Welcome to the third episode in this series on The Difference Jesus Makes. In this sermon we will examine the second way that believers in Jesus Christ are to live differently than those who do not follow him. How are Christians to treat other Christians as members of a new family?
I’m hoping you are becoming a little bit more discouraged over the present condition of the church in America. I hope the severe contrast between how American Christians and non-Christians behave and live is clear to you by now. We have to admit how bad things actually are inside Christian organizations if we ever want to make any progress toward improvement.
In this video, we will find one of the deepest reasons why Christian organizations fail: they tend to treat their “children” like unwanted members of their own family. How often this happens I cannot say, but the recent history of Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations is riddled with examples.
The Irony of Divisiveness Among Us
Recently I’ve had a chance to hear from several people who are disillusioned with the current state of Christian churches. They have taken their time to watch several of my videos over the past year and are wondering what I think and suggest about Christianity these days.
A good many of them are concerned about the same problems I have been discussing, even though they have yet to see me address them explicitly. Their emails include frustrations with congregations, the seeming immunity of the clergy from accountability, and the hypocritical attitudes of the rank and file church-goers, to name a few.
But one thing stands out from the batch of messages I have received in the last few weeks: all of them want to know if there’s any real hope for Christianity today. One of my friends even sent me a text message recently that included a simple sentence: “Hoping you can end well and bring hope back.”
It’s hard, though, to see any hope anywhere in the Christian world. After all, my friend is not far off when she says “hope is needed” within Christianity. His concern is right in line with the larger community of Christians, and I’ve heard it said many times before by others.
It is, indeed, a cynical view of Christians and their organizations that would appear to be out of touch with reality at this point. If anything, it seems that the majority of churches are no longer engaged in advancing the Gospel message of Jesus into all the world – or even trying to hold the ground that was already won during the “growth years” of the 1980s and 1990s.
The one small detail that I feel needs mentioning is what I believe is the leading reason that the Christian church has become so unproductive – and almost irrelevant – in this day. It’s all got to do with division and divisive attitudes.
For instance, rather than growing to understand how both men and women are equally gifted, challenged, and called by God to carry out the mission of the church, we have further divided ourselves along the lines of gender. Now we have an ever increasing number of divisions among those who are intent on obeying God by creating special churches, ministries, programs, conferences, etc. for men and/or women, or both.
One example that comes immediately to mind is the explosion of the home church movement, which has taken what was once a unified force against the forces of evil in our world (see Eph. 6:12), and reduced it to a fractious collection of competing individuals who have been convinced that their group – for whatever reason – is the one best fit for every other Christian.
Mark 3:35 Jesus’ Family Remarks
We see an example of this kind of thinking in the text for our sermon today, which comes from Mark 3:31-35 (ESV):
And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. ^{32 }And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” ^{33 }And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ^{34 }And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ^{35 }For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
This is just one of several passages that speaks to the importance of family for Christians, especially when it comes to the new identity they take on when they begin following Jesus. Let’s have a look at what is going on here.
The context for today’s passage is found at the beginning of chapter three. Jesus has just completed healing someone with a withered hand (v.5). The Pharisees and scribes have taken notice and taken exception to what they witness in Jesus’ ministry. They criticize the action as a violation of the law to do work on the Sabbath. But they are stymied by Jesus’ ability to explain how the man’s healing was actually accomplished.
As a result, Jesus turns to the nearby crowd to respond to the Pharisee’s arguments. He explains how to interpret the laws of Sabbath keeping (vv.13-19).
Jesus then appoints the twelve apostles to assist him in his ministry, even giving them the authority to cast out demons themselves. This upsets the Pharisees and scribes once again, resulting in many people listening to Jesus himself instead (vv.21-30).
Jesus ends chapter three by explaining why some are drawn to him while others continue to reject his teaching. Those who have the Spirit of God in them recognize what He is doing; whereas those who do not understand are called children of darkness. Their thoughts are ever confused (vv.31-35).
While Jesus is busy addressing the teachings of the religious leaders and the response from the crowds, his family has arrived in the area, as well. They stand on the outer edge of the throng that is gathered to listen to him, and they demand something of him. Namely, they request that he come and talk with them.
But Jesus responds to what the messengers report by saying, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
What does Jesus mean, exactly, by this question?
First, the context suggests that Jesus is not actually saying, “Mom, I don’t even know who you are anymore.”
No, it’s clear that Jesus is focusing on the crowd that gathers round him, and he tells his mother and brothers and sisters that they are present with him.
That means Jesus uses the occasion of the presence of his physical family to emphasize how important the gathering of his followers is to him. His decision to address the crowd in this way is noteworthy. He could have turned away from the crowd and gone to greet his relatives. But that would have left a bad impression with the crowd. They might have thought Jesus was favoring his family members over those who came to hear him teach. So he uses his family’s visit as a chance to make an emphatic statement to the crowd.
What should we understand Jesus to be saying here?
The first part of the answer should focus on the fact that the crowd gathered at the base of a hill. This hill would have been the natural seating area where everyone would have listened to a public speaker or teacher. Jesus would have preached to the crowd from a place of higher elevation. In this case the mountain on which Jesus was standing would have been the elevated platform from which he taught everyone.
The fact that everyone gathered together under one gathering place for the purpose of learning from Jesus is significant because it reinforces the image of “family” being used in the text. In Jesus’ day, families typically shared the same tent, ate from the same food, and rested in the same place at night, al together. Jesus is doing something similar by emphasizing how valuable the gathering of his followers is to him.
To put it another way, Jesus makes the connection that the actual practice of being a follower of Jesus is itself a powerful aspect of the family relationship. Jesus is showing the crowd that the actions that all of his followers take while listening to him and being instructed by him is central to their new family relationship with him.
The metaphor of “being with Jesus” is not unique to this situation. In fact, it’s repeated throughout the gospels. So much so that we ought to pay special attention to it now. Jesus uses a variation of this theme throughout the gospel narratives by using the phrase, “to follow me.”
He urges his followers to “come, follow me,” in Matt. 9:9.
Jesus uses this same language to invite the apostle James, son of Zebedee, to leave his fishing business and join him on the mission in Mark 1:17. He even issues the invitation to fisherman, Simon Peter (also known as Cephas in Aramaic) and to his brother Andrew in the same manner – to “come follow me” – in John 1:34-