We are family

In Mark chapter 3 Jesus is in a house and He’s teaching a large crowd.

Then along comes His mum Mary and His brothers.

And evidently they can’t get in to see Jesus because of the crowd, so they send in a message.

And Jesus says:

Who are my mother and my brothers?

Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, Here are my mother and my brothers!

Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.

And it might seem that Jesus is being rude.

After all the Bible says that you have to honour your mother and father, and yet Jesus seems to ignore Mary, in favour of the crowds.

But Jesus is the sinless saviour and we know that He loved His mother.

We can see this especially when He is on the cross.

Mary is there and so is John and He says: (John 19)

Dear woman, here is your son,

and to the disciple, Here is your mother.

Jesus is concerned for His mother and asks His close friend John to look after her.

So what is going on?

We need to go back a few verses to the very beginning of this episode. To verse 20:

Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

You see Jesus family didn’t understand who Jesus was!  -  At that time.

Later yes, particularly after the resurrection they come to know Him as Lord and Saviour – as the son the God – as God himself.

Mary is there with the disciples in the upper room as part of the early church

James was an important leader in the early church at Jerusalem, and he and Jude went on to write two of the New Testament books.

However, at this time they are not believers and they want to stop Jesus and maybe take Him home.

So Jesus is not being disrespectful or unloving, He has a ministry to fulfil and He will not let anyone stop Him.

So we are left with what Jesus says:

Who are my mother and my brothers?

Here are my mother and my brothers!

Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother.

You see - We are family!

God is our Father, Jesus is our brother.

John says:

to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

And Jesus Himself said that we must be born again.

I tell you the truth, He said no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

Born of flesh – into our biological family and born of the spirit into our Christian family with God as our Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

Next time you go to church take a look around. There are your brothers and sisters in Christ. Halleluiah!