The Word of Care

Sam.

Good morning, church. What a beautiful spring morning it is, right? Amen. Well, we just, you know, if you don’t like the weather in North Carolina, just wait until tomorrow. You’ll get something new.

But we’re thankful to be here with you this morning as we continue this series entitled Last Words. And what we’ve been doing over the last few weeks is studying the last words of Jesus. He had seven last sayings. As you look at the four gospels, seven last sayings from the cross, and it’s my conviction, and I’m sure you probably have stories in your families, too, that what we say as our last words are worth remembering. For those of us who had loved ones who believed in the Lord, the last words are often a great comfort to us.

And so as I look at these words of Jesus, they are not only a great comfort to me and to us, I believe they’re also encouraging and they’re revealing. And as I look at these words, I’ve been asking these two questions the last few weeks. As I’ve looked at the words I’ve asked, what does this reveal about the nature of Jesus and what does it say to us about his work? What is it he’s doing when he says this? And so whenever you study Christ, this is always the important, these two questions are always the important questions.

What does this reveal about his nature? And what does this say about his work? And so that’s what we’ve been doing. As we look at these seven last sayings, how can we know Jesus best? And how can we understand the great redemption that he has purchased for us?

More deeply now, I wonder, as we look at this word today, and I’ve entitled this message today, the word of care, that what we’re reading today from the Gospel of John, this saying of Jesus is a word of care. Week one, we said it’s a word of forgiveness. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Last week we said it’s a word of salvation.

Today I tell you the truth, today you shall be with me in paradise. But this morning, this saying is a word of care. And if you have one of those red letter edition Bibles, then you know as you look at the reading today, there’s only two little phrases in here that would be red letter. Now, by the way, red letter, the whole Bible should be red letter. It’s all God’s word.

But sometimes you’ll get a Bible where they’ve attempted to show you the words of Jesus in red letters. So if you look at John, chapter 19, you’ll see. He says, really two phrases in verses 26 and 27 of 19. And he says, woman, behold your son. And then he says, behold your mother.

And that will be our text for today. It’s a word of care. Now, I wonder, do you ever ask this question, Does God care? Does God care? Does he care about me?

Does he care what’s happening as you look at what’s going on in the world today? Does God care? Does he have compassion for us? Does he really care? I’ve heard some people say, perhaps as a new believer or perhaps as someone who’s not a believer, but they’re beginning to think about prayer.

And they’ll say, you know, I don’t pray for those kinds of little things. You know, I’m sure God has more important things to do. You know, world peace and starvation and war, those kind of things. I’m sure he’s focused on those things. I’m sure he doesn’t have time for my little problems.

You’ll hear some people say that perhaps as they begin to encounter God and they think about whether he can even care. You know, he’s so busy. Could he possibly care for the details of my life? In this third word from the cross, I think we’ll see that he cares intimately about the tiniest of details. He’s a God of big things, and he’s a God of little things, too.

He’s the God of all. There’s no detail too small for his loving care. In this third saying of Jesus from the cross. In the Gospel of John, Jesus revealed the loving care that he had for his mother. We can know the loving care that Jesus has for us.

As we study this today, How? How can we know the loving care that Christ has for us? Well, I think as we look at the text today, we’ll see three ways that we can know the loving care that Jesus has for us. Don’t you want to hear it? Don’t you want to know what Jesus has to say to you today?

Let’s look at the Book of John, chapter 19. Our focus today will just be verses 26 and 27. But I think it’s important to get the context. So we’ll start back at verse 16, the latter part of. Well, we’ll just pick up at the beginning of verse 16.

So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him and with him two others, one on either side and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It’s it read, jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, do not write the King of the Jews. But rather this man said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written.

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier. Also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. So they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, they divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

So the soldiers did these things. 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 nearby, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son. And then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.

This is God’s word. Amen. We’re looking today for three ways on how we can know the loving care of Jesus. Here’s the first. Recognize his divine concern.

Recognize his divine concern.

