²⁶When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” ²⁷Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

In His final moments on the cross, our Lord Jesus, being perfectly human, made provision for His earthly mother, Mary. While Roman Catholics revere her beyond biblical warrant, Protestants tend to diminish her almost to insignificance. Not so with Jesus on the cross, who addressed her in His dying moments.

However, this passage must be understood in the context of Scripture, not by later theological speculation. Mary was a sinner like we all are. By her own testimony, she recognized her need for salvation; in her well-known prayer, that we call the Magnificat, she proclaims: “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46–47). Why would she refer to God as “my Savior” if she didn’t need saving from sin? Her use of “my” indicates that she was not thinking of the Messiah who would lead Israel out of Roman’s control, but of a personal relationship to God and a personal salvation.

The Bible teaches that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). The only exception to this definitive statement is the God-man, Jesus Christ. In speaking of Him, the book of Hebrews says:

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. (Heb. 4:15)

The apostle Paul affirmed Jesus’ sinlessness:

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor. 5:21)

Scripture makes no similar statements about Mary being sinless, which would be glaringly strange if she was, as some assert, sinless. But she wasn’t. I am fully aware of the argument that for Mary to have miraculously given birth to a sinless Messiah, she would have to have been sinless herself. Scripture does not make that argument, and it cannot be reasoned from Scripture. At any rate, that argument is specious, for it just moves the problem back one generation. We would have to ask, would Mary’s mother not have been sinless for the same reason? The argument supposedly becomes nuanced and logical, with authority ultimately deferred to the church councils, all of which strain against the Scripture on this matter

Nowhere in the Bible is Mary spoken of as the “Mother of God,” but rather, she was called the “mother of Jesus” (John 2:1, 3). We never find in Scripture the phrase “Mother of Christ.” Her motherly relationship to Him was always in the realm of the human, not the divine. When Jesus acted supernaturally in turning water into wine, He corrected her for trying to exert motherly influence over Him and even addressed her with the generic “woman” (John 2:3-4). On another occasion, when Jesus’ earthly mother and half-brothers (by Mary’s husband Joseph) were outside of the place where Jesus was teaching, He denied them privileged access and instead said,

“Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.” (Matt. 12:48–50)

Jesus does not disrespect His mother, but we cannot avoid the observation that He denies her any privileged access to Him when it comes to spiritual things. He raises His followers to a level more significant than that of familial connections. Being an earthly mother or sibling carried little weight with Him regarding His mission. We stretch credulity to think that praying to Mary will be effective, with the idea that she would present our requests to Jesus and that He would never deny or refuse His mother. Scripture does not sustain these notions, and we would suggest that practicing such veneration would be close to idolatry.

Having said all the above, we are free to recognize the respect Jesus confers upon His mother in providing for her care and well-being after His death. In the ancient world, no public social net existed for the elderly or for women who depended on family for their financial well-being. As the oldest son of Mary, Jesus acted according to the Mosaic Law, which asserted the importance of honoring one’s parents. Joseph, the husband of Mary, had evidently died previously, and the other siblings of Jesus had not yet become believers in Him. So Jesus, therefore, entrusted Mary to John, “the disciple whom He loved” (whose gospel account is the only one to mention this incident). Our Lord certainly made an affectionate choice to look after His mother. Notice he calls to her using the generic term “Woman,” thereby divesting her of her motherly relationship to Him and transferring that to John. She would no longer be the mother of Jesus, but she was now the mother of John.

She who brought Jesus into the world through birth was now provided for as He was exiting this world in death. And Jesus remembered her and honored her. Mary’s reaction to her relationship with Jesus was a source of much contemplation. From the time of His birth, she “treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Might she have also pondered His final words to her on the cross, “Woman, behold your son”? Yes, Jesus assigned to her a new parental relationship with John. But would she ponder, like only a mother can do, a subtle and profound nuance to His words? How could she ever forget the vision of her son hanging on the cross, the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world?

Lord, I worship and revere You only, and I lay my life before You as a living sacrifice to You, the Son of God, my Savior.