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Members of God’s Family
December 7th, 2018
John 19:16-27
It was natural for Jesus to think of his mother at such a time. He knew that his beloved disciple would care for her. However, the writer of this Gospel may have been trying to describe something more profound than simply Jesus providing for his mother. The community of believers in their common loyalty to him had discovered a bond of love for each other that was not based on natural affinities.
They were family. In 1914, my maternal great-grandparents, John Wesley and Celestial Brooks migrated from Arkansas to Arizona because of her respiratory problems. She died fifteen years later. On her deathbed, she told her eldest son to “keep the family together.” We have had regular reunions of this large extended family for over 80 years since. Jesus knew that with his departure, the only way his new “family” would survive would be if they stuck together. Uniting his mother and beloved disciple as he hung dying on the cross was an expression of the community to which he calls all of us who are members of his family.
Author: Vicki Copp
