nobody, not even His mother, nor John who was very well aware that He was loved by Christ, had any special privilege, position or role, and (2) He lays down His life for everybody – all women, all sons, all who believed; including Mary and John.
We see in less dangerous times that Christ was careful to address anyone who saw cause to focus on and venerate anything or anyone besides Himself. In Luke 11, we read how He was casting out demons, and the following happened:
As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him,“Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”
And instead of saying, ‘Amen!’, or even preceding what He had to say with any sort of acknowledgement, He replies: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:27-28)
We read in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that it was only Christ that was mentioned – not His mother, nor the disciple whom He loved, or anyone else for that matter – who ‘knew no sin’ and ‘became sin’.
In Hebrews 4:15 we read Christ as the only One who is our “high priest …who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
I venture to say that there was no one before Christ whom He indicated, ‘(heard) the word of God and (kept) it’ – as a response to the woman who was trying to bless His mother. In Philippians 2:8 it was only Christ whom Paul mentioned was ‘obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross’.
I know I said earlier, how I may approach the other remaining Last Words, sort of in a round-robin fashion, but there’s some value in just doing each of them one by one… because you do see patterns.
So far, through the words of Christ, we see His heart for those who refused to believe in Him and mocked Him (‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do’), for the criminal who repented at the cross (‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise‘)…
…and now we see His heart for those who were close to Him, who, quite possibly unknown to them at the time, would be given some, if not as much veneration as He would be given. In His grace, even while nailed to the cross, He loved them and the world whose eyes would be on them, by saying:
“Woman, behold thy son;” “Behold, thy mother!”
Let us pray.
Father, we thank You for Jesus, and we acknowledge at this time, that it was He and only He who could do what needed to be done for our reconciliation and salvation. We thank You for Your grace, seen through His choice of words – For now, we remember that only Your Son could have been born as flesh. Only Your Son lay down His life, and as we will celebrate later on, we proclaim that only Your Son rose from the dead, and eventually only Your Son ascended to the heavenlies. We recognize how we have been united with Him, but we explicitly say that it is only through HIM that we ourselves have died to sin, born again as new creations, reconciled to You, and seated in the heavenly places.
We thank You, Father, for Jesus. And in only His’ name we pray, amen.
96838/365000
#7LastWords #Bible #BibleStudy #Repentance #Salvation #Gospel #Grace #HolyWeek #JesusChrist #Presence #Reflections #Revelations
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
Leave a comment