A Faithful Son and Savior in John 19:16-27

Relationships between Mothers and their adult children can be complicated at times. In Sunday’s sermon passage, John 19:16-27, we get to see how Jesus and his mother Mary resolved their complicated (to say the least!) relationship with love and compassion at cross. How they resolve it gives us a glimpse of our Savior’s heart for his mother, and what it means about his heart for us.

Creeds. For the first time since July 2021, our church confessed the Creed of Chalcedon (also known as the Definition of Chalcedon). This Creed is the fourth of the “ecumenical creeds” confessed by the universal church (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant). This creed strongly affirms Jesus’ two natures: His Divine nature and His human nature. Our pastor selected it for this week because, in its affirmation of Jesus’ human nature, we get a reminder of Mary’s physical relationship with Jesus. In the Creed and in church history, Mary was given the title “God-bearer” (Theotokos in Greek) because God chose her to carry and give birth to God-the-Son.

Hymns. Our congregation sang two amazing hymns that capture Jesus’ last day: one old and one recent. The older one was Isaac Watts much loved “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” from the year 1707. The more recent one was CityAlight’s “Jerusalem” from 2014.

A video of the entire service is posted below, and the bulletin is posted here.