Jesus Makes New Family - Day 44*

* There will be a total of 46 blogs since I've posted blogs on Sundays. Sundays are not included in the 40 days of Lent. JWN


When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.” (John 19: 26-27)
Here Jesus is at the point of death. He has been hanging on the cross for several hours. He has been beaten and a spear has pierced his side and he is running out of oxygen. Every time he pulls his body up for another breath he tears into the flesh of his feet and hands. It is an excruciating way to die.
And yet, even with all of this pain, even with his own doubts and struggles, he sees the pain of his mother and the pain of one of his friends. He turns away from his pain and sees theirs.
I find that simply remarkable. But then I shouldn’t. He came to see our pain, our lostness, our brokenness, our frail and flawed humanity. He came to see all of that and to heal all of that. He came to connect us to God, to each other, and to our best and truest selves.
Which is what he does here at almost his last moment alive. He does an adoption process. Mother, here is your new son. My dear friend, here is your new mother. Don’t leave this place alone. Go with each other. Be never alone. Love each other.
What he said from the cross to Mary and to John is what he says to us. Go make a new family, more family. Go share love. Be never alone. You all need each other, so be together. Share your needs. Don’t burrow up all by yourself. No one is meant to live that way.
Sometimes I think of the church as the Mary and John Adoption Agency. Almost his last desire was that Jesus wanted to make a new family. His desire for us has never stopped. Being here means making a new family. That was his work. That is our work. This work can be hard work. And, this work is among one of the great joys we will ever have in this life—making more family with and in and through Jesus.