Our focus this morning will be on John 19, verses 25-27. We're going to focus our attention this morning on trying to figure out why this passage is here and what we can learn from it. So as we read it, I want you to have that in mind. Why did John include this? What are the possible lessons He might want us to draw from it? That's basically going to be the focus of the message this morning. Those two things. We begin reading in verse 25 where John tells us, Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her to his own home." Let's pray. Holy Father, as we come to your Word this morning, recognizing that your Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, inspired the Apostle John to write these things for our benefit, that what we're reading here is the very Word of God, that you want us to have this Word, that we might become more like Christ, that we might better know you and make you known. And so we pray to that end. We pray that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit, Lord, that we might understand why perhaps you inspired this to be included in John's account, what we can learn from it, so that we might better love you, better love one another, better love a lost and dying world around us to whom we've been called to shine as lights in the darkness. Help us to this end, we pray, in the name of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. As you no doubt already guessed, the passage before us this morning is another one of those accounts that John records, but that is left out of the other Gospels, which he repeatedly, throughout his Gospel, presupposes that we've read. So, as usual, when I run into one of these passages, and there are many in John's Gospel, it makes me want to ask why John included this particular account in his Gospel. when the other Gospel writers didn't include it. As with the other things that the other Gospel writers chose not to include, which John chose to include, we know he must have had a reason for making that choice. Perhaps as we approach this passage, he remembered as he was thinking about the cross and his experience there, the people who were there, And as he remembered that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there, perhaps he also remembered the prophecy of Simeon, which had been previously recorded by the Gospel of Luke. In Luke chapter 2, remember it says in verses 25 through 35, that there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. A messianic title there. and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. So he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, you see from the very beginning of his life, Jesus was fulfilling the law in every way. At this point, God leading his parents to bring him to the temple. And when he saw Jesus, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all peoples a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. And then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel." And boy, we've seen that happening as we study the Gospel of John. And he says, for a sign which will be spoken against. Boy, we've seen a lot of that in the Gospel of John too. Yes, he says parenthetically, a sword will pierce through your own soul also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. He had prophesied. that Christ would be turned against in such a way that a sword, figuratively speaking, would pierce through Mary's soul. Certainly this prophecy was being fulfilled as Jesus hung on the cross and his mother stood by in what must have been the greatest anguish of her life. Perhaps then this is one reason that John chose to include this account. But he doesn't even hint at this prophecy here, interestingly. So we're left still wondering if there are other reasons why he thought it's so important to include this account. As we compare this account to the other Gospels, this prophecy of Simeon might be one reason. But perhaps there are others. He must have had something he wanted his readers to learn from this passage, from this account. So that's what we're going to try to discover, if we can. We're going to try to see what reasons John had for including this account in his Gospel, and what lessons the Holy Spirit, who inspired John to write this, as the Word of God, what he wants us to learn from this passage. To that end, we're going to make our way through the passage, verse by verse, and see what we can discover. We're going to focus, first of all, on just interpreting what it means, what it's saying, and then I'm going to offer some principles or lessons that we can draw from it. Beginning in verse 25, we're told, Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. of the many women that we know that were somewhere near enough to the cross to see what was happening. Other Gospel writers make clear that there were many who were nearby somewhere. Some we're told were standing up far off, but apparently at some point some of them approached the cross as well. We knew that some of them drew near enough to actually hear what Jesus was saying. We're clearly getting that here from John. Yet the Gospels only mention a small number of these women by name. John lists four women who made their way close and were standing near the cross while Jesus was hanging there, dying. And three of these women had also been listed by Matthew and Mark in their gospel accounts. Interestingly enough, all three of these writers list Mary Magdalene. And so we can be relatively sure that this little group of women that includes Mary Magdalene at the cross, standing by the cross, that are mentioned by Matthew, Mark, and now John here, were the same group, unless there were two Mary Magdalenes, and we have no reason to think that, right? This means that a brief comparison with the list given by Matthew and Mark could prove helpful in trying to figure out who these women were. And that might be helpful in figuring out why Jesus says what he says, in part. And so we'll look at both of those other