Letters to the Family of God

by Joe Franzone | August 26, 2021 | Pastor's Blog

Letters-To-The-Family-of-God-WCC

August 26, 2021

When Jesus saw His mother there and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to her, “Woman here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. John 19:26-27

Honor your father and your mother. Exodus 20:12

He committed no sin. 1 Peter 2:22

August 26

Dear Friends,

This past Friday would have been my mother’s eighty-fourth birthday. The letter is written to her memory.

Jesus Christ knew no sin. He kept every commandment of God. This obedience did not isolate Him from the world; rather, it held Him in the thick of life’s necessities even as He was dying.

From the cross, Jesus honored His mother, who was more than likely a widow without an income, facing a future with no son. At that moment, Jesus asked His disciple, John, to care for her as his mother.

Three things need to be noted.

First, while hanging on the Cross. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin in one exact moment. When the Apostle Paul wrote, He was made sin, from 2 Corinthians 5:21, he was saying that in every possible application of sin and with every possible implication of sin Christ carried all of it in His body. This means Christ did not know sin in bits and pieces but one massive sustaining blow. There was His burden.

Second, His mother’s burden was watching her faultless Son, being treated like scum. Staying by His side right to the end, she watched torture and the destructive capacity of the darkest of men. She showed her love to her Son, and He showed His love to her. This is how it should always be between mother and child.

Third, in this mother and child exchange, we find Jesus fulfilling the law of God at His death. Indeed, as shocking as this may read, His death on the cross is meaningless if He did not honor His mother, entrusting her care to John. Which is to say, if Christ had not said what He said to John and His mother, He would have broken the fifth commandment, and we would all be lost and justifiably condemned. Striking, but true.

Man of sorrows, what a name
For the Son of God who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim
Hallelujah! What Savior

 

Stand unclean, no one else could
In my place condemned He stood
Now His nearness is my good
Hallelujah! What a Savior

Let us praise His name together!

Grace and peace to you and yours.
Pastor Joe