John 19:27Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“Behold, your Mother.” He said this in order to unite them in mutual love. The disciple understood it so, and therefore took Her to his own.

But why did Christ mention no other woman, though others also stood by the Cross? To teach us to give preference to our mothers.

Indeed, when parents hinder spiritual works, we must not even know them. But when they do not hinder them at all, they must be given everything due and preferred to all other people.

They gave birth to us, raised us, and endured a multitude of labors and sorrows because of us.

By this Christ also stops the mouth of Marcion’s shamelessness. For if He was not born according to the flesh and had no Mother, why does He show such great care for Her alone?

So this disciple took Mary to himself, for the Pure One was entrusted to the pure. See how steadfast the female sex is in afflictions, while the men all abandoned the Lord. Truly He has come who strengthens the weak and receives the despised.

Although His sufferings had reached their final extremity, He took care for His Mother, for even while suffering He was dispassionate.

He entrusts Her to the beloved disciple, who was John, the writer of the Gospel. He commands him to take Her home and have Her as a mother.

In turn He commands Her to regard His most trusted disciple as none other than a true son, evidently one who would fulfill with love and tenderness the duty proper to a natural son.

But did Christ say this from fleshly affection, as some foolish people supposed? By no means. To fall into such absurdity belongs only to those with a senseless mind.

What benefit, then, did Christ provide through this? First, let us say that He wished to strengthen the teaching honored also in the Law.

And when Mary followed Him even to the Cross, from that day He handed Her over to John, saying, "Woman, behold your son" (Jn 19:26), and to the disciple, "Behold your Mother." By these words He again forbade Her to approach Him. Since He said, "From now on John is your son." The holy author thinks that Mary wished to come near to Her Son crucified on the Cross and embrace Him, but was restrained by Christ's words entrusting Her to John.

We judge a person's worth not by sex, but by character. Thus Jesus loved the Evangelist John more than the others. He was noble by birth and known to the high priest, yet he did not fear the plots of the Jews. He even brought Peter into the high priest's courtyard. He alone of the apostles stood by the Cross. He received the Mother of the Savior into his own home. He became the chaste son who received the Virgin Mother as an inheritance from the Lord. Cf. Jn 18:15-16. Tertullian even calls the Apostle John "one who voluntarily accepted celibacy" (see On Monogamy 17).

Your holiness is rightly indignant at the opinion that from the virginal womb, from which Christ was born according to the flesh, there came another birth also.

The Lord Jesus would not have chosen birth from the Virgin if He had thought She would become so incontinent as to defile with human seed the bridal chamber of the Lord’s Body, that palace of the eternal King.

Whoever asserts this merely repeats the impiety of the Jews, who say that He could not be born of a Virgin.

If even bishops affirm such a thing and suppose that Mary gave birth many times, then the Jews will dispute the truth of the faith with still greater zeal.

And what of the Lord’s words to His Mother concerning the Evangelist John: “Woman, behold, Your son,” and to John concerning Mary: “Behold, your Mother”?

Then He said to the disciple, "Behold your Mother." See the commentary on Jn 19:26. "And from that hour the disciple took Her to his own," according to the command of the Teacher.

When the Virgin Mother, at the lack of wine, wished Him to work a miracle, She was immediately answered: “What is that to Me and to You, Woman?” (Jn 2:4).

It was as though He said, “That I am able to work a miracle comes from the Father, not from the Mother.”

By the nature of His Mother, He who by the nature of the Father performed miracles was able to die.

Behold, while on the Cross and dying, He acknowledged His Mother, whom He entrusted to the disciple, saying, “Behold, your Mother!”

And behold, He says, “What is that to Me and to You, Woman? My hour has not yet come” (Jn 2:4).

This means: “In the miracle, which I performed not according to Your nature, I do not know You. But when the hour of death comes, I know You as My Mother, for I can die according to Your nature.”

