Relationships, the Will of God, and the Final Moments of Jesus on the Cross

Mike Hosey, An Elder

One of the fundamental tenants of Christianity is that we are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27).  This means that we bear many attributes of God.  First, obviously, it means that we look like him. When the disciples gazed at the face of Jesus, they were gazing at the face of God.  Do you remember when Adam and Eve sinned, and shortly after heard God walking in the garden (Genesis 3:8)? God walks and moves like we do, or rather, we walk and move as he does.  Another attribute we share with God is that we are relational beings.  Notice in Genesis 1:26 that God said “let us make man in our image.” Relationship is innate to the Godhead, and so at some level it will be innate to us.  For instance, consider God’s reasoning for creating Eve – he reasoned that it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). 

This relational attribute we have is mightily important. So much so that not only did God program it into our being, but he also commanded it in our moral codes. Jesus reminded us of the two greatest commandments, both of which are relational.  The first is to love God with all of our being, and the second is like it, which is to love our neighbor like we love ourselves (Matthew 22:38-39). The writer of Hebrews tells the Christian church that they should not neglect gathering themselves together as a body of believers (Hebrews 10:25). In other words, he was telling them that relationships were very important to Christian life.  Considering these two commands, it can be argued that when we forsake relationships, we are outside the will of God.  From Genesis, to Matthew’s Jesus, to Hebrews, it is not good for man (or woman) to be alone. 

Jesus modeled this attribute for us almost everywhere he went. Whenever he wasn’t walking, working, eating or living with his disciples, he was reaching the lost.  And when he wasn’t doing those things, he was communing with God. He even modeled this relational attribute in some of his final words.  In his dying breaths, he saw his mother and one of his disciples standing near the cross. He recast their relationship, telling the disciple that she now belonged to him as his mother, and he now belonged to her as her son.  From then on, the disciple took the mother into his own home. It’s interesting that one of his final statements concerned familial relationship.

So evaluate your relationships, and consider where you are in the will of God.