DAILY READINGS IN LIFE OF CHRIST - J.R. Miller 

December 6. The Divine Legacy

"When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own." John 19:26-27 

This was the third saying of the Savior on the cross. Not far away, in some quiet spot amid the multitude, stood a little group of His dearest friends. Most of them were women. As His eye looked down upon them — He saw His own mother among them. Truly, the sword was piercing through her — as she beheld her divine Son on His cross!

As Jesus saw His mother in her deep grief, though suffering untold anguish Himself — His heart went out in compassion and love for her. He thought of her unsheltered, as she would be, when He was gone. He remembered what she had been to Him in His tender infancy and defenseless childhood — as she had blessed Him with her rich self-forgetful love.

"Stripped of everything," says Godet, "Jesus seemed to have nothing more to give. Nevertheless, from the midst of this deep poverty, He had already made precious gifts: to His executioners, He had bequeathed the pardon of God; to His companion in punishment, He had bequeathed paradise. Could He find nothing to leave to His mother and His friend? These two beloved people, who had been His most precious treasures on earth — He bequeathed to one another, giving thus at once a son to His mother — and a mother to His friend."

In this beautiful act of our Lord, we have a wondrous commentary on the fifth commandment, "Honor your father and your mother." Every young person, or older one, with parents yet living, who reads this fragment of the story of the cross, should remember the lesson, and pay love's highest honor to the father or the mother to whom he owes so much. No suffering or pain of our own should ever make us forgetful of our parents, and we should honor them to the last moment of their life.