Ok.
You may continue.
To set it up, Jesus has just rebuked his concerned mother (she thought he was going a little overboard with this whole Savior-thing) in front of a crowd of his disciples because it was so crowded that she couldn't get close enough to him. So, she basically tells a random disciple, "Hey, please get Jesus's attention & tell him that his mother & brothers are here to get him."(Ouch!)
Jesus essentially replies, "These are my mothers & brothers; the ones following me, listening to me, & obeying me."
Now, the explanation.
As I read this portion of commentary from the Life Application New Testament Commentary (by the way, one of my favorite resources) I knew I had to share it's contents which explain the story.
"Jesus gave a respectful rebuke to his overly concerned mother; he was not severing ties with his earthly family. Through this incident, Jesus gave another lesson to his followers by explaining that spiritual relationships are as binding as physical ones. This would be the basis for the new community that Jesus was building--the Christian family [aka. The Church]...In these words, Jesus was explaining that in his spiritual family, relationships are ultimately more important and longer-lasting than those formed in one's physical family." (in reference to Luke 8:19-21, emphasis added)
I love it!
Shouldn't this then change our attitude & behavior towards the people in our church communities?
Now, let these words sink in:
"Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." (John 13:35, NLT)
well, I think that's a nice 21st Century gloss. However, given early Xns were so enamoured with celibacy and saw marriage as a concession to lust, I think the people closest to Jesus in time read these types of passages differently. Family just was not central. See the whole 7th chapter of Paul's first Corinthians. It is one of the earliest documents we have and it is clear the community at Corinth and Paul (a mere two decades after Jesus) are not huge fans of marriage and family life.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure you're getting the main point of my post, which is your spiritual relationships (aka. your church family) are just as important (and I might even argue that they're more important)as our earthly relationships (aka. family).
ReplyDelete