examples. Matthew 27, 56 tells us, actually 55 and 56 are what I'm going to read for you. Matthew 27, beginning in verse 55, we're told that many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, were looking on from afar. among whom were, and then John, by the time, when John gives us his account, they were no longer, at least this small group of women, afar. They had come close enough to the cross at least to hear Jesus speak to them. They were looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons. Mark 15 verse 40 tells us, there were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome. Instead of saying the mother of the sons of Zebedee, there it's Salome. Now most Bible scholars agree that a comparison of these three lists likely shows us that John identifies Mary, the mother of James and Joses, as Mary, the wife of Clopas. And it shows that he identifies the sister of Jesus' mother as Salome, who is also the mother of the sons of Zebedee, if you compare the lists. If you're looking for the same three common women that they have in common, right? knowing that it's the same group, apparently, that approach, since Mary Magdalene is on all of them, that's likely, well then, that's what we end up with. Mary, the mother of James and Joses, and Mary, the wife of Clopas, are the same person, and Salome is Jesus' mother's sister, his aunt, and also the mother of the sons of Zebedee. Now this would make the sons of Zebedee, who we know are James and John, two of the apostles, this would make them the cousins of Jesus. A fact that may have some importance for us as we consider the rest of the passage. It's noteworthy here though that only John mentions the fact that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was standing by the cross, and he doesn't name her. John, interestingly enough, doesn't name himself in the gospel by name, or his brother James, or Jesus' mother by name. There are key people to whom he's close, himself and people that he's closest to, whose names he leaves out. Again, he presupposes you've read the other Gospels and you know who these people are. We'll consider why he might do that, especially with regard to himself as we move through the passage. But at this point, we see that it's only John that mentions the mother of Jesus here. And he's got a reason for that, as verses 26 and 27 make pretty clear to us. When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. Now when he says woman, just as he did at the wedding of Cana and he called his mother woman, we've got to get out of our mind our modern ideas that if you spoke to someone, a woman, and said woman, do this or that, it's viewed negatively in our culture. It wasn't viewed that way in the first century. This was a gentle, kind, respectful way to speak to a woman, even your own mother. And so Jesus says to her, 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, it says. But it must mean his own home, his own household. So when Jesus saw his mother together with one of his disciples, the disciple whom he loved, he gave that disciple the responsibility to look after his mother when he was gone. He's dying. He's the oldest son in his family. And he has responsibility for her. And he wants John, if that's the disciple whom you love, which I will show you I believe that is, to take over that responsibility. That's what's being described here. Yet John doesn't give us the name of the disciple here, does he? About whom he's speaking. He simply calls him the disciple whom he loves. Now, mainly through the process of elimination and by way of comparison of this Gospel with the others and all of the different places that this particular disciple whom Jesus loved is mentioned in the Gospel of John, most scholars are in agreement that this disciple was John himself. In fact, it couldn't be anyone else. And I agree with that assessment. And I would suggest that John refers to himself here this way not to proudly indicate that he was Jesus' favorite, but rather to humbly indicate his own gratitude for the grace of the Lord Jesus in loving him as he did. I think he liked to leave his name out because he's humble. And if he's going to be known, he'd just like to be known as someone Jesus loved Because for John, read 1 John, you'll see, that's what made all the difference to John. He loved Jesus because Jesus first loved him. He couldn't get over, apparently, the fact that Jesus loved him. And all you need to know about him is that Jesus loved him. Because if there's anything special about John, it's that. It's not because he deserves it, either. This is the attitude I think he has. when he identifies himself this way. It seems to be a way of taking the focus off himself, too, and keeping it on Jesus. Now, we saw John describe himself this way earlier when he gave his account of the events in the Upper Room, so we're going to look at these different places now where this title is used so we can see clearly who this is. Back in John 13, I'll begin reading there in verse 21. We're in the upper room. When Jesus had said these things, he was troubled in spirit and testified and said, verse 21, Most assuredly I say to you, one of you will betray me. Then the disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom he spoke. