You Are Part of God's Family

Scripture — Mark 3:31–35 (NRSV)

Then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Devotion

In Mark 3, the family of Jesus “went to take charge of him” because they said “He is out of his mind” (3:21, NIV). His mother and brothers came to visit him; no doubt to try to dissuade him from continuing his scandalous work. While they waited outside a home for Jesus, somebody reported their presence and desire to speak with him. Jesus’s response was likely surprising to all: “Who are my mother and my brothers?” (3:33). Then he added, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (3:34–35).

In a culture that prized family above just about everything, these words must have been shocking. Not only did Jesus fail to honor his family in the expected way, but he also spoke of family in radically new terms. True “family” is not ultimately a matter of blood relationship, but of kinship in obedience to God. This kinship begins through God’s grace in Christ, when God adopts us into the divine (see Romans 8:15–23). It is expressed as we seek and do God’s will.

During much of my lifetime, there has been a vigorous cultural debate about the nature of the family. Traditionally, Americans would tend to think of family as centered in the nuclear family, which was composed of a married father and mother with their children, either biological or adopted. Extended families included a network of people related by blood, marriage, or adoption. But social disruption has challenged these neat definitions. What about single-parent families? Blended families? And what are sometimes called chosen families? In my case, for example, my nuclear family and I consider several people to be essential to our family even though we are not related by blood, marriage, or adoption. But ours is a family kind of love. We share all holidays together, refer to each other with family names (I’m called “Uncle Mark” by those not related to me), and feel blessed to be a family together.

What Jesus says about family in Mark 3:34–35 suggests that true family can indeed be rather like a chosen family. But, in this case, the choice that adopts us into the family is not mainly about the people we choose to love, but about our choice to serve God. Actually, it’s even more about God’s choice of us to be in God’s own family. When we are adopted into God’s family and seek to do God’s will, we are connected to a whole bunch of sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, and so forth. We will only experience the fullness of the Christian life when we share it with our relatives in the family of God.

Jesus’ perspective on family challenges me to look afresh at my own life: Am I living as a brother of Jesus? Am I doing the will of God… really? Am I living out my true identity as a child in the family of God? Can I become so focused on my natural family that I neglect the needs of my Christian family? Do I deeply value this family, or do I neglect its importance? What might I do to live as an active, committed part of God’s family?

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: A New Kind of Family.