Coming Back to Jesus

SEVEN AWESOME STATEMENTS

FROM THE

CROSS

Series 2 of 5

Coming Back to Jesus

“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.  When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Dear woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your Mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home” (John 19:25-27).

To understand the significance of this statement Jesus made when He was with His disciples before His arrest. The Lord said to all of His disciples, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me” (Matthew 26:31). And sure enough, by the time we get to Matthew 26:56 we read that all of the disciples deserted Him and fled, including John.

But then at the time of Jesus’ trial, John shows up again; he’s the only disciple who does. John could not stay away from his beloved Lord.  While Peter was somewhere wallowing in his sorrow, John alone came back to the Cross.  And while Judas was out there taking his own life, John alone came to the Cross.

John always referred to himself as the disciple who was closest to Jesus, whom Jesus loved. Some may ask, “Did Jesus really have favorites?” Absolutely not! The reason John was close to Jesus was because John wanted to be close to Jesus. You can be as close to Jesus as you want to be.

James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and He will come near to you.” John was one man of the twelve who wanted to cling to Jesus.  Does God have favorites? No! There are some who favor being close to Jesus. When you desire to be close to Jesus more than anything else in the world, Jesus will draw closer to you than anyone you have ever known. His nearness will be better than anything you have ever experienced.

When John came back, Jesus did not say to him, “John, where were you? I was looking for you. I thought that of all the disciples you would be the one who would have stood by me during the trial. Where were you John?”

There was no rebuke. There was no, “I told you so.” But rather, He looked at him, and He gave him the highest responsibility that our dying Savior could give anyone, He said, “Son, here is your mother.” The Lord was saying that He wanted John to substitute for Him.

Some of us have made promises to the Lord, promises that we are going to walk closely with Him, promises that we will spend time with Him and time in His Word. We made those promises and then we got busy and forsook those promises. We got tired and let go of the promises. Disappointed with the circumstances of life, we gave up on the promises that we made to God.

Thankfully, we can repent, return to Jesus and receive His loving care and direction today.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

1 Peter 2:24-25 (NIV)