“ALL IN THE FAMILY”
Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 5)
June 7, 2015
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Looking about at those who sat around Him, [Jesus] said, “Here are My
mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My
brother and sister and mother.”
Mark 3:34 (ESV)
It’s been said that “blood is thicker than water.” I’m sure that all
of us have heard that expression at one time or another, and many of
us have used it ourselves. It’s a rather poetic way of saying that
family relationships and loyalties run deep. There’s a lot of truth
in that. Many families pride themselves in “looking out for their
own.” If a member of your family is in some kind of trouble or has a
particular need, you are far more likely to come to that person’s aid
than you would if he or she were a total stranger. When a family
member comes under suspicion for one reason or another, you are far
more likely to give him or her the benefit of the doubt than you would
if he or she were not a blood relative. We are usually predisposed to
view the members of our family with a much more charitable attitude
than we do others, and we don’t make any attempt to apologize for that
kind of bias. We feel that that’s the way it should be:. After all,
they’re family--and we should always look out for family.
In the Gospel for today Jesus is saying that, in a sense, water can
sometimes be thicker than blood. This statement--the opposite of the
one that we began with--is also very true, if the water in question is
the water of Holy Baptism. Jesus had been approached by His mother
and brothers, who apparently wanted to take Him away from His
preaching for a time. We aren’t told why, but we do know that His
brothers, to be sure, didn’t think much of His ministry, for John
tells us: “Not even His brothers believed in Him” (John 7:5). Jesus’
reaction to their request was less than encouraging for them. Most of
us would not think too highly of someone today who responded to his
family in the way that Jesus responds to His in the passage before us.
But what Jesus is doing in this incident is giving us a new and
entirely different concept of “family.” He is saying that being a
part of His family has nothing at all to do with biological
relationships or bloodlines, but rather with being His disciples and
doing the will of God.
What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? The definition
of the New Testament word that is translated “disciple” () is
simply “learner”--one who learns. So Jesus’ great commission to go
and “make disciples” (Matthew 28:19) is actually a commission to
teach--specifically to teach the Gospel of His redeeming love for lost
humanity. To be a disciple of Jesus means to regard Him as the Source
of all knowledge and all truth. He is the One on whom the disciple is
totally dependent for his or her life and spiritual growth. Jesus is
for us more than just one Source of knowledge among many; He is the
only One to whom we can turn with complete confidence, knowing that
what He teaches us in His Word is the truth, is what we need to know,
is what will nurture and guide our life in Him, and is what will
ultimately lead us to the everlasting life that He has promised.
It is natural and appropriate that a good teacher-disciple
relationship will generate a tremendous amount of respect and love on
the part of the disciple for his teacher. I have been out of school
for over thirty-four years now, and I still look to several of my
former professors (the few who are still around) as examples for
guidance, encouragement, and direction. I look to them because by
their teaching they have nurtured in me a respect for them and a
confidence in their judgment. If we can feel that way about human
teachers who are far from perfect, certainly the disciple of the
perfect Teacher, Jesus, can confidently come to Him--in prayer and
especially in His Word--for guidance and encouragement. Jesus is not
a teacher who simply presented His disciples with some cold, hard
facts and then disappeared; by the ongoing presence of His Holy Spirit
He is the ever-present Counselor and Teacher who continues to be with
us today, each day guiding us where He would have us to go. And
everything that He has provided thus far assures us that we can always
follow His guidance and His inspiration with the greatest confidence.
The respect and love that we have for our divine Teacher ought to
lead us quite naturally into doing God’s will. “If you love Me,” our
Teacher says, “you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). But
before we can even begin to do that we need to have some understanding
of what God’s will is. We are living in very interesting and
troubling times--times in which there is great confusing regarding
God’s will. Many are indifferent to both God and His will. For
others, “God’s will” has become the all-embracing excuse for not doing
anything. “If it’s God’s will that something happens, it will
happen,” they say. That may indeed be true, but that attitude is not
one that promotes doing God’s will. On the contrary, it is an
attitude that promotes being totally indifferent to what goes on
around us. God’s will is clearly revealed in His Word, and unless we
are familiar with God’s Word through regular and prayerful study of
the Scriptures, we wouldn’t know God’s will if it hit us over the
head! The fact is that God accomplishes His will through people, and
you and I--the people who claim to be His people--ought to be in the
front lines when it comes to actively doing the things that He has
revealed in His Word to be His will.
Doing God’s will is not something that we can be coerced into doing.
It is not God’s will that we do our token good deed each day because
we are shamed into it by an overwhelming sense of guilt. Guilt comes
when we look at ourselves in the light of God’s perfect Law and see
how miserably lacking we are. Don’t get me wrong. That is a
necessary spiritual exercise--one that is essential in leading us to
true repentance and forgiveness, but the Law cannot motivate us to do
God’s will because it demands not only that we do what God desires,
but that we do it for the right reason. It can tell us what God’s
will is, but it can’t empower us to do it. Only the Gospel of Jesus
Christ can grant us the forgiveness of sins, together with the
motivation and the strength that we need to do God’s will on God’s
terms--as an offering of thanksgiving for everything that He has done
for us in His Son. We are truly doing God’s will when we recognize
with thanksgiving that He has redeemed us from sin through Jesus
Christ and then use the gifts of salvation by serving our neighbor.
This is God’s will. Doing God’s will is a way for us to thank Him for
His forgiveness in Christ--forgiveness that is necessary because we so
often fail to do His will.
Is blood thicker than water? It is if the blood that we are talking
about is the blood of Christ that has saved us from our sin and its
terrible consequences. Since we are all saved by the same blood of
Christ, we are all brothers and sisters of one another, sharing in the
same salvation that God has provided for all of us freely in His Son.
The inspiration and strength of His Spirit, working through the
Gospel, brings us to the realization that, as individuals and as a
family of redeemed sinners, we are united with our Savior and with one
another as we boldly do God’s will, assured of His forgiveness when we
fail and His acceptance of our efforts for the sake of Christ.
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in
you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and
strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our
world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able
ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is
faithful, and He will do it. Amen.