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask who it was of whom he spoke. So this is one of Jesus' closest disciples, this disciple whom he loved. He was sitting right in front of him as they stretched out around this low table in the upper room so that he could lean back and say something to him. Later in the Gospel of John, he'll refer to himself this way three more times. in John 20, beginning in, well I'll read verses 1 and 2. We're told that on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and this time he uses phileo rather than agapao. He interchanges these words. So she comes to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved. We're going to see in the book of Acts, Peter and John are together a lot. Apparently that was true early on. And she said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb. We do not know where they have laid him. So when Mary Magdalene discovered the empty tomb, the first two people that she wanted to tell, here, of Peter and this disciple whom Jesus loved, which, it's got to be John, because we'll see. Then in John 21, beginning in verse 4, this is when Jesus began to appear to the disciples after his resurrection. We're told in John 21, beginning in verse 4, when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said to them, Children, have you any food? And they answered him, No. And he said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. Therefore the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, see they're together again, It is the Lord. Here he's called the disciple whom Jesus loved again. The clincher for who this is to me comes in chapter 21. I'll begin reading in verse 20. Jesus has asked Peter three times, do you love me? Giving him three times to take back those three denials. And called him to shepherd his sheep. And he's told him he's going to die. We're told in verse 20 that Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following. There he is again. Who also had leaned on his breast at the supper. Which helps us to see this disciple whom Jesus loves is the same guy throughout the gospel. And he said, where he had leaned on his breast at supper and said, Lord, who is the one who betrays you? Peter, seeing him, the disciple whom Jesus loves, said to Jesus, but Lord, what about this man? And Jesus said to him, if I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow me. Then this saying went out among the brethren that the disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but if I will that he remains till I come, what is that to you? This is the disciple who testifies of these things. In other words, the disciple whom Jesus loved throughout this gospel is the disciple who's writing this book. This very gospel that you're reading. This is the disciple who testifies of these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen. And we can all say amen to that. So we see that the disciple whom Jesus loved had to be John. John himself. One of Jesus' closest disciples and also apparently one of his cousins who was standing with Jesus. and his mother at the cross. Jesus was hanging there and standing by were these four women, one of whom was Jesus' mother, and right there with his mother, standing with Mary, was John. Now, there's no mention of Jesus' father, Joseph. So we may presume that he died sometime before these events took place. Otherwise, there would have been no need for Jesus to ensure that there was someone to look after his mother when he was gone. If Joseph were still around, he would be looking after Mary. But if Joseph were dead, Jesus as the oldest son would have this responsibility, right? So Joseph must be dead. If you put all the gospel accounts together, he's probably been dead for a while, certainly before these events. But we may wonder why he didn't count on his brothers to look after her. After all, we know that Mary had born at least four other sons who were named James, Joses, Simon, and Judas. These were very common names, by the way, all of them, in first century Palestine. So you run into lots of Jameses, Joses, or Josephs, Simons, and Judases. Those were Jesus' four brothers, we're told. Why didn't Jesus look to any of them to care for their own mother? I think the answer to that question may be found in John's prior reference to Jesus' brothers in the Gospel, who were technically his half-brothers. Remember, they shared the same mother, but Jesus didn't have a human father. But John, in referring to these brothers before, said they're not believers. Remember back in chapter 7? Let's go back there and read that. This is all going somewhere. Chapter 7, I'll read verses 1-5. After these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. Now the Jews' feast at Tabernacles was at hand. His brothers therefore said to Him, His brothers, James, Josie, Simon, and Judas were his brothers, remember. They said to him, depart from here and go into Judea that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, questioning whether he really does them, see, perhaps, show yourself to the world. Apparently, what they had seen in Jesus wasn't quite enough for them to believe. And we know that is how we should read it, because in the next verse, the Apostle John writes, for even his brothers did not believe in him. Now we know that Jesus' brothers later became believers, since after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, they were included by Luke in the book of Acts, in Acts 1.12-16, you can read about that, as being among Jesus' disciples. In fact, two of them, James and Judas, whom we know as Jude, went on to write books of the Bible. But the fact that they were not yet believers, which apparently happened after the resurrection. We know, for example, from 1 Corinthians 15, that James, the brother of Jesus, was one to whom Jesus had appeared. He appeared to many people, as many as 500 at once. Apparently what made the difference in his brothers wasn't anything Jesus did in his life. It was after the resurrection and looking back on his life that everything came together, apparently. But the fact that they were not yet believers explains, I think, why Jesus didn't want to leave his mother in their care. Think about it. You've become a believer that your son is the Messiah. You've been a believer for a long time, even though you didn't understand all of what that meant. You're watching Him die on the cross, still perhaps perplexed, and maybe thinking about what Simeon had said all those years before. Feeling the sword go through your soul. You want a bunch of unbelievers dragging you down? You think Jesus wanted that for His mother? Apparently not. And remember also in this regard what Jesus had