"Dear woman, here is your son, Here is your mother."

John 19:25-27
₂₅Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ₂₆When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," ₂₇and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

To be honest, I wasn't sure how to deal with this text at first. It seems here that one of the things that happened was Jesus, in a moment of forgetfulness realized He forgot to have His elderly mother taken care of now that He would no longer be around, so He calls John over to make those arrangements. But I'm not naive, Jesus was not forgetful, Jesus said these things for a reason.

Notice that Jesus calls His mother woman. This can be traced all the way back to earlier in Jesus' ministry. Luke 8 tells us, "₁₉Now Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. ₂₀Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you." ₂₁He replied, "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice." "

It's not that Jesus didn't believe Mary didn't have faith in God's promise at her pregnancy, we know Jesus' siblings also later came to faith, but here we see Jesus showing us what His Heavenly family looks like. "John, you believer, this is your mother, Mary, another believer, you are mother and son, you are brothers." You and I are also brothers in Christ. Jesus knows that those who will be with Him are His family. He consistently refers to Christians throughout the Bible as brothers, or sons, or brides.

You can also see the compassion from this statement, to John and Mary, and all of us who are mothers and sons in Christ. He's saying take care of my elderly mother, the way you would your own. Take care of your son, make him supper or wipe his face or any of the awesome things mothers do for us. Fellow believers, take care of your neighbor, especially those who are your brothers or sisters in Christ the way you would your real brother and sister, your real mother and father, your real sons and daughters.

Jesus takes care of us and He reminds us to take care of each other, He clothes us, He feeds us, He gives us shelter, so then we too must provide these things for our fellow brothers, sons and mothers in Christ when they need them.

John didn't take a second to think of the living expense of having a new mother, he didn't argue by stating he had his own mother already. He took her home after that crucifixion and he loved her and provided for her, the way he would his own mother. What a wonderful reminder it is to us that we have many ways to take care of our fellow believers, be it through collection plate donations, charities, our time and service or even physically handing something over to those in need.