Jesus' Family Values

“Jesus’ Family Values”

Mark 3:20-35

Family is a foundational concept in the Bible.

The Bible begins in Genesis, not with talk about nations and tribes, but families—big families, real families.

Sometimes God’s people are likened to the bride of the Bridegroom and our infidelities are compared to adultery.

But, most of the time we’re God’s children--God’s sons and daughters who bring great joy as well as frustration.

And so, becoming part of God’s Kingdom, which on earth is the Church, is like joining a family—the family of God with all it’s good, bad and in-between just like any family has the good, bad and in-between.

Nothing on this earth is perfect—including the Church, because it is made up of very faulty human beings.

The only One Who is Perfect is Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who, amazingly and graciously is, according to Hebrews 2:11 is not ashamed to call US brothers and sisters.

In our Gospel Lesson for this morning Jesus’ biological family is frustrated with Him, or just plain worried about Him.

They hear that Jesus is drawing crowds, and they go to calm Him down or bring Him home or something—because people are talking and many folks think He’s out of His mind—it appears that they think this themselves.

They are either embarrassed or worried about what people might do to Him.

It doesn’t always end well for people who rile up the crowds.

But, Jesus doesn’t seem to mind that much.

After all, He knows how badly it’s all going to end.

So, what does He do?

He opens up the tent and gives everyone who wants the opportunity to enter the Kingdom, His family.

And who is His family?

Those who do the will of God.

When you do the will of God you get the chance to be Jesus’ brother or sister…even His mother!

And that’s what it’s about.

Followers of Jesus are meant to live as God’s family.

And the Church of Jesus Christ is referred to as God’s family throughout the New Testament, and other Christian literature as well.

Now to try and get a handle on what this means, we need to try and put ourselves into the worldview of 1st Century Palestine and the dynamics of families and groups.

For instance, in the New Testament world, the group takes precedence over the individual.

That’s the opposite of the way our culture looks at things.

For us, the goals, the aspirations and the needs of the individual tend to take priority over the group.

So, for American Christians living in the 21st Century, you and I tend to think about our relationship with the Church like this: “The church is here for me to get some spiritual growth or to feed me spiritually to further my relationship with God.”

And even in our families, there’s a sense in which the family is here for the individual and not the other way around.

In our American families, our goal is to socialize our kids so that they will be independent of our families—emotionally independent, relationally independent, financially independent, and often even geographically independent.

We live in a very “me” culture.

But early Christian culture was a strong “group culture” where the desires, the needs, and the goals of the individual took a back seat to the good of the group.

The 1998 movie “Titanic” is a classic illustration of this cultural clash.

You have a young lady named Rose, and Rose is in high society, top of the social strata and she’s riding in First Class with her mother and the guy she’s engaged to.

This man is not a good match for Rose and she doesn’t want to marry him, but she has to marry him because Rose’s father had died and before he died he squandered the family fortune.

As a result, Rose’s extended family is in danger of losing their social status and the only way for Rose to help them keep their good name is for her, as an individual, to set aside her personal needs by marrying this man who is portrayed as being a real jerk but he sure is rich.

Then one night Rose goes out on the deck of the ship.

And she’s bummed out about her situation, her future.

Then she meets Jack—played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

And Jack’s this street kid who won his ticket to ride on the Titanic in a poker game.

Jack and Rose are polar opposites when measured by social class but they fall for one another and they have a very “Western” romance.

They are meeting their individual needs and as they do so the American in all of us goes:

“Rose, follow your heart.

Dump the rich guy!

Go for Jack instead.”

But if that film were shown in Jesus’ day, the people watching would have been horrified.