FAMILY!

‘Tis the season, at least in the U.S., to get together with family and eat turkey and give thanks.

I like #1 and #3. Good ideas. Don’t care much for #2, the bird of the week. I’d rather have dead cow! But the desserts were great.

So I engorged … and gave thanks.

I have been blessed. Indeed! Dad, brother, sister-in-law, and nephews. And my other, adopted family in Dallas.

For this reason I bow my knees
before the Father,
from whom every family
in heaven and on earth
derives its name.
Ephesians 3:14–15

I’ve been blessed.

I was thinking about all this and working on a passage in Mark that has a lot about family. Jesus redefines what it means to be part of family—His family.

And He came home,
and the crowd gathered again ….
When His family heard of this,
they went out to take seize Him;
for they were saying,
“He is out of His mind.”
Mark 3:20–21

Wow! His family thought Jesus was crazy! This is the group of people you’d have thought would be “in” with Jesus. Hey, they are genetically related to him, aren’t they?

But notice where they are. They are “outside.” Insiders we’d expect them to be; and genetically, inside they are; but physically, they are standing outside. And what’s worse, they accuse Jesus of being “out” of his mind. So where are they morally?

They are trying to “seize” Him. That’s a hostile word in Mark: Herod “seizing” John the Baptist; Pharisees trying to “seize” Jesus; and the religious leaders “seizing” Jesus to have him killed. And here, the family—His family!—is seeking to “seize” Jesus!

There they are again, still standing outside.

Then His mother and His brothers arrived,
and standing outside
they sent word to Him
and called Him.
Mark 3:31

Now the crowd around Jesus gets into the act. They’re feeling uncomfortable.

A crowd was sitting around Him,
and they said to Him,
“Behold, Your mother and Your brothers
are outside looking for You.”
Mark 3:32

And Jesus uses the moment for a powerful lesson on family—His family.

Answering them, He said,
“Who are My mother and My brothers?”
Mark 3:33

Yeah, who are they?

Looking about at those
who were sitting around Him,
He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers!
For whoever does the will of God,
he is My brother and sister and mother.”
Mark 3:34–35

Finally we get to the real “insiders”: Jesus’ family is made up of those who do the will of God.

It is not just the Twelve alone who are in the coterie of insiders, but anyone who does the will of God; indeed, Jesus uses deliberately inclusive language with His addition of “sister”—there was no mention of a sister in His physical family. Nobody said anything about a sister. But there it is; suddenly, “sister.” That addition by Jesus is pointed: it marks out the fact that anyone who does the will of God is an “insider”—part of Jesus’ family, a disciple!

And the condition for being part of His family of disciples: obedience to the will of God. That of course begins with placing one’s trust in Jesus Christ as one’s only God and Savior.

For you are all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus.
Because you are sons,
God has sent forth
the Spirit of His Son
into our hearts,
crying, "Abba! Father!"
Galatians 3:26; 4:6

Families—what a blessing! The real one! And the adopted one! And the eternal one!