Pastor's Corner

Just then the mother and brothers of Jesus showed up. Standing outside, they relayed a message that they wanted a word with him.

Jesus was surrounded by a crowd when he was given the message.

‘Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.’

Jesus responded, ‘Who do you think are my mother and my brothers?’ Looking around, Jesus said, ‘Right here, right in front of you, are my mother and my brothers. Obedience is thicker than blood. The one who obeys God’s will is my mother and brother.’” Mark 3. 31-34

“Family” takes central place in our religious tradition. The Bible tells the story of generations of the family of Abraham and Sarah.

To be sure, they weren’t a perfect family.

At times they were a dysfunctional family.

Everyone in the family agreed that blood was thicker than water.

Our Lord Jesus was raised within this good Jewish family, and he was brought up to honor his parents and to faithfully watch over his siblings.

Now, early in Jesus’ ministry, it seems to his family that something has gone seriously wrong.

“This isn’t how I raised my son.” It appeared to them that Jesus was in the process of ruining both his life and the family’s reputation.

And so the family launched what we would today call an intervention.

Their one goal was to get Jesus back on the “right path.” When Jesus responded by saying, “Those who do the will of God are my mother and my brothers,” he broke down the boundaries of family that everyone he had ever known had always taken for granted.

He threw open the doors of the Kingdom to all who would do the will of God and follow him.

A sixth century monk named Dorotheos of Gaza did an excellent job of diagramming Jesus’ understanding.

Dorotheos first drew a large circle, and then he placed a point at the circle’s center.

He then drew straight lines, like spokes on a wheel, that connected this center point with various points on the circle’s circumference.

He said that the center point represented God and the straight lines represented human beings.

To move toward God, then, people would leave the circumference of the circle and move inward.

As they did this, the people simultaneously became closer to one another.

Conversely, the closer they were to one another, the closer they were to God.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus sought to draw his hearers closer to God, and therefore closer to each other.

He wasn’t disrespecting his birth family; he was redefining what it means to be family.

And he invites us all to walk with him.

In our Church families there are many things that seek to drive us away from each other. “Should we use traditional or praise music in worship?” “Is baptism by immersion superior to infant baptism?” “Wine or grape juice?” “Is my goal to worship with people who are just like me, or do I welcome diversity?” We know full well what Jesus would do. He would have us accept differences as he leads us closer to the center of the circle. He would look at the lines of the circle and say: “Here are my brothers and sisters. Here is my mother. Whoever is doing the will of God is my mother and my brother and my sister.”

Won’t you decide today to stop letting extraneous issues tear you away from others? Won’t you walk with Jesus toward the center of the circle, thereby walking shoulder to shoulder with other seekers? Wherever we are on our life journeys, let’s move toward God, who is, above all, love.

Pastor Bob Ingalls

Malden Community Church, UCC