We gave you the setup in terms of the context, but we’re focusing on verses 26 and 27. Just the words of Jesus. The first word I would draw your attention to is the word woman. Let me preach to you just for a moment about that singular word woman. As I consider that word woman, before I dig down into it, let’s consider together who the women were at the cross.

Who were these women at the cross? There seem to be two pairs of women, two unnamed and two named. The two unnamed we find in verse 25 it says, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister. So we have two unnamed women. And then he names two.

Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. Let’s consider these four women. If we look at the three other gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they all have the women standing at a distance. Matthew and Mark mentions a couple of the women, but not all that John mentions. Luke mentions none of them by name.

But all three of those gospels Say that they were at a distance. It seems to me what may have happened is that the first woman, the mother of Jesus, whose name we know is Mary, she’s there with John. And so John, who’s there in person, knows the names of the people, and so he writes their names down, he records them. And I believe what and my sense of the story happened is the women that were at a distance from the cross when they saw John and Mary, it gave them courage to move forward. And John alone reports this, because John alone perhaps saw it as a firsthand witness, an eyewitness.

And so we see the two unnamed women, we first of all see his mother. This is certainly Mary. She’s there at this point. She’s there to see her son, to do the thing that a mother would do, to be there for him. And then his mother’s sister, she’s the second unnamed woman.

Looking at the other Gospels, I have a conviction, a belief, that this is Salome, the wife of Zebedee and the mother of James and John, who’s standing there at that moment. That’s. That’s John’s mother, Salome, the unnamed woman. This makes Jesus and John, by the way, first cousins. The third woman is named, right?

The second pair of women is named Mary, the wife of Clopas. If you study the other three Gospels, you’ll see that she’s the second of the three Marys at the cross. And according to Matthew and Mark, she’s the mother of James the Younger and of Jove, Joseph. So James the Younger was one of the twelve disciples, not James the Greater. James the Greater was the son of Zebedee.

James the Younger was the son of Clopas, or Alphaeus, as he was sometimes called. And so we see here, here’s what we’re saying. These mothers of the disciples are intimately interested in what Jesus has been teaching and they’ve been following. And here they are at the cross. And then the fourth woman, and she is named in three of the Gospels, she’s named by name, Mary of Magdala, Mary Magdalene in Matthew, Mark, and in John.

And her identity is clear. She is the woman who was delivered from seven demons, it says in the book of Luke, chapter eight. And she was also in Luke, chapter eight, mentioned as one of the women who helped support the disciples and Jesus financially. And so she was often helping them set up camp, I’m sure, and helping them do the cooking. And her and several other women were in that tribe of people, the 12.

And Jesus and the women who followed, who supported their Ministry Mary Magdalene. Listen to what Charles Haddon Spurgeon says about these four women.

Last the cross, first at the sepulcher. No woman’s lip betrayed her Lord. No woman’s hands ever smote him. Their eyes wept for him. They gazed upon him with pitying awe and love.

God bless the Marys. So there were three Marys and one Salome at the cross, according to the Gospel of John. Spurgeon gets it right. It was men who stood at a distance, with the exception of John, while the women stood close. It was women first at his tomb at the sepulcher, no woman ever smote him.

No woman ever crucified him. It was the men. Women, take this to your heart today that Jesus said woman. And so we’re studying this word, woman. The word woman is a very small word, gune, in the Greek.

It sounds disrespectful, doesn’t it? Like you look at your mother and go, woman. That today, I think would be disrespectful. But the sense it seems to have in the first century is more like, madam, madam, behold your son. More like that.

Or if you’re from the south, as most of us here are, ma’, am, good morning, ma’. Am. Like that. Ma’, am, here’s your son. Like that.

So he calls her woman rather than mother, possibly because it was a title not of disrespect, but of closeness that’s described. But I think I have an insight here I want to offer to you. I think he calls her woman because of something else we see here his divine concern expressed. Mary was a daughter long before he was a son. Mary was his daughter long before he was her son.

