What does Jesus think about family?
What does Jesus think about family? I had this thought recently and with the holidays coming up, the word family may come with mixed feelings. You aren't alone in this. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus can empathize with all our weaknesses, so I like to think that Jesus had mixed feelings about His family too. John 19:25-27 tells us that in His last moments before His death His thoughts were towards His family,
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
This is radical at the time because Jesus had brothers and sisters who should have taken care of His mother, but instead Jesus chose His disciple John to take the responsibility. Perhaps this was because Jesus's siblings weren't believers yet, and Jesus wanted someone He could trust to take good care of His mother.
Or, perhaps Jesus was helping John more than He was helping His mother. We know by church history that John was the youngest of the disciples, so maybe Jesus knew that He would need a spiritual mother in the coming days. Either way, it shows us that Jesus's view of family was much larger than the physical one. Jesus made it clear that we have a spiritual family that may care for us in ways that our physical family does not.
I hope this is an encouragement to you in the coming holidays as you spend time with your families. I don't think anyone would say their family is perfect, but where our physical families lack love our spiritual one can help. So don't feel alone, you can reach out to your spiritual brothers and sisters for help!
Also remember that Jesus bled and died on that cross for both his physical and spiritual families. When you go home, you might be the only representation of Jesus that your family gets and in that case we must take great care to show them that same kind of love He has for us. That means not shying away from who God made you to be; our family often has a certain view of us and that may not be who you are anymore. God has grown you, so don't let them put you back into the box you were before.
Be who God made you to be.
Love like Jesus.
You aren't alone.
