I. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ differed from all other deaths in this, that the death was voluntary. Death is to us the natural termination of life, and the event of death is the only one which we can venture to prophecy, without fear of mistake, as certain to happen to us all. But the death of Christ did not stand to His life in any such relation as this; death had no power in the nature of things over Him; His birth and His death were alike under the influence of His own will. What an infinite difference there is between a death like this, and a death which is merely the working out of the original word of God concerning man: "Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return."
II. Again, the death of our Lord was different from that of other men, and manifested its Divine character, in the fact that it was one to which no corruption belonged. There was a Divine life in the human body of Jesus Christ, over which death had no power; the triumph of the grave, such as it was, was short, it was like a summer night, when the west has not ceased to glow before the dawn is seen in the east. The short residence of Christ's body in the tomb proved more clearly than anything else could have done, that His words were true concerning His power to take up His life again; that it was not taken from Him; that it was a sacrifice made by Himself to the will of God; and that He could conquer the grave, as He could conquer all other enemies of mankind.
III. Our Lord's death had its Divine side, but it was also a human death; therefore it was a death of suffering. Putting the intensity of these sufferings out of the question, their reality is a thing which we must by no means put out of the question; they were the sufferings of a man, the sufferings of one weak, according to the weakness of human flesh; the same sufferings, so far as the body is concerned, as those of the thieves crucified on either hand. He who died upon the Cross is one of our own race, He is the seed of that woman who bore us all, and He is the eldest brother of the family to which we all belong. Yet this is He whose word stilled the waves; this is He who said to Lazarus, "Come forth," and lo, now that He hangs upon the cross, the sun is darkened and the veil of the temple is rent, the graves cannot hold their dead. "Truly this is the Son of God." Therefore we must not grieve over Him and say, "Alas, my brother;" but we must take another tone and say, "By Thy Cross and Passion, good Lord, deliver us."
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,5th series, p. 261.
Observe:
I. How these words reveal to us the self-forgetfulness of Christ's love. His sorrow was too deep and too sacred for our weak hearts to understand. In that awful hour He was indeed alone. His enemies mocked and reviled Him. His friends stood beneath His cross unable to offer Him more than the tribute of a silent sympathy. His God, so it seemed, had forsaken Him. Yes, He was alone, with none to understand Him, none to help Him, as He bowed beneath the burden of that unspeakable woe. In the loneliness of that suffering all His thoughts were for others, not for Himself. First He intercedes, then He promises, then He provides. Jesus forgot His own grief the greatest grief that ever fell upon human heart that He might minister to the grief of others.
II. As these words show us the self-forgetfulness of Christ's love, so in the next place they are a striking evidence of His filial tenderness. He who seemed to slight all human ties of birth and kindred, paused in the very act of accomplishing the great purpose of redemption, to speak words of comfort to His afflicted mother. And how is it with us? How is it with us who so often suffer our work for God to be a pretence for the neglect of our duties as members one of another? Whatever other duty God may have given us to do, it can never excuse the parent in neglecting the child, or the child in being disobedient to the parent. That only is true work for God which sheds its pure and heavenly light on every bond of nature and of kindred.
III. Observe the wise thoughtfulness of the Saviour's love. That was a solemn leave taking or tender farewell "Woman, behold thy son." He can no more be her son, but she shall have another son. "From that hour that disciple took her unto his own home." Of all the disciples, there can be no doubt that St. John was, in a worldly sense, best able to bear this burden; for, unlike the rest, he was probably in easy, if not affluent circumstances. John, the Apostle of love, John who had drunk so deeply of his Master's spirit, John who lay in His bosom, John whose words are the very echo of his Master's words he it was who was best fitted to cherish and comfort, because he was best able to understand, the hidden inner life of the forlorn and desolate mother. The wise thoughtful love which exactly understands the hearts of others can only be learned at the foot of Christ's cross.
J. J. S. Perowne, Sermons,p. 46.
References: John 19:25-27. W. Hanna, Last Day of our Lord's Passion,p. 201; Homilist,2nd series, vol. i., p. 191; A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 485; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 364.John 19:25-30. Ibid.,vol. xii., p. 142.