Think about that.

Consider this. Here hangs the Creator on a cross made from the tree that He Himself created. Dying for those who have rebelled against him also, yet taking care of the woman whom he had chosen to be his mother. Who here chose your mother like I vote for her, I’d like to be born there. Who got to choose the womb that you spent the first nine months of your life in?

I don’t think anyone here did. Only one has. His name is Jesus, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, yet one God. And they. He chose Mary.

He chose his mother. He chose the womb he would be born in. He calls her woman because she is his daughter. Consider this. He chose her before she received him.

He wanted Mary to see beyond his role as son. He wanted to see her to see him as Savior. He says, woman, consider 12 year old Jesus at the Passover after the Passover was over, according to the book of Luke, Joseph and Mary and the entourage was headed back to Nazareth and they looked around and found Jesus not among them. And so they traveled back to Jerusalem looking for him. And apparently it took three days to find him.

Can you imagine how you would feel, mom and dad, if you couldn’t find Junior after three days of searching? And so they found him in the temple. And it says in Luke chapter two, when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.

And he said to them, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house? And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

She’s not believing yet, but she’s meditating on these things. He refused to call Joseph Father here. He corrects them and says, did you not know that I would be in my Father’s house? There’s something even at age 12 he’s trying to explain. This is the last mention of Joseph, by the way.

We don’t hear of him again. Past Luke’s story of 12 year old Jesus. Consider the wedding at Cana. I was asking, where has Jesus directly addressed Mary? That was the question I was asking of God’s word.

And the only other place other than John 19 where he calls her woman was John chapter two, the wedding at Cana, where she says, look, they’ve run out of wine. Let me go get my boy. He can fix this. Now why she thought he could, I don’t know. She had some reason that she believed Jesus could fix this.

He could do something about this wedding, has run out of wine problem. But he goes to him and says, listen, they’ve run out of wine. And he says to her in John 2:4, Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. Of course we know that.

He goes on and he turns the water into wine. These are the only two places I can find a direct address where he calls her directly. He’s talking to her. In both cases he says, woman, during his ministry, Mary and the brothers of Jesus, her other sons, his half brothers, if you will, they tried to go and get him and bring him home because they heard word that people were accusing him of having gone mad. And so they went to bring him home.

You Find this story in Mark, chapter three. And his mother and his brothers came. And standing outside, they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him. And they said to him, your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.

And he answered them, and who are my mother and my brothers? And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother. This must have been very painful for Mary and even for the brothers and the sisters of Jesus. Who is this man?

Who is he? He’s trying to show her. And even at the cross, he looks at her and he says, woman, it wasn’t enough for Mary to see her son. It wasn’t enough for her to come to the cross just to offer him her motherly concern. If it would have been me and I would have saw my mama and I was in the hospital bed or dying, I would have cried and said, mama, pray for me, Mama, help me.

There’s something, you know a soldier in a foxhole who’s dying. He’s a manly man with beard on his chin and ready with a weapon in hand, but he’ll cry out to his mama, but not Jesus. He looked at her and he saw the one he was dying for. He didn’t say, mama, help me. Get me out of this.

He said, woman, behold your son, gesturing towards John. He wanted her not to see him as his son. He needed her to see him as a savior. He didn’t ask her for a rescue. He offered her salvation.

He said, woman, this is how Jesus spoke to her that day at the cross. It says in John 1:12. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Do you want to be related to Jesus? Do you want to be in the family of God?

Believe in Jesus. This is what he was saying to her as he looked up her. See me as what I really am. I’m your savior. If you want to be part of God’s family, you have to believe in Jesus, God’s son.

He died for you. Will you respond to his divine care here in this statement? Woman we see his divinity. We see that He’s God and he’s caring for her salvation. But we not only see this, we also see his humanity so that we might receive his personal provision.

