Who is my family?

Context

Jesus and his disciples had made their way to a house to try and eat and get some rest; but quickly the crowds find him and begin to fill up the house so much that Jesus could not even eat. And much like last week’s passage, Jesus is facing accusations from some of the crowd again. Last week he was accused of empowering sin and being unclean because of his relationship with the sinners and tax collectors. But this week it really goes even one step further; this time the teachers from Jerusalem accuse him of being possessed by the Devil!

As Jesus is trying to teach them his mother and brothers arrive on the scene. Why? Well we get a clue in v21- his family was concerned about his mental state! So, you know how we say that Jesus can empathize with all we go through? Well, if you have ever had a friend or family member call you crazy for the way you live your faith- good news, Jesus can relate to that one too.

So, Jesus’ mother and brothers show up outside the house and someone yells- Hey Jesus, your mom and brothers and here! Benign enough; but Jesus fires back with quite a response that really draws some lines in the sand, who are my mother and who are my brothers? Those who do the will of God.

Now, let’s dig into what Jesus is saying; and what Jesus is not saying in this passage.

Jesus is not negating the importance of biological family

Contrary to what some may read into this passage, Jesus is in no way being critical or downplaying the role of the family. In fact the home, or the family is one of the three Earthly institutions that has been ordained by God. More than that, it was the first of the institutions that God ordained. God makes Adam and Eve and places them in the garden with dominion to care for creation- their union is ordained by God.

Jesus is not advocating to ignore, downplay, or contract off the ministry of your family. Friends, our family is extremely important, and we need to treat it so.

Consider 1 Timothy 5:8“But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” the ministry of the family is paramount. In fact, some of us might need to elevate the ministry of our families because our family is often left to deal with us at our worst selves.

Clovis Chappell, a minister from a century back, used to tell the story of two paddleboats. They left Memphis about the same time, traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. As they traveled side by side, sailors from one vessel made a few remarks about the snail’s pace of the other. Words were exchanged. Challenges were made. And the race began. Competition became vicious as the two boats roared through the Deep South.

One boat began falling behind. Not enough fuel. There had been plenty of coal for the trip, but not enough for a race. As the boat dropped back, an enterprising young sailor took some of the ship’s cargo and tossed it into the ovens. When the sailors saw that the supplies burned as well as the coal, they fueled their boat with the material they had been assigned to transport. They ended up winning the race, but burned their cargo.

God has entrusted cargo to us, too: children, spouses, friends. Our job is to do our part in seeing that this cargo reaches its destination without being burned. Yet when the program takes priority over people, people often suffer. How much cargo do we sacrifice in order to achieve the number one slot? How many people never reach the destination because of the aggressiveness of a competitive captain?

Jesus is elevating the importance of Spiritual Family

Instead of negating the importance of biological family, Jesus elevates the importance of Spiritual family. You see, who are the people you would do anything for, the most important people in the world to you? Most of us would say its our family.

When it comes to our family many of us award extra grace, forgiveness, and mercy. We allow our family to get away with a lot more than other people. And there is some amazing love and forgiveness in that- and in many ways we treat our families with a love that models and mirrors Jesus.

But so many times when it comes to our church family; or our brothers and sisters in Christ we are so much more tight fisted. We cut Christians out of our lives, we avoid or even gossip and slander our brothers and sisters about much more petty thing than what we forgive so easily in our families.

And how many times do we inconvenience ourselves and innately drop all we are doing to show up for our family. When family calls we jump into action.

Your brother calls and says- hey man I need help, and you miss that football game on TV; a member of the church needs help and there is no time in your schedule

Your sister is having a hard time financially so you give her some money; or take some groceries; a fellow Christian needs help and you don’t give or even worse you judge their spending and money use habits.

You all have heard me say this before- but I am going to throw this out again. Let’s say there are 150 adults in this sanctuary today- if each one of us gave 1 hour this week; the time it takes to watch an episode of your favorite TV show; Ill watch more football than that this afternoon- that’s 150 hours we could pour into this church family; this community; the family of God this week alone- that 7,800 hours in a years time; and that’s just one hour a week; imagine if those who could give more gave 3 hours a week. If we have 30 people give 3- that's another 60 hours on top each week, or another 3,120 hours a year for more than 11,000 hours.

We show up and cheer for our family…

Who is in?

So who is in this family of ours? Well Jesus lays in on the line for us in Mark 3:35. Whoever does the will of God is part of the family of God. Our grafting into the family is not because we go to church; or because we are the son of a preacher; or because we are good person who does nice things. No, we are a part of the family of God because we do the will of God.

By the way- for more on this check out our Bible study this week, which is about God’s will.

There is some sort of weird obsession our society has with those paternity court shows. In fact, the show Paternity Court with Lauren Lake averaged over 2.5 million viewers a day; I don’t understand the whole thing- it actually seems sad to me that society can reduce a child’s paternity to a form of entertainment; but that’s another story for another day.

Anyway, you know the bit; the dad takes a DNA test and at some point in the show they pull out an envelope that reveals whether or not the man in question is the father of the child.

The Bible gives us a paternity test of sorts too- but the envelope would spell out the content of our lives; do we submit to the will of God; do we follow the ways of Christ?

One family name

Christ friends we share a family name.

John 1:12–13 (ESV)

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

1 John 3:1 “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

As brothers and sisters in Christ we bear a common family name- the name of Jesus Christ.

We have all heard someone say- you know you can’t choose your family; and that is true for our Brothers and Sisters and Christ too. You see, you cannot choose that family- because God choose them.

But I want to point out something in the verses I just read from John 1:12-13 The scriptures say that God gave us the RIGHT to become children- we all have the right to be in the family of God; but it is your choice to enact that right. Think of it like this- in the USA we have the right to free speech; the right to bear arms; the right to vote; and the right to remain silent—— but it is up to us to enact those rights!

A commitment together

1 Corinthians 10:16–17“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

Friends, as we take this communion today, yes we need to remember the Lord and all he has done.

But friends, this communion is also a reminder of our oneness in Christ.