See commentary on John 19:25-27.

John 19:26-27

_ _ When Jesus ... saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved, standing by, he saith to his mother, WOMAN, BEHOLD THY SON! Then saith he to the disciple, BEHOLD THY MOTHER! — What forgetfulness of self, what filial love, and to the “mother” and “son” what parting words!

_ _ from that hour ... took her to his own home — or, home with him; for his father Zebedee and his mother Salome were both alive, and the latter here present (Mark 15:40). See on Matthew 13:55. Now occurred the supernatural darkness, recorded by all the other Evangelists, but not here. “Now from the sixth hour (twelve o’clock, noon) there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour” (Matthew 27:45). No ordinary eclipse of the sun could have occurred at this time, it being then full moon, and this obscuration lasted about twelve times the length of any ordinary eclipse. (Compare Exodus 10:21, Exodus 10:23). Beyond doubt, the divine intention of the portent was to invest this darkest of all tragedies with a gloom expressive of its real character. “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried, ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI ... My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). As the darkness commenced at the sixth hour, the second of the Jewish hours of prayer, so it continued till the ninth hour, the hour of the evening sacrifice, increasing probably in depth, and reaching its deepest gloom at the moment of this mysterious cry, when the flame of the one great “Evening Sacrifice” was burning fiercest. The words were made to His hand. They are the opening words of a Psalm (Psalms 22:1) full of the last “sufferings of Christ and the following glories” (1 Peter 1:11). “FATHER,” was the cry in the first prayer which He uttered on the cross, for matters had not then come to the worst. “Father” was the cry of His last prayer, for matters had then passed their worst. But at this crisis of His sufferings, “Father” does not issue from His lips, for the light of a Father’s countenance was then mysteriously eclipsed. He falls back, however, on a title expressive of His official relation, which, though lower and more distant in itself, yet when grasped in pure and naked faith was mighty in its claims, and rich in psalmodic associations. And what deep earnestness is conveyed by the redoubling of this title! But as for the cry itself, it will never be fully comprehended. An absolute desertion is not indeed to be thought of; but a total eclipse of the felt sense of God’s presence it certainly expresses. It expre’sses surprise, as under the experience of something not only never before known, but inexplicable on the footing which had till then subsisted between Him and God. It is a question which the lost cannot utter. They are forsaken, but they know why. Jesus is forsaken, but does not know and demands to know why. It is thus the cry of conscious innocence, but of innocence unavailing to draw down, at that moment, the least token of approval from the unseen Judge — innocence whose only recognition at that moment lay in the thick surrounding gloom which but reflected the horror of great darkness that invested His own spirit. There was indeed a cause for it, and He knew it too — the “why” must not be pressed so far as to exclude this. He must taste this bitterest of the wages of sin “who did no sin” (1 Peter 2:22). But that is not the point now. In Him there was no cause at all (John 14:30) and He takes refuge in the glorious fact. When no ray from above shines in upon Him, He strikes a light out of His own breast. If God will not own Him, He shall own Himself. On the rock of His unsullied allegiance to Heaven He will stand, till the light of Heaven returns to His spirit. And it is near to come. While He is yet speaking, the fierceness of the flame is beginning to abate. One incident and insult more, and the experience of one other predicted element of suffering, and the victory is His. The incident, and the insult springing out of it, is the misunderstanding of the cry, for we can hardly suppose that it was anything else. “Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias” (Matthew 27:47).