This is the second way. So when we look at this story of Jesus, remember I said, we’re asking, what is the nature of Christ that we can see? How is the nature of Christ revealed in the word woman. We see his divinity revealed, that he is expressing a certain distance, a certain distance from her. That, yes, in the flesh, I am your son, but I was in existence long before you.

I am God himself, and I am here dying for you, woman. But then he says, behold, your son. Now, this is a more human expression. It’s a personal provision. Behold that word.

We don’t use that word a lot. That’s a Bible word, isn’t it? It’s like the word low. Lo, look at this. Behold.

And lo, you don’t use those a lot. I wish we would. I wish we would speak to each other like that. Behold, I have arrived. Lo, I am with you.

You know these things.

But perhaps as we look at this word, it’s a very simple word in the Greek. It’s the idea of look with an exclamation mark. So, like, if you hear the word behold, it’s kind of like, look closely at this. Get a good look at this. And so, you know, Jesus can’t gesture with his hands.

He’s being crucified. So I have to imagine what is going on here. He sees Mary and John and he goes, woman. He drops his eyes and he sees her and he says, woman, behold your son. I think with just a movement of his eyes or a movement of his head, he’s.

He looks at her. He goes, woman, behold your son. And he looks at John because he’s directing her attention towards John. This now is your son.

Stop looking to me now. I’m making provision for you. I’m not going to be here to take care of your practical needs. See, he cared not just for her soul. He was dying for her eternal soul so that she could live in with the Lord forever.

But he also cared about her material needs. He recognized as the eldest son, it was his responsibility to care for his mama. He goes, look, your son. That’s your son. Now look.

Behold. Perhaps other beholds flashed across Mary’s mind when she heard this. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. Perhaps she heard the voice of the angel, or perhaps she heard the voice of an old man named Simeon when she took baby Jesus at 8 days old up to the temple. It was a short journey.

They were staying in Bethlehem at the time, and they walked up to the temple at Jerusalem, and they took him there to be circumcised on the eighth day. And an old man named Simeon came up and he says, behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed. And he looked at her, and maybe he even did this, I don’t know. But he looked at her and he says, and a sword will pierce your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. Here she stands.

And she hears him say, woman, behold your son. And maybe all those beholds flash through her mind. You know how you can just remember parents, you know this. You look at your child, you still see him as a toddler. You still see him as an infant.

You see the whole story because you’ve been there. And perhaps the whole story flashes. But perhaps that story of Simeon, now, that sword, she gets it now. She gets it now she’s looking at him on the cross and she has a sword in her heart. With every nail they drove, with everything they did, with every beating, with every blood drop that fell from his brow, she felt it.

Behold your son. He’s giving care of his mother to John, the disciple.

Why not Joseph? Do you ask these questions when you read Scripture? I do. Where’s the father? Where’s Joseph?

Where’s the husband? He’s absent in the story. We must assume, I think, from the absence and also because of Christ’s behavior here as he acts as the elder son, that he must have passed away. I’ve often thought that Joseph was around 30 and Mary was around 13 or 14 when they were married. And so he was an older man and had passed away.

This is my thought on it. We offer this from the absence of information, not from the presence of it. But he’s not here. And so Jesus is in charge of his mother. But what about his brothers?

He’s got James and Jude, who both wrote books of the Bible later on. And he’s got other brothers mentioned. If you look in the Scripture, if you look at Matthew, chapter 13, you see the people disagreeing with Jesus when he came back to Nazareth to preach. And they said, is this not the carpenter’s son? And is not his mother called Mary?

You can see here they don’t name Joseph because they’ve apparently forgotten his name. Which is more evidence, I think, that he passed away. Is not his mother called Mary? And then it says, and are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? Are they not here?

And all of his sisters, so they knew his family in Nazareth.

Why didn’t he pass this provision onto his brothers? It’s because they weren’t believers yet they weren’t believing in him.

If you read in John, chapter seven, it Says that his brothers did not believe, and so he passed on to John the Beloved, who was the only disciple. The rest of the disciples, I think, are standing back. There’s Peter and back there’s Matthew. And they’re at a distance and they see it, but they’re not pressing in close because they’re afraid they’ll get caught too. Perhaps.