Jesus loves more than the others the one who was chaste when He chose him, and who remained chaste forever. It is related that Christ called John from his wedding, when he wished to enter marriage. Therefore He bestowed upon him, who was kept from fleshly pleasures, the desired sweetness of His love. When Christ was dying on the Cross, He entrusted His Mother to him, so that a virgin might guard the Virgin. After His posthumous ascent into heaven and His Resurrection, His Mother would not lack a son, and Her most pure life would be preserved by his most pure service.

Here I shall cite the word of Saint John Chrysostom on the Lord’s Crucifixion, concerning the lament of the Most Holy Theotokos.

“Why did the Mother who bore the Most Pure One suffer unbearably? For what reason? Because She is His Mother.

What sting did not wound Her soul? What arrows did not pierce Her heart? What spears did not tear Her whole being?

Therefore She could not remain with the women standing with Her near the Cross, suffering and weeping with Her over the calamity. She could not even stand at a distance.

Unable to endure the trembling of Her heart, and desiring to hear the last words of Her beloved Son, She drew close to Him. Standing by the Cross and weeping, She cried out with groaning:

As He was completing His ministry and going to the Father, Jesus spoke from the height of the Cross to His Mother and to His beloved disciple, the Apostle John. He said to them, "Woman, behold your son," and, "Behold your mother!"

These words prove that Jesus was the only Son of His Mother. If She had four other sons besides Jesus, could it have been said that from that time only John would be Her son? Why would John have had to take care of Her, and even take Her into his own home, if She still had four sons?

When Christ departed from this world, His Most Holy Mother remained alone, and there was no one to care for Her. Joseph was no longer alive at that time. The so-called brothers of the Lord were sons of Mary of Cleopas, Her kinswoman, and they were not even among the followers or disciples of Jesus. There were no other relatives.

Therefore, seeing His Mother and His beloved disciple standing with Her, Jesus was pleased to entrust Her care to this disciple, John. Turning to Her, He said, "Woman, behold your son," and with His glance He indicated John to Her. Then, turning to John and indicating His Mother with His glance, He said, "Behold your mother!"

John himself relates this, adding that from that hour this disciple took Her to his own. That is, he received Her into his home and cared for Her until Her death, as a son cares for his mother.

The Evangelists Matthew and Mark, speaking of the women present at the death of Jesus and looking on Him from afar, do not mention the Theotokos (Mt 27:55-56; Mk 15:40-41). From this one may suppose that the Theotokos was not present at the very death of Her Son.

It is quite possible that Jesus Himself wished to spare His Mother the terrible anguish of soul at the sight of Her Son dying on the Cross. Perhaps by His glance He gave John to understand that he should lead Her away to his home.

Yet then one must admit that John led the Theotokos away and himself returned again to the Cross. For he speaks also of what took place afterward, and he accompanies his account with these words: "And he who saw it has borne witness, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he tells the truth" (Jn 19:35).

It is difficult, almost impossible, to suppose that John, after bringing the Theotokos to his house, at once left Her alone in such a terrible and sorrowful moment. Therefore there is sufficient ground to think that the Theotokos remained to the end at the Cross itself, or only a little distance from it.

"And the people stood by, looking on" (Lk 23:35). But where are the other Apostles besides John? Where are those constant companions of Christ who had resolved to follow Him on His last journey to Jerusalem, and there to die with Him?

Where is Peter, who so confidently swore that he would lay down his life for Him? Where are they in this sorrowful hour of their Teacher, Whom they had so recently acknowledged as the Son of God? Where are they? Where have they scattered?

Death of Judas

There, far from Golgotha, Judas is running and looking back. The chief priests rejected his repentance, and he threw down before them their pieces of silver. In his hands they had been silent witnesses of his vile betrayal.

He thought to free himself from this accuser and thereby calm his conscience. But alas! His conscience, having entered into its rights, tormented him more and more. Without his noticing it, it drew him where he could find true peace and forgiveness of his grave sin.

It drew him to the innocent Victim of his betrayal. Surely he stood in the crowd surrounding Pilate's praetorium. He listened to the words of the Roman governor, which gave hope for the acquittal of the Innocent One.

