Mark 3:31-35
Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
That had to be hard to hear. For Jesus’ mother and brothers, I mean. They’ve come to find him because they’re worried about him. And for good reason – people are saying all kinds of things about him. He’s become famous, sure, kind of a first-century rock star, but as we all know rock stars can go over the edge, and it may very well seem to Jesus’ family like that’s just what’s happening. Moreover, the religious authorities are pretty upset by what Jesus is doing and saying, and typically you don’t want to mess with the authorities. So for all these reasons and more, Jesus’ family comes to get him, to help him, maybe to bring him home before things go really wrong.
And all they get in return is this: “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Yeah, that had to hurt.
You’ve probably heard the proverb, “Blood is thicker than water.” It means that while we may argue and even fight with our family, we’re still bound to them in ways that we will never be bound to our friends. So no matter what state of relationship we’re in with our family members, we’re still likely to do things for them that we wouldn’t do for anyone else.
Which is why Jesus’ statement turns heads – even turns things on their head – as he’s asserting a whole new way of relating to each other. In God’s kingdom, Jesus says, we’re not joined to each other by happenstance birth. We’re not bound to each other by traditional kinship. We’re not knit together primarily as a biological family. Rather, we find our identity, kinship, and community in and through the relationship we share in God. All those who live in and work for God’s kingdom are family.
It’s easy to imagine Jesus is using this as a clever turn of phrase or rhetorical ploy to engender loyalty among his followers – “Trust me, you all are way more important to me than my family.” Except that he goes on to live it and in this way prove it. Again and again in Mark’s gospel Jesus breaks down barriers and breaks the rules about who can associate with whom, inviting more and more people – and as we’ve already seen it’s usually the most unlikely people – to join his family, his fellowship, his new community formed not by the blood of biological birth but the water of baptism and the sweat of those willing to toil for the ideals of the kingdom.
Which means that Jesus is starting the original “blended family,” drawing people then and now from all different walks of life, ethnicities, backgrounds, nationalities and traditions into one large family, the family of God. So I guess, at least when it comes to the kingdom of God, that “water is thicker than blood” after all.
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for including us in your family and help us to see all those around us as fellow siblings, your children, in the kingdom Jesus’ announced and fashioned. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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