To me Christ's life was an example of love. Everything he did he did for others. He never shunned anyone. He saw too his mom's care, he converted at least one of his fleshly brothers, he stayed at home and helped his dad in the family business until he was thirty, he was a great son. Telling someone to come and follow him didn't mean they didn't speak to their parents. In fact Christ urged them to be loving to their parents and to all men. Christ told them the two greatest commandments were to love god and to love their fellow man. My favorite example is Matthew 15 quoted below. It shows very well his attitude toward those who do not love and honor their parents, showing that worship without this love is hypocritical. I think the verses quoted below show his love not only for his parents but for all men, as is summed up in his answer to John in the last verse. I looked mostly in Matthew, I am sure given a little time I could do better. Weeping for a friend, commending the father whose daughter he healed, feeding the poor after his sermon, his advice to Martha ( I think it was) about picking the important things. In all of his life, it seems to me, he reflected love towards everyone he was around, even asking forgiveness for his murderers. Can you give me an instance where he shunned anyone??? He spoke to those who had become apostates and dealt with them, even teaching in their churches. Can you give an instance where he shunned someone???
Matthew 15:3 In reply he said to them: "Why is it YOU also overstep the commandment of God because of YOUR tradition? 4 For example, God said, Honor your father and your mother; and, Let him that reviles father or mother end up in death. 5 But YOU say, Whoever says to his father or mother: "Whatever I have by which you might get benefit from me is a gift dedicated to God," 6 he must not honor his father at all. And so YOU have made the word of God invalid because of YOUR tradition. 7 YOU hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about YOU, when he said, 8 This people honors me with their lips, yet their heart is far removed from me. 9 It is in vain that they keep worshipping me, because they teach commands of men as doctrines
Mark 10:17 And as he was going out on his way, a certain man ran up and fell upon his knees before him and put the question to him: "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit everlasting life?" 18 Jesus said to him: "Why do you call me good? Nobody is good, except one, God. 19 You know the commandments, Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother
35 And one of them, versed in the Law, asked, testing him: 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 He said to him: "You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind. 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 The second, like it, is this, You must love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets."
Matthew 18:21 Then Peter came up and said to him: "Lord, how many times is my brother to sin against me and am I to forgive him? Up to seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him: "I say to you, not, Up to seven times, but, Up to seventy-seven times.
Matthew 11:
2 But John, having heard in jail about the works of the Christ, sent by means of his own disciples 3 and said to him: "Are you the Coming One, or are we to expect a different one?" 4 In reply Jesus said to them: "Go YOUR way and report to John what YOU are hearing and seeing: 5 The blind are seeing again, and the lame are walking about, the lepers are being cleansed and the deaf are hearing, and the dead are being raised up, and the poor are having the good news declared to them; 6 and happy is he that finds no cause for stumbling in me."
Jesus was pro love. Pro family love. Pro love of God. Pro love of your enemies, pro love period. In his prayers he reflects that love, read them again sometime. His mom and his aunt were at his execution. In his dying moments he made sure that that his mom was taken care of by trying to see that his death didn't deprive her of the help and support of the son she was losing. In an age when old people lived with their children, she chose to live with the person he asked to take care of her, no doubt she was made to feel loved and welcome in his home, as Christ intended.
25 By the torture stake of Jesus, however, there were standing his mother and the sister of his mother; Mary the wife of Clo'pas, and Mary Mag'dalene. 26 Therefore Jesus, seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, said to his mother: "Woman, see! Your son!" 27 Next he said to the disciple: "See! Your mother!" And from that hour on the disciple took her to his own home.
I think that concern for his mom, for his physical well being, even at a time when giant events were taking place and he himself was gasping his last breaths, speaks to just how much he loved his parents.
Grunt