taught about who his true family members really are. Listen to this from Matthew 12. I'll begin reading there in verse 46 if you want to turn there. Matthew 12, 46 and following. While he was still talking to the multitudes, Behold, Jesus' mother and brothers stood outside speaking with him. Then one said to him, Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak with you. But Jesus answered and said to the one who told him, Who is my mother and who are my brothers? It's an odd question to ask when everybody knows they're standing outside. Unless you've got a different point to make, which he does. And he stretched out his hand toward his disciples and said, Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. Thus Jesus' biological brothers were not his spiritual brothers, but John was. John was a true brother to Jesus, in a way that his biological brothers had not yet become. This is one reason why John was standing there, after all, by the cross with Jesus' mother, while Jesus' biological brothers were apparently nowhere to be found. One would think that despite their unbelief, they would have at least been there to comfort their mother who had lost her firstborn son whom she loved. But apparently they weren't. Yet John was there. Not only because he truly did believe in Jesus, but also because this belief had made him a much better son to marry than any of Jesus' biological brothers could be. Then there's the likelihood that John was her nephew, and well known to her, and part of her extended family as well. At any rate, having thus made our way through the passage, perhaps we're prepared to answer questions like, why did John include this account in his gospel? What's he doing here? And the other gospel writers didn't include it. They had to have known about it. Surely they talked to John after this, and at some point they talked to each other about their experiences, right? Why did John include it? Although John doesn't explicitly tell us why he included these particular details, I think we can infer from his overall account, as well as from our comparison to the other Gospel accounts, a number of reasons, as well as a number of lessons that we should derive from it. And I'm just going to suggest five. Maybe as you've heard this passage explained, you'll think of some more. The Holy Spirit might show you some more things as you contemplate the text, but I'm going to suggest five lessons. First, this account confirms that John was an eyewitness of the crucifixion. Thus, it further strengthens our confidence in the truthfulness of his account and of the reliability of God's Word. John explicitly states later in his account of the crucifixion in verse 35, And he who has seen has testified. And his testimony is true. And he knows that he's telling the truth so that you may believe. He's reminding his readers, I know in writing this I was there. I saw it. You can count on my word that it's true. In fact, John also stressed the trustworthiness of himself and his fellow disciples as eyewitnesses in his first epistle, which begins this way, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. He's talking about Jesus. The life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was from the Father and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." In other words, you can't really have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, if you reject the words of the Apostles, who tell you who Jesus is. Got to believe what John says in his gospel. Or you don't have fellowship with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Here's the thing, you can believe it. Because as John tells us, Jesus said the Holy Spirit would come to help him to remember all these things. He inspired John to write this as an eyewitness who was there and could say, I saw it with my own eyes. See, I was there at the foot of the cross, or near the cross. I was there with Jesus' mother. And I saw and heard what happened. Secondly, this account confirms that Jesus faithfully fulfilled the law by honoring His mother even while He was dying on the cross. Remember, Jesus saw care for one's parents when you're an adult and they're older, as necessitated by the command to honor them. Hear the words from Mark 7, verses 9-13. Mark 7, 9-13. Where Jesus says to the Pharisees and scribes to whom He's talking, All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition, For Moses said, honor your father and mother. And he who curses father and mother, let him be put to death. But you say, if a man says to his father and mother, whatever profit you might have received from me as Corban, that is a gift to God, then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down, and many such things you do. Jesus' example on the cross serves as a further rebuke to these legalistic teachers who are trying to get out of taking care of their parents and therefore refusing to honor them as they should. Not so Jesus. He's in anguish, suffering on the cross, honoring his mother like a good, faithful, God-fearing son should do. This demonstrates to us, too, that Jesus totally fulfilled the law until his dying breath. No amount of suffering would keep Jesus from fulfilling the law, even while he suffered so greatly on the cross. As Tom Chantry states, Jesus demonstrates his perfect humanity here, both as one who cares for his family and as a keeper a perfect keeper of the law of God. At the same time, his concern for his mother illustrates his divine care for the helpless, reminding us of the reason he came to be a Savior. That's well said. Here's a third thing we can take away. Third, this account shows us how important it is that we also honor our parents by ensuring that they're taken care of in their old age. Consider the admonition of the Apostle Paul in this regard, who says that if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. See, a follower of Christ is going to follow his example, and he's going to honor his parents the way Jesus honored