What an Odd Family

Mark 3:31-35 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came. They stood outside and sent someone in to tell him to come out. Many people were sitting around Jesus. They said to him, “Your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are waiting for you outside.” Jesus asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he looked at the people sitting around him and said, “These people are my mother and my brothers! My true brother and sister and mother are those who do what God wants.”

The idea of family is an interesting one. You hear Christians say that they’re part of God’s family, but what does that actually mean? Come on, in your day-to-day life, what does it actually mean to you to be a child of God?

Family is important – or at least it should be, right? And so you’d imagine that Jesus, the Son of God, should have been the ideal role model when it came to loving His family. 

That’s why this little episode is so shocking. There was a time when Jesus was out preaching and surrounded by crowds as He often was. 

Mark 3:31-35 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came. They stood outside and sent someone in to tell him to come out. Many people were sitting around Jesus. They said to him, “Your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are waiting for you outside.” Jesus asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he looked at the people sitting around him and said, “These people are my mother and my brothers! My true brother and sister and mother are those who do what God wants.”

What an odd response. But you know, Jesus saw things so differently. He saw things, and still does, through the eyes of God. And my hunch is that what He’s really on about with that strange, almost rude response is making this point; that when we commit our lives to Him, to following Him, to doing His Father’s will, then we are family to Him.

I feel so inadequate some days, but I just take one step after the other and do my best to do His will. And it seems just so ordinary.

But then Jesus comes along amidst this mundane ordinariness of life, taps you on the shoulder and whispers, “You – you’re family”. 

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.

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