I don’t know why, but they’re not pressing in. But John is. John’s got Mary. He brings Mary. He brings Mary right up to the cross.

I think John was the youngest disciple. He was the last living disciple. He probably started following Jesus when He was like 17, 18 years old. He’s like 20 now. He brings Jesus up, and Jesus looks at him.

He goes, woman, behold your son.

Take care of my mama now. That’s your boy right there. He’s going to tell you more about me because he’s been following me the past three years, and he believes in me. He’s going to take care of you.

Jesus cares not just for your soul, but for the details of your life. In the book of Matthew, this is Jesus speaking. He says, I tell you, don’t be anxious about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink or about your body, what you’ll be put on it, what you’ll wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. And yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to the span of his life? And why are you anxious about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes, the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? He cares about what you eat, what you drink, what you wear.

Not just you, but the birds, even the grass of the field. He cares about the details. He’s a God, the big things. But he’s also the God of the little things. He cares about the details.

The Scripture says he knows the number of the hairs on your head.

First Peter says, give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

God’s not too busy for you. He’s never too busy for you. He sent Jesus not just to save you, but also to Give you a revelation of his deep care for you. He cares for your soul, but he also cares for your body. He cares for every detail.

Therefore, do not worry. Worry is not a bad habit. It’s not a personality trait that you can’t shake. It’s a sin. Worry is the opposite of faith.

It’s you taking into your own hands the outcome of a thing rather than giving it to God and trusting him with it. Many was the day when I was going to seminary, I lived in Wilson, in the house I live in now. I had to give back the keys to the company car for the company I used to work for. It’s funny, you leave a job and they want their car back.

So what we had was a little 1981 Subaru. Good car. Bought it new, only new car I’ve ever owned. And it was getting on its last legs by the early 90s, though, we’d about to run the wheels off of it. And many as a time, I would get in the car and head to seminary over in Wake Forest.

Southeastern Seminary, located in wake Forest. About 45 minutes. I could do it in 39, get in my car, and it would be just above E. Just above E. And I wouldn’t have a dime. When we first planted the church, it was just a little tough. And I would just say, lord, you know why I’m going to seminary.

I talked to him about it. Lord, you know why I’m going. You know what I’m trying to do. I’ve quit my job, and I’m doing this for you. I hope I’m doing the right thing.

Feels like the right thing. Think I’m doing the right thing, but my Subaru’s on E. And then I thought about. And I said, actually, it’s your Subaru. Your Subaru’s on E. And I would get over to the school, and the whole way I’d be praying. There’s nothing like being on E to make you pray.

Like, if you’re going downhill, you put it in neutral and just let it coast. Don’t run the ac. Put the windows down. Anything you can do to get that Subaru there. And it would get there.

I never ran out of gas, but I drove back and forth many, many of a time on E. Sometimes I would get there and I would find someone had stuck money in my locker at school. One time I came out to my car and had been worrying about it. I told you you shouldn’t do that. But I went to seminary and sinned all day long. And I came out I came out and I was like, oh boy, it’s below E. I mean, you know, Lord, I think it might be too much to ask, you know, that I could get home.

I guess I’d already kind of visualized I was spiritualizing what would happen. I’ll probably run out of gas on the way home and it’ll give me a chance to witness to somebody who picks me up. I was trying to spiritualize. Maybe God wants me to run out of gas. But I got out to the car and somebody had stuck money under my windshield wiper.

I didn’t tell anybody other than God that I was on E. It would happen over and over again. That’s just a little story. Now don’t go out and try to drive on E. Don’t tempt God. Pastor said, don’t have to put gas in my car. That’s not the point.

Not the point. The point is God cares for the details, cares for you. Do you see it? Do you see Jesus on the cross, dying, beaten, bleeding? He sees his mother and he says, woman, I care for your soul, but I also care for the practical needs of your life.

