John 19:26-27
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 introduces his readers to the “disciple Jesus loved” during the last meal Jesus shares with his disciples. He is never identified, and believers have wondered whether this might indeed be the disciple called John for whom the Gospel is presumably named (although it would seem odd to name John at some points in the story and call him “the disciple Jesus loved” at others). Others have wondered if this might be Lazarus, as he is the only character in the story identified as someone Jesus loves and he slips away from the story just as the “disciple Jesus’ loved” appears.
Mostly likely, this disciple was the founder of this particular Christian community, the original witness that brought his testimony to this synagogue and the leader who first fashioned them into a thriving community. It might even be this leader’s recollections, testimony, and sermons that are primary sources, along with materials likely shared by the other evangelists, that form the backbone of John’s Gospel. Who knows?
What we do know is that he – the beloved disciple – remains by Jesus’ side along with the women until the end.
We also know that, true to John’s picture of a victorious Christ, Jesus, far from languishing on the cross, is giving orders. He commands his mother to take this disciple as her son and for this disciple to take her as his mother. And of course they do. But far from merely portraying Jesus exercising his executive ability from the throne of his cross, John also paints a picture of the coming Christian community as being a family, a family joined not simply by blood but by shared faith in the crucified and risen Christ.
This was, I suspect, first received as a tremendous comfort to those early Christians who had not only been expelled from their local synagogue but likely lost relationships with family members along the way. And it might still provide comfort in a world where more and more people feel simultaneously very connected yet remarkably lonely. When we gather at worship and in service with others who follow the way of Jesus, we are each and every time being received once again into the body of Christ and family of God.
Prayer: Dear God, remind us that those with whom we gather are our brothers and sisters in faith that we might know ourselves to be part of your family. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Note: For those interested in learning more about the background to John’s community, Raymond Brown’s 1978 The Community of the Beloved Disciple: The Life, Loves and Hates of an Individual Church in New Testament Times
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