Christ redefines Christians!

Mar 3:31-35

31 Just then his mother and brothers showed up. Standing outside, they relayed a message that they wanted a word with him. 32 He was surrounded by the crowd when he was given the message, "Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside looking for you." 33 Jesus responded, "Who do you think are my mother and brothers?" 34 Looking around, taking in everyone seated around him, he said, "Right here, right in front of you-- my mother and my brothers. 35 Obedience is thicker than blood. The person who obeys God's will is my brother and sister and mother."

Food for thought!

I want you to imagine this scene. Jesus is teaching in the city of Capernaum. He is surrounded by a vast multitude of people. As Jesus is teaching His family shows up. Their arrival creates moments of tension for everyone there. Jesus is teaching and His family is on the outside of the crowd. They can’t get to Him because of the multitude, so they send word through the crowd to tell Jesus to come to where they are. What will Jesus do? Will he stop teaching the Word of God and go to attend to his family, or what? This is a classic example of conflict of interests.

Instead of stopping what He was doing and going to His mother and brothers, Jesus simply said, “Who is My mother, or my brethren?” The crowd must have been shocked. His mother must have been devastated. His brothers probably got angry. They had traveled all the way from Nazareth to get Him and He refused to even stop teaching to talk with them.

Instead of trying to ease the tension, Jesus intensifies it. Instead of reaching out to his earthly family, He speaks to all the members of His spiritual family. Jesus used this moment as an opportunity to teach some eternal truth. This is a tense scene and the Lord’s reaction to His family seems cold on the surface. But His response to them was designed to teach some very important truths.

The lessons. Sometimes it is our dear ones like mother, father, husband, wife and friends that stand in between us and God. Of course they don't do it out of evil intentions; Mary and the others weren't acting out evil intentions; they were trying to help Jesus, so they thought. Yes, many times, our greatest distraction in doing God's will, and in embracing new opportunities are our relations. The tendency not to offset our dearest people or our dear past experiences many times make us forsake God-sent opportunities. This is why the burden of what we know already limits us in embracing new opportunities. The old is the enemy of the new. THE TIES THAT BIND US ARE THE TIES THAT BLIND US. (Andrew Hargadon).

There is in this passage a great and practical truth. It may very well be that a man finds himself closer to people who are not related to him than he does to his own kith and kin. The deepest relationship of life is not merely a blood relationship; it is the relationship of mind to mind and heart to heart (like husband and wife). It is when people have common aims, common principles, common interests, a common goal that they become really and truly kin.

You have heard the saying that "Obedience is thicker than blood", meaning by that that we are Christians not because of our Christian parents but because, like Jesus, we do what God wants us to do; it means that it is not enough to be Baptized, to go to Church, to carry a cross on your chest, a rosary in your car, or to have your Bible all underlined; the bottom line is, are you doing God’s will or not? The person who obeys God's will is the true brother and sister and mother of Jesus. Christ has redefined Christians.