Behold your son. Will you entrust every worry and care to Jesus? He cares for the details. And then the third way we can see his care is by accepting his relational calling. There’s that divine concern he has for us expressed in sending his son, Jesus, who died on the cross for us.

Then there’s that personal provision that he cares for the details. But then there’s that relational God that’s revealed about Jesus that he’s in relationship. He didn’t try to save us from afar, but he became one of us. And he came near to us and he died in our place. And he was numbered among the transgressors dying on either side.

He said, I want to be near you so that you can be near me. You’re far from me, but I’m coming to you to bring you near me. He’s a relational God. In verse 26 and 27, let me read it to you again. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loves.

So circle the disciple. And then verse 27 Again, this is the disciple whom he loved. And then 27 he said to the disciple, behold your mother. Who is this disciple? He doesn’t name him really.

John never refers to himself throughout his Gospel. He calls himself the disciple who Jesus loved, but he never makes a self referential statement. We, we know it’s the Gospel of John and we know he’s talking about himself, but I Think it expresses a certain humility, don’t you, that he just doesn’t name himself? He’s unnamed, but he’s John. He’s John the beloved.

This is who he is. He says, behold your mother. There’s that word, behold. He goes, okay, like you look at your son. Now look at your mother.

And can you see John do it? He looks at her, she’s looking back, and they both have tears welling up in their eyes. They’re trying to hold it together because they don’t want to just fall out weeping. He’s the one suffering. You know how you’ve been there, right?

Have you been there where someone’s hurting like that and you try to hold it together for them and they look at each other and it was almost too much when that happened, because when they saw the tears in each other’s eyes, it was just almost too much. Behold your mother. Behold your son. Behold your mother. This is now your mother.

You see, this relational situation implies so much more.

Jesus is saying, I want you to treat her like your mother now. And the scripture actually goes on to say, and from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. In other words, from that time forward, from that moment forward, he took responsibility for her. He took her home with him. He’s got his own mother standing there.

Salome’s right there, the mother of James and John, the wife of Zebedee. She’s there. But that’s okay, because I think they’re sisters. And so Mary’s going to move in with them. And John takes responsibility for Mary from that day forward.

I’ve actually been to a place in the ruins near the. The ruins of Ephesus in modern day Turkey, where there’s a church built there that claims to have the tomb of Mary. When John had been there, he was the pastor at the Church of Ephesus towards the turn of the first century. So John took care of Mary from that day forward. It says, but would you agree with me that this relational calling implies more?

So here we have comfort for the mother, not just for her soul, but for her practical needs. But then to John, it’s not comfort, it’s calling. Take care of my mom. Do you see the difference? To the mother, it’s comfort and encouragement.

I’m taking care of your forever and your now. But to John, he goes, this is now your responsibility. Take care of my mother.

Except it’s your mother now.

I think the implication here is so much more Spurgeon again. And Spurgeon has been so helpful I don’t know if you ever read any Spurgeon. I’ve got, like, half my staff all quoting Spurgeon quotes to each other right now. Take her as your mother. Stand in my place.

Care for her as I have cared for her. Those who love Christ best shall have the honor of taking care of his church and of his poor. Never say of any poor relative or friend, the widow or the fatherless. They are a great burden to me. Oh, no.

Say they are a great honor to me. My Lord has entrusted them to my care. John thought so. Let us think so. Jesus selected the disciple he loved best to take care of his mother under his care.

He selects those whom he loves best today and puts his poor people under their wings. Take them gladly and treat them well.

Seated around you this morning are your mothers and your fathers and your brothers and your sisters and your sons and your daughters.

Think of it this way. I’m not talking about the blood of the flesh. I’m talking about the blood of Jesus has made it so.

Closer than the blood of the flesh, closer than blood relatives, are those who are made the family of God because of Jesus. He says, behold your mother, behold your father. Behold your son. Your daughter, behold your brother, behold your sister. Now, take care of one another.

