Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
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 and sisters 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.” (Mark 3:31-25, NRSVCE)
If you grew up in a loving family, today’s Gospel reading is likely difficult for you the first time through. Why does Jesus seem to be denying his family? It seems like a pretty cold way to talk about his mother and other relatives, that they are nothing more to him than those seated near him.
For those of us who grew up in families that were less than loving, the reading is comforting the first time through. God loves us, even if our parents and siblings and other relatives don’t. Even if we are estranged from them for reasons of personal safety and sanity, we still have a family in the Lord.
For all of us, however, the reading becomes challenging on a deeper dive. For if anyone who does the will of God is part of Jesus’s family, those folks are also part of our family. We may find joy in the fact that Jesus considers us part of the clan, and accept that that person who monopolizes the conversation at prayer group also is loved by the Lord. But for us to love that person in the same way we love our parents or brother or sister or an uncle or a cousin?
Jesus isn’t denying Mary or his other relatives. Rather, he’s urging us to broaden our view of family—and to welcome into our hearts and souls all those with whom we share a spiritual kinship. That’s a lot of people. That’s a lot of love.
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