Mary. And so we find in his example a model for us, don't we? But I think there's an even deeper lesson for us if we further contemplate here what's happening with his mother. As Ray Steadman, I think, has aptly observed, it is incredible to think, he says, of the terrible agony that Jesus had been suffering for hours and hours upon end, yet despite his own pain and anguish, he had regard for his mother, giving to her what every mother needs, a son to guard and keep her. And to John, what every son needs, a loving, understanding mother. The remarkable thing about this is that Mary had four other sons who could have taken care of her, and probably would have, though they were not yet believers in Jesus. That apparently didn't happen until after the resurrection, as he points out. But he says, John could give to Mary what they could not, a compassionate understanding of her sorrow, and God-given comfort in this hour. So what was Jesus doing for his mother? He was honoring her not just by making sure that she was looked after and protected and cared for physically. He was making sure that she was looked after spiritually by a fellow believer that would love her like a son in place of himself. This insight provides a good segue to the next point of application. Fourth, this account shows us the priority of the spiritual family that is the church, even over one's biological family. We've seen that already when we read from Matthew, who Jesus identifies as his true family. But remember also this promise that Jesus made to his disciples. This time I'll quote from Mark 10, verses 28 through 30. Mark 10, 28 through 30. Then Peter began to say to Jesus, See, we have left all and followed you, which they had. Jesus does not disagree with that. So Jesus answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, who shall not receive a hundredfold now and this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life. I think our Lord began to fulfill this promise in the lives of his mother and of the disciple whom he loved, the Apostle John, even while he was dying on the cross for them. Because Mary received a son in the Lord that day, And John received a mother. We have all received many mothers and sisters and brothers. They're all around you. This morning. I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God. Because I have spiritual mothers in this room who can be for me what my own mother could never be. She doesn't know the Lord. And I have brothers and sisters in here who can be to me what some of my family can be to me. Because they don't know the Lord. In Christ, I have this huge family. And they're not just here, they're everywhere. The name of Christ is named. And we share what we have with each other whenever we have need. So I've got a home everywhere there are Christians. who follow the Lord and love Him, so do you. Jesus is keeping this promise in the church and we can see it beginning to be kept even when He's dying on the cross. Fifth, and finally, this account shows us the love and care of Jesus for those who believed in Him even while He was suffering on the cross. And this is suffering to which he willingly submitted himself. Remember what John said. When he recorded Jesus' words, in chapter 10, verses 11-15, Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But a harlan, he was not the shepherd. One who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. Jesus is not going to let this happen to His mother. He's getting her done. I am the Good Shepherd, He said, and I know My sheep, and am known by My own, as the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep. So here's the thing. Fast forward to the cross. As he's laying down his life for the sheep, he's thinking about them while he's doing it. He was thinking about us, too. He was thinking about all his sheep. We can be sure. For whom he was dying on that cross. That reminds us what the cross is really all about, doesn't it? The love of God being poured out on us because the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus. And he exhibited this love even while willingly giving himself the sacrifice for our sins. He loved us the whole time. Let's pray. Holy Father, I pray for those of us who believe here this morning that as we go from here, we will go with a renewed trust in your Word as the Word of God, with a renewed realization that we are part of the family of God, and that you've given us each other to look out for one another, to protect one another, to encourage one another as family. As brothers and sisters in the Lord, what a wonderful gift you've given to us in fulfillment of your promise. Help us to appreciate what we have in the body of Christ. Help us to see it as your love to us that you've given us, fellow believers, to help look after us. And help us, whenever we think of the cross, to think not only of your wrath, Holy Father, being poured out on the Son, but of your love being poured out on us. Thank you for loving us this way. Lord, for those who do not yet know you, it is our prayer that you would do for them this morning what you have done for us. Open their eyes, please, that they may see. who do not deserve your love. They deserve hell and damnation, everlasting punishment. But your wrath was poured out on Jesus on the cross for sinners, like everyone in this room. And if we look to you, if we look to Christ as the wrath-ending sacrifice for our sins, we can have forgiveness full and free. We can know the love of God We can experience it through the Word penetrating our hearts. We can experience it also through the Word as it is proclaimed by those around us, our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Help us, we pray, to trust you more fully. And for those who do not yet know you, give them the gift of faith and repentance, we pray, that they too might know your love. your undeserved, gracious, everlasting love. We ask these things in the name of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.