There's some vital truth found
in this saying, woman behold thy son and son behold thy mother. Let us listen today to a word
of love, which he spoke as a human son to a human mother. Like her son, Mary was not unacquainted
with grief. It was no light matter for Mary
to become the mother of our Lord in this mysterious and unheard-of
way. She was the Virgin Mary. She
had never known a man. So, in giving birth to the Saviour,
there was a lot of gossip, a lot of hard things that was said
to Mary and about her, that she was an adulterous woman, that
she was having a child because of her fornicating life. She
no doubt sorrowed over having to lay her newborn babe in a
manger. There was no place in the inn,
and he was born in a stable. What anguish she must have felt
when she heard of Herod's intentions to destroy her infant's life. What difficulties she faced as
she fled into a foreign country and lived there for several years,
fearing for the life of her infant son. What grief must have wrung
her heart when he was hated and rejected by his own nation. But who can estimate what she
felt as she stood there at the cross, of Calvary, neither her
own danger nor the sadness of the sight. nor the insults of
the crowd could restrain her from performing the last office
of duty and tenderness to her divine Son on the cross. When the world had cast out the
child of her womb, she stands there by the cross, held by the
golden chain of love to the dying Savior, her Son. Near him in his death, as in
his birth, never such bliss at a human birth, and never such
sorrow at a human death. Simeon prophesied in Luke 2,
in verse 34, he said, yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own
soul also, Mary. She it was who first planted
kisses on the brow, now a crown of thorns. No mother ever suffered
as she suffered. Who is it that can measure the
hours of sorrow and suffering as that sword of grief was solely
drawn through Mary's soul? We see a perfect man setting
an example for children to honor their parents. Mark the tenderness
of the Lord's love for his mother. He felt no different than any
other loving son would feel for his weeping mother. To his parents,
Christ was the best of sons. Let not the parents of this church
be smitten like eagles in the fable who was smitten to the
heart by an arrow winged from their own feathers. In other
words, what I'm saying, the children of this church, have a responsibility
and we will teach them here to love their parents, to respect
their parents, to follow their parents, to obey their parents. I hope you'll call your dear
mom and dad, let them know you love them, that you respect them,
that you're sorry for the grief that you have caused them, that
you heard tonight the words of Christ, from the cross, how he
honored his mother. And you heard from your pastor,
how you are to honor your mother and father. Think about the rebellion. that you have had in your own
life with regard to mom and dad. Think about what you owe them
who tried to get you off of drugs, many of you, who tried to restrain
you and their discipline actions made you very, very angry and
you said things you shouldn't have said. It would be a good
time as we approach Easter Sunday to get things right with mom
and dad.