Do you see the relational calling? He calls you to life on life. As we’ve been talking these many weeks, he says, don’t help people from a distance. Help them by touching them. He didn’t heal the leper by saying, be healed.

No, it says, he touched the leper and healed them.

Remember how Jesus restored Peter, who had denied him three times in John chapter 21. He said to Peter the third time, simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, lord, you know everything. You know that I love youe.

And Jesus said, feed my sheep if you love me. Take care of my sheep if you love me. Feed my sheep if you love me. You’re called to take care of one another like family, because you are.

Behold your mother, your father, your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister.

This past week, we had two ladies in our church lose their fathers. One of the funerals, I was responsible for officiating. The other we attended when I was visiting with the one. I did the family visitation on Monday, and I’m listening to the stories. It’s very helpful for a grieving family to tell the stories.

And so the young woman, she said, my father was declining. He Had Alzheimer’s. I would roll him up and down the driveway in his wheelchair and we would talk. And a few weeks ago he said to me, honey, I’m not afraid of dying. I just want you to take care of your mama.

He wasn’t afraid of dying. He had prayed to receive Jesus, but he was thinking about his wife.

When I was a little boy, my dad used to play this game with me.

I’m the oldest of my siblings and he worked at Sears and Roebuck, downtown Bristol. He’d be in his suit and tie, he’d be ready to head out the door and he would look at me and he’d say, now son, you’re the man of the house while I’m gone. You take care of your mama and your little brothers and sister. And I would go, yes sir. He goes, now remember, you’re the man of the house.

I said, yes sir. And so he would leave. And I took that seriously. My mom would say to dad when he came home sometimes, claude, you’re going to have to lighten that up a little bit. He’s bossing me around.

It was a game we played the Sunday before the Wednesday when he passed away after a year long battle with cancer at age 39. I had not seen him in a couple of months because they didn’t let children under 12 go in the hospital in those days to visit people. He’d gone from £200 to around £98 and it was hard to see. I went into the hospital room and I can remember my grandmother pushing me towards the bed. And I was afraid to go to the bed because I didn’t recognize him.

He didn’t look like himself. And then he dropped his hand out towards me and looked at me and he goes like this. And I came to him, he put his arm around me and he pulled me up close to his face. And I knew it was my daddy. And he said, are you being the man of the house?

You got to take care of your mama while I’m gone. Those are the last words my daddy ever said to me. Well, my mom and dad are in glory now. They’re together, they’re reunited. I’d like to think I kept the charge.

I did my best. But I’m not finished because it’s not his voice now calling me. I have this calling on my life from the father, not my daddy, but the father Abba, who says, behold your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your son. And so do you, so do we. It is so.

This is the revelation of the Relational calling we see in Christ’s words to his mother and to John the Beloved, his disciple. Have you learned this truth? Have you learned to answer this call? It says in John, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you. You’re to love one another In Ephesians, it says so.

You are now no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s people. You are members of God’s family.

Do you know him as Lord and Savior? This is what he was calling Mary to believe. Do you know his care, his intimate concern for you? And have you answered his calling to be a member of God’s family? Let’s pray.

Dear Lord Jesus, I thank youk for your word. I thank youk that yout’ve called us first to yourself, but yout’ve also called us to be part of youf family. Lord, I pray for that one who’s here this morning that is far from youm, but would come near. Is that yout, my friend? If it’s so, would you pray with me right now?

Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner.

I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and that you were raised from the grave and that you live today. I believe that you care for me. Would you come into my life? I receive you as my Lord and Savior. I believe in you.

Come into my life and save me. Forgive me of my sins and make me the person you want me to be. I say yes to the calling of Jesus. Others are here today. Would you say yes to the calling to invite people into God’s family?

And then having seen them come in, warts and all, because we’re all sinners? Would you say yes right now? Would you repent of not caring for that one in the family of God? Of not caring for that one that Jesus died for? Would you now be moved in heart and mind and soul to be called to care for one another?

In Jesus name, let it be so. Amen.