He was almost calmed when Pilate said with authority to the malicious Sanhedrin, "I find no fault in this Man!" But Pilate's ensuing hesitations, his compliance, his fear of being denounced to Caesar, and the order to scourge Christ must have torn Judas's heart with unspeakable pain.

When the chief priests cried out and the people took up the cry, "His blood be on us and on our children," Judas understood that he had taken upon his soul not only his own sin of betrayal, but also the sin of the people. He had taken the curse the people invoked upon themselves.

Judas ran from the praetorium, now having lost every hope that Pilate would acquit Christ. He ran outside the city, thinking that there, in solitude, he would find peace. But then he saw a crowd coming out of the city gates, preceded and accompanied by Roman troops.

In front of the crowd they carried crosses, the instruments of torment and execution. "Now," Judas thinks, "everything is over. Now nothing can blot out my sin." He stops and looks at Golgotha. He waits to see what will happen next, though he knows perfectly well how the Romans crucify those condemned to execution.

When all was accomplished, when the innocent Sufferer had been nailed to the Cross, Judas awoke from his stupor and ran in the direction opposite from Golgotha, looking back. But where is he running? And why?

Tormented by conscience, he decided that such a man as he could not live, and that these torments must be ended. Then a withered tree appeared before his eyes, on which he could settle accounts with life.

He hurries toward it, approaches it, stands on a large stone, and with convulsive movements of his hands throws his belt over the tree. He ties one end to the trunk, puts the noose around his neck, casts one last look at Golgotha, and throws himself from the stone.

The noose tightened around his neck. After a few convulsive movements, his dead body hung there, then broke loose and fell. Thus the betrayer condemned himself to execution, and was his own executioner.

Where are the other ten Apostles?

But where are the other ten Apostles? Where are those whom Christ, in His last farewell discourse, called His friends (Jn 15:15)? We find no answers to these questions in the Gospel.

Yet, knowing the events that preceded and followed, we can form a fairly plausible supposition about the state of soul of the ten Apostles who fled.

The Apostles, with all the Jews of that time, expected the Messiah as a warrior King of Israel, who would overthrow the Roman yoke, subdue all the nations of the earth, and subject them to the authority of the Jews.

Such were the Jews' ideas about the Messiah's purpose. These dreams were so enticing that even the Apostles, to whom Christ had often said that His Kingdom was not of this world, could not free themselves from them.

They dreamed of the places they would occupy in the Kingdom of the Messiah. They even disputed among themselves about which of them would be assigned the most honorable place in this Kingdom, and who would be greatest.

The "sons of thunder," John and James the sons of Zebedee, even dared to ask the Lord to make them equal with Himself in His Kingdom. They asked Him to seat one at His right hand and the other at His left.

Their faith in such a brilliant and warlike Kingdom of the Messiah was so strong, and at times so darkened their reason, that they did not even believe the Lord's words about His coming sufferings, death, and Resurrection.

These sufferings were utterly incompatible with their ideas of the King of Israel. How could He suffer? And die? Could the Messiah die? No, He would reign forever. Therefore He could not die.

But how would Christ rise, if as Messiah He could not even die? This last question was an insoluble perplexity for the Apostles. They could not understand it at all, nor did they try to resolve it.

They were amazed that Jesus delayed so long in revealing His Kingdom. They were probably perplexed as to why He refused to be proclaimed King of Israel, when the crowd miraculously fed by Him wished to take Him by force and lead Him to Jerusalem for that purpose.

They were already losing hope that their dreams would be fulfilled when Jesus set out on His last journey to Jerusalem. They urged Him not to go there, to what in their opinion was certain death.

If they now admitted the possibility of His death, it was, of course, only because faith in Him as Messiah had already been shaken. Only love for Him, as Prophet and Wonderworker, compelled them to follow Him.

Thomas said, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him," and all went. The solemn entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and the victorious cries of the people who joyfully greeted their King-Messiah, temporarily revived in the Apostles' hearts hope for the imminent revelation of a brilliant Kingdom.

But the final rupture between Jesus and the ruling party, and the people's cooling toward Him, again cast Christ's friends into grief. When He was bound like a criminal and led to trial, they all left Him in fear.

The most ardent of them, and seemingly the most devoted to Christ, denied Him three times, even fearing to name Him. Yet even after this they could still cherish the hope that by some miracle their Teacher would free Himself from the shameful execution threatening Him.

Then He, triumphing over His enemies, would reveal His Kingdom. With this hope they surely came to Golgotha and mingled with the crowd. But alas! These hopes, too, were not destined to come true.

Christ not only did not use His wonderworking power to save Himself from execution, but even prayed for His executioners. When He had been crucified, and the malicious Jews mockingly addressed the Crucified One, saying, "If You are the Son of God, come down from the Cross," did doubt not creep into the souls of the Apostles?

Did they not pray to Him inwardly, "Lord, if You are the Son of God, come down from the Cross and reveal Your Kingdom! Then all will believe in You. Lord, do not delay! Come down from the Cross! Come down, Lord!"

If the Cross afterward became a great stumbling block for many who were ready to believe in Jesus as the Son of God, did the Cross not also become a stumbling block for the Apostles? Did it not cast them into grief, despondency, despair, and disillusionment?

Looking from afar at their crucified Teacher, turning to Him with a plea that He come down from the Cross, and not seeing this plea fulfilled, they could reach hopeless despair.

Their cherished dreams of the brilliant Kingdom of the Messiah collapsed. Their hopes of a prominent share in that Kingdom collapsed. Everything was over. Everything was lost.

How many times that Kingdom had seemed in their dreams so near, so possible. Had they not once asked Jesus what would be given them for having left everything and followed Him?

Christ had answered them that when He sat on the throne of His glory, they too would sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Not having understood the true meaning of these words of the Lord, they could now remember them.

In sorrow and despair they could ask themselves, "Where are these promised twelve thrones? And where is the throne of glory of Jesus Himself? Is it this Cross? And will we too have to share His lot?

Will they crucify us also, as His disciples, accomplices, and executors of His will? Oh, why has He brought us to such a terrible, unbearable situation? Why did He speak of these thrones, when for Himself, instead of the Kingdom of glory, the Cross awaited?

Oh Lord, if You are the Son of God, come down quickly from the Cross and sit on the throne of Your glory! Come down, Lord! Come down!"

These cries, now of doubt and fear, now of vague hope and, after it, hopeless despair, tormented the hearts of the ten Apostles hiding in the crowd around Golgotha. They could not yet understand and grasp the whole great meaning of the events taking place.

They did not yet understand Christ Himself. They did not know that only by death and Resurrection would Christ conquer the world. They had forgotten His words in the farewell discourse: "Take courage; I have overcome the world."

Only after the Lord's Resurrection, and after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them, were their hearts, until then hardened, opened. Only then was their reason enlightened, darkened as it had been by the Pharisaic false teaching about the Kingdom of the Messiah.

"He took Her to himself": into the circle of his nearest relatives, or into his own house, which this family seems to have had in Jerusalem. Tradition says that until the very death of the Theotokos, John lovingly fulfilled toward Her the duties of a tender son.

How did the gaze of Jesus upon His Mother echo in His soul, when she so loved her Son and was so pierced by sorrow? His address to His most pure Mother shows that even now He was calm.

Even now He was above the infirmities of humanity. Even now He was the divine Jesus. Yet He does not turn His gaze away from His Mother.

He looks upon her condition and reveals His care for her, the care of a tender Son for His beloved Mother. What wondrous union of the divine with the human, of the heavenly with the earthly.

He honors His Mother as Mother. Yet He says to her, "Woman," and not "Mother." By not calling her Mother, He shows that He is above earthly bonds.

See verse 26. The good and devoted disciple lovingly received the testament of his dying Teacher. He took His Mother into his own home under his filial care, and as a loving son he guarded and comforted Her until Her most honorable Dormition.