Mary At The Foot Of The Cross

Recently, the Lord has been urging me to meditate on the scene of Mary at the foot of the cross as her Son suffers so much pain. I thought this was fitting because Easter is just around the corner. As I started to meditate on this scene it seemed almost obvious to me that Mary would be on her knees crying and looking up at her Son with pure anguish upon her face. 

I then thought about her Son on the cross. I thought about how defeated Jesus would have felt had He looked down at His mother and saw her this way. This would make it all the more excruciating for Jesus on the cross - to see His very own mother giving up on Him.

“… But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near…” 
John 19:25-26. 

This scene was so much different than I would have expected it to play out in my own meditation. Mary was standing at the foot of the cross. She was not crippled over by the pain of seeing her Son on the cross as I had thought. As much as she must have wanted to take her Son off this very cross and hold Him in the comfort of her arms or even just fall to her knees, she lets the Lord’s will take its course. 

Mary possesses a different kind of strength than I originally meditated on. Mary understood the Father’s will for Jesus and trusted that through this pain and hurt the world would be given new life. At this very moment Mary is united with her Son’s mission on earth just as she always had been and always will be. She is so united with the Father’s will for her Son that she stands silently watching her Son suffer. Yet she knew that there would be victory in the end and in order for this to happen she must allow the Father’s will to be done.

So, Mary stands watching her Son perish on His cross. She knew that it was things like cruelty, hatred, unforgiveness, jealously, judgment, unbelief, etc. that caused her Son’s crucifixion and she refused to submit to any of these feelings. In this moment Mary does the opposite as she acts with love, forgiveness, wisdom, prudence, humility, etc. Jesus must have looked down at His mother at that moment and instead of seeing what I first imagined as agony in His Mother’s eyes, He must have seen her strength and known she would be there through it all. What a mother! She was able to pass on her strength to her Son so that He could endure the final pangs of suffering before He perished on the cross.

How often in my own life do I want to protest to the Father’s will and take Jesus down from the cross? How often do I want to turn away from the agony in my own life instead of face it with Jesus looking down upon me? How often do I think I cannot withstand the pain and become crippled, falling to my knees believing that Jesus cannot overcome this pain? How often do I want to run from the fears of the crowd reviling me and leave Jesus alone in His suffering? Yet, Mary continues to stand in silence despite each of these questions.

 May we also imitate Mary’s holy submission to the Father’s plan and know that she is standing near each one of us no matter what is happening in our lives. She is standing with strength and wants to comfort each one of us in our own sorrows just as she did with her own Son. She is the Mother of mothers and she will always draw near to each one of us, silently letting us know that she is here and always will be.

Standing with you,

A sister in Christ