It’s reasonable to assume Jesus’s mother, Mary, has brothers and sisters, but only one appears in the Bible. It’s Mary’s sister, which would be Jesus’s aunt. Yes, Jesus has an aunt. We don’t know her name, and she garners only one brief mention, but what she does is significant.
Though we can only speculate if Mary’s sister is a follower of Jesus, we do know that she stands by her sister’s side while Mary keeps her vigil as Jesus dies.
That’s what family does. That’s what friends do. They stand by us in our darkest moments, perhaps saying nothing, just being present.
Do we have these deep kinds of friendships? Are we this type of devoted friend to others?
[Discover more about Jesus’s aunt in John 19:25.]
Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.
A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.