Family Ties - Mark 3:31-35 Series

Mark 3:31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent for him, calling him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” 33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Introduction

Relationship to Jesus

How is your relationship with Jesus going? Not your relationship with God in general, but specifically, how is your relationship lately with the second member of the Trinity? When you post about a relationship on Facebook, one of the categories is “It’s complicated.” If you ever see a teenager post “In a relationship,” you watch, and within a few weeks they will change the status from “in a relationship” to, “it’s complicated.” If we posted about our relationship with Jesus we’d have to use that designation (it’s complicated) – not for the same reason the teens use it, but because it really is a complex, multi-faceted relationship. It’s complex. As your Savior, you look to him for salvation and forgiveness of sins. As your King, you bow before his authority. As your Creator, you submit to him as the owner of your life. As your Mediator, you look to him for your justification. As the Son of God, you worship him. As the Word of God, you look to him for truth and light and guidance and instruction. As the perfect Man, you look to him as your example.

Your relationship with Jesus might be stronger in some of those areas than in others. But there is one aspect of your relationship with him that, if you’re like most Christians, you never think about, never put any effort into it, and never appreciate it. In fact, there may be several in this room right now who don’t even know about it. And yet, it is not only taught in Scripture, but it is emphasized, and Jesus is going to make a very dramatic point of it in today’s text.

Arrival

Mark 3:31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived.

Just to refresh your memory, Mark is showing us the various responses to Jesus’ ministry. The Scribes said he was Satanic, and his family said he was insane. That’s not as bad as saying he’s satanic, but it’s still a clear rejection of Jesus’ claims. They obviously don’t believe Jesus is who he claimed to be. If someone thinks he’s God and he’s not, then he’s a nutcase. Like the guy in the mental hospital who said, “I’m Jesus.” And the guy in the next bed says, “Who told you that?” “God did!” And he says, “Oh no I didn’t.” If someone claims to be God and you put him in a psych ward, that means you don’t believe his claims.

Loss of Family

So this is a sad scene. It would be painful for any of us - to have your family going around saying you’re insane. But for Jesus - none of us love our families like Jesus loved his. And the more you love someone the more it hurts when they reject you. So we can scarcely imagine how painful this must have been for him.

But it’s a great encouragement to those of us who have lost relationships because of our faith, isn’t it? When Jesus said we must be ready to lose our families if need be to follow him, he wasn’t asking us to do anything he didn’t do. If you have ever been rejected by family or friends because of your faith, Jesus has personally been through that.

And not just your family, but the world in general.

John 15:18 If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.

Joy Behar was just in the news for calling Vice President Pence insane because of his believing he can interact with God in prayer. That’s nothing new – the world has been calling followers of Christ insane for 2000 years. That’s part of how we bear the sufferings of Christ.

Mary

So Jesus’ brothers thought he was a lunatic. But what about Mary – did she think that? That’s hard to imagine. She definitely believed in the virgin birth, right? If there is one person in history that didn’t doubt the virgin birth it was Mary. Everything we read about Mary at the time of Jesus’ birth makes it sound like she believed. And when John 7:5 says that his brothers did not believe in him, it just says, “brothers” not “mother and brothers.” So maybe she’s tagging along even though she doesn’t agree with the brothers’ conclusion. Or maybe she had a temporary lapse in her faith, kind of like John the Baptist. We don’t know for sure. But we know at least his brothers thought he was insane. The scribes said he was satanic, and his family thought he was insane.