A New Family

A New Kind of Family: Love Beyond Blood

Bible Passage: John 19:26–27

Summary: At the moment of His greatest suffering, Jesus emphasizes the significance of spiritual relationships, showing that familial love is not limited to biological ties but is a deeper bond forged in faith and mutual care between believers.

Application: This passage challenges Christians to reevaluate their understanding of family, encouraging them to build supportive communities within the church where each member is valued and cared for as family. It serves as a reminder that in troubling times, we can rely on our church family as much as our biological family.

Teaching: The sermon can teach the essence of Christian community, demonstrating how the Church serves as a family of believers who share love, responsibility, and encouragement, fulfilling one another’s needs in tangible ways, just as Jesus exemplified in His final moments.

How this passage could point to Christ: In this narrative, Jesus acts as a new Adam, redefining relationships and establishing a new community among His followers, emphasizing that through His sacrifice, He creates a family bound not by lineage but by faith and love, showing us the universal embrace of God’s family.

Big Idea: God’s family transcends earthly ties and is formed through a shared faith in Christ, inviting us into a community that provides deeper support and love than we might expect from our biological families.

Recommended Study: As you delve into this sermon, I recommend examining the theological implications of Jesus’ words in the context of Jewish law and cultural expectations regarding family at His time. Explore the works of New Testament scholars in your Logos library to better understand how early Christianity viewed the Church as a family and how that contrasts with Old Testament views on kinship.

1. Jesus Initiates Family

John 19:26

You could examine how Jesus, in a moment of profound personal agony, redirects His attention to his mother and the disciple whom He loved. This demonstrates His care and the establishment of a new, faith-centered family. Though disconnected biologically, Jesus creates a new family bond, illustrating the depth and breadth of spiritual connections formed through Him. This moment emphasizes the church's role as a family, suggesting believers should nurture relationships within their church that transcend traditional familial boundaries, reflecting Christ's love and care for each other in times of need.

2. Jesus Entrusts Family

John 19:27

Perhaps consider how Jesus entrusts Mary and the beloved disciple to one another, indicating the mutual responsibilities of members in God's spiritual family. This act also challenges cultural norms by prioritizing spiritual kinship over blood relations. Jesus' instruction fosters a sense of belonging and responsibility among believers, suggesting the importance of cultivating supportive and caring relationships within the church community, where each person treats the others as true family members, united in faith and love through Christ.

Q: How can understanding Jesus' actions towards His mother and the disciple change our view of relationships in the church?

Q: What are the implications of Jesus entrusting Mary and John to each other for the community of believers?

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. (John 19:26-27)

Jesus went to the cross and laid down the life He had drawn from Mary. His body was broken. His blood was poured out. Mary’s son died, and in His death He became her Savior. Mary was losing an irreplaceable Son and she was gaining an incomparable Savior.

John, the disciple Jesus had a special bond with, recorded the third of the seven last sayings of Jesus—the words of Jesus to His mother, Mary, and to John.

Yet here was Jesus, intensely suffering, but thinking of the needs of the mother who had loved Him and making sure she’d be cared for by John.

Jesus does indeed say that we must be willing to hate our family for his sake (Luke 14:26). And he does teach that “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). Paul also teaches that we should treat older men in the church like fathers, younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, and younger women like sisters (1 Timothy 5:1–2). But these passages must be understood as referring in the first place to the spiritual realm

The sharp way of articulating something makes an issue very clear in the Hebrew mind. When push comes to shove, if Jesus is who he says he is … if he is our Maker and our Lord and our Judge … allegiance to him must take precedence even over allegiance to family. On the other hand, he is also the first one to remind us to obey the commandment to honor our parents.

Illustration:

The Hatfields and the McCoys, remember them? They were fighting and shooting each other and killing each other for years and years back in the hinterland of West Virginia.

As a result, anybody who was a Hatfield, that defined them. If you were a Hatfield, you didn’t shoot at another Hatfield, and if you were a Hatfield, you shot at McCoy. That’s how your life was run. But if a Hatfield and a McCoy both became Christians, then those two people had far more in common with each other than they did with their own families. That is the nature of the gospel because that’s how radically different your identity is in Christ.

In a sense, everything I’m doing now, this passage, is a commentary on the claim I made last week. If you’re a Christian, you’re a Christian first and you’re an American second. If you’re a Christian, you’re a Christian first and you’re a white person or a black person second. If you’re a Christian, you’re a Christian first and you’re a ruling class or a poor person second. Don’t you see that?

Because the relationship you have in Christ is much more fundamental than any other relationship you have. That is absolutely the nature of the gospel.