Family Ties - Mary And The Family’s Intervention

Mark 3:31-35

Have you ever wondered how long it took Mary to get used to the fact that Jesus was Jesus? Of course, she knew her child would be special from the moment the angel Gabriel told her that she, a virgin, was pregnant. She would bear the “Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32).

For the first thirty years of Jesus’ life, though, it doesn’t seem that he was very different from other boys or men. He was probably better behaved or understood Scripture unbelievably well, but the Bible goes silent for most of those years, suggesting that nothing was out of the ordinary. His neighbors just thought of him as “the carpenter’s son.”

Only when Jesus was baptized by his cousin John around the age of thirty did he begin his public ministry. That’s when he started performing miracles and when he gathered a following of disciples.

Even though Mary knew that Jesus was special, it must have taken her a while to get used to the actions of her miracle-performing, crowd-gathering son. In fact, on one occasion early in his ministry, when the crowds gathered around Jesus and his disciples, his family got concerned because he was working right through mealtimes. They tried to take him away from the crowd. “He’s out of his mind,” they said (Mark 3:21). We’re not told whether this intervention succeeded, but a bit later, Jesus was teaching the crowds again when someone brought word, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you” (verse 32). Instead of getting up and going outside immediately, Jesus took a moment to teach.

“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” he asked (Mark 3:33). Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother” (verses 34-35).

Jesus was not renouncing his mother and other family members. Instead, he was expanding his family. Anyone could be as close to him as a mother, brother, or sister, as long as he or she desired to do God’s will.

Maybe you have a great family, but maybe not. Either way, welcome to Jesus’ family. Draw the circle larger, and join with those who seek to please God.

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:5