WHOEVER DOES THE WILL OF GOD IS MY BROTHER AND SISTER AND MOTHER

Mark3:31-35

In today’s gospel it seems that Jesus ignores His own mother and relatives when they press to see Him. He could have taken a break and gone to see them. Or if he was in the middle of a message, he certainly could have passed a message telling them that he would be with them shortly. But I think, in this occasion where people are listening to Him, Jesus just saw it appropriate to teach them higher reality of spiritual kinship, namely the family of God. He tells us that we belong to the family of God by doing His will. “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

In this sense, the essence of being a Christian is more than doctrine, precepts. It is first and foremost a relationship with Jesus by doing his father’s will. Jesus points to higher reality of relationships. He is helping his listeners to understand how big his family is. What he is saying is that it is not flesh and blood that makes up his family, but doing the will of God. The boundaries of “the family of God” are expanded beyond blood relatives to include those who hunger for a relationship with God and are willing to do God’s will.

Jesus is saying that the Kingdom of God is not filled with relatives born by blood, but it is filled with relatives bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. I think, in this passage, Jesus is not reproaching His Mother and relatives. Rather, He is telling us that blood relations are not what is important. What is important is to hear the Word of God and obey it. And this is exactly what Mary, his mother did. It is precisely because she listened to the Word of God and obeyed it that she was able to freely give her “yes”.

For us here, we don’t have to travel back in time.  We believe that Jesus Christ is speaking naturally to us this evening.  “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” It is an occasion to ask ourselves. Where am I? Am I part of this family?