Daily Scripture - Apr 07

Scriptures:
25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother,“Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home. (John 19:25-27)

Message:
Today’s scripture is the third saying spoken by Jesus on the cross. We will dive into its precious meaning from two angles.

A) It fully expresses the beautiful humanity of Jesus
After Jesus, who is the Word, became flesh, not only did He obey God’s will in His human body and thus fulfill what God had entrusted to Him, but His life speaks to glorifying God in the flesh. In His everyday life and speech, we see the most glorious of humanity. As John testifies, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). The author of Hebrews states, “[Christ] being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3). The Bible has a great number of depictions of Jesus’ kindness, gentleness, humility, love and empathy; all of them illustrate His perfect humanness. Here, as Christ is about to endure the cruelest of trials and the deepest of sufferings, He still thinks of His mother’s pain and needs, and He entrusts her to His beloved disciple. In this account, it is as if the Holy Spirit cracked open a small window for us to peer through, and we witness His most attentive love and perfect humanity. Not only is He the true God but also the true human. He is the only one that can live out perfect humanity, and He alone is able to understand all of our weaknesses and needs - “for we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15).

Meditation:
Try to recall and meditate on every description of Jesus’ beautiful humanity in Scripture. Give praise and give thanks to God for each of them.

What we can do:
Imitate Christ. Please spend two to three minutes and pray for your parents or your closest family. Write down your prayer.

B) “We are a family” in Christ
Not only did the blood of Christ show His great love for us, but through these words, we see that in Christ, through His glorious life and love, we have become His family. The cross not only abolished all enmity, but it also removed all dividing walls (Ephesians 2:14-15). We “are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). This is just as Jesus reminded us when He was on earth, “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50).

Meditation:
Why is the cross of Jesus Christ necessary for us to become a member of the household of God?

What we can do:
In this week, as a member of God’s household, please express your love to one member in church as you would express such love to your own parents or own child.

Song: H291 O, To Be Like Thee

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經文：
25 站在耶穌十字架旁邊的，有他母親與他母親的姊妹，並革羅罷的妻子馬利亞，和抹大拉的馬利亞。 26 耶穌見母親和他所愛的那門徒站在旁邊，就對他母親說：「母親，看，你的兒子！」 27 又對那門徒說：「看，你的母親！」從此，那門徒就接她到自己家裏去了。 （約19:25-27）

信息分享：
今天的經文是主耶穌在十架上所説的第三句話，我們將從兩個角度來體會這句話的寶貴意義：

它充分地表達了耶穌美麗的人性
耶穌基督道成肉身之後，祂不僅在肉身中完全遵行 神的旨意，完成了 神所給祂所有的托付，祂的一生更是在肉身中彰顯了 神的榮耀，也在衪一切的生活言行中流露出最榮美的人性。正如老約翰所見証的：「從來沒有人看見 神，只有在父懷裏的獨生子將祂表明出來。」（約1:18），也如希伯來書作者所説的：「祂是 神榮耀所發的光輝，是 神本體的真像，」(來1:3）。聖經中關乎祂那親切、柔和、謙卑、充滿愛與體恤...等完美人性的記載很多，不勝枚舉。然而，正當基督在十字架上承受最可怕的刑罰與經歷最深痛苦之時，祂仍然顧念祂母親的痛苦與需要，特別將她托付給所愛的門徒來照顧。聖靈似乎在此為我們開了一扇小窗，使我們得以一窺祂那無微不致的愛與完美的人性。祂不僅是真 神，祂也是真人 - 唯一擁有且真正活出完美人性的人，也只有祂能完全體恤我們所有的軟弱與需要 - 因為「我們的大祭司並非不能體恤我們的軟弱...」(來4:15）。

默思：
試著思想聖經中一切關乎耶穌美麗人性的記載，並為此向祂獻上讚美與感恩。

我們能做什麼：
效法基督，請花兩三分鐘，為著自己的父母或最親的家人禱告，並且寫下你的禱告。

在基督裡『我們都是一家人』
主耶穌在十字架上不僅僅藉著為我們流血捨命流露了祂的大愛，也藉著這句話讓我們看見在基督裡、在祂偉大的生命裡，因著愛，我們都成為了一家人。十字架不僅為我們廢掉了一切的冤仇，也為我們除去了一切隔斷的牆 (弗2:14-15)，使我們『不再作外人和客旅，是與聖徒同國，是 神家裏的人了。』主耶穌在世時也特別提醒我們說：「凡遵行我天父旨意的人，就是我的弟兄姊妹和母親了。」 (太12:50)

默思：
為什麼需要藉著耶穌基督的十字架才能使我們成為 神家中的一員？

我們能做什麼：
身為神家中的一員，請在本週對主內的一位肢體，表達你如同對自己父母親或對自己兒女的愛。


詩歌：H